The Valley of the Ohio a Beautiful but Desolate Wild.—Cause of its Desertion the Repeated Incursions of the Iroquois.—Their Strength and Warlike Character.—Earliest Positive Knowledge of the Indians of Ohio.—Destruction of the Eries.—The Shawnees Driven Southward.—Return of Wandering Tribes.—Their Geographical Locations.- -Confusion of Boundaries.—The Delawares upon the Muskingum, Tuscarawas, and Upper Scioto.—Their History in Brief.—Tribes and Principal Chiefs.—White Eyes and Captain Pipe.—Indian Villages upon the Upper, but none upon the Lower Muskingum.—Signification of the name Muskingum.—The Shawnees.—Their Tradition of Foreign Origin.—Tribal Division.—A Poetical Legend.—Their Wanderings.—The Scioto Country Originally Tendered to them by the Delawares.—Location of the Wyandots or Hurons.—Reputation for Valor.—The Ottawas, Miamis, and Mingoes.

DURING a long period—one which, perhaps, had its beginning soon after the forced exodus of the semi-civilized, pre-historic people, and which extended down to the era of the white man's actual knowledge—the upper Ohio valley was probably devoid of any permanent population. The river teemed with fish, and the dense luxuriant wood abounded in game, but no Indian wigwams dotted the shores of the great stream, no camp-fires gleamed along its banks, and no maize-fields covered the fertile bottom lands or lent variety to the wild vernal green. An oppressive stillness hung over the land, marked and intensified rather than broken, and only made more weird by the tossing of the water upon the shores and the soft mysterious sounds echoed from the distance through the dim aisles of the forest. Nature was lovely then as now, but with all her pristine beauty the valley was awful in the vastness and solemnity of its solitude. No where was human habitation or indication of human life.

This was the condition of the country when explored by the early French navigators, and when a century later it became the field for British and American adventurers. There was a reason for this desertion of a region rich in all that was dear to the red man. The river was the war-way down which silently and swiftly floated the canoe fleets of a fierce, relentless, and invincible enemy. That the dreaded devastaters of the country when it was occupied by the ancient race had made their invasions from the northward by way of the great stream is suggested by the numerous lookout or signal mounds which crown the hills on either side of the valley, occupying the most advantageous points of observation. The Indians who dwelt in the territory included in the boundaries of Ohio had, when the white men first went among them, traditions of oft repeated and sanguinary incursions made from the same direction, and dating back to their earliest occupation of the country. History corroborates their legends, or at least those relating to less ancient times. The Iroquois or Six Nations were the foes whose frequent forays, made suddenly, swiftly, and with overwhelming strength, had carried dismay into all the Ohio country and caused the weaker tribes to abandon the valley, penetrated the interior and located themselves on the upper waters of the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miamis, and the tributaries of the lake, where they could live with less fear of molestation. The Six Nations had the rude elements of a confederated republic, and were the only power in this part of North America who deserved the name of government.* They pretentiously claimed to be the conquerors of the whole country from sea to sea, and there is good evidence that they had by 168o gained a powerful sway in the country between the great lakes, the Ohio and the Mississippi, and were feared by all the tribes within these limits. The upper Ohio was called by the early French the river of the Iroquois, and was for a long time unexplored through fear of their hostility.

But little is definitely known of the Indian occupation of the Ohio country prior to 1750, and scarcely anything anterior to 1650. As far back in American history as the middle of the seventeenth century it is probable that the powerful but doom-destined Eries were in possession of the vast wilderness which is now the thickly settled, well improved State of Ohio, dotted with villages and cities and covered with the meshes of a vast net-work of railroads. Most of the villages of this Indian nation, it is supposed, were situated along the shore of the lake which has been given their name. The Andastes are said by the best authorities to have occupied the valleys of the Alleghany and upper Ohio, and the Hurons or Wyandots held sway in the northern peninsula between the lakes. All were genuinely Iroquois, and the western tribes were stronger than the eastern. The Iroquois proper (the Five Nations increased afterward to Six by the alliance of the Tuscarawas) formed their confederacy in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and through

consolidation of strength overwhelmed singly and successively the Hurons, the Eries, and the Andastes. The time of the massacre of the Erie nation—for the war upon them culminated in a wholesale murder—is usually set down by antiquarians and historians as 1655, and the victory over the Andastes is, on good evidence, placed in the year 1672. About the same time a tribe, supposed to have been the Shwanees, were driven from the Ohio valley and far towards the Gulf of Mexico. And so the territory now Ohio became a land without habitation and served the victorious Iroquois as a vast hunting ground. Whether the Iroquois conquered the Miamis and their allies, the Illinois, is a question upon which leading students of Indian history have been equally divided. The Miamis had no traditions of ever having suffered defeat at the hands of the great confederacy, and their country, the eastern boundary of which was the Miami river, may have been the western limit of the Six Nations' triumph. That they were often at war with the Iroquois is not disputed, however, by any writers of whom we have knowledge.

Although the Six Nations were the nominal owners of the greater part of the territory now constituting the State of Ohio, they did not, after the war with the Canadian colonists broke out in 1663 (and probably for some years previously), exercise such domination over the country as to exclude other tribes. Such being the case, the long deserted and desolate wild was again the abode of the red man, and the wigwams of the race again appeared by the waters of the Muskingum, the Scioto, and the Miamis; by the Tuscarawas, the Cuyahoga, and the Maumee.

Concerning what, so far as our knowledge extends, may be called the second Indian occupation of Ohio, we have authentic information. In 1764 the most trust, worthy and valuable reports up to that time secured, were made by Colonel Boquet as the result of his observations while making a military expedition west of the Ohio. Previous to the time when Colonel Boquet was among the Indians, and as early as 1750, traders sought out the denizens of the forest, and some knowledge of the strength of tribes and the location of villages was afforded by them. The authentic history of the Ohio Indians may be said to have had its beginning some time during the period extending from 1750 to 1764.

About the middle of the last century the principal tribes in what is now Ohio were the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Wyandots (called the Hurons by the French), the Mingoes, an offshoot of the Iroquois, the Chippewas, and the Tawas, more commonly called the Ottawas. The Delawares occupied the valleys of the Muskingum and Tuscarawas; the Shawnees, the Scioto valley; and the Miamis, the valleys of the two rivers upon which they left their name; the Wyandots occupied the country about the Sandusky river; the Ottawas had their headquarters in the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky; the Chippewas were confined principally to the south shore of Lake Erie; and the Mingoes were in greatest strength upon the Ohio, below the site of Steubenville. All of the tribes, however, frequented, more or less, lands outside of their ascribed divisions of territory, and at different periods from the time when the first definite knowledge concerning them was obtained down to the era of white settlement, they occupied different locations. Thus the Delawares, whom Boquet found in 1764 in greatest number in the valley of the Tuscarawas had, thirty years later, the majority of their population in the region of the county which now bears their name, and the Shawnees, who were originally strongest upon the Scioto, by the time of St. Clair and Wayne's wars had concentrated upon the Little Miami. But the Shawnees had also as early as 1748 a village, known as Logstown, on the Ohio, seventeen miles from the site of Pittsburgh.* The several tribes commingled to some extent as their animosities toward each other were supplanted by the common fear of the enemy of their race. They gradually grew stronger in sympathy and more compact in union as the settlements of the whites encroached upon their loved domain. Hence the divisions, which had in 1750 been quite plainly marked, became, by the time the Ohio was fringed with the cabins and villages of the pale face, in a large measure, obliterated. In eastern Ohio, where the Delawares had held almost undisputed sway, there were now to be found also Wyandots, Shawnees, Mingoes, and even Miamis from the western border—from the Wabash, Miami, and Mad rivers. Practically, however, the boundaries of the lands of different tribes were as here given.

The Delawares, as has been indicated, had their densest population upon the upper Muskingum and Tuscarawas, and they really were in possession of what is now the eastern half of the State from the Ohio to Lake Erie. This tribe, which claimed to be the elder branch of the Lenni-Lenape, has by tradition and in history and fiction been accorded a high rank among the savages of North America. Schoolcraft, Loskiel, Albert Gallatin, Drake, Zeisberger, Heckewelder, and many other writers have borne testimony to the superiority of the Delawares, and James Fennimore Cooper in his attractive romances has added lustre to the fame of the tribe. According to the tradition preserved by them the Delawares, many centuries before they knew the white man lived in the western part of the continent, and separating themselves from the rest of the Lenni-Lenape migrated slowly eastward. Reaching the Alleghany river they, with the Iroquois, waged war successfully against a race of giants, the Allegewi, and still continuing their migration settled on the Delaware river, and spread their population eventually to the Hudson, the Susquehannah, and the Potomac. Here they lived, menaced and often attacked by the Iroquois,

* This village and Shawneetown, at the mouth of the Scioto, were the only exceptions to the abandonment of the upper Ohio valley noted at the opening of this chapter.

(t) Gist, however, found, in 1750, the town on Whitewoman creek. called Muskingum, "inhabited by Wyandots" and containing about one hundred families. This was undoubtedly an isolated government. As late as 1791, the Indian war being in progress, the different tribes were massed in what is now the northwestern part of the State, and their old abiding places, their favorite regions, were of course deserted. Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Mingoes, Senecas, Chippewas, and others were upon the Maumee, and its tributaries.

and finally, as some writers claim, they were subjugated by the Iroquois through stratagem. The Atlantic coast became settled by Europeans and the Delawares also being embittered against the Iroquois, whom they accused of treachery, they turned westward and concentrated upon the Alleghany. Disturbed here again by the white settlers a portion of the tribe obtained permission from the Wyandots (whom they called their uncles, thus confessing their superiority and reputation of greater antiquity) to occupy the lands along the Muskingum. The forerunners of the nation entered this region in all probability as early as 1745, and in less than a score of years their entire population had become resident in this country. They became here a more flourishing and powerful tribe than they had ever been before. Their warriors numbered not less than six hundred in 1764. The Delawares were divided into three tribes, the Unamis, Unalachtgo, and the Minsi, also called the Monseys or Muncies. The English equivalents of these appellations are the Turtle, the Turkey, and the Wolf. The tribe bearing the latter name exhibited a spirit that was quite in keeping with it, but the Delawares as a rule were less warlike than other nations, and they more readily accepted Christianity.

The principal chiefs among the Delawares were White Eyes and Captain Pipe. The former was the leader of the peace element of the nation and the latter of the tribes who were inclined to war. There was great rivalry between them and constant intrigue. White Eyes died about the year 1780. and Captain Pipe gained the ascendancy among his people. It was principally through his influence that the Delawares were drawn into a condition of hostility towards the whites, and he encouraged the commission of enormities by every artifice in his power. He was shrewd, treacherous, and full of malignity, according to Heckewelder, Drake and other writers on the Indians of the northwest, though brave, and famous as a leader in battle. White Eyes though not less noted as a warrior seemed actuated by really humane motives to fight only when forbearance was impossibe. He encouraged the establishment of the Moravian Indian missions and was the firm friend of their founders, though he never accepted Christianity. His greatest influence was exerted over the Delawares after the death, in 1776, of Netawatmees, a celebrated chief, who, during his lifetime, had combatted the reforms which White Eyes advocated. Buckougahelas was another of the Delaware chiefs, and was celebrated principally for his action in what is now the western part of the State. Others were King Newcomer (after whom the present Newcomerstown was named) and Half King. There dwelt among the Delawares of the Upper Muskingum at one time a white woman who had great influence among them and after whom a creek was named—Whitewoman's creek.

Most of the Delaware towns were at the vicinity of the forks of the Muskingum, or the confluence of the Tuscarawas and Muskingum, and that region is rich in the old Indian names. The Delawares had no village on the lower Muskingum, and so far as is known none in what is now Washington county, this region, like almost the whole of the Ohio valley, being devoid of inhabitants and regarded as a hunting ground.

The Muskingum river derives its name from the Delawares, and was originally Mooskingom. The literal meaning of this term is Elk's Eye, and it was probably so called because of its clearness. The Tuscarawas undoubtedly took its name from an Indian town which was situated where Bolivar now is. The name according to Heckewelder meant "old town" and the village bearing it was the oldest in the valleys.

The Shawnees were the only Indians of the northwest who had a tradition of a foreign origin, and for some time after the whites became acquainted with them they held annual festivals to celebrate the safe arrival in this country of their remote ancestors. Concerning the history of the Shawnees there is considerable conflicting testimony, but it is generally conceded that at an early date they separated from the other Lenape tribes and established themselves in the south, roaming from Kentucky to Florida. Afterward the main body of the tribe is supposed to have pushed northward, encouraged by their friends the Miamis, and to have occupied the beautiful and rich valley of the Scioto until driven from it in 1672 by the Iroquois. Theirnation was shattered and dispersed. A few may have remained upon the upper Scioto and others taken refuge with the Miamis, but by far the most considerable portion again journeyed southward and, according to the leading historians, made a forcible settlement on the head waters of the Carolina. Driven away from that locality they found refuge among the Creeks. A fragment of the Shawnees was taken to Pennsylvania and reduced to a humiliating condition by their conquerors. They still retained their pride and considerable innate independence, and about 1740 encouraged by the Wyandots and the French, carried into effect their long cherished purpose of returning to the Scioto. Those who had settled among the Creeks joined them and the nation was again reunited. It is probable that they first occupied the southern portion of their beloved valley, and that after a few years had elapsed the Delawares peacefully surrendered to them a large tract of country further north.* It is conjectured by some students that the branch of the Shawnees who lived for a term of years in the south were once upon the Suanee. river and that the well known name was a corruption of the name of the nation of Tecumseh. This chief, whose fame added lustre to the annals of the tribe, is said to have been the son of a Creek woman whom his father took as a wife during the southern migration. The Shawnees were divided into four tribes (t) —the Piqua (tt) Kiskapocke, Mequachuke, and Chillicothe.

* Some of the Delaware chiefs who visited Philadelphia during the Revolution spoke figuratively of having "placed the Shawnees in their laps."

+ This information is derived from a communication in the Archaelogical American, written in 1859 by Colonel John Johnston, then Indian agent, and located at Piqua, Ohio.

tt It was from the fact of these that the Indian village and the present town of Piqua, Miami county, derived their names. The name Pickaway, which has been given to one of the older counties of Ohio, but which was originarly applied to the "plains" within its limits is a corruption of Piqua.

Those who deny to the American Indians any love for the beautiful and any exercise of imagination might be influenced to concede them the possession of such faculties and in a high degree, by the abundance of their fanciful traditions, of which their account of the origin of the Piqua is a good example. According to their practical legend the tribe began in a perfect man who burst into being from fire and ashes. The Shawnees said to the first whites who mingled with them, that once upon a time when the wise men and chiefs of the nation were sitting around the smouldering embers of what had been the council fire, they were startled by a great puffing of fire and smoke, and suddenly, from the midst of the ashes and dying coals, there arose before them a man of splendid form and mien, and that he was named Piqua, to signify the manner of his coming into the world—that he was born of fire and ashes. This legend of the origin of the tribe, beautiful in its simplicity, has been made the subject of comment by several writers as showing in a marked manner the romatic susceptibility of the Indian character. The name Megoachuke signifies a fat man filled—a man made perfect, so that nothing is wanting. This tribe had the priesthood. The Kiskapocke tribe inclined to war, and had at least one great war chief—Tecumseh. Chillicothe is not known to have been interpreted as a tribal designation. It was from this tribe that the several Indian villages on the Scioto and Miami were given the names they bore, and which was perpetuated by application to one of the early white settlements. The Shawnees have been styled "the Bedouins of the American wilderness" and "the Spartans of the race." To the former title they seem justly entitled by their extensive and almost constant wanderings, and the latter is not an inappropriate appellation, considering their well known bravery and the stoicism with which they bore the consequences of defeat. From the time of their reestablishment upon the Scioto until after the treaty of Greenville, a period of from forty to fifty years, they were constantly engaged in warfare against the whites. They were among the most active allies of the French, and after the conquest of Canada continued, in concert with the Delawares, hostilities which were only terminated by the marching of Colonel Boquet's forces into the country of the latter. They made numerous incursions into Pennsylvania, the Virginia frontier, harassed the Kentucky stations, and either alone or in conjunction with the Indians of other tribes, actually attacked or threatening to do so, terrorized the first settlers in Ohio from Marietta to the Miamis. They took an active part against the Americans in the war for Independence and in the Indian war which followed, and a part of them, under the leadership of Tecumseh, joined the British in the War of 1812.

The Wyandots or Hurons had their principal seat opposite Detroit, and smaller settlements (the only ones within the limits of Ohio, probably, except the village on White woman creek,) on the Maumee and Sandusky. They claimed greater antiquity than any of the other tribes, and their assumption was even allowed by the Delawares. Their right to the country between the Ohio and Lake Erie from the Alleghany to the Great Miami, derived from ancient sovereignity or from the incorporation of the three extinct tribes (the Eries, Andastes, and Neutrals) was never disputed, save by the Six Nations. The. Jesuit missionaries who were among them as early as 1639, and who had ample advantages for obtaining accurate information concerning the tribe, placed their number at ten thousand. They were both more civilized and more warlike than the other tribes of the northwest. Their population being, comparatively speaking, large and at the same time concentrated, they naturally gave more attention than did other tribes to agriculture. Extensive fields of maize adjoined their villages. The Wyandots on the score of bravery have been given a higher rank than any of the other Ohio tribes.* With them flight from an enemy in battle, whatever might be the odds of strength or advantage of ground, was a disgrace. They fought to the death and would not be taken prisoners. Of thirteen chiefs of the tribe engaged in the battle of Fallen Timbers, Wayne's victory, only one was taken alive, and he badly wounded.

The Ottawas existed in the terriory constituting Ohio only in small numbers and have no particular claims for attention. They seem to have been inferior in almost all respects to the Delawares, Wyandots, and Shawnees, though as the tribe to which the great Pontiac belonged they have been rendered quite conspicuous in history.

The Miami Indians were, so far as actual knowledge extends, the original denizens of the valleys bearing their name, and claimed that they were created in it. The name rn the Ottawa tongue signifies mother. The ancient name of the Miamis was Twigtwees. The Min- goes or Cayugas, a fragment of the Iroquois, had only a few small villages, one at Mingo Bottom, three miles below Steubenville, and others upon the Scioto. Logan came into Ohio in r772 and dwelt for a time at the latter town, but two years later was on the Scioto.

* William Henry Harrison and other eminent authorities pay, the highest tribute to the valor of the Wyandot warriors, and give abundant proofs of their assertions.

The Claims of France, Founded on Discovery and Occupation.— England's Claim Based Upon Discovery and Settlement of the Atlantic Coast and Treaties of Purchase.—Treaty of Paris in 5763.— Ohio as a Part of France and Canada.—The "Quebec Bill."—Title Vested in the Confederated States by Treaty in 1783.—Conflicting Claims of States.—Virginia's Exercise of Civil Authority.—The Northwest Territory Erected as Botetourt County.—Illinois County. —New York Withdraws Claim.—Virginias’ Deed of Cession.—Massachusetts Cedes Her Claim Without Reservation.—" The Tardy and Reluctant Sacrifice of State Pretensions to the Public Good," Made by Connecticut.—A Serious Evil Averted.—The States Urged to their Action by New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.—Extinguishment of the Indiana Title.—Difficulty of Making Satisfactory Provisions.—A Harsh and Unjust Policy.—Washington's Influence Causes More Humane Treatment of the Indians.—Treaty of Fort Stanwix.—Treaty of Fort McIntosh.—George Rogers Clark, General Butler and S. H. Parsons Confer with Several Tribes at the Mouth of the Miami.—Measures of the Treaty Ineffectual to Preserve Peace. —Great Improvement in the Attitude of the Government.—Indian Tribes Recognized as Rightful Owners.—Appropriations made to Purchase Title from Them.

FRANCE, resting her claim upon the discovery and explorations of Robert Cavalier de la Salle and Marquette, upon the occupation of the country, and later, upon the provisions of several European treaties (those of Utrecht, Ryswick, Aix-la-chapelle), was the first nation to formally lay claim to the soil of the territory now included within the boundaries of the State of Ohio as an integral portion of the valley of the Mississippi and of the northwest. Ohio was thus a part of New France. After the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, it was a part of the French province of Louisiana, which extended from the gulf to the northern lakes. The English claims were based on the priority of their occupation of the Atlantic coast, in latitude corresponding to the territory claimed; upon an opposite construction of the same treaties above named; and last but not least, upon the alleged cession of the rights of the Indians. England's charters to all of the orrginal colonies expressly extended their grants from sea to sea. The principal ground of claim by the English was by the treaties of purchase from the Six Nations, who, claiming to be conquerors of the whole country and therefore its possessors, asserted their right to dispose of it. A portion of the land was obtained through grants from the Six Nations and by actual purchase made at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744. France successfully resisted the claims of England, and maintained control of the territory between the Ohio and the lakes by force of arms until the Treaty of Paris was consummated in 1763. By the provisions of this treaty Great Britian came into possession of the disputed lands, and retained it until ownership was vested in the United States by the treaty of peace made just twenty years later. We have seen that Ohio was once a part of France and of the French province of Louisiana, and as a curiosity it may be of interest to refer to an act of the British Parliament, which made it an integral part of Canada. This was what has been known in history as the "Quebec Bill" passed in 1774. By the provisions of this bill the Ohio river was made the southwestern, and the Mississippi river the western boundary of Canada, thus placing the territory now constituting the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin under the local jurisdiction of the Province of Quebec.

Virginia had asserted her claims to the whole of the territory northwest of the Ohio, and New York had claimed titles to portions of the same. These claims had been for the most part held in abeyance during the period when the general ownership was vested in Great Britian, but were afterwards the cause of much embarrassment to the United States. Virginia, however, had not only claimed ownership of the soil, but attempted the exercise of civil authority in the disputed territory as early as 1769. In that year the colonial house of burgesses passed an act establishing the county of Botetourt, including a large part of what is now West Virginia and the whole territory northwest of the Ohio, and having, of course, as its western boundary the Mississippi river. This was a county of vast proportions—a fact of which the august authorities who ordered its establishment seem to have been fully aware, for they inserted the following among other provisions of the act, viz:

WHEREAS, The people situated upon the Mississippi in the said county of Botetourt will be very remote from the court house, and must necessarily become a separate county as soon as their numbers are sufficient, which will probably happen in a short time, be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Botetourt, which lies on the said waters, shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by the said county for the purpose of building a court house and prison for said county.

It was more in name than in fact, however, that Virginia had jurisdiction over this great county of Botetourt through the act of 1769. In 1778, after the splendid achievements of General George Rogers Clarke his subjugation of the British posts in the far west, and conquest of the whole country from the Ohio to the Mississippi—this territory was organized by the Virginia legislature as the county of Illinois. Then, and not until then, did government have more than a nominal existence in this far extending but undeveloped country, containing a few towns and scattered population. The act, which was passed in October, contained the following provisions:

All the citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia who are a!ready settled, or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct county which shall be called Illinois; and the governor of this commonwealth, with the advice of the council, may appoint a county lieutenant or commandant-in-chief, during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission so many deputy commandants, militia officers and commissaries, as he shall think proper, in the different districts, during pleasure, arl of whom, before they enter into office, shall take the oath of fidelity to this commonwealth, and the oath of office, according to the form of their own religion. And all officers to whom the inhabitants have been accustomed, necessary to the preservation of peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a majority of citizens, in their respective districts, to be convened for that purpose by the county lieutenant or commandant, or his deputy, and shall be commissioned by the said county lieutenant, or commandant-in-chief.

John Todd was appointed as county lieutenant and civil commandant of Illinois county, and served until his death (he was killed in the battle of Blue Licks, August 18, 1782), being succeeded by Timothy de Montbrun.

New York was the first of the several States claiming right and title in western lands to withdraw the same in

favor of the United States. Her charter, obtained March 2, 1664, from Charles II, embraced territory which had formerly been granted to Massachusetts and Connecticut. The cession of claim was made by James Duane, William Floyd, and Alexander McDougall, on behalf of the State, March 1, 1781.

Virginia, with a far more valid claim than New York, was the next State to follow New York's example. Her claim was founded upon certain charters granted to the colony by James I, and bearing date respectively, April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609; and March 12, 1611 ; upon the conquest of the country by General George Rogers Clarke; and upon the fact that she had also exercised civil authority over the territory. The general assembly of Virginia, at its session beginning October 20, 1783, passed an act authorizing its delegates in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled all the right of that commonwealth to the territory northwest of the Ohio river. The act was consummated on March 17, 1784. By one of the provisory clauses of this act was reserved the Virginia Military district, lying between the waters of the Scioto and Little Miami rivers.

Massachusetts ceded her claims, without reservation, the same year that Virginia did hers (1784), though the action was not formally consummated until the eighteenth of April, 1785. The right of her title had been rested upon her charter, granted less than a quarter of a century from the arrival of the Mayflower, and embracing territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Connecticut made what has been characterized as "the last tardy and reluctant sacrifice of State pretensions to the common good"* on the fourteenth of September, 1786. She ceded to Congress all her "right, title, interest, jurisdiction, and claim to the lands northwest of the Ohio, excepting the Connecticut Western Reserve," and of this tract jurisdictional claim was not ceded to the United States until May 30, 1801.

The happy, and, considering all complications, speedy adjustment of the conflicting claims of States and consolidation of all rights of title in the United States was productive of the best results both at home and abroad. The young nation, born in the terrible throes of the Revolution, went through a trying ordeal, and one of which the full peril was not realized until it had been safely passed. Serious troubles threatened to arise from the disputed ownership of the western lands, and there were many who had grave fears that the well-being of the country would be impaired or at least its progress impeded. The infant Republic was at that time closely and jealously watched by all of the governments of Europe, and nearly all of them would have rejoiced to have witnessed the failure of the American experiment, and they were not destined to be gratified at the expense of the United States. As it was, the most palpable harm, caused by delay, was the retarding of settlement. The movement towards the complete cession of State claims was accelerated as much as possible by Congress. The national legislature strenuously urged the several States in

1784 to cede their lands to the confederacy to aid the payment of the debts incurred during the Revolution and to promote the harmony of the Union.*

The States of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland had taken the initiative action and been largely instrumental in bringing about the cession of State claims. The fact that they had no foundation for pretensions of ownership save that they had equally in proportion to their ability with the other States assisted in wresting these lands from Great Britain, led them to protest against an unfair division of the territory—New Jersey had memorialized Congress in 1778, and Delaware followed in the same spirit in January, 1779. Later in the same year Maryland virtually reiterated the principles advanced by New Jersey and Maryland, though more positively. Her representatives in Congress emphatically and eloquently expressed their views and those of their constituents in the form of instructions upon the matter of confirming the articles of confederation.

The extinguishment of the Indian claims to the soil of the northwest was another delicate and difficult duty which devolved upon the Government. In the treaty of peace, ratified by Congress in 1784, no provision was made by Great Britain in behalf of the Indians—even their most faithful allies, the Six Nations. Their lands were included in the boundaries secured to the United States. They had suffered greatly during the war and the Mohawks had been dispossessed of the whole of their beautiful valley. The only remuneration they received was a tract of country in Canada, and all of the sovereignty which Great Britain had exercised over them was transferred to the United States. The relation of the new government to these Indians was peculiar. In 1782 the British principle, in brief, that "might makes right" —that discovery was equivalent to conquest, and that therefore the nations retained only a possessory claim to their lands, and could only abdicate it to the government claiming sovereignty—was introduced into the general policy of the United States. The legislature of New York was determined to expel the Six Nations entirely, in retaliation for their hostility during the war. Through the just and humane counsels of Washington and Schuyler, however, a change was wrought in the Indian policy, and the Continental Congress sought henceforward in its action to condone the hostilities of the past and gradually to dispossess the Indians of their lands by purchase, it's the growth of the settlements might render it necessary to do so. It was in pursuance of this policy that the treaty of Fort Stanwix was made, October 22, 1784. By this treaty were extinguished the vague claims which the confederated tribes, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscarawas, and Oneidas, had for more than a century maintained to the Ohio valley. The commissioners of Congress in this transaction were Oliver Wolcott; Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee. The Six Nations were represented by two of their ablest chiefs, Cornplanter and Red Jacket, the former for peace and the latter for war. La Fayette was present at this treaty and impor-

By the treaty of Fort McIntosh, negotiated on the twenty-first of January, 1785, by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, was secured the relinquishment of all claims to the Ohio valley held by the Delawares, Ottawas, Wyandots, and Chippewas. The provisions of this treaty were as follows :

ARTICLE 1st—Three chiefs, one from the Wyandot and two from the Delaware nations, shall be delivered up to the commissioners of the United States, to be by them retained till all the prisoners taken by the said nations or any of them shall be restored.

ARTICLE 2nd—The said Indian nations and all of their tribes do acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of the United States and of no other sovereign whatever.

ARTICLE 3rd—The boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware nations shall begin at the mouth of the river Cuyahoga, and run thence up the said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; then down the said branch to the forks at the crossing-place above Fort Laurens; then westwardly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two; then along the said portage to the Great Miami or Owl river, and down the southeast side of the same to its mouth; thence down the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga where it began.

ARTICLE 4th—The United States allot all the lands contained within the said lines to the Wyandot and Delaware nations, to live and to hunt on, and to such of the Ottawa nation as now live thereon; saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts six miles square at the mouth of the Miami or Owl river and the same at the portage of that branch of the Miami which runs into the Ohio, and the same on the cape of Sandusky, where the fort formerly stood, and also two miles square on the lower rapids of Sandusky river; which posts and the land annexed to them, shall be for the use and under the government of the United States.

ARTICLE 5th—If any citizen of the United States, or other person not being an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands allotted to the Wyandot and Delaware nations in this treaty, except on the lands reserved to the United States in the preceding article, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Indians may punish him as they please.

ARTICLE 6th—The Indians who sign this treaty, as well in behalf of all their tribes as of themselves, do acknowledge the lands east, south, and west of the lands described in the third article, so far as the said Indians claimed the same, to belong to the United States, and none of their tribes shall presume to settle upon the same or any part of it.

ARTICLE 7th—The post of Detroit, with a district beginning at the mouth of the river Rosine on the west side of Lake Erie and running west six miles up the southern bank of the said river; thence northerly, and always six miles west of the strait, till it strikes Lake St. Clair, shall also be reserved to the sole use of the United States.

ARTICLE 8th—In the same manner the post of Michilimackinack with its dependencies, and twelve miles square about the same, shall be reserved to the use of the United States.

ARTICLE 9th—If any Indian or Indians shall commit a robbery or murder on any citizen of the United States, the tribe to which such offenders may belong shall be bound to deliver them up at the nearest post, to be punished according to the ordinance of the United States.

ARTICLE 10th—The Commissioners of the United States, in pursuance of the humane and liberal views of Congress, upon the treaty's being signed, will direct goods to be distributed among the different tribes for their use and comfort.

The treaty of Fort Finney, at the mouth of the Great Miami, January 31, 1786, secured the cession of whatever claim to the Ohio valley was held by the Shawnees. George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Samuel H. Parsons* were the Commissioners of the United States. James Monroe, then a member of Congress from Virginia and afterwards President of the United States, accompanied General Butler, in the month of October preceding the treaty, as far as Limestonet (now Maysville, Kentucky). The party, it is related, stopped at the mouth of the Muskingum and (in the words of General Butler's journal) "left fixed in a locust tree" a letter recommending the building of a fort on the Ohio side. By the terms of this treaty the Shawnees were confined to the lands west of the Great Miami. Hostages were demanded from the Indians, to remain in the possession of the United States until all prisoners should be returned, and the Shawnees were compelled to acknowledge the United States as the sole and absolute sovereign of all the territory ceded to them, in the treaty of peace, by Great Britain. The clause embodying the latter condition excited the jealousy of the Shawnees. They went away dissatisfied with the treaty, though assenting to it. This fact, and the difficulty that was experienced even while the treaty was making of preventing depredations by white borderers, argued unfavorably for the future. The treaty was productive of no good results whatever. Hostilities were resumed in the spring of 1786, and serious and widespread war was threatened. Congress had been acting upon the policy that the treaty of peace with Great Britain had invested the United States with the fee simple of all the Indian lands, but urged now by the stress of circumstance the Government radically changed its policy, fully recognizing the Indians as the rightful proprietors of the soil, and on the second of July, 1787, appropriated the sum of twenty-six thousand dollars for

* General Samuel H. Parsons, an eminent Revolutionary character, was one of the first band of Marietta pioneers, and was appointed first as associate and then as chief judge of the Northwest Territory. He was drowned in the Big Beaver river, November 17, 1789, while returning to his home in Marietta from the north, where he had been making the treaty which secured the aboriginal title to the soil of the Connecticut Western Reserve.

the purpose of extinguishing Indian claims to lands already ceded to the United States and for extending a purchase beyond the limits heretofore fixed by treaty.

Under this policy other relinquishments of Ohio territory were effected through the treaties of Fort Harmar, held by General St. Clair, January 9,1789, the treaty of Greenville, negotiated by Anthony Wayne, August 3, 1795, and various other treaties made at divers times from 1796 to 1818.* But of these it is beyond our province to speak in this chapter.

La Salle Upon the Ohio Two Hundred Years Ago—Possibility of his Having Explored the Muskingum.—The "Griffin" on Lake Erie.— French Trading Stations.—Routes Through the Wilderness.--The English Supersede the French.—Interest in the West Exhibited by Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, in 1710.—The Transmontane Order Founded.—Licenses Issued for Trading with the Indians, by the Governor of Pennsylvania, in 1740.—Systematic Exploration of the Ohio Valley by Celeron de Bienville.—At the Mouth of the Muskingum in 1749.—Leaden Plate Buried.—Discovered 1798.—Pickawillamy, the First Building Erected by the English in Ohio.—Organization of the Colonial Ohio Land Company, in Virginia, in 1748.— Preparation Made to Establish a Colony.—French Resistance—War of Britain Against the French and Indians. —Its Results.—Franklin's Plans for Western Settlements.—George Washington upon the Ohio. His Favorable Impressions of the Country.—Immense Schemes for Western Colonization.—Indian Hostility and Imperfection of Land Title the Probable Cause of their Failure—The First English Military Expedition upon Ohio Soil.—Colonel Boquet Wins a Bloodless Victory on the Upper Muskingum.—Thomas Hutchins.—Hostility of the Shawnees.—Logan.—Lord Dunmore's War.—The Battle of Point Pleasant.—The Breaking Out of the Revolutionary War.—An Event of Immeasurable Importance in the West.—General George Rogers Clarkls Conquest of the Northwest.—Value of His Foresight and Decisive Action.—His Services Unappreciated.—Miscellaneous Military Invasions.—The Establishment of the Moravian Missions on the Muskingum—The Massacre.

THE adventurous La Salle, there is every reason to believe, was the first white man who trod the soil of the destined State of Ohio, and the first whose eyes beheld the Beautiful river. With a few followers and led by Indian guides he penetrated the vast country of the powerful Iroquois until, as Parkman says, he reached "at a point six or seven leagues from Lake Erie, a branch of the Ohio, which he descended to the main stream," and so went onward as far as the "falls," or the site of Louisville. His men abandoning him there, he retraced his way alone. This, according to the best authorities, was in the winter of 1669-70, over two hundred years ago. And it is not improbable that one hundred and eighteen years before Marietta was settled this intrepid French explorer had encamped at the mouth of the Muskingum. Indeed, there is some reason to believe that he made his way from Lake Erie to the Ohio by the Cuyahoga, the Tuscarawas, and Muskingum, though the preponderance

"It is a fact worthy of note, and one of which we may well be proud, that the title to every foot of Ohio soil was honorably acquired from the Indians. of evidence points to the Alleghany as the route followed. Ten years later La Salle unfurled the first sail ever set to the breeze upon Lake Erie, and upon the Griffin, a schooner of forty-five tons burden, made the voyage to Lake Huron. In 1682 he reached the Mississippi, descended to its mouth, and there solemnly proclaimed possession of the vast valley in the name of his king.

The French had a trading station on the Maumee near the site of Toledo, as early as 1680, and according to Bancroft they had a route through the western wilderness from Canada to the Mississippi; by the way of the Maumee, Wabash, and Ohio rivers in 1716; and another only a little later from Presque Isle (Erie) by the Alleghany and Ohio. About 1740, however, the French traders were superseded by the English.

Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia became interested in the western country early in the eighteenth century; engaged in exploring the Alleghanies in 1710; discovered a passage through them in 1714, and entered with great ardor upon the scheme of taking practical possession of the Ohio valley. He founded the Transmontane order, whose knights were decorated with a golden horseshoe bearing the legend "Sic jurat transcendere monies," and urged upon the British sovereign the importance of gaining a foothold in the west before the French had gained too powerful an ascendancy. His suggestions were not regarded, and many years later the British government had cause to remember with regret the wise policy they had neglected to act upon. Although no systematic plan of exploration or settlement was followed, individuals from time to time passed the great barrier and visited the the valley of the la belle riviere. There have been handed down certain vague traditions that the English had trading posts on the Ohio as early as 1730, and it is known positively that they had soon after that time. In 1744 the governor of Pennsylvania issued licenses for trading with the Indians as far west as the Father of Waters. John Howard had descended the Ohio in 1742 and been captured on the Mississippi by the French; and six years later Conrad Weiser, acting behalf of the English, visited the Shawnees at Logstown (below the site of Pittsburgh) bearing gifts with which to win their favor. About the same time George Crogan and Andrew Montour, the half breed of a Seneca chief bore liberal presents to the Miamis, in return for which the Indians allowed the whites to establish a trading post and build a stockade at the mouth of Loramies creek on the Great Miami (within the present county of Shelby). The fort, built in 1751, which was called Pickawillamy, has been cited by some writers as the first English settlement in Ohio. The building, which was undoubtedly the first erected by the British on the soil of the State, was destroyed in June, 1752, by a force of French and Indians.

Prior to the middle of the century the French strenuously reasserted their ownership of the northwest, and did actually take possession of what is now the northern part of Ohio, building a fort and establishing a trading station at Sandusky. Celeron de Bienville made a systematic exploration of the Ohio valley and formally de-

clared by process verbal the ownership of the soil. On the sixteenth of August, 1749, he was at the mouth of the Muskingum. This fact was revealed in 1798 by the discovery of a leaden plate which had been buried by him and which set forth that the explorer sent out by the Marquis de la Gallissoniere, captain general of New France, agreeably to the wishes of His Majesty, Louis XV, had deposited the plate as a monument of the renewal of possession of la riviere Oyo, otherwise la belle mitre, and all those which empty into it, and of all the lands of both sides even to the sources of the said rivers, and which had been obtained by force of arms and by treaties, especially those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-chappelle. The plate was found protruding from the bank after a freshet, by some boys, who, ignorant of its antiquarian value, cut away a considerable portion of it to melt into bullets, lead there being very scarce. The plate was finally secured by Paul Fearing, one of the Marietta pioneers, and the inscription was translated by William Woodbridge (afterwards governor of Michigan) but then a young man, who had been studying French at Gallipolis. Considerable difficulty was experienced in making the translation as a portion of the inscription had been cut away by the finders of the plate, but the larger part remaining enabled the student to supply the missing words. The plate was nearly twelve inches from top to bottom and about seven and a half in breadth.* A similar plate was found in 1846 at the mouth of the Kanawha. They were doubtless deposited at the mouths of all the principal tributaries of the Ohio.

The French had a very just claim to the Ohio valley, but it was destined that they should not hold it and already events were shaping which eventually led to the overthrow of their authority and the vesture of title and possession in the English crown.

The Colonial Ohio Land company was organized in Virginia in 1748 by twelve associates, among whom were Thomas Lee, and Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washington. Under their auspices Christopher Gist explored the Ohio as far as the falls, travelling a portion of the time with Croghan and Montour. The company secured a royal grant of half a million acres of land in the Ohio valley. In 1753 preparations were made to establish a colony. The French exhibited an intention of resistance, and the royal governor of Virginia sent George Washington, then a young man, to the commander of the French forces to demand their reason for invasion of British territory. Washington received an answer that was both haughty and defiant. Returning to Virginia he made known the failure of his mission. The project of making a settlement was abandoned, and preparations were immediately made for the maintenance of the British claim to the western valley by force of arms. The result was the union of the colonies, the ultimate involvement of England in the war that ensued, the defeat of the French, and the vesture in the British

* This interesting relic passed into the possession of the learned and eccentric Caleb Atwater, of Circleville, Ohio, in 1821, was by him given to Governor Clinton, of New Yolk, and by him transmitted to the Massachusetts Antiquarian society.

crown of the right and title to Canada and of all the territory east of the Mississippi and south to the Spanish possessions, excepting New Orleans and a small body of land surrounding it. Benjamin Franklin had previously tried to effect a union of the colonies and had been unsuccessful He had proposed a plan of settlement in 1754, and suggested that two colonies should be located in the west—one upon the Cuyahoga and the other upon the Scioto, "on which," he said, "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."

But little advantage was taken by the English of the ascendancy they had gained. About the only men who visited the country northwest of the Ohio were traders. The frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia were settled in due time, but as the title to the soil on the other side of the Ohio was not perfected no attempt was made for several years to occupy the country. Kentucky had even been penetrated by the pioneers, of whom Daniel Boone was a type, and many setttlements founded before attention was again seriously given to the country north of the Ohio.

George Washington made a journey down the Ohio in 177o. He was accompanied by Dr. Craik, Captain (afterwards Colonel) William Crawford (who was burned to death at the stake within the present limits of Wyandot county in 1782), and several other white men, also by a party of Indians. The little company embarked on the Ohio from Fort Pitt, October 20th, and on the night of the twenty-fifth camped out "about half way down the Long Reach" (Grand view). Washington's journal continues:

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 bcech 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 this 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.

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 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. It runs up towards the inhabitants of Monongahela. . . . 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 that river, and a cluster of islands afterward. The lands for two or three miles below

the Littte Kanawha appear broken, and indifferent, but opposite to the Little Hockhocking there is a bottom of good land.*

Largely through Washington was the interest in the west revived. Immense schemes for settlement and land speculation were projected. A huge company was organized which included the Old Ohio company and the Walpole scheme as well as recognizing the bounties of the Virginia volunteers in the French war. Doubtless some of these plans for the development of the west would have succeeded had it not been for Indian hostilities upon the border settlements already established, and the probability of a long continuance of the perturbed condition of affairs generally. Colonel Henry Boquet had made the first English military expedition into the Ohio country in 1764, his purpose being to punish and awe the Indians and recover from them the captives they had taken during the previous years on the Pennsylvania and Virginia borders. He was successful in the accomplishment of each one of his objects. The expedition was directed against the Delawares upon the Muskingum and Tuscarawas. No blood was shed, the Indians assenting to the terms of a treaty prepared by Colonel Boquet, and delivering to him over two hundred prisoners. Upon the twenty-eighth of November the army of about fifteen hundred men returned to Fort Pitt, which point they had left on October 3d. This expedition for a time tranquilized the Indians of the Ohio country, and the next ten years passed peacefully and without the occurrence of any important event. With Colonel Boquet was Thomas Hutchins (of whom we shall have frequent occasion to speak). He served in the capacity of military engineer and was geographer to the king of Great Britain. Hutchins published a large book upon the western country with which he became very familiar from long continued services as explorer. In later years as geographer of the United States he superintended the survey of the "seven ranges," and it was largely through his influence that the Ohio company was led to locate their purchase upon the Muskingum.

But returning to the period from which we retrograded to speak of the Boquet expedition, we find in 1774 that the Shawnees have become bitterly hostile, principally on account of the prospect of losing their land and because of the murder of the kindred of Logan, the famous Mingo, who was now dwelling with them at the Old Chillicothe town on the Scioto (where is now the village of Westfall, Pickaway county). Logan had "fully glutted his vengeance" upon the white settlements of the Monongahela country, and numerous atrocities had been committed all along the border. To quell the turbulence that prevailed Lord Dunmore, the then royal governor of Virginia, organized an army of invasion of the Indian country. He had a desire for military renown and decided to assume personal command of the larger division, while he entrusted the other, consisting of about eleven hundred men raised west of the Blue Ridge, to General Andrew Lewis. The forces of the latter were attacked by the Indians on the tenth of October south of the Ohio, and the ensuing combat, known as the battle of Point Pleasant, was one of the most desperate and bloody in the annals of the west. The contending forces were very nearly equal, it is claimed by most writers, but there is strong probability that the Indians were much weaker in numbers than the army which they assailed. The whites lost half of their officers and fifty-two men killed, while the Indian loss was estimated at two hundred and thirty-three. Lord Dunmore's division passed through a bloodless campaign. They descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Hocking river, and there built Fort Gower. The governor was here at the time of the battle of Point Pleasant, and had sent messengers to Lewis ordering him to march toward the Scioto towns. Dunmore marched through the territory included in Athens county and onward to the Pickaway (originally Piqua) plains, below the site of Circleville. There he was met by Lewis' decimated division, whom he could hardly keep from falling upon the Indians to avenge the death of their comrades at Point Pleasant. A treaty was held at Camp Charlotte, which was attended and acquiesced in by all of the leading chiefs of the villages except Logan. Lord Dunmore dispatched John Gibson to confer with the haughty Mingo, and his visit elicited' the famous speech, which Jefferson pronounced equal in eloquence to any ever made by the great orators of civilized nations.

Already the premonitory signs of that discontent which developed into the Revolution of American independence were exhibiting themselves, and soon the conflict was begun which rivited the attention of the world upon the colonies. The Revolutionary period was almost barren of event in the west. There was one event, however, of immeasurable importance. The time had come when the destiny of the Great West—of the Northwestern Territory—was to be decided. The man who was to shape its destiny was, in 1774, an officer in Lord Dunmore's army, and in 1776 a pioneer settler in Kentucky—George Rogers Clark. He was a realization of the ideal soldier—cool, courageous, and sagacious, and at once the most powerful man and the most picturesque character in the whole west. It was his foresight and prompt, efficient action which at the close of the war made the Northwest Territory a portion of the United States instead of leaving it in the possession of the British.* He foresaw that even if the colonies should be victorious in their war for independence they would be confined to the eastern side of the Alleghanies, unless the west was a special field of conquest. After failing to interest the house of Burgesses he made an appeal to Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, and from him he succeeded in obtaining the authority which he needed, viz.: commissions that empowered him to raise seven companies of soldiers, and to seize the British posts in the northwest.

* The journey extended to the Big Kanawha. On his way back Washington, accompanied by Crawford, walked across the big bend, now in Meigs county, and again taking his boat proceeded up the river,. arriving at Fort Pitt November 21.

“The cession of that great territory, under the treaty of 1873, was due mainly to the foresight, the courage and endurance of one man, who never received from his country an adequate recognition of his great service."—Hon. James A. Garfield: Address, 1873.

In January, 1778, he was at Pittsburgh securing provisions and ammunition; in June he was marching through the unbroken forest at the head of a small but valiant army, principally composed of his fellow pioneers from Kentucky. His march was directed towards the Illinois country. His able generalship and courage soon placed the garrisons of Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and St. Vincent in his possession, and his equally great tact enabled him to win over the French inhabitants to the American cause and make of them warm allies.

Two other expeditions were made by General Clark —both against the Indians upon the Miamis—one in 1780 and the other in 1782. Other expeditions into or through Ohio territory were made as follows: by Colonel Bradstreet (simultaneously with Boquet's expedition— 1764) along Lake Erie to Detroit, accompanied by Major Israel Putnam (the major general of the Revolution); by Colonel Angus McDonald (just prior to Dunmore's invasion); by General Lachlin McIntosh in 1778 (to the Tuscarawas, where he built the first English fort, with a parapet and stockade, intended as a permanent work, in Ohio); by Colonel John Bowman in 1779 ; by General Daniel Broadhead in 1781; by Colonel Archibald Lochry in the same year; by Colonel Williamson in 1782; by the fated William Crawford in the summer of the year last mentioned; by Colonel Benjamin Logan in 1786; and still others of less importance by Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Colonel Edwards, and Colonel Todd, at various times during the decade preceding the settlement of the territory. In drawing a rapid outline of the history of this western land it is sufficient merely to mention these various military incursions of the Indians' domain, and we have spoken more at length of General Clark's expedition because its results have a wide, general interest, and of Dunmore's invasion, because nearer the legitimate field of our work. Enough has been said to bring to mind the fact that prior to the arrival of the New England pioneers the Ohio country was the scene of many actions and events, and though a wilderness inhabited only by the roving savage had already a history.

One other topic remains to be touched upon briefly in the conclusion of this chapter, and it is one of painful and peculiar interest. We have in mind the Moravian missions on the Muskingum, and use the word painful, as the horrible massacre perpetrated there—the blackest stain on Ohio history—comes to mind. We say also a peculiar interest, and that phrase is suggested by the fact that the Moravians had better claims to be considered as settlers than any other dwellers north of the Ohio, prior to the arrival of the New England colony, and however inadequate such claims may appear it must at least be admitted that these "monks of Protestantism" presented to the western world a phase of civilization and religion which was both picturesque and inspiring, and, also, that one of them at least, the Rev. John Heckewelder, was in after years prominently identified with affairs of State and in close association with the Marietta settlers.

As early as 1761 the Delaware Indians on the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum were visited by a Moravian missionary, the Rev. Christian Frederick Post. In March of the following year John Heckewelder became his companion and assistant. Only a few months, however, were spent in missionary labor, for in the fall the Indians who had first welcomed them, became suspicious that their sojourn there was only a ruse through which a foothold was to be gained leading to settlement, and Post and Heckewelder were obliged to leave the country to save their lives. Not until ten years 'had passed by was another attempt made by the zealous religionists to plant a mission among the savages. In 1772 Rev. David Zeisberger founded Schoenbrunn (Beautiful Spring) on the west side of the river and near the site of New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas county, and twenty-eight persons located there. Gnadenhutten (Tents of Grace) was established the same year seven miles below Schoenbrunn. The Rev. George Jungman, Rev. John Roth and Rev. John Etwin came out as missionaries from Pennsylvania the same year; and with the last named, immigrated to Zeisberger's station a large company of converted Indians, bringing with them the implements of industry. Good log huts were built in the regularly laid out village, a large chapel reared in which to hold religious services, the ground tilled, and every measure taken that was considered needful in the formation of a permanent settlement. The simple, quiet life went on very pleasantly, and all was peace and prosperity. Much did the Delaware chiefs and the few traders who visited Schoenbrunn marvel to see so many Indians living together after the manner of the whites, and devoting themselves to agriculture rather than the chase. They had abjured war and all savage customs. New converts were made almost daily, and the pious missionaries felt well rewarded for their patient toil and gave praise to Him whom they regarded as the prime author of their success. So many accessions were made by the Moravians that in 1776 Zeisberger formed another colony, village or station, near the present town of Coshocton, and gave it the name Lichtenan. In 1780 Salem was founded five miles below Gnadenhutten, and the Rev. John Heckewelder became its regular preacher. All went well with the people at the mission stations until the British, fearing or pretending to fear, that they were performing various services for the Americans, forcibly removed them in September, 1781, to Sandusky. There they were sorely distressed by lack of provisions, and in the latter part of the following winter obtained permission to return to their old stations and gather the corn which they had planted the summer before, and to secure if possible any of the valuables they had been obliged to leave behind them when they were hurried away. They came down from Sandusky in February, and the first of March found them busily engaged in plucking the corn which had been left standing during the winter, and packing it for transportation to their famishing brethren. "The weather during the greater part of February," says Doddridge, "had been uncommonly fine, so that the war parties from Sandusky visited the settlements and began depredations earlier

than usual. One of the parties fell upon a family named Wallace and murdered all of its members, exhibiting even greater brutality than usually characterized their atrocities. The early period at which the fatal visitation was made led to the conclusion that the murderers were either Moravians or that the warriors had their winter quarters at their towns on the Muskingum. In either case the Moravians being at fault, the safety of the pioneer settlements required the destruction of their establishments at that place." A force of eighty or ninety men was immediately organized, and led by Colonel David Williamson set out for the Muskingum. On their arrival at Gnadehutten they found the Indians in the fields gathering their corn and with their arms by them as was the common custom, for the purpose of shooting game, and also to guard against attack. The unsuspecting Indians hearing the whites' protestations of peace and good will, and being informed that they had come to remove them to Fort Pitt and place them under the protection of the Americans, gave up their arms and began with all speed to prepare food for the white men and themselves for the proposed journey. A party of men sent out for the purpose soon brought in the Indians from Salem, and with the Gnadenhutten Indians they were placed in block-houses and confined under an armed guard. Colonel Williamson then cooly put the question to his men, should the prisoners be taken to Pittsburgh or dispatched. Sixteen or eighteen men only out of the eighty or ninety men leaned towards the side of mercy. The majority were for murdering them and were impatient to begin their hellish work. The Moravians had foreseen their fate as soon as they had been placed in confinement, and in the hour of extremity exhibited the steadfastness of their simple faith by singing the hymns and breathing the prayers that Heckewelder and Zeisberger had taught them. Some of them appealed for mercy when the murderers came among them to begin their work, but the greater number, sustained by their acquired religious faith or natural stoicism, met death with majestic composure. The executioners, with tomahawks, war-clubs, and knives, entering the crowded slaughter-pens struck down the defenseless and innocent captives until their arms grew tired, and then their places were taken by others of those white savages who thirsted for blood; and the dreadful carnage went on until ninety-six lives had been taken. Of these sixty-two were grown persons, of whom one-third were women, and the remaining thirty-four were children of various ages, from those just entering manhood or womanhood down to babes on their mothers' breasts. Neither the grey hairs of old age nor the mute, appealing innocence of childhood were protection from the fury and the brutality of these fiends in the form of men. Of all the Indians gathered in the block-houses only two escaped. Those at Schoenbrunn fled before the approach of Williamson's men and none of them were taken. This massacre occurred on the seventh of March, 1782, just six years and one month

*Notes on the Early Settlement and Indian Wars in Western Virginia and Pennsylvania by Joseph Doddridge.

The wanton butchery of these inoffensive Moravians, more than any other event in western history, had the effect of making the Indians hostile to the Americans, and therefore, naturally, inclining them to amity with the British. This was an end which the latter people constantly sought to effect by every method of intrigue. There is some reason, too, for the belief that Williamson's men were led to the Moravian towns and incited to the commission of the stupendous massacre through the shrewd wiles of the British. It seems to be authoritatively established that the murderers of the Wallace family retreated by way of Gnadenhutten, and that one of them bartered with an unsuspecting young woman there for food, and in payment gave her a garment which he had stripped from Mrs. Wallace or one of the other victims, and that this garment was seen and recognized by some of the pursuing party as one which had been familiar to them at their homes. This fact may partly explain, but cannot in the slightest measure justify, the murder of ninety-six persons. It is sufficient, at any rate, to suggest the suspicion that to a dark stratagem of the English emissaries in the west, was attributed the foulest deed in the history of the border. The Indians, wrought into frenzied passion, began that malignant, remorseless, and unceasing raiding of the borders which terrorized the frontiers from Fort Pitt to the falls of the Ohio. Their evil deeds were more numerous than ever before and their treatment of prisoners more inhuman. One of the first acts of retaliation upon the Americans, strangely enough, was visited upon Colonel William Crawford, an intimate friend and companion at arms of Colonel Williamson. But the diabolical cruelty that was practiced upon him was only one of the many horrible deeds which were the outgrowth of the white man's crime.

First Ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory—It Proves Practically Inoperative—Ordinance of May no, 1785, for Survey ot Western Lands—The Plan Prescribed—Surveyors Appointed by Congress—One from Each State—"Squatter" Settlers on Ohio Soil—Illegality of Their Position—A Proclamation of Warning Addressed to Them—General Richard Butler Disperses Them in 1785, While on His Way to the Miami—Extracts from His Journal—Butler Chooses Location for a Fort at the Mouth of the Muskingam— Hon. James Monroe, of Virginia, descends the Ohio with Baxter— Major Doughty Builds Fort Harmar—Description of the Work—The Gardens—Memento for Doughty in the Name of a Peach—Joseph Buellsis Experience in the West—Daily Life at Fort Harmar—Depredations by Roving Bands of Indians—Scarcity of Provisions—Company Ordered out to Protect the Surveyors—The "Seven Ranges"— General Benjamin Tupper—Journal of John Mathews—Indians Harass the Men Engaged at Surveying—Narrow Escape from Destruction—Seeking Safety at Wheeling—Mathews Meets General Putnam at Sumrilt's Ferry.

IN 1784 a committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, reported to Congress an ordinance providing

for the establishment and maintenance of government in the Northwest Territory. It contained an article prohibiting slavery after the year 1800. This clause, was stricken out, however, before the ordinance came to its passage upon the twenty-third of April. This measure of 1784, although it remained nominally in force until repealed by the Ordinance of 1787, was really inoperative—a dead letter. Repeated though unsuccessful efforts were made to so improve the bill as to render possible the development of the west under it. Something, however, was accomplished by the Ordinance of 1784. It paved the way, however imperfectly, for a subsequent act of national legislation. This, the first step tending directly toward the sale and settlement of the lands northwest of the Ohio was taken by Congress in 1785. On the twentieth of May the ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposal of these lands was passed and as soon as possible thereafter put into practical action. By this ordinance it was provided that a surveyor should be appointed from each State, who should take an oath before the geographer of the United States for the faithful discharge of his duty. The surveyors were to be under the general direction of the geographer, and as soon as qualified were to proceed with their work of dividing the territory "into townships of six miles square by lines running due north and south and others crossing these at right angles as near as may be, unless where the boundaries of the late Indian purchases may render the same impracticable." Each surveyor was to be allowed pay for his services at the rate of two dollars for every mile in length he should run, including wages of chain carriers, markers, and all expenses. It was prescribed that the first line running north and south as aforesaid should begin on the river Ohio at a point due north from the western termination of a line which had been run at the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that the first line running east should begin at the same point and extend throughout the whole territory. The ordinance instructed the geographer to designate the townships or fractional parts of townships by numbers, progressively from south to north; beginning each range with number 2; and to designate the ranges by progressive numbers to the westward, the first lungs extending from the Ohio to Lake Erie being marked number 2. The geographer was personally to attend to the running of the first east and west line and the latitudes of the extremes of the first north and south line and of the mouths of the principal rivers. The surveyors were also charged with the duty of carefully noting on the plats to be made of the lands, all mines, salt licks or springs, mill seats, mountains, water courses, and the nature of the soil. The plats of townships were to be marked in subdivisions of a mile square by lines running in the same direction as the external lines. It was further provided that as soon as several of the townships had been surveyed the geographer should transmit plats of the same to the board of treasury, who should record the same with the report in well bound books, to which the Secretary of War should have access. This official was to take by lot a number of townships and

fractional parts of townships, both of those to be sold entire and those to be sold in lots, such as would be equal to one-seventh part of the whole seven ranges, for the use of the Continental army. The board of treasury, it was provided, should from time to time cause the remaining number to be drawn for in the name of the thirteen States. The board of treasury was to sell (for not less than one dollar per acre) at public vendue, after proper notification, the lands not distributed to the several States, the plan prescribed being that township should be sold entire, and township number 2 in the same range in lots; and thus in alternate order through the whole of the first range, and in the second range the same alternation should be observed, though beginning the reverse of the first range. The United States reserved out of every township the four lots 8, 22, 26, and 29, for future sale. Lot number 26 in every township was to be reserved for the maintenance of public schools in the township, and one-third of all gold, silver, lead, or copper mines to be sold as Congress should in the future direct. Further than the provisions stated the ordinance reserved the towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrunn, and Salem, on the Muskingum, and lands surrounding them, for the use of the Christian Indians formerly settled there.

Congress elected six days after the passage of the ordinance the surveyors whose duty it should be to run the first line with glass and chain, northwest of the Ohio. Nathaniel Adams was chosen for New Hampshire; Rufus Putnam for Massachusetts; Caleb Harris for Rhode Island; William Morris for New York; Adam Hoops for Pennsylvania ; James Sampson for Maryland; Alexander Parker for Virginia; Absalom Tatum for North Carolina; William Tate for South Carolina; and, nearly two months later, Isaac Sherman for Connecticut. At the time these appointments were made General Putnam was engaged in surveying for Massachusetts certain lands which she possessed in Maine, and therefore General Benjamin Tupper was appointed to serve in his place. Caleb Harris and Nathaniel Harris resigned and Colonel Ebenezer Sproat and Winthrop Sargent were respectively chosen to fill their places.*

Even as early as the Revolution a few hunters, trappers, and traders had located along the west bank of the Ohio, and it was apprehended that after the treaty of Fort McIntosh squatter settlers and speculators would throng those portions of the territory adjacent to Pennsylvania and Virginia and that evil results would follow this intrusion and exercise of "squatter sovereignty." A few irresponsible men had already made temporary homes along the river, and there was every reason to believe that the number who would do so, unless prevented by immediate and strong measures, would be sufficiently large to be productive of serious evil. Congress foreseeing this movement and its possible results, on the fifteenth of June, 1785, authorized the Indian commissioners to publish the following proclamation and circulate it in the territory:

*General Benjamin Tupper, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, and Winthrop Sargent, as will appear in subsequent chapters, were among the early settlers at Marietta and prominent citizens of the State of Ohio.

Whereas, it has been represented to the United States, in Congress assembled, that several disorderly persons have crossed the Ohio and settled upon their unappropriated lands; and whereas it is their intention, as soon as it shall be surveyed, to open offices for the sale of a considerable part thereof, in such proportions and under such other regulations as may suit the convenience of atl the citizens of the United States, and others who may wish to become purchasers of the same— and as such conduct tends to defeat the object they have in view, is in direct opposition to the ordinances and resolutions of Congress, and highly disrespectful to the Federal authority, they have, therefore, thought fit, and do hereby issue this their proclamation, forbidding all such unwarrantable intrusions, and enjoining all those who have settled thereon to depart with their families and effects without loss of time, as they shall answer the same at their peril.

In the autumn of 1785 General Richard Butler passed down the Ohio on his way to attend the treaty with the Indians at the mouth of the Little Miami. He has left, in the form of a diary or journal, an account of his journey which throws much light on the then condition of the country. He makes several entries relating to the squatter inhabitants on the Ohio shore:

* Friday October 5, 1785. Passed Yellow Creek, and found improvements on both sides of the river. Put in at one Jesse Pennimans on the north side five miles below Yellow creek. Warned him off; called on one Pry who I warned off also; this appears to be a shrewd, sensible man.. . I told him as well as the others, that Congress was determined to put all of the people off of the rands, and that none would be allowed to settle but the purchasers, and that these and these only would be protected; that troops would be down next week, who have orders to destroy every house and improvement on the north side of the river, and that garrisons wilt be placed at Muskingum and elsewhere, and that if any person or persons attempted to oppose Government, they may depend on being treated with the greatest rigor. He seems not well pleased, though he promised submission Passed on to the Mingoe towns, where we found a number of people, among whom one Ross seemed to be the principal man of the settlers on the north side of that place. I conyersed with him, and warned him and the others away. . . . . .

Sunday, October 2nd. . . . Called at the settlement of Charles Mortis, whose house has been pulled down and he has rebuilt it. At this place found one Walter Kean, who seemed but a middling character and rather of the dissentious cast; warned alt of these off, and requested they woutd inform their neighbors, which they promised to do. Colonel Monroe spoke to them also, which had weight, as I informed them of his character* Called at the settlement of Captain Hoglan, who we also warned off, his house had also been thrown down and rebuilt. We informed him of the impropriety of his conduct, which he acknowledged, and seemed very submissive, and promised to remove and to warn his neighbors off also. . . . .

Tuesday, October 4th. I directed one corporal and three soldiers to stay at lanes till Captain O'Hara would send a good boat from Fort McIntosh. . . . I wrote to Colonel Harmar for three

Wednesday, October 5th. . . . Met . . some of the inhabitants from Fishing creek, one of whom had made a settlement on the north side of the Ohio, warned him off and gave him two of the proclamations of Congress. . . . .

Three days later General Butler notes in his journal that "there is good improvement on the north side" nearly opposite the Little Kanawha. He also found settlements on the head of the first island below the Little Hockhocking, and also on the Ohio shore further down the river. To the people on the island who "seemed to be very reasonable people," and where the writer of the journal saw several women who appeared clean and decently dressed," he sent some proclamations, but sterner

* General Butler's Journal in Craig's "Olden Time "—October and November, 1847.

measures were resorted to in the case of the settlers below, as appears from the entry under date of Monday, October l0th.

General Butler's journal also gives information in regard to many other matters of interest, among them the location of Fort Harmar. In Virginia and Kentucky measures had been taken for what would have been really, an irresponsible invasion of the Indian country. This action, which threatened to precipitate a disastrous war hastened in all probability the action of the confederation in taking measures for the effectual strengthening of the frontier. It was determined to establish several posts northwest of the Ohio. Fort Laurens had been built in 1778 upon the Tuscarawas, near the old Indian town of Tuscarawas and one mile south of the site of the present village of Bolivar. It was injudiciously located, and was abandoned one year after its erection. General Butler while on his journey in 1785 chose the site for Fort Harmar. Before leaving Fort McIntosh he had prepared and left with Colonel Harmar, the commandant of the post, a paper in which he expressed the opinion that "the mouth of the Muskingum would be a proper place for a post to cover the frontier inhabitants, prevent intruding settlers on the land of the United States, and secure the surveyors." In his journal under date of Saturday, October 8th, he writes:

"Sent Lieutenant Doyle and some men to burn the houses of the settlers on the north side and put up proclamations.

Went on very well to the mouth of the Muskingum and found it tow. I went on shore to examine the ground most proper to establish a post on, find it too low, but the most eligible is in the point on the Ohio side. Wrote to Major Doughty and recommended this place with my opinion of the kind of work most proper. Left the letter, which contained other remarks on the fort, fixed to a locust tree.

A few days later the general instructed a man whom he met ascending the Ohio to take the letter from the mouth of the Muskingum to Major Doughty.

A short time later Major Doughty, with a detachment of United States troops under his command, arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum, and began the erection of a post which was not fully completed until the spring of 1786.

The fort stood very near the point on the western side of the Muskingum, and upon the second terrace above ordinary flood water. It was a regular pentagon in shape, with bastions on each side, and its walls enclosed but little more than three quarters of an acre. The main walls of defence, technically called "curtains," were each one hundred and twenty feet long and about twelve or fourteen feet high. They were constructed of logs laid horizontally. The bastions were of the same height as the other walls, but unlike them were formed of palings or timbers set upright in the ground. Large two-story log buildings were built in the bastions for the accommodation of the officers and their families, and the barracks for the troops were erected along the curtains, the roofs sloping toward the centre of the enclosure. They were divided into four rooms of thirty feet each, supplied with fireplaces, and were sufficient for the accommodation of a regiment of men,* a larger number, by the way, than

other men to join these as an escort to the Miami, and to give Major Dougherty (Doughty) orders to pull down every house on his way to Muskingum, that is on the north side of the Ohio. . . .

was ever quartered in the fort. From the roof of the barracks building towards the Ohio river there arose a watch tower, surmounted by the flag of the United States. This tower was also used as a guard-house. There were other buildings within the enclosure—an arsenal, a storehouse, and several smaller structures. The main gate was toward the river with a sally-port on the side fronting on the hills. A well was dug near the centre of the enclosure to supply the garrison with water in case of siege, but, happily, it was never needed, and we are told that ordinary water was brought from the river. The timber used in the construction of the fort was that of the heavy forest which covered its site and several acres of land round about. The area cleared was nearly all utilized for gardening purposes under the direction of Major Doughty, who seems to have had a remarkable fondness for tilling the soil and considerable taste and knowledge as a horticulturist.* Fort Harmar was named after General (then Colonel) Harmar, who was the commander of the regiment to which Major Doughty was attached, and for some time commandant of the fort at the mouth of the Muskingum.

Joseph Buell (afterward one of the prominent early settlers at Marietta) was on the frontier for nearly a period of three years, dating from the latter part of December, 1785, and he spent a considerable portion of his time at Fort Harmar. His journal affords some interesting glimpses of life in, the garrison and affairs in the western country during the years immediately preceding its settlement. Much is said in the beginning of the hardships of army life, the depravity of the troops, and the severity of the punishments inflicted for various offences. Drunkenness and desertion were prevalent evils. The punishment for the former and other venal misdemeanors was not infrequently flogging to the extent of one hundred or even two hundred lashes, and the death penalty, without the process of court-martial, was inflicted upon deserter& Buell relates that three men, the finest soldiers in the company, deserted at Fort McIntosh, and being captured were shot by order of Major Wyllis, who commanded the fort—an act which the chronicler characterizes as the most inhuman that he ever saw. The pay of the soldiers at that time guarding the frontier was only three dollars per month.

March 12, 1786, Buell (still at Fort McIntosh) notes that "Generals Parsons and Butler," the latter the author of the journal from which we have made extracts in this chapter, "arrived here from the treaty at Miami."

It is shown by a later entry that the prevention of settlement northwest of the Ohio was still engaging the troops:

* A portion of the cleared ground was planted with peaches, and the second or third year after, fine fruit was obtained from this orchard, probably the first in Ohio. One variety has been quite largely cultivated in Marietta and its vicinity, and named after its originator "the Doughty peach."

+The journal of Joseph Buell has been in part published in " Pioneer History of Ohio," by S. P. Hildreth. We make some extracts from it, both in this and subsequent chapters. Buell had the position of orderly in Captain Strong's company of Colonel Harmar's regiment.

pany, went down the river on command to disperse the frontier people settling on the Indian shore, or the right bank of the Ohio.

On the 4th of May, x786, Captain Zeiglersis and Strong's companies, embarked for Muskingum; and from this date forward the entries in the journal relate to occurrences at Fort Harmar.

May 8th. We arrived at Muskingum, where we encamped in the edge of the woods, a little distance from the fort.

10th. Captain Zeiglerls company embarked for the Miami, and our company moved into the garrison, where we were engaged several days in making ourselves comfortable.

12th. Began to make our gardens, and had a very disagreeable spell of weather, which continued for twenty-two days rarning in succession.

June 9th. Two boats arrived from Miami, and report that the Indians had murdered severat inhabitants this spring. We are getting short of meat for the troops.

10th. Five frontiersmen came here to hunt for the garrison, and brought with them a quantity of venison.

19th. News arrived here that the Indians had killed four or five women and children at Fish creek, about thirty miles northeast from this garrison.

July 4th. The great day of American independence was commemorated by the discharge of thirteen guns, after which the troops were served with extra rations of liquor, and allowed to get as drunk as they pleased.

8th. We are brought down to half-rations, and have sent out a party of men to hunt. They returned without much success, although game is plenty in the woods.

9th. We discovered some Indians crossing the Ohio in a canoe, below the garrison, and sent a party after them, but could not overtake them.

l0th. Ensign Kingsbury, with a party of nine, embarked for Wheeling in quest ot provisions.

16th. We were visited by a part of Indians, who encamped at a little distance from the garrison, and appeared to be very friendly. They were treated kindly by the officers, who gave them some wine, and the best the garrison afforded.

17th. Our men took up a stray owe on the river. It contained a pair of shoes, two axes and some corn. We suppose the owners were killed by the Indians. Same day Lieutenant Kingsbury returned with only a supply of food for six or seven days.

18th. Captain Strong’s company began to build their range of barracks, to make ourselves comfortable for the winter.

19th. This day buried the fifer to Captain Hart's company. Our funerals are conducted in the following manner. The men are all paraded without arms, and march by files in the rear of the corpse. The guard, with arms, march in front, with their pieces reversed; and the music in the rear of the guard, just in front of the coffin, playing some mournful tune. After the dead is buried they return in the same order, playing some lively march.

21st. A boat arrived from Fort Pitt with intelligence of a drove of cattle at Wheeling for this garrison.

22nd. Lieutenant Pratt, with a party of men, went up by land to bring down the cattle. .

23d. Colonel Harmar arrived at the garrison. The troops paraded to receive him, and fired a salute of nine guns.

26th. Captain Hart went with a party of men to guard the Indians of the Muskingum.

27th. Lieutenant Pratt arrived with ten head of cattle, which revived our spirits, as we had been without provisions for several days. 29th. Three hunters came into the fort and informed us that they had seen a patty of Indians lying in the woods. We sent out some men, but discovered nothing.

August 2d. Our garrison was alarmed. Captain Hart was walking on the bank of the river, and said he saw Indians on the other side of the Ohio, and saw them shoot one of our men who was out hunting, and beheld him fall. Colonel Harmar immediately sent the captain with a party of men after them. They crossed the river and found one man asleep on the ground, and another had been shooting at a mark. They had seen no Indians.

11th. Captain Hart's company were ordered to encamp in the open ground outside of the fort, as the men are very sickly in the barracks.

23d. Captain Hart and his company embarked for Wheeling with orders to escort and protect the surveyors in the seven ranges.

September 1st. Captain Tunis, the Indian, came to the fort and reported the Indians designed to attack our garrison, and that they were bent on mischief. We were all hands employed in making preparations

to receive them, lining the bastions, clearing away all the weeds and brush within a hundred yards of the fort. We likewise cut up all our corn and broke down the bean poles, to prevent their having any shelter within ritle shot distance.

6th. Captain Tunis left the garrison to return to his nation and bring us further information.

7th. The troops received orders to parade at the alarm post at daybreak, and continue under arms until after sunrise.

12th. Still busy making preparations for the Indians, and expect them every day.

21st. Ensign Kingsbury was ordered to take a party of men into the commandant's house, and put it in the best order for defence, and to remain there during the night.

26th. The troops are again brought to half rations. I went with a party of men after a raft of timber to construct our barracks.

27th. Lieutenant Smith embarked in quest of provisions. We are on short allowance, and expect the Indians every day to attack us. Our men are very uneasy, laying various plans to desert, but are so closely watched that it is very difficult for them to escape.

October and Lieutenant Smith returned with provisions sufficient only for a short time. We are busily occupied in erecting the barracks.

11th. The Indians made us a visit, and stole one of our horses as it was feeding in the woods.

16th. Captain Tunis called again at the fort and says the Indians had repented of their: design to attack the garrison.

November 3rd. Captain Tunis and a number of Indians with two squads, came into the garrison. At night they got very drunk and threatened the guard with their tomahawks and knives.

25th. Captain Harts’ and McCurdy's companies came in from the survey of the seven ranges. They had a cold, wearisome time; their clothes and shoes wore out, and some of their feet badly frozen.

December 3rd. Uling arrived with twenty kegs of flour and ten kegs of whiskey and some dry goods.

Our rations now consist of a little venison, without any bread; as a substitute we have some corn and potatoes. The weather is very cold and the river full of ice.

13th. Lieutenant Pratt embarked in a boat for Flinn's Station (now Belleville) distant thirty miles below the garrison, for a load of corn and potatoes. The troops are in great distress for provisions. About twelve miles below they landed on account of the storm and their boat was carried off by the ice with a considerable amount of goods in it.

19th. Weather more moderate. Ensign Kingsbury embarked for Flinn's Station to make another trial for provisions.

22d. Ensign Kingsbury returned with about sixty bushels of corn and twenty of potatoes.

24th. We drew for our station about a peck of frozen potatoes. As Christmas is so near we are making all the preparations in our power to celebrate it.

25th. This being Christmas day, the sergeant celebrated it by a dinner to which was added a plentiful supply of wine.

January 31, 1787. Hamilton Kerr, our hunter, began to build a house on the island a tittle above the mouth of the Muskingum, and some of our men were ordered out as a fatigue party to assist him, under the command of Lieutenant Pratt.

February 11th. The weather has been very fine, and there is prospect of an early spring.

15th. Sergeant Judd went with a party of men to assist some inhabitants to move their families and settle near the garrison.

24th. Isaac Williams arrived with his family to settle on the opposite shore of the river. Several others have joined him, which makes our situation in the wilderness much more agreeable.

27th. Major Hamtramck arrived from Fort Steuben in order to muster the troops. The same day some of the hunters brought in a buffalo, which was eighteen hands high and weighed one thousand pounds.

April 1st. The Indians came within twelve miles of the garrison, and killed an old man and took a boy prisoner.

5th. Lieutenant Smith went out with a party of men on a scout and discovered Indians on a hill within half a mile of the garrison.

9th. Ensign Kingsbury went on command with a party to bring in one of the hunters, fifty miles up the Muskingum, for fear of the Indians, who, we hear, are bent on mischief.

25th. One of our men discovered two Indians attempting to steal our horses a little distance from the fort

May 1st. This is St. Tammany's day, and was kept with the festivities usual to the frontiers. Alt the sergeants in the garrison crossed the Ohio to Mr. Williams and partook of an excellent dinner.

7th. Twenty-one boats passed on their way to the lower country, Kentucky. They had on board five hundred and nine souls, with many wagons, goods, etc.

14th. John Stockley, a fifer in Captain Strong's company, deserted. He was pursued and overtaken twelve miles from the garrison, brought back, and ordered to run the gauntlet eleven times, through the troops of the garrison, stripped of his Continental clothing, and drummed out of the fort, with a halter around his neck, all of which was punctually executed.

21st. This evening I sent a young man, who cooked for me on Kerr's island, about half a mile above the fort after some milk; he was seen to jump into the river near the shore, when about a third of a mile from the garrison. We supposed some of the people were playing in the water. He did not return that evening, which led me to fear he had lost his course. In the morning a party was sent after him. They discovered fresh signs of Indians, and found his hat. They followed the trail, but did not find them. We afterwards heard that they had killed and scalped him. The Indians were a party of Ottawas.

The writer of the journal on the twentieth of May started down the Ohio with Captain Strong's company, and did not return to Fort Harmar until the twenty-first of November, having spent the interim at the Miami garrison, Fort Finney, Port Vincent, and other frontier localities in the lower Ohio country. During the period after his return, and prior to .the landing of the Ohio company's colony, the journal contains no important entries, and we here leave it, to resume a survey of its pages in subsequent chapters.

While the various incidents of frontier army life above narrated or referred to were occurring at Fort Harmar, the eastern part of what is now Washington county, and the country north of it, was the theatre of a different kind of action. The surveyors mentioned in the first part of this chapter were traversing the country which was to be divided into "the seven ranges."

General Butler records the fact that he met the surveyors and the United States geographer at the west line of Pennsylvania, on the thirtieth of September, and dined with them. There was some discord among the members of the party, and Captain Hutchins was apprehensive of the safety of his company, unless the Indian chiefs should personally assure him of their good-will. A beginning had been made in the survey, but it was very soon abandoned.

General Benjamin Tupper, soon after the passage of the ordinance of May 20, 1785, providing for the survey and sale of the western lands, had gone as far as Pittsburgh with the idea of beginning the work which had been assigned to him. The Indians, however, who were dissatisfied with the terms of the treaty of Fort McIntosh, and alleged that they had been imposed upon, assumed a very hostile attitude, and threatened with death any persons who should engage in surveying the lands northwest of the Ohio. The risk was so great that common prudence dictated delay until further conference with the disaffected tribes and an amicable adjustment of their relations with the United States should be

effected. General Tupper returned to New England.* The treaty of Fort Finney was negotiated in January, 1786, and temporary peace, at least, being promised the surveyors (General Tupper among them), made their way west in the following June, and began their labors.

These men (in one sense the pioneers—the advance guard of the great army of occupation which was to cross the Ohio)—led a career of adventure and danger, and accomplished the work to which they had been appointed only by overcoming many diffrculties. Some idea of the sufferings they experienced has already been suggested by extracts from Joseph Buell's journal describing the condition of the soldiers who had been sent to guard them on their return to Fort Harman A more definite and a very interesting account of the progress of the survey is given in the journal of John Mathews.t He arrived at Pittsburgh July 29, 1786, and finding that the surveyors had gone down the Ohio to Little Beaver creek, followed and overtook them. After the troops who were to guard them had arrived from Fort Steuben, the work of the suveyors was begun, and Mathews went out with Captain Adam Hoops, the surveyor from Pennsylvania, to run the lines in the second range of townships. They remained out from the middle of August to the first of September, and then returned to the camp at Little Beaver, which they found deserted except by General Tupper, Captain Morris, and an assistant. Mr. Mathews made arrangements to go out with General Tupper on the survey of the seventh range, and started on the seventh of September. On the evening of the 9th they camped at the end of the fourth range. The next entry in the journal we quote:

Sunday, l0th. Camped near the end of the fifth range. Major Sargent, who surveys the fifth range, came to our camp and informed us that one of his hands had left him, which much embarrassed the progress of his work. General Tupper not being ready to begin work, as the geographer had not yet completed the sixth range, I went with Major Sargent to assist him for a few days, and General Tupper proposed to send his son Ansetem (tt) who had gone to the geographerls camp, also, the next day to assist us. • • • •

Monday, 11th. Anselem Tupper came to our camp about ten o'clock, and he and myself earned the chain.

14th. Mr. Anselem Tupper and myself, with a hunter, left Major Sargent's camp in order to fall in with General Tupper on the geogra-

* We pause here briefly to note, the fact elsewhere to be enlarged upon, that it was during this first visit to the west that General Tupper became favorably and even enthusiastically possessed of the idea of making a New England settlement in the Ohio country; and it was during his visit to Massachusetts in the winter of 1785-86 that the first direct movement was made toward the formation of a company for the purpose of colonization. General Tupper visited General Putnam; they spent nearly a whole night in talking over the scheme of immigration, and the result of their earnest conference was seen in the public prints of the State on the twenty-fifth of January, 1786, in the form of an advertisement headed "Information," signed by the generals, and designed to test the spirit of the people in regard to the formation of The Ohio company.

+John Mathews, of New Braintree, Massachusetts, was a nephew of General Rufus Putnam. He came to the western country before he had arrived at his majority, with the view of obtaining employment in the survey of the seven ranges, and to gain knowledge concerning the country. He was afterwards one of the Ohio company's surveyors, and settled in 1796 in Muskrngum county.

** Major Anselem Tupper was among the early settlers at Marietta, and was a surveyor in the employment of the Ohio company. He died at Marietta in 1808.

15th. Decamped and moved to the westward six miles, where we joined the geographers’s camp on Sandy creek, a large branch of the Tuscarawas.

Sunday, 17th. This morning I went to a camp of Indians who were returning from Fort McIntosh to their town. It was eighty rods above us on the creek. They were about eight in number, men and women. They had rum with them, and had a drunken frolic the night before, but appeared decent and friendly.

18th. General Tupper began his range, and our camp moved to the west about three miles to a large branch of the Tuscarawas, called Nine Shilling. After running on the line about three-fourths of a mite an express arrived from Major Hamtramck's camp at Little Beaver, with word that the Indians were assembling at the Shawnees towns and intended making a general attack upon the surveyors. Captain Hutchins and General Tupper thought it unsafe to proceed any further. Notice was immediately sent to Captain Morris, who had gone about one mile and a half on the west boundary of the seventh range, and we all returned to the ground we left this morning and passed the night.

19th. At nine A.M. decamped and marched for Little Beaver. Our party consisted of about fifty men, thirty-six of whom were troops under the command of Lieutenant Percy. Encamped at night near the first mile post of the sixth range.

The party continued their march, being met on the third day by Major Hamtramck and the whole of his command, and on the twenty-third of September reached Hamtramck's station, on the Ohio, five miles below Little Beaver. By the fourth of October, the feeling of alarm having partially subsided, the surveyors determined to go on with their work; and, on the eleventh, having made the necessary preparations, they again started into the wilderness. Mr. Mathews went with Major Sargent, who was to survey the fifth range. They proceeded westward on "Crawford's old trail" until they reached the place where they were to begin work. After carrying on the survey for about two weeks their pack horses were stolen by the Indians, who they discovered had been lying near their camp (within eighty rods of it the journal says), and had probably been watching them for several days. The journal relates that

"When the commander of the escort, Captain Hart, was informed of the loss of our horses, he immediately commenced building a blockhouse on the most advantageous ground in the vicinity of our camp."

"31st. We this morning dispatched a man for Major Hamtramck's camp, on Wheeling rivulet, informing him of our situation and requesting more horses, so that we might proceed on our range. Although we were apprehensive of danger, we finished the west boundary of the seventh township this day. On our return to camp we found the blockhouses in such a state as to atford a good shelter in case of an attack from the Indians."

Soon after the company returned to Wheeling, General Tupper started for Massachusetts on the twenty-second of November, and early in the following month Colonel Ebenezer Sproat and some others of the surveyors left for their homes. Captain Hutchins, the United States geographer, departed for New York on the twenty-seventh of January, 1787. The survey was suspended for the season. Mathews who went to Fort Steuben to take charge of the commissary department for the winter, notes that the surveyors again took up their work in the woods during April. With ranging degrees of success it was carried slowly and tediously on, during the spring and early summer, without the occurrence of any important incidents. Some of the surveyors who had recommenced work early in the season, came into Wheeling on the fifth of May, considerably alarmed, as they had

heard through one of the Zanes of the murder of a family on Fishing creek, by the Indians. Early in June the surveyors had all arrived at the mouth of Indian Wheeling creek on the Ohio, and being met there by the troops sent from Fort Harmar to act as escort, went out into the wilderness to their respective ranges. It was the policy of Congress to continue the surveys if it was possible to do so. There were indications that the summer would be a troublous time. The surveyors were several times obliged to leave their work and seek safety at Wheeling or other points along the river. One party of Indians, supposed to be Chippewas, who hovered about the locality mentioned, were followed and attacked by the whites who killed one of them, and wounded two more. Several other skirmishes took place.

The author of the journal from which we have given extracts, had but little to do with the survey after the spring of 1787, but was in the country all of the time acting in various capacities, and travelling about from Fort Steuben, Pittsburgh and Wheeling to Fort Harmar and other points. In the later entries of his journal (from November, 1787, to April 7, 1788), is found mention of several characters who were among the pioneers of the Ohio company. In November, 1787, he met Colonel Return J. Meigs at Pittsburgh, and at Washing. ton (Pennsylvania) he met Anselem Tupper (in January, 1788), with whom he remained some time, completing plats of surveys. On the second of February he came across Major Hoffield White "with twenty-two men from New England," and on the seventeenth at Sumrill's ferry, he makes the following entry in the journal:

I had the pleasure of seeing my honored uncle, General Putnam, by whom I received a number of letters from my friends.

Review of the History of the West—Early Time Spirit of Emigration in New England.—" The Military Company of Adventurers" Propose Settlement in Mississippi.—Rufus Putnam goes thither with his Uncle Israel.—Feature of the Scheme of Colonization.—Effect on the New England Mind.—The Revolutionary War.—By the Camp- Fires in the Watch of the Night.—Washington Directs the Attention ot the Soldiers to the West During the Darkest Days of the Conflict.—Impoverishment of the Revolutionary Officers at the Close of the War.—Condition of the Country.—Otfrcers Petition Government for a Grant of Land.—Their Plan of Western Settlement —General Putnamsis Letter to Washington.—Its Wise Suggestions.—Some of Them Adopted with Beneficial Results.—Washington's Influence Unavailing to Secure Action of Congress.—Impatience of the Officers for the Realization of their Plans.—Something of their Character and Condition After the War.—"Financial Settlement Certificates."— Their Depreciated Value.--Speculators Purchase them to their own Advantage.—Loyalty to the Government.—Shay's Rebellion.—Virginia's Action in Regard to Lands for her Soldiers.—Destiny.—New England to Officer First Settlement in the West rather than the "Old Dominion."—Opportunity and Advantages of the Latter State. —General Putnam Again Addresses Washington.—Reply to his Letter.—"Justice and Gratitude to the Army" Demand the Granting of the Officers’ Petition.—Despair of Succeeding in the Old Scheme.— A New One Boldly Entered on.—General Tupper's Visit to the West. —His All Night Conference with General Putnam.—They Publish a Call for the Organization of the Ohio Company.— Delegates Elected.— Meet at "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern in Boston.—Certificates of Agreement Adopted.—Progress of the Company's Affairs.—A Purchase in the Ohio Company Decided upon.—Dr. Manasseh Cutler Employed as Agent of the Company.--Canvass for the Location on the Muskingum.

IN the preceding pages has been given something of the history of the west while it was still a wilderness, the ownership of which was successively vested in France, in the British crown, in Virginia, and in the Confederated Colonies of America. Something of the history of the Indian tribes of the northwest has been shown; of the advent of the white man as an adventurer among them ; of the invasion of the country by armed forces who came to conquer; and of its peaceful penetration by the zealous missionaries who came to propagate a faith. Some idea has been given of the operations of explorers and political economists; of the feeling that prevailed in Virginia in respect to the country; and the unsuccessful projects for its colonization. In the last few years of the period prior to the red letter year, 1788, we have witnessed just over the boundary, in the easternmost edge of the vast territory, unlawful settlers driven from their homes; we have seen the frontier surveyors at their work, harassed by Indians; and we have seen a fort arise in the forest at the mouth of the Muskingum. At the far western boundary, upon the Mississippi, are a few French settlers and possibly there are a score or so of transient residents upon the Maumee—mere traders. But the northwest is still practically an unknown land, explorers to the contrary notwithstanding, a desolate though beautiful wild inhabited by savage tribes, its vast latent wealth awaiting, as it had for ages, the talismanic touch of civilization.

Far away upon the Atlantic sea board forces were at work a score of years anterior to 1788 which were not only to form the first settlement but to plant New England morals, law, and institutions upon this vast inland domain of the nation. Ideas were in inception, which

as the prime impetus in a long chain of causes and effects were to swell the tremendous result and effect the destiny not alone of the west but of the Republic from sea to sea.

It is a pleasant thought that in the British war against the French, General Putnam (at the time of his enlistment in 1757, nineteen years of age) and many others assisted in wresting from the enemy and in securing to their sovereign the very territory which was to become their home, and

it is a disagreeable fact that they had finally so dearly to purchase a small portion of the domain which they had twice bought by bravery of arms. The very men who fought to win for England the territory which the French disputed, in 1755-1760, were foremost to win it from her twenty years later, and thus twice exhibited the hardihood and heroism of their natures.

Something of the spirit of emigration manifested itself in New England after the conclusion of the French and Indian war, and was in fact an outgrowth of that struggle. An organization of ex-soldiers of the colonies was formed, called "The Military Company of Adventurers," whose purpose it was to establish a colony in West Florida (now Mississippi). Although the project had been entered upon soon after the establishment of peace, it was not until the year 1772 that anything was accomplished. General Lyman, after severat years' endeavor, succeeded in procuring a grant of a tract of land. It was decided to explore the tract, and a company of surveyors, of which the celebrated Israel Putnam was the leader, went out in January, 1773, for that purpose. Rufus Putnam was a member of the party. The examination was satisfactory, and several hundred families embarked from Massachusetts and Connecticut to make a settlement. They found to their chagrin that the King's grant had been revoked, and the settlement was therefore abandoned. Those who did not fall sick and die returned to their homes. Such was the disastrous end of this project of settlement, which, had it succeeded, might possibly have changed the whole political history of the United States. It seems at least to be within the realm of probability that had a settlement been planted in Mississippi, Massachusetts would not have made the initial settlement in the Ohio country and extended her influence over the territory from which five great States have been created. The enterprise of founding a colony in the far south, thwarted as it was, undoubtedly had its effect upon the New England mind, and was one of the elements which prepared the way for the inauguration of a new scheme of emigration in later years. The dream which had been fondly indulged in for a long term of years, was not to be forgotten even when the opportunity for its realization had passed away.

Soon, however, there arose a subject for thought which overshadowed all others. What men of shrewd foresight had long expected had come to pass. The colonies were arrayed against the mother country in a battle for independence. We shall not here attempt to follow Generals Putnam, Parsons, Varnum, and Tupper, Major Winthrop Sargent, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, and the many other brave soldiers who became Ohio company emigrants, through the perils of those seven dark years of the Revolution. But is it not natural to suppose that some of them who had been interested in the old colonization project talked of it around their camp fires? Is it not probable that the review of the past suggested the possibility of forming in the future another military colony, in which they should realize the bright hopes that had once been blasted? It seems natural that in the long lulls between the periods of fierce activity this topic should have come up frequently in conversation, or at least that it should have appeared as a vague but alluring element in many pictures of the future painted by hopeful imaginations. It is evident from perusal of General Putnam's autobiography that he had indulged the hope of emigration to "some remote land rich in possibilities "for many years before he led the little New England colony to the Muskingum. He had very likely cherished the hope unceasingly from the time when the military company of adventurers was organized, and doubtless the journey to that far away strange and beautiful Mississippi had served as a stimulus to quicken his desire for the realization of a project which would employ so much of his energy and enterprise, and afford so fine an opportunity for the achievement of a life success. We know that Washington, during the darkest days of the Revolution, directed the attention of his companions at arms to the west, as a land in which they might take refuge should they be worsted in the struggle, but happily it was not to be that contingency which should cause the movement of emigration toward the Ohio. If during the war the western country was the subject of an occasional stray, light thought, the time was to come when it should be uppermost in the minds of many of the soldiers and practically considered, not as a land in which they must seek to take refuge from a victorious foe, but as one in which they might retrieve the losses they had sustained in repelling the enemy. It must be borne in mind that the independence of the American colonies was dearly bought as indeed has been all the great good attained in the history of the world. The very men by whose long continued, self- sacrificing devotion and bravery, the struggle against the tyrannical mother country had been won, found themselves at the close of the war reduced to the most straitened circumstances, and the young nation ushered into being by their heroism was unable to alleviate their condition. These were the times which tried men's souls. Nowhere was the strain any more severe than in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The joy which peace brought after seven years of war was in most localities too deep to be voiced by noisy demonstration, and it was not unmingled with forebodings of the future "The rejoicings," says a local historian,* "were mostly expressed in religious solemnities." There were still difficult problems to be solved—and there was the memory of husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and lovers who would not return with the victorious patriots, and it may in many cases have been difficult "to discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people."

For the purpose of more adequately representing the feeling which prevailed in New England during the years following the war, we shall revert to the time when the great struggle was drawing to a close. Then the subject of western colonization was strongly agitated and the movement which culminated in the Ohio company's purchase and settlement had its inception. As the object which they had been fighting to achieve had been attained, the soldiers saw that their occupation was, gone and looked about them for a new means of subsistence. Congress had in 1776 made an appropriation of lands by the laws of which it was provided that a colonel who should serve through the war should receive fie hundred acres, a lieutenant colonel four hundred and fifty, and so on down to a private soldier who should be entitled to one hundred acres. The act was extended to the general officers in 1780, and it was arranged that a major general should receive one thousand one hundred acres and a brigadier eight hundred and fifty acres. In the summer of 1783 seeing that the final reduction must soon take place the officers to the number of two hundred and eighty-eight, anxious for definite action, petitioned Congress that the lands they were entitled to might be located in the country bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the east by Pennsylvania, southeast and south by the river Ohio and west by a line beginning on the Ohio twenty-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," they said, "would be sufficient in extent, and the land of such quality and situation as may induce Congress to assign and mark it out as a tract or territory suitable to form a distinct government in time to be admitted as one of the Confederate States of America." This tract, it was claimed, "was not the property of or within the jurisdiction of any particular State"—which, by the Way, was an erroneous assumption, as Virginia at that time laid claim to the whole northwest.

General Rufus Putnam was interested in the project. Like most of the other officers he was impoverished by the war, and had been so long engaged in the profession of arms that he necessarily knew little of any other. How earnestly he had entered into the scheme with his brother officers, and how thoroughly he had pondered the subject of western settlement is shown by a letter which he wrote to George Washington to enlist his great influence in favor of the petitioners. The letter shows that many of the wisest measures afterward adopted by the National Government in its plan for the disposal of the public domain, had their origin in the mind of the writer. It therefore has a broad and deep value as a matter of history, and as it is scarcely less interesting as exhibiting the spirit of the patriots in Massachusetts and Connecticut at the time it was written, we have thought it well to print it entire:

SIR:—As it is very uncertain how long it may be before the honorable Congress may take the petition of the officers of the army for lands between the Ohio river and Lake Erie into consideration, fir be in a situation to decide thereon, the going to Philadelphia to negotiate the business with any of its members or committee to whom the petition may be referred, is a measure none of the petitioners wilt think of undertaking. The part I have taken in promoting the petition is well known, and therefore needs no apology when I inform you that the signers expect that I will pursue measures to have it laid before Congress. Under these circumstances I beg reave to put the petition in your excellency's hands, and ask with the greatest assurance your patronage of it. That Congress may not be wholly unacquainted with the motives of the petitioners, I beg your indulgence while I make a few observations on the poticy and propriety of granting the prayer of it, and making such arrangements of garrisons in the western quarter as shall give effectual protection to the settlers and encourage immigration to the new government; which, if they meet your approbation and the favor be not too great, I must reqaest your excellency will give them your support and cause them to be forwarded, with the petition, to the president of Congress, in order that when the petition is taken up, Congress or their committee may be informed on what principles the petition is grounded. I am, sir, among those who consider the cession of so great a tract of territory to the United States, in the western wortd, as a very happy circumstance and of great consequence to the American empire; nor have I the least doubt but Congress will pay an early attention to securing the allegiance of the motives as welt as provide for the defence of the country in case of a war with Great Britain or Spain. One great means of securing the allegiance of the natives, I take to be the furnishing them with such necessaries as they stand in need of, and in exchange receiving their furs and skins. They have become so accustomed to the use of firearms that I doubt if they could gain a subsistence without them, at least they will be very sorry to be reduced to the disagreeable necessity of using the bow and arrows as the only means of killing their game; and so habrtuated are they to the woollen blankets. etc., etc., that absolute necessity alone will prevent their making use of them.

This consideration alone, is I think, sufficient to prove the necessity of estabtishing such factories as may furnish an ample supply to these wretched creatures; for unless they are furnished by the subjects of the United States, they will undoubtedly seek elsewhere, and like all other people, form their attachments where they have their commerce; and then in case of war will always be certain to aid our enemies. Therefore, if there were no other advantages in view than that of attaching them to our interests, I think good policy will dictate the measure of carrying on a commerce with these people; but when we add to this the consideration of the profit arising from the Indian trade in general, there cannot, I presume, be a doubt that it is the interest of the United States to make as early provision for the encouragement and protection of it as possible. For these and many other obvious reasons, Congress will no doubt find it necessary to establish garrisons in Oswego, Niagara, Michilimackinac, Illinois, and many other places in the western world. 'The Illinois and all the ports that shall be established on the Mississippi, may undoubtedly be furnished by way of the Ohio, with provisions, at all times, and with goods whenever a war shall interrupt the trade with New Orleans. But in case of a war with Great Britain, unless a communication is open between the river Ohio and Lake Erie, Niagara, Detroit. and all the ports seated on the great lakes will inevitably be lost without such communication; for a naval superiority on lake Ontario and the seizing of Niagara, will subject the whole country bordering on the lakes to the will of the enemy. Such a misfortune will put it out of the power of the United States to furnish the natives, and necessity will again oblige them to take an active part against us. Where and how this communication is to be opened shall be next considered. 1f Captain Hutchins, and a number of other map makers, are not out in their calculations, provisions may be sent from the settlements on the south side of the Ohio by the Muskingum or Scioto to Detroit, or even to Niagara, at a less expense than from Albany, by the Mohawk, to those places. To secure such communication (by the Scioto, all circumstances considered, will be the best) let a chain of forts be established; these forts should be buirt upon the banks of the river, if the ground wilr admit, and about twenty miles distant from each other, and on this plan the Scioto communication will require ten or eleven stockaded forts, flanked by block-houses, and one company of men will be a sufficient garrison for each, except the one at the portage, which wilt require more attention in the construction and a larger number of men to garrison it. But besides supplying the garrisons on the great lakes with provisions, etc., we ought to take into consideration the protection that such an arrangement will give to the frontiers of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. I say New York, as we shall undoubtedly extend our settlements and garrisons irom the Hudson to Oswego. This done and a garrison posted at Niagara. whoever will inspect the map must be convinced that all the Indians on the

waters of the Mohawk, Oswego, Susquehanna, and Allegheny rivers and in all the country south of the lakes Ontario and Erie, will be encircled in such a manner as will effectually secure their allegiance and keep them quiet, or oblige them to quit the country.

Nor will such an arrangement of forts from the Ohio to Lake Erie be any additional expense; for unless this gap is shut, notwithstanding the garrisons on the lakes and from Oswego to the Hudson, yet the frontier settlers on the Ohio, by Fort Pitt to the Susquehanna, and all the country south of the Mohawk. will be exposed to savage insult, unless protected by a chain of garrisons which will be far more expensive than the arrangement proposed, and, at the same time, the protection given to these States will be much less complete; besides, we should not confine our protection to the present settlements, but carry the idea of extending them at least as far as the lakes Ontario and Erie.

These lakes form such a natural barrier that when connected with the Hadson and Ohio, by the garrisons proposed, settlements in every part of New York and Pennsylvania may be made with the utmost safety; so that these States must be deeply interested in the measures, as well as Virginia, who will by the same arrangement have a great part of its frontier secured and the rest much strengthened; nor is there a State in the Union but will be greatly benefitted by the measure, considered in any other point of view, for, without any expense, except a small allowance of purchase money to the natives, the United States will have within their protection seventeen million, five hundred thousand acres of very fine land, to dispose of as they think proper.

But I hasten to mention some of the expectations which the petitioners have respecting the conditions on which they hope to obtain the lands. This was not proper to mention in the body of the petition, especially as we pay for grants to all members of the army who wish to take up lands in that quarter.

The whole tract is supposed to contain about seventeen million four hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred acres, and will admit of seven hundred and fifty-six townships of six miles square, allowing to each township three thousand and forty acres for the ministry, schools, waste tands, ponds and highways; then each township will contain of settlers' lands twenty thousand acres, and in the whole fifteen million, one hundred and twenty thousand acres. The land to which the army is entitled by resolve of Congress, referred to in the petition, according to my estimate, will amount to two million one hundred and six thousand eight hundred and fifty acres, which is about the eighth part of the whole. For the survey of this the army expect to be at no expense, nor do they expect to be under any obligation to settle these lands or do any duty to secure their title to them; but in order to induce the army to become actual settlers in the new government, the petitioners hope Congress will make a further grant of lands on condition of settlement, and have no doubt but that honorable body will be as liberal to all those who are not provided for by their own States, as New York has been to the officers and soldiers who belong to that State; which, if they do, it will require about eight million acres to complete the army, and about seven million acres will remain for sale. The petitioners, at least some of them, are much opposed to the monopoly of the lands, and wish to guard against large patents being granted to individuals, as, in their opinion, such a mode is very injurious to a country, and greatly retards its settlement; and whenever such patents are tenanted it throws too much power into the hands of a few. For these and many other obvious reasons, the petitioners hope that no grant wilt be made but by townships of six miles square, or six by twelve, or six by eighteen miles, to be subdivided by the proprietors to six miles square, that being the standard by which they wish alt calculations to be made; and that officers and soldiers, as well as those who petition for charters on purchase may form their associations on one uniform principle, as to number of persons or rights to be contained in a township, with the exception only that when the grant is made for services already done, or on condition of settlement, if the officers petition with the soldiers for a particular township, the soldier shall have one right only to a captain's three, and so in proportion with commissioned officers of every grade.

These, sir, are the principles which give rise to the petition under consideration; the petitioners, at least some of them, think that sound policy dictates the measare, and that Congress ought to lose no time in establishing some such chain of posts as have been hinted at, and in procuring the tract of land petitioned for, of the natives; for, the moment this is done, and agreeable terms offered to the settlers, many of the petitioners are determined not only to become adventurers, but actaally to remove themselves to this country; and there is not the least doubt but other valuable citizens will follow their example, and the probability is that the country between Lake Erie and the Ohio will be filled with inhabitants, and the faithful subjects of the United States so established on the waters of the Ohio and the lakes as to banish forever the idea of our western territory falling under the dominion of any European power. The frontiers of the old States will he effectively secured from savage alarms, and the new will have little to fear from' their insults.

I have the honor to be, sir, with every sentiment, your excellency's most obedient and very humble servant,

It will be observed that in the foregoing letter the admirable township system of New England is suggested as an element in the plan for settling and developing the western country. That measure was adopted very nearly as General Rufus Putnam originally advocated it, and it has been in the opinion of very many students of political economy* one of the most important factors in building up the civilization of the northern States and advancing them beyond the southern, in which the township system has only a nominal existence.

But to return to the matter directly in hand. Washington used his utmost influence to advance the object sought by the petitioners, and urged by General Putnam, but without avail. He wrote a communication to Congress, which he forwarded with the long letter he had received, but no legislation affecting the interests of the petitioners was enacted. The General Government had not yet a perfect title to the territory northwest of the Ohio, and even, if it had, Congress would undoubtedly have been tediously slow in taking the initiative in disposing of the domain which, in after years, was to be squandered with the most prodigal hand.

As time progressed, the New England Revolutionary officers and soldiers interested in western immigration became more and more impatient to realize their hopes. They were poorer than their neighbors who had not been in the field; and if they had more of pride, that was only natural from the lives they had led, and surely they had a right to feel proud of the services they had rendered. One who was among them, and a close observer, says that they had a better and more dignified bearing than before the war, dressed more handsomely, and were improved in manners and conversation.t Many of them were members of the Masonic order and of the Cincinnati, an order which was established to maintain the

* De Tocqueville, in his "Democracy in America," was perhaps the first writer who brought this subject prominently into consideration, and Judge Tourgee, author of the reconstruction novels "A Fool's Errand" and "Bricks without Straw" may be mentioned as the best known late writer who has dwelt upon the township plan as accounting in large measure, for the ditference between the conditions of the north and south. In 1830, in the senate of the United States, Daniet Webster, in discussing the modes for the disposal of land—the northern and the southern—after speaking of the latter as the one which had shingled over the country in which it had been applied with conflicting titles and claims, causing the two great evils in a new country, of speculation and litigation, said: "From the system actually established these evils are banished. Now, sir, in effecting this great system the first important measure on the whole subject, New England acted with vigor and etfect, and the latest posterity of those who settled northwest of the Ohio, will have reason to remember with gratitude her patriotism and her wisdom. New England gave the system to the West, and while it remains, there will be spread over all the west one monument of her intelligence in matters of government and her practical good sense."

friendships of the war between the colonnial officers and their French associates, and to aid the widows and the orphans of those who had fallen. It was by no means strange that, the war being ended and these men returned to their homes among people with whom they could not be wholly in sympathy, and from whom they had been separated seven long years, they should seek to perpetuate the newer ties that had been closely knit in common trials and dangers. These men, it must be remembered, did not receive money in pay for their fatigue, exposure and suffering, but final certificates in settlement. They were almost valueless, for the country had not the money to make them good. In 1784 they were worth only about three shillings and sixpence or four shillings to the pound, face value, and as late as 1788 they brought not more than five or six shillings. Even at these ruinous rates many holders had to part with them, and there were speculators who realized some profit from the transactions. Some lost property which would have been the support of their old age, because unable to raise comparatively trifling sums with which to save it. Thus illy were these men who had gained the Nation's independence requited. They rebelled at the idea of living in destitution and deficiency among people of relatively easy circumstances, and the thought of toiling at menial manual labor they could not entertain. Still, they were willing to work to gain a livelihood, but preferred to do that in a new country where they would all be in a condition of equality. They looked upon the western country, which should have been their free inheritance, as a land in which they could begin anew the toilsome grind of life. Still, in their perplexed, humiliated condition, they never wavered in loyalty; and, when the lower populace in Massachussetts, beginning to feel the distress caused by the long, costly war, broke forth in the first organized rebellion in the Unrted States (Shay's insurrection), these soldiers were found, like General Benjamin Tupper, actively engaged upon the side of law and order.

There was an action, too, at this time, far away in Virginia, which could not be without its effect upon the waiting New Englanders. In 1783 the legislature of the Old Dominion authorized a deed ceding her claim to the territory northwest of the Ohio, with a very important reservation. A rich body of lands lying between the Scioto and the Little Miami, now known as the Virginia Military district, was reserved to be given to Virginia's Revolutionary soldiers of the continental line, or, in other words, to pay their bounty awards.

But in spite of this advantage possessed by Virginia in the privilege retained for her troops, and in spite of her contiguity to the territory, it was to be first settled by New Englanders, and leavened by New England law. And the events which were to lead to that consummation were closely following each other in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Impelled anew, in all probability by the action of Congress, March 1, 1784, in accepting Virginia's cession, General Putnam again addressed George Washington in the interests of the New England officers. His letter was as follows:

DEAR SIR: Being unavoidably prevented from attending the general meeting of the Cincinnati at Philadelphia, as I had intended, where I once more expected the opportunity in person of paying my respects to your excellency, I cannot deny myself of addressing you by letter, to acknowledge with gratitude the ten thousand obligations I feel myself under to your goodness, and most sincerely to congratulate you on your return to domestic happiness; to enquire after your health, and wish the best of Heavenls blessings may attend you and your lady.

The settlement of the Ohio country, sir, engrosses many of my thoughts, and much of my time since I left the camp has been employed in informing myself and others in respect to the nature, situation, and circumstances of that country, and the practicability of removing ourselves there; and if I am to form an opinion on what I have seen and heard on the subject, there are thousands in this quarter who will emigrate to that country as soon as the honorable Congress makes provisions for granting lands there, and locations and settlements can be made with safety, unless such provision is too long delayed; I mean until necessity turn their views another way, which is the case with some already, and must soon be the case with many more. You are sensible of the necessity as welt as the possibility of both officers and soldiers fixing themselves in business somewhere, as soon as possible, as many of them are unable to lie longer on their oars waiting the decision of Congress, on our petition, and, therefore, must unavoidably settle themselves in some other quarter, which, when done, the idea of removing to the Ohio country will probably be at an end, with respect to most of them, Besides, the commonwealth of Massachusetts have come to a resolution to sell their eastern country for public securities, and should their plan he formed, and propositions be made public before we hear anything from Congress respecting our petition and the terms on which the lands petitioned for are to be obtained, it will undoubtedly be much against us, by greatly lessening the number of Ohio associates. Another reason why we wish to know, as soon as possible what the intentions of Congress are respecting our petition, is the effect such knowledge will probably have On the credit of the certificates we have received on settlement of accounts. Those securities are now selling at no more than three shillings and six pence, or four shillings on the pound, which in all probability might double, if not more, the moment it was known that the Government would receive them for lands in the Ohio country. From these circumstances, and many others which might be mentioned, we are growing quite impatient, and the general inquiry now is, When are we going to the Ohio? Among others, Brigadier General Tupper, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver and Mayor Ashley have agreed to accompany me to that country the moment the way is open for such an undertaking. I should have hinted these things to some member of Congress, but the delegates from Massachusetts, although exceedingly worthy men, and in general would wish to promote the Ohio scheme, yet, if it should militate against the particular interests of that State, by draining her of inhabitants, especially when she is forming the plan of selling the eastern country, I thought they would not be very warm advocates in our favor, and I dare not trust myself wrth any of the New York delegates, with whom I was acquainted, because that government is wisely inviting the eastern people to settle in that State; and as to the delegates of other States, I have no acquaintance with any of them.

These circumstances must apotogize for my troubling you on this subject, and requesting the favor of a line, to inform us in this quarter what the prospects are with respect to our petition and what measures have been or are likely to be taken with respect to settling the Ohio country.

I shall take it as a very particular favor sir, if you will be kind enough to recommend me to some character in Congress acquainted with, and attached to, the Ohio cause, with whom I may presume to open a correspondence.

General Putnam, in reply, received the following letter* from Washington, but, as will be observed, after a considerable delay.

DEAR SIR: I could not answer your favor of the fifth of April from Philadelphia, because General Knox, having mislaid it, only presented

* The original is in the library of Marietta college with many other papers of rare value, presented by Hon. William R. Putnam.

the letter to me in the moment of my departure from that place. The sentiments of esteem and friendship which breathe in it, are exceedingly pleasing and flattering to me, and you may rest assured they are reciprocal.

I wish it was in my power to give you a more favorable account of the otficersl petition for lands on, the Ohio, and its waters, than I am about to do. After this matter and information respecting the establishment. for peace were my inquiries, as I went through Annapolis, solely directed, but I could not learn that anything decisive had been done in either.

On the latter, I hear Congress are differing about their powers, but as they have accepted of the cession from Virginia and have resolved to lay off ten new States, bounded by latitudes and longitudes, it should be supposed that they would determine something respecting the former before they adjourn; and yet I very much question it, as the latter is to happen on the 3rd—that is, to-morrow. As the Congress who are to meet in November next, by the adjournment, will be composed of an entire new choice of delegates, in each State, it is not in my power, at this time, to direct you to a proper correspondent in that body. I wish I could, for persuaded I am, that to some such cause as you have assigned, may be ascribed the delay the petition has encountered, for surely, if justice and gratitude to the army and general policy of the Union were to govern in this case, there would not be the smallest interruption in gratifying its request. I really feel for these gentlemen, who, by the unaccountable delays (by any other means than those you have suggested) are held in such an awkward and disagreeable state of suspense, and wish my endeavors could remove the obstacles. At Princetown, before Congress left that place, I exerted every power I was master of, and dwelt upon the argument you have used, to show the propriety of a speedy decision. Every member with whom I conversed acquiesced in the reasonableness of the petition. All yielded, or seemed to yield, to the policy of it but plead the want of cession of the land to act upon; this is made and accepted, and yet matters as far as they have come to my knowledge, remain in stain quo.

All of the efforts of General Putnam assisted by the strongest influence of the Father of his Country were unavailing to secure those simple measures of justice which would have relieved those Revolutionary officers of New England from their embarrassed and desperate situation. As time went slowly by they gave up even the little hope that had sustained them while waiting Congressional measures. Despairing of the success of the old scheme they finally adopted a new one, resolving to purchase outright what the Nation refused to bestow as the hard earned remuneration of their services. Early in 1786 the idea of Ohio immigration began to form into that shape in which it became effective.

It has been shown in a former chapter that General Benjamin Tupper, in the early autumn of 1785, had gone to the Ohio country to engage in surveying under the ordinance passed by Congress May 20th of that year, and it will be remembered that owing to the hostility of the Indians and consequent hazard of entering upon the work, he returned to New England. General Tupper was one of the men who had been most intently engaged in planning western settlements, and was undoubtedly a coworker with his intimate old friend, General Putnam, he advocating and agitating the scheme which had proved unsuccessful. He returned from the west filled with admiration of that portion of the country which he had seen, and made enthusiastic through the descriptions given by traders of the region farther down la belle riviere than he had journeyed. Doubtless he pondered upon the idea of removing to the west, during the whole time spent there, and was chiefly occupied with the subject while making the tedious return to his home. Early in January he visited, at his house in Rutland, Worcester county, Massachusetts, General Putnam, and there these two men, who may be properly called the founders of the Ohio company, earnestly talked of their experiences and their hopes in front of the great fire, while the night hours fast passed away. In the language of ore whom it is fair to suppose had preserved the truthful tradition of that meeting: "A night of friendly offices and conference between them gave, at the dawn, a development — how important in its results! — to the cherished hope and purpose of the visit of General Tupper." * As the result of that long conversation by a New England fireside, appeared the first mention in the public prints of the Ohio company. The two men had thought so deeply and carefully upon the absorbing theme of colonization, were so thoroughly impressed with the feasibility of their plans as they had unfolded them, so impatient to put them to that test, that they felt impelled to take an immediate and definite step. They could no longer rest inactive. They joined in a brief address, setting forth their views and feeling the opinion of the people. It appeared in the newspapers on the twenty-fifth of January, and read as follows:

The subscribers take this method to inform all officers and soldiers who have served in the rate 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 incontestible evidences, they are fully satisfied that the lands in that quarter are of a much better quality than any other known to the New England people; that the climate, seasons, products, 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 that 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.

That in order to bring such a company into existence the subscribers propose that alt persons who wish to promote the scheme, should meet within their respective counties (except in two instances hereinafter mentioned) at to o’clock A. M. on Wednesday, the fifteenth day of February next, and that each county or meeting there 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 to o'clock A. M., then and there to consider and determine upon a general plan of association for said company; which plan, covenant, or agreement, being published, any person (under condition therein to be provided) may, by subscribing his name, become a member of the company.

At Captain Webb's, in Salem, Middlesex; at Bradish's, in Cambridge. Hampshire; at Pomeroy's in North Hampton. Plymouth; at Bartlett's, in Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties; at Howland's, in Barnstable, Bristol; at Crocker’s, in. Taunton, York; at Woodbridge’s, in York, Worcester; at Patch's, in Worcester, Cumberland and Lincoln; at Shothick’s, in Falmouth, Berkshire, at Dibble's, in Lenox.

The plan suggested by General Putnam and Tupper was carried out, and upon the first day of March, the

delegates from the several counties assembled at the Bunch of Grapes tavern, the designated place in Boston, (which was then a considerably smaller city than is now the capital of Ohio), and there discussed in conventional form the proposed organization of the Ohio company. The delegates present at that historical meeting were: Manasseh Cutler, of Essex; Winthrop Sargent and John Mills, of Suffolk; John Brooks and Thomas Cushing, of Middlesex; Benjamin Tupper, of Hampshire; Crocker Sampson, of Plymouth; Rufus Putnam, of Worcester; Jelaliel Woodbridge and John Patterson, of Berkshire; Abraham Williams, of Barnstable.

General Putnam was made chairman of the convention, and Major Winthrop Sargent, secretary. Before adjournment a committee of five was appointed to draft a plan of an association, as "from the very pleasing description of the western country, given by Generals Putnam and Tupper and others, it appeared expedient to form a settlement there." That committee consisted of General Putnam, Dr. Manasseh Cutler, Colonel Brooks, Major Sargent, and Captain Cushing.

On Friday, March 3d, the convention reassembled and the committee reported the following

Articles of agreement entered into by the subscribers for constituting an association by the name of the Ohio company.

The design 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.

ARTICLE 1st.—That the fund shall not exceed one million of dollars in Continental specie certificates, exclusive of one year's interest due thereon (except as hereafter provided), and that each share or subscription shall consist of one thousand dollars as aforesaid, and also ten dollars in gold or silver, to be paid into the hands of such agents as the subscribers may elect.

ARTICLE 2ND.—That the whole fund of certificates raised by this association, except one year's interest due thereon, mentioned under the first article, shall be applied to the purchase of lands in some one of the proposed States northwesterly of the river Ohio, as soon as those lands are surveyed and exposed for sale by the commissioners of Congress according to the ordinance of that honorable body, passed the twentieth of May, 1785, or on any other plan that may be adopted by Congress, not less advantageous to the company. The one year's interest shall be applied to the purpose of making a settlement in the country and assisting those who may be otherwise unable to remove themselves thither. The gold and silver is for defraying the expenses of those persons employed as agents in purchasing the lands and other contingent charges that may arise in the prosecution of the business. The surplus, if any, to be appropriated as one yearls interest on the certificates.

ARTICLE 3RD.—That there shall be five directors, a treasurer and secretary, appointed in manner and for the purposes hereafter provided.

ARTICLE 4TH.—That the prosecution of the company's designs may be the least expensive and at the same time the subscribers and agents as secure as possible, the proprietors of twenty shares shall constitute one grand division of the company; appoint the agent, and in case of vacancy by death, resignation or otherwise, shall fill it up as immediately as can be.

ARTICLE 5TH.—That the agent shall make himself accountable to each subscriber for certificates and invoices received, by duplicate receipts, one of which shall be lodged with the secretary; that the whole shall be appropriated according to articles of association, and that the subscriber shall receive his just dividend according to quality and quantity of lands purchased, as near as possibly may be, by lot drawn in person or through proxy, and that deeds of conveyance shall be executed to individual subscribers, by the agent, similar to those he shall receive from the directors.

ARTICLE 6TH.—That no person shall be permitted to hold more than five shares in the company's funds and no subscription for less than a full share will be admitted; but this is not meant to prevent those who cannot or choose not to adventure a full share, from associating among themselves, and by one of their number subscribing the sum required.

ARTICLE 7TH.—That the directors shall have the sole disposal of the company's fund for the purposes before mentioned; that they shall by themselves, or such person or persons as they may think proper to entrust with the business, purchase rands for the benefit of the company, where and in such way, either at public or private sale, as they shal judge will be the most advantageous to the company. They shall also direct the application of the one yearls interest, and gold and silver, mentioned in the first article, to the purposes mentioned under the second article in such way and manner as they shall think proper. For these purposes the directors shall draw on the treasurer from time to time, making themselves accountable for the application of the moneys agreeably to this association.

ARTICLE 8TH.—That the agents being accountable to the subscribers for their respective divisions, shall appoint the directors, treasurer and secretary, and fill up all the vacancies which may happen in these offices respectively.

ARTICLE 9TH.—That the agents shall pay all the certificates and moneys received from subscribers into the hands of the treasurer, who shall give bonds to the agents, jointly and severally, for the faithful discharge of his trust; and also on his receiving certificates or moneys from any particular agent shall make himself accountable therefor, according to the condition of his bonds.

ARTICLE 10TH.—That the directors shall give bonds, jointly and severally, to each of the agents, conditioned that the certificates and moneys they shall draw out of the treasury shall be applied to the purposes stipulated in these articles; and that the lands purchased by the company shall be divided among them within three months from the completion of the purchase, by lot, in such manner as the agents or a majority of them shall agree; and that on such division being made, the directors shall execute deeds to the agents, respectively, for the proportions which fall to their divisions, correspondent to those the directors may receive from the commissioners of Congress.

ARTICLE 11TH.—Provided, that whereas a sufficient number of subscribers may not appear to raise the fund to the sums proposed in the first article, and thereby the number of divisions may not be completed, it is therefore agreed that the agents of divisions of twenty shares each shall, after the seventeenth day of October next, proceed in the same manner as if the whole fund had been raised.

ARTICLE 12TH.—Provided, also, that whereas it will be for the common interest of the company to obtain an ordinance of incorporation from the honorable Congress, or an act of incorporation from some one of the States in the Union (for which the directors shall make application), it is therefore agreed that in case such incorporation is obtained, the fund of the company (and consequently, the shares and divisions thereof ) may be extended to any sum, for which provision shalr be made in said ordinance or act of incorporatron, anything in this association to the contrary notwithstanding.

ARTICLE 13TH.—That all notes under this association may be given in person or by proxy, and in numbers justly proportionate to the stockholder or interest represented.

These articles of agreement were unanimously adopted and subscription books were immediately opened. A committee was appointed, consisting of three members, to transact necessary business, and some other measures taken to advance the project of the association; but in spite of all the exertions made there was but little progress in the affairs of the Ohio company. When the next meeting was held, a little more than a year from the time of the first, that is, upon March 8, 1787, it was found that the total number of shares subscribed for was only two hundred and fifty. And yet, all untoward circumstances considered, that was probably a fair exhibit, and more than was expected. One active friend of the movement, General Tupper, was the greater part of the year in the west. The influence of the others was very largely counteracted by events of an alarming nature— the dissatisfaction which finally culminated in Shay's re-

bellion. That civil commotion growing out of the imposition of heavy taxes upon the already impoverished people threatened for a time exceedingly dire results, but fortunately, it was speedily quelled. It served as a startling illustration, however, of the general depression in New England, and of the desperation to which men can be driven by ill condition. Possibly the outbreak gave a slight impetus to the progress of the Ohio company's project, by way of increasing the disposition of some citizens to seek in the west a new home. General Tupper, whose immediate neighborhood was "deeply infected with the sedition," returned from his second visit to the Ohio country in time to take a prominent part in subduing the revolt. The dawn of 1787 witnessed the pacification of the troubled country, but no marked increase in prosperity.

It was reported at the meeting held on the eighth of March at Brackett's tavern in Boston, that "many in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, also at Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire are inclined to become adventurers, who are restrained only by the uncertainty of obtaining a sufficient tract of country, collectively, for a good settlement."

It was now decided to make direct and immediate application to Congress for the purchase of lands, and General Putnam, Dr. Manasseh Cutler and General Samuel H. Parsons were appointed directors and especially charged with this business. General Parsons had previously been employed to negotiate for a private purchase, had petitioned Congress, and a committee of that body had been appointed to confer with him. "To that committee," says Dr. Cutler, "he proposed a purchase on the Scioto river," but as the proprietors in Massachusetts "were generally dissatisfied with the situation and lands on the Scioto and much preferred the Muskingum," the negotiation was suspended. The directors now employed Dr. Cutler to make a purchase upon the Muskingum. It was considered desirable that the negotiations be commenced and the purchase consummated as soon as possible, as other companies were forming, the spirit of private speculation rapidly increasing, and there was a fear that the lands which the Ohio company wished to possess would be bought by some other organization, or perhaps some part of them by individuals.

Just here the query arises: why were the New Englanders so anxious to purchase lands upon the Muskingum, rather than upon the Scioto, or elsewhere in the territory? To this question there are various answers. In the first place the greater part of the Federal territory was unfitted for settlement by the fact that it was occupied by the Indian tribes. None of these, however, had their residence in the lower Muskingum region, and it was only occasionally resorted to by them, when upon their hunting excursions. Then, too, the people who proposed making a settlement beyond the Ohio were very naturally influenced by the proximity of well established stations upon the east and south of the river; they doubtless preferred the Virginians rather than the Kentuckians, as neighbors. The lower Scioto offered no more alluring an aspect than the lower Muskingum. The best bodies of lands on each river are fifty miles from their mouth. To penetrate so far into the interior, however, as the site of either Chillicothe or Zanesvile would have been, at the time the Marietta settlement was made, was unsafe. The location of Fort Harmar, which we have seen was built in 1785-86, doubtless had its influence upon the Ohio company. Thomas Hutchins, the United States geographer, who had formerly been geographer to the king of Great Britain, and had travelled extensively in the west, had said and written much in favor of the Muskingum country, and as we shall see in the following chapter strongly advised Dr. Cutler to locate his purchase in this region. Other explorers and travellers had substantiated what Hutchins had said. 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 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." General 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 sea board, 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 immigration, 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.

Dr. Cutler as the Agent of the Ohio Company before Congress.—His Character and Qualifications.—Contrast between Cutler and Putnam. —Their Reciprocal and Mutual Esteem.—Dr. Cutler's Journal of his Visit to New York.—His Departure from Home.—Letters of 1ntroduction to Prominent Men.—Introduced to Members of Congress by Colonel Carrington of Virginia.—Conference with Mr. Hutchins, United States Geographer.—Has Leave to Propose Amendments to the Ordinance.—It Passes with the Alterations and Additions made. —Character of the Ordinance.—Testimonials of its Worth from High Authorities.—Words of Daniel Webster, Judge Walker, and Chief Justice Chase.—The West Clothed with New England Law and made Free Soil.—Massachusetts Measures Adopted by Southern Votes.—The Claim to the Authorship of the Ordinance.—Its Connection with the Ohio Company's Purchase.—Shrewd Diplomacy Exercised to Cause its Adoption.—Strong Arguments in Favor of the Purchase and Settlement which were Dependent Upon the Nature of the Law Enacted.—Inducements to the South.—The Discontent in Kentucky and the Importance of having a Colony of Strongly Loyal People, Located in the West.—Concessions to the South.—The Reclaiming Clause Conducive to the Passage of the Anri-Slavery Ordinance.—Evidence that Dr. Cutler was the Author of the Provisions Against Slavery and for Education.—Letter from Dr. Torrey of Massachusetts.— From Temple Cutler.—Testimony from Judge Ephraim Cutlet —Coincidence between His Action in 1802 and His Father's in 1787.—Continuation of Dr. Cutler's Journal—Method of Negotiating the Purchase of the Ohio Company.—Winthrop. Sargent Assists in Securing the Contract.—General Arthur St. Clair's Favor Gained by the Proposition to make him Governor of the Territory.— The Agent Insists on Favorable Terms.--Abstract of Cutler's and Sergeantsis Letter to the Board of Treasury.—Estimate of Dr. Cutler by Southern Congressmen.—His Mission Successful.—Congress Authorizes the Board of Treasury to Close the Contract on Terms Requested by the Ohio Company's Agents.—Five and a Half Million Acres of Land Secured.—Immense Scheme for Land Speculation.— Its Ultimate Failure.—Dr. Cutler's Report to the New Company Approved.—Contract for One and a Half Million Acres Closed October 27, 1787.—Lands Secured for a University for Religious Purposes.—Letter from Dr. Cutler m 1818.

THE Ohio company could have employed as their agent before the Congress of the old confederation, no better man than the Rev. Manasseh Cutler. He possessed an education of unusual solidity, and with it a versatile genius. These qualities of strength were rendered readily effective by his possession of a keen insight of human character, and of courtly grace in conversation. Dr. Cutler was at this time forty-five years of age, ripe and yet vigorous. Twenty-two 'ears before he had graduated at Yale, and the intervening years had studied and taken degrees in the three learned professions—law, divinity and medicine. At the time he undertook the Ohio company's important mission he was the pastor of a congregational church at Ipswich (afterward Hamilton), Massachusetts, but he was best known as a scientist, and it has been said of him that in that capacity "he was, perhaps, second to no living American except Franklin." He had written upon meteorology, astronomy and botany, and was well known in the literary and social circles of New York and Boston.

It is probable that in the dignified divine, the student and book-worm which Dr. Cutler was, the people with

*The ordinance of 1787 and the Ohio purchase were parts of one and the same transaction. The purchase would not have been made without the ordinance, and the ordinance could not have been enacted except as an essential condition of the purchase. William F. Poole, in North American Review for April, 1876.

whom he associated in New York did not suppose there existed a thorough and shrewd knowledge of the world, and they were doubtless thrown off their guard by his bland manners, genial social qualities and good humor, and swayed more powerfully by his diplomacy because he seemed almost entirely devoid of it, added to his varied qualifications for the work assigned him. Dr. Cutler had the great advantage of being wholly in earnest. He was an enthusiast upon the subject which engaged him. He lived in the midst of the men interested in the scheme of western immigration, knew nearly all of them personally, and was fully in sympathy with them. He had in fact seen, and shared in, their hardships during the war, having served as a chaplain in the army through two campaigns. He was present at the time of the organization of the Ohio company, and one of the committee who drew up its articles of association, and was afterward made a director with General Putnam and General Parsons. From that time on until the Ohio company as an organization had concluded its work, he was almost constantly engaged in its service, and it was through his activity and acumen that the great measures of the association were accomplished in Congress, not only in 1787 but in 1792. Dr. Cutler and General Putnam were from first to last the leading spirits of the Ohio company, the office of the former being principally the management of the difficult and delicate negotiations with the General Government, and that of the latter the superintendency of the internal affairs of the organization.

The relations of the two men were intimate and cordial. Each seems to have entertained the most thorough respect for the other. Yet they were as dissimilar as two men well could be. One was thoroughly educated, cultured, accomplished; the other a strong, rugged man, almost entirely lacking in knowledge, save by the kind acquired little by little in the experience of life, but full of wisdom, possessing the genius of uncommon common sense, great strength of purpose and vast executive ability.* Either of these men would undoubtedly have made a failure in the position of the other. But in the places which they did occupy no men could have been more efficient.

A journalt which Dr. Cutler kept during his stay in New York affords very interesting reading, and

* Very complete biographies of Dr. Cutler and General Putnam will be found among the sketches of men prominent in the history of Washington county and the Ohio company.

t Dr. Cutler's journal was written at the request of one of his daughters, who brought him two blank books just as he was about to start upon his journey, and charged him, among other things, to write fult descriptions of the toilets and dresses of the ladies whom he met. Hence we find many entries upon comparatively trivial subjects, interspersed with the grave descriptions of great men and the chronicling of important actions; but even the former, at this age, have a peculiar attractiveness, and give to the journal not only a graceful rightness but a vividness which it would lack undoubtedly had it been written under other circumstances. Only small portions of this invaluable diary have been published, and the part which is best known 'is probably that which has been given to the public in James Parton's "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," and which consists of a beautiful, personal description of the great philosopher. There are three manuscript copies of the journal, and it is from one of them, in the possession of Mrs. Sarah Cutler Dawes, of Marietta, a granddaughter of Dr. Cutler's, that we make the extracts given in this chapter.

is of great value, because the only account of the negotiation of that important purchase made by the Ohio company. It also contributes to the illumination of the somewhat mysterious history of the famous Ordinance of 1787. The journal reveals the breadth and depth of character, and the consummate shrewdness of its writer, and it also suggests to the reader something of the grace of person and address which Dr. Cutler possessed, and which have formed a prominent theme for many writers to dwell upon. The extracts we present, full as they are, form only a small part of the journal, for from a mass of matter on various topics, we quote little which has not a direct bearing upon our two allied subjects—the Ordinance of 1787 and the Ohio company's purchase.

Dr. Cutler left his home in Ipswich, afterwards called Hamilton, in the latter part of June (or New York, where the Continental Congress was then in session. Public conveyances were not in common use, and he used his own, a one-horse shay or sulky. On Sunday, June 24th, he was in Lynn and preached there in Mr. Parsons' pulpit. He went on to Cambridge the same day and remained there over night, lodging with Dr. Williams, although he had intended "going to President Willard's, of Harvard college."

Monday, June 25th. Waited on Dr. Willard this morning, who favored me with a number of introductory letters to gentlemen at the southward.* Received several from Dr. Williams and went with him to Boston. Received tetters of introduction from Governor Bowdoin, Mr. Winthrop, Dr. Warren, Dr. Dexter, Mr. Guild, Mr. Belknap, etc.; conversed with General Putnam; received letters; settled the principles on which I am to contract with Congress for lands on account of the Ohio company.

Dr. Cutler arrived at Middletown, Connecticut, on Saturday, the thirtieth of June, and preached there Sunday. This town was the home of General Parsons, who, as we have seen, was well acquainted with the western country. The doctor had a long talk with him concerning his business in Congress, and secured an addition to his bundle of letters to prominent public men. But to resume the journal:

Thursday, July 5th. About three o'clock I arrived at New York by the road that enters the Bowery. Pat up my horse at the sign of the Plow and the Harrow, in the Bowery barns. After dressing myself I took a walk into the city. When I came to examine my letters of introduction 1 found them so accumulated that I hardly knew which to deliver first. As this is rather a curiosity to me I am determined to procure a catalogue, although only a part are to be delivered in New York. . . .

[Here occurred a list of over fifty names, among them being Rev. Dr. Rogers, Sir John Temple, Lady Temple, General Knox and Hon. Richard Henry Lee, M. C., Melancthon Smith, M. C., Colonel Carrington, M. C.,* Hon. R. Sherman, M. C., General St. Clair, president of Congress, and others of New York, and among those at

* This is the first of several allusions which show the doctor's shrewd policy. He seduously cultivated the acquaintance of the southern members, and evidently from the first relied upon their assistance in carrying his measures.

* Colonel Carrington, Richard Henry Lee and Melancthon Smith were three of the five members of Congress who reported the Ordinance of Freedom.

Philadelphia, Dr. Franklin, Dr. Rush, Dr. Shippen, Hon. Timothy Pickering, David Rittenhouse, etc.]

Friday, July 6th. This morning delivered most of my introductory letters to members of Congress. Prepared my papers for making my application to Congress for the purchase of tands in the western country for the Ohio company. At eleven clock I was introduced to a number of members on the floor of Congress chamber, in the city hall, by Colonel Carrington, member from Virginia. Delivered my petition for purchasing lands for the Ohio company and proposed terms and conditions of purchase. A committee was appointed to agree on terms of negotiation and report to Congress. Dmed with Mr. Dane.

Saturday, July 7th. Paid my respects this morning to Dr. Holton and other gentlemen. Was introduced by Mr. Ewing and Mr. Rittenhouse to Mr. Hutchins, the United States geographer. Consulted him where to make our location. Dined with General Knox.

Monday, July 9th. Waited this morning very early on Mr, Hutchins. He gave me the fullest information of the country from Pennsylvania to the Illinois, and advised me, by all means, to make our location on the Muskingum, which was decidedly, in his opinion, the best part of the whole western country. Attended the committee before Congress opened and then spent the remainder of the forenoon with Mr. Hutchins.

Attended the committee at Congress chamber; debated on terms, but were so wide apart that there appears but little prospect of closing a contract.

Called again on Mr. Hutchins, consulted him further about the place of location. Spent the evening with Dr. Holton and several other members of Congress in Hanover square.

Tuesday, July loth. This morning another conference with the committee. As Congress was now engaged in settling the form of government for the Federal Territory, for which a bill has been prepared, and a copy sent to me (with leave to make remarks and propose amendments) which I had taken the liberty to remark upon and prepare severat amendments, I thought this the most favorable time to go on to Philadelphia. Accordingly, after I had returned the bill with my observations, I set out at 7 o'clock.

Dr. Cutler returned from Philadelphia upon the seventeenth of July. We resume our quotation from his journal:

July 18th. Paid my respects this morning to the president of Congress, General St. Clair. Called on a number of friends. Attended at the City Hall on members of Congress and their committee. We renewed our negotiations.

July 19th. Called on members of Congress very early in the morning, and was furnished with the ordinance establishing a government in the western Federal Territory. It is in a degree new modelled. The amendments I proposed have all been made except one, and that is better qualified. It was that we should not be subject to Continental taxation, unless we were entitled to a full representation in Congress. This could not be fully obtained, for it was considered in Congress as offering a premium to emigrants. They have granted us representation with the right of debating, but not voting, upon our being first subject to taxation.

* Dr. Cutler's visit to Philadelphia was for the purpose of seeing Franklin and other scientific men, with whom he had corresponded.

An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio:

Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That the said territory for the purpose of temporary government be one district, subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the estates both of resident and nonresident proprietors in the said territory dying intestate, shall descend to and be distributed among the children, and the descendants of a deceased child, unequal parts—the descendants of a deceased child, or grandchild, to take the share of the deceased patent in equal parts among them; and when there shall be no children or descendants, then in equal parts to the next of kin in equal degree; and among collaterals, the children of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate shall have, in equal parts among them, the deceased parent's share, and there shall, in no case, be a distinction between kindred of the whore

July, and from its most important provision often termed "the Ordinance of Freedom," was the "last gift of the Congress of the old confederation to the country, and it was a fit consummation of their glorious labors." It was the product of what we may call inspired statesmanship, the foundation upon which five great commonwealths were to be built up, the fundamental law, the constitution of the Northwest Territory, and a sacred compact between the old colonies and the yet uncreated States to come into being under its benign influence. It forever proscribed slavery upon the soil of the great territory that it organized, and it is undoubtedly true that to this ordinance the people of this great Nation owe thanks for the final complete suppression of slavery within its borders. Had the institution of slavery been established between the Ohio and Mississippi, its strength as a system would have resisted all reforming measures and crushing forces and the United States to-day have been a slave-holding power. And so the Congress of 1787 "builded wiser than they knew," and more grandly. But when we pass the broader significance and vaster value of the ordinance, and look upon it simply as the act of legislation providing for the opening, development, and government of the territory, we find it alike admirable and effective. It provided for successive forms of territorial government, and upon it were based all of the territorial enactments and much of the subsequent State legislation. It was so constructed as to give the utmost encouragement to immigration, and it offered the greatest protection to those who became settlers, for "when they came into the wilderness," says Chief Justice Chase,. "they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soil, while as yet it bore up nothing but the forest." Mr. Chase further says: "Never, probably, in the history of the world, did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfil, and yet so mightily exceed the anticipation of the legislators," and again "the ordinance has well been described as having' been a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, in the settlement and government of the northwest States." Indians half blood, saving in all cases to the widow of the intestate her third part of the real estate for life and one third part of the personal estate; and this law relative to descents and dower shall remain in full force until altered by the legislature of the district; and until the governor and judges shall adopt laws, as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said territory may be divided or bequeathed by wills, in writing, signed and settled by him or her, in whom the estate may be (being of full age) and attested by three witnesses; and real estate may be conveyed by lease or release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed and delivered by the person, being of full age, in whom the estate may be and attested by two witnesses, provided such wills be duly proved and such conveyance be acknowledged, or the execution thereof duly proved, and be recorded within one year after proper magistrates, court and registers shall be appointed for that purpose; and personal property may be transferred by delivery, saving, however, to the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers of the Kaskaskias, St. Vincent and the neighboring villages, who have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs now in force among them, relative to the descent and conveyance of property.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid. That there shall be appointed, from time to time, by Congress, a governor, whose commission shall continue in force for the term of three years, unless sooner revoked by Congress. He shall reside in the district and have a freehold estate therein in one thousand acres of land while in the exercise of his office. There shall be appointed, from time to time, by Congress a secretary. whose commission shall continue in force for four

1837, Judge Timothy Walker in an address delivered at Cincinnati, pronounced the ordinance as approaching "as nearly to absolute perfection as anything to be found in the legislation of mankind," and said "upon the surpassing excellence of this ordinance, no language of panegyric would be extravagant." Daniel Webster ex- expressed his profound admiration of the instrument in his famous reply to Hayne, "We are accustomed," said he, "to praise the lawgivers of antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single law, of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked and 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."

This ordinance, New England in its character and prohibiting slavery, was impressed upon the northwest by southern votes. It was an act of legislation in close relation to the Ohio company's purchase, and the evidence that the man who negotiated that purchase was the author of its most important measures seems indisputable.

The authorship of the ordinance of 1787 has been variously ascribed to Nathan Dane, Congressman from Massachusetts, Rufus King of the same State, and Thomas Jefferson, and arguments more or less weighty have from time to time been advanced to support their claims or those of their friends. Thomas Jefferson went to France as Minister three years before the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 and did not return until eighteen months after. He was, however, identified with the inoperative ordinance of 1784, introduced the clause prohibiting slavery after the year i800, which did not pass, and was probably the father of the idea of making the ordinance a compact, which was retained in the formation of the later ordinance. The country escaped the introduction of slavery under the specious plea that it was to exist only until 1800, and the northwest escaped the establishment of the geographical divisions with such names as Chersonesus, Assenisipia, Polypotamia, Pelesipia, Sylvania,

years, unless sooner revoked; he shall reside in the district and have a freehold estate therein in five hundred acres of land while in the exercise of his office; it shalt be his duty to keep and preserve the acts and laws passed by the legislature, and the public records of the drstrict, and the proceedings of the governor in his executive department; and transmit authentic copies of such acts and proceedings every six months to the secretary of Congress. There shall also be appointed a court to consist of three judges, any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law jurisdiction, and reside in the district and have each therein a freehold estate in five hundred acres of land while in the exercise of their offices; and their commissions shall continue in force during good behavior.

The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the circumstances, and report them to Congress, from time to time; which laws shall be in force in the district until the organization of the general assembly therein, unless disapproved of by Congress; but afterwards the legislature shall have authority to alter them as they shall think fit.

The governor, for the time being, shall be commander-in-chief of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same below the rank of general officers; alt general otficers shall be appointed and commissioned by Congress.

Previous to the organization of the general assembly, the governor shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers, in each county or township, as he shall find necessary for the preservation of the peace

Michigania, Saratoga, Illinoia, Metropotamia, and Washington—although as regards number merely the creation of ten rather than five States might have been very largely to the political advantage of the people of the territory. Mr Jefferson's claim of authorship appears to end with the history of this ordinance. Mr. King was undoubtedly the author of the anti-slavery clause in an ordinance which secured some attention in 1785, but he was not even a member of the Congress of 1787. Mr. Dane's claim is combated chiefly on the ground that it was never made while any of the other men, who, from their position, were supposed to know about the formation of the ordinance, were alive; on the ground that he had none of those graces of composition which are exhibited in the ordinance; and upon the ground that he was very young (thirty-four years) and did not enter upon the fullest understanding either of the work that had been done to prepare Congress for the action, or the importance of the measures under consideration. In addition to these facts there is the consideration that Massachusetts did not warmly favor the idea of the western emigration. Mr. King had been accused of introducing measures which were calculated to prevent immigration and in one or two entries in Dr. Cutler's journal, which we shall give in their proper place, it is shown that the writer did not have much confidence in Dane's friendliness to the Ohio company's purchase. If unfriendly to that measure or representing a constituency of which the majority were opposed to the plan, would he not also be unfriendly to the enactment of an ordinance, which must, from its nature, encourage emigration? And yet "Mr. Dane," says a student of the subject,* "doubtless wrote the draft and performed the clerical duties of the committee" who

*William F. Poole in the North American Review for April, 1876. He has examined the whole subject of the authorship of. the Ordinance in an elaborate but remarkably clear and concise article. We briefly summarize some of his evidence.

and good order in the same. After the general assembly shall be organrzed, the power and duties of magistrates and other civil officers, shall be regulated and defined by the said assembly; but all magistrates and other civil officers, not herein otherwise directed, shall, during the continuance of this temporary government, be appointed by the governor.

For the prevention of crimes and injuries the laws to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district, and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed, from time to time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the district, in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, however, to such alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature.

So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants of full age in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, to elect representatives from their counties or townships to represent them in the general assembly: provided that for every five hundred free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative, and so on, progressively, with the number of free male inhabitants shall the right of representation increase until the number of representatives shall amount to twenty-five; after which the number and proportion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature: provided that no person be eligible or qualified to act as a representative unless he shall have been a citizen of one of the United States three years, and be a resident in the district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years; and in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee simple, two hundred acres of land within the same: provided also that a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district, having been a citizen of one of the States and being resident in the district, or the like freehold and two years reported the ordinance. He took the liberty of withholding the anti-slavery clause until the second reading under the belief that it could not pass, but afterward, discovering the sentiment of Congress, added it. It was strange that Mr. Dane should have been in ignorance of the feeliag that existed in Congress, for that feeling had been newly created. Very naturally he supposed that an anti-slavery clause could not be passed for every ordinance containing one had been voted down. The last ordinance had contained no restriction of slavery, no provision for education, and no articles of compact. Still it had come down to the ninth of July, 1787, only four days before the ordinance of freedom was passed, and was doubtless regarded as the future law of the Northwest Territory, only needing final action as it had passed its first and second readings.

But suddenly there came a change. The forces were put in operation which were to clothe the northwest with a beneficent law and forever to withhold slavery from five great States. The first outward intimation of the change was the appointment, on the ninth of July, of a new committee, authorized to prepare and submit to Congress a plan of government for the Federal Territory. It consisted of Colonel Carrington, of Virginia, Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, Mr. Kean, of South. Carolina, and Mr. Smith, of New York. The three new members were all southerners. Carrington was chairman. These southern Congressmen were the friends of Dr. Cutler. He had been introduced to most of the members, as his journal shows, by Colonel Carrington.

Dr. Cutler had come before Congress to purchase, for a company composed chiefly of Massachusetts men, a large body of public lands. The purchase would have been almost entirely valueless in the opinion of most of those Ohio company associates if they could not

residence in the district, shall be necessary to quality a man as an elector of a representative.

The representative thus elected shall serve for the term of two years; and in case of the death of a representative, or removal from office, the governor shall issue a writ to the county or township for which he was a member to elect another in his stead, to serve for the residue of the term.

The general assembly or legislature shall consist of the governor, legislative council, and a house of representatives. The legislative council shall consist of five members to continue in office five years, unless sooner removed by Congress, any three of whom may be a quorum; and the members of the council shall be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit: As soon as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall appoint a time and place for them to meet together, and when met, they shall nominate ten persons, residents in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and return their names to Congress, five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid; and whenever a vacancy shall happen in the council by death or removal from office, the house of representatives shall nominate two persons, qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names to Congress, one of whom Congress shall appoint and commission for the residue of the term. And every five years, four months at least before the expiration of the time of service of the members of the council, the said house shall nominate ten persons, qualified as aforesaid, and return their names to Congress, five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members of the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the governor, legislative council, and house of representatives shall have authority to make laws, in all cases, for the good government of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordi-

have the land to which they proposed to emigrate, covered with the law to which they had been accustomed. They were fully in accord with the spirit which seven years before had prohibited slavery in Massachusetts. The ordinance of freedom was, as an act of legislation, the natural predecessor of the sale to the Ohio company. It was considered by Congress, after the plan had been fully examined, very desirable that the public domain should be advantageously disposed of, and that a colony should be established in the Federal Territory. Such a colony would form a barrier against the British and Indians, it was argued, and this initiative step would be followed speedily by other purchases in which additional settlements would be founded. The south had a greater interest in the west than had New England, and Virginia especially, from her past protection, future prospect and geographical location, was interested in, and eager for, the development of the country beyond the Ohio. There was a strong feeling of disaffection in Kentucky and imminent danger that territory would embrace the first favorable opportunity to join her fortunes with Spain. "The desire of the people," says Albach in his Annals of the West, "for a separation from the district of Virginia had familiarized their minds to the idea of a separation from the confederacy." Virginia, and the south in general, may have justly regarded the planting in the west of a colony of men whose patriotism was well known, a measure calculated to bind together the old and new parts of the Nation, and promote union. It is presumable that much was said by Dr. Cutler upon these advantages and that it was their importance in the eyes of southern members which led them to permit the creation and enactment of such an ordinance as the Ohio company desired. Another inducement for the southern members of Congress to pass an anti-slavery ordinance rather than to relinquish the possibility of deriving a revenue from the sale of lands, and the benefits attending the colonization. of the west, was undoubtedly a shrewd provision in the

nance established and declared. And all bills having passed by a majority in the house, and by a majority in the council, shall be referred to the governor for his assent; but no bill or legislative act whatever, shall be of any force without his assent. The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue and dissolve the general assembly when, in his opinion, it shalr be expedient.

The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, and such other officers as Congress shall appoint in the district shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity, and of office; the governor before the president of Congress, and all other officers before the governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council and house assembred in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to erect a delegate to. Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, with a right of debating, but not of voting, during this temporary government.

And for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws, and constitutions, are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory; to provide, also, for the establishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the Federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early periods as may be consistent with general interest,

It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, that the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable unless by common consent, to-wit :

anti-slavery clause itself. Article sixth of the ordinance, after prohibiting slavery in the territory northwest of the Ohio river contained the following words: "Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her service." This allowance to the south of the right to reclaim fugitive slaves was made as a concession that the passage of the ordinance with the prohibitory measure might not be imperilled. This was an idea that had not before been broached in Congress, and the same or similar prohibitory measures in former ordinances (those advocated by Jefferson and Rufus King) without the concession, had resulted in their speedy rejection by the votes of the very States by which the Ordinance of 1787 was passed. The provision was a splendid stroke of diplomacy.

The committee having the ordinance in charge, as we have seen, conferred with Dr. Cutler, and were evidently anxious to please him, for, as his journal states, they sent him a copy of the ordinance "with leave to make remarks and propose amendments." He did make amendments, went to Philadelphia, returned, found that the ordinance had been passed and, to use his own language, "the amendments . . all made except one" which "was better qualified." This was the one relating to taxation. The ordinance was adopted on the thirteenth of July, there being only one dissenting vote, that of Mr. Yates, of New York, which was neutralized, as there were two other delegates from the same State who voted to adopt. Eight States were represented (of which only three were northern)—Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The ordinance was therefore carried by the southern States. What Dr. Cutler inserted was, according to good evidence, the clauses relating to religion, morality, education and slavery.

"ARTICLE 1. No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments in the said territory.

"ARTICLE 2. The inhabitants of said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus and of trial by jury; of a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature, and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. All persons shall be bailable except for capital offences, where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate, and no unusual or cruel punishment shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land; and should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the common preservation, to take away any person's property, or to demand his particular service, full compensation shall be made for the same; and in the just preservation of rights and property it is understood and declared that no law ought ever to be made, or have force in the said territory, that shall in any manner whatever interfere with or effect private contracts or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed.

"ARTICLE 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars, authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from time to time, be made for preventing

course was precisely such as might have been expected of the man who would write, "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."

And now for the direct evidence that Dr. Cutler was the author of the clauses claimed—the two ideas which made the northwest what it is in civilization and morality.

In 1847 Dr. Joseph Torrey, of Salem, Massachusetts son-in-law of Dr. Cutler, writing to Judge Ephraim Cutler, of Washington county, about some papers he had examrned at Temple Cutler's in Hamilton, says:

Saw among these documents the Ordinance of 1787 on a printed sheet. On its margin was written that Mr. Dane requested Dr. Cutler to suggest such provisions as he deemed advisable, and that at Dr. Cutler's instance was inserted what relates to religion, education and slavery. These facts have long been known to me as household words.

In 1849 Temple Cutler wrote to his brother, Judge Ephraim Cutler, of the ordinance, that "Hon. Daniel Webster is now convinced that the man whose foresight, suggested some of its articles, was our father."

In the same year as the above, and upon the twenty. fourth of November, Judge Cutler answered an inquiry as follows:

I visited my father at Washington during the last session he attended Congress (1804). . . . We were in conversation relative to the political concerns of Ohio, the ruling parties, and the effects of the constitution (of Ohio) in the promotion of the general interest; when he observed that he was informed that I had prepared that portion of the Ohio constitution which contained the part of the ordinance of July, 1787, which prohibited slavery. He wished to know if it was a fact. On my assuming that it was, he observed that he thought it a singular coincidence, as he himself had prepared that part of the ordinance while he was in New York negotiating the purchase of the lands for the

"ARTICLE 4TH.—The said territory, and the States which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the articles of confederation, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made, and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the Federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by Congress, according to the same common rule and measure by which the apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States; and the taxes for paying their proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district or districts, on new States as in the original States, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new States shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulation Congress may find necessary for securing the title to such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property, of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, import, or duty therefor.

ARTICLE 5TH.—There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five States; and the boundaries of the States as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: The western State in the said territory shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and Wabash rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Port Vincents due north to the territorial line between the United States

Ohio company. I had then not seen the journal he kept while he was in New York at that time *

We now resume our extracts from Dr. Cutler's journal, taking it up where it was left and following its entries respecting the purchase through to the close. That portion of the entry under date of July 19th, not already given, is as follows:

As there are a number in Congress opposed to my terms of negotiation and some to any contract, I wish now to ascertain the number for and against, and who they are; and must then, if possible, bring the opnents over. This I have mentioned to Colonel Duer, who has promised to assist me. Grayson, R. H. Lee, and Carrington, are certainly my warm advocates. Holton, I think, may be trusted. Dane must be carefully watched, notwithstanding his professions. Clark, Bingham, Yates, Kearney, and Ford, are troublesome fellows. They must be attacked by my friends at their lodgings. If they can be brought over I shall succeed; if not, my business is at an end. Attended the committee this morning. They are determined to make a report today, and try the spirit of Congress. Dined with General Knox and about forty-two gentlemen, officers of the late Continental army, and among them Baron Steuben. General Knox gave us an entertainment in the style of a prince. I had the honor to be seated next the baron, who is a hearty, sociable old fellow. He was dressed in his military uniform, and with the ensigns of nobility, the shoe and garter. Every gentleman at the table was of the Cincinnati except myself, and wore his appropriate badges. Spent the evening at Dr. Holton's with Colonel Duer and several members of Congress, who informed me that an ordinance was passed in consequence of my petition, but, by their account of it, it will answer no purpose.

July 20th.—This morning the secretary of Congress furnished me with the ordinance of yesterday which states the conditions of a contract, but on terms to which I shall by no means accede. I informed the committee of Congress that I could not contract on the conditions proposed; that I should prefer purchasing lands from some one of the States, who would give incomparably better terms; and therefore proposed to leave the city immediately. They appeared to be sorry no better terms were effected, and insisted on my not thinking of leaving Congress until another attempt was made. I told them I saw no prospect of contracting, and wished to spend no more time and money in a business so unpromising. They assured me that I had many friends in Congress who would make every exertion in my favor; that it was an object of great magnitude, and that I must not expect to accomplish it in less than two or three months. If I desired it they would take the

and Canada; and by the said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Port Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Graft Miami to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial rine. The eastern State shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ghio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line; provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered that, if Congress should hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two State in that part of the territory which lies north of an east and west line, drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And whenever any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates Into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government; provided the constitution and government so to be formed Shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period and when there may be a less number o. free inhabitants in the State than sixty thousand.

ARTICLE 6TH.—There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided, always, that any person escaping into the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services as aforesaid.

matter up that day on different grounds and did not doubt they should obtain terms agreeable to my wishes. Colonel Duer came to me with proposals from a number of the principal characters of the city, to extend our contract and take in another company, but that it should be kept a profound secret. He explained the plan they had concocted and offered me generous conditions if I would accomplish the business for them. The plan struck me agreeably; Sargent insisted on my undertaking it, and both urged me not to think of giving the matter up so soon. I was convinced it was best for me to hold up the idea of giving up a contract with Congress, and making a contract with some of the States, which I did in the strongest terms, and represented to the committee and to Duer and Sargent the difficulties I saw in the way, and the improbability of closing a bargain when we were so far apart; and told them I conceived it not .worth while to say anything further to Congress on the subject. This appeared to have the effect I wished. The committee were mortified and did not seem to know what to say; but still urged another attempt. I left them in this state but afterward explained my views to Duer and Sargent who fully approved my plan. Promised Duer to consider his proposal. We had agreed last evening to make a party to Drookly, on Long Island, which is a small village opposite New York, divided from it by East river; Duer, Webb, Hammond, Sargent, with others were of the party. • • I spent the evening closeted with Colonel Duer and agreed to purchase more rand, if terms can be obtained, which will probably forward the negotiation.

July 21st.—Several members of Congress called on me early this morning. They discovered much anxiety about a contract, and assured me that Congress, on finding that I was determined not to accept their terms, and had proposed reaving the city, had discovered a much more favorable disposition, and believed, if I renewed my request, I might obtain conditions as reasonable as I desired. I was very indifferent, and talked much of the advantages of a contract with one of the States. This I found had the desired effect. At length I told them that if Congress would accede to the terms of my proposal, I would extend the purchase from the tenth township from the Ohio and to the Scioto inclusively; by which Congress would pay more than four millions of the public debt; that our intention was to secure, a large and immediate settlement of the most robust and industrious people in America; and that it would be made systematically, which. must instantly enhance the value cf Federal lands, and prove an important acquisition to Congress. On these terms I would renew the negotiation, if Congress was disposed to take the matter up again. Dined with General Webb at the Mess house in Broadway, opposite the Play house. Spent the evening with Mr. Dane and Mr. Millikin. They informed me that Congreis had taken up my business again.

July 23rd.—My friends had made every exertion in private conversation to bring over my opponents in Congress. In order to get at some of them so as to work powerfully on their minds, we were obliged to engage three or four persons before we could get at them. In some instances we engaged one person who engaged a second, and he a third, and so on to the fourth, before we could effect our purpose. In these maneuvers I am much beholden by the assistance of Colonel Duer and Major Sargent. The matter was taken up this morning in Congress and warmly debated until three o'clock, when another ordinance was obtained. This was not to the minds of any of my friends, who were considerably increased in Congress, but they conceived it to be better than the former, and they had obtained an additional cause empowering the board of treasury to take order upon this ordinance and complete the contract upon the general principles contained in it, which strll reft room for negotiation. Spent the evening with Colonel Grayson and members of Congress from the southward, who were in favor of a contract. Having found it impossible to support General Parsons as a candidate for governor, after the interest that General St. Clair had secured, and suspecting that this might be some impediment in the way (for my endeavors to make interest for him were well known), and the arrangements for civil officers being on the carpet, I embraced the opportunity frankly to declare that for my own part—and ventured to engage for Major Sargent—if General Parsons could have the appointment of first judge and Sargent, secretary, we would be satisfied; and I heartily wished that his excellency, General St. Clair, might be governor, and that I would solicit the eastern members to favor such an arrangement. This I found rather pleasing to the southern members. and they were so complacent as to ask repeatedly what office would be agreeable to me in the western country. I assured them I wished for no appointment to the civil line. Colonel Grayson proposed the office of one of the judges, which was seconded by all the gentlemen present. The obtaining an appointment, I observed, had never come into my mind, nor was there any civil office I should at present be willing to accept. This declaration seemed to be rather surprising, especially to men who were so much used to solicit or be solicited for appointments of honor or profit. They seemed to be the more urgent on this head. I observed to them, although I wished for nothing for myself, yet I thought the Ohio company entitled to some attention; that one of our judges besides General Parsons should be of that body, and that General Putnam was the man best qualified and would be most agreeable to that company, and gave them his character. We spent the evening very agreeably until a rate hour.

July 24th.—I received this morning a letter from the board of treasury, inclosing the resolutions of Congress, which passed yesterday, and requesting to know whether I was ready to close a contract on those terms. As the contract had now become of much greater magnitude than when I had only the Ohio company in view, I felt a diffidence in acting alone and wished Major Sargent to be joined with me, although he had not been formally empowered to act, for the commission from the directors was solely to me. It would likewise take off some part of the responsibility from me if the contract should not be agreeable. After consulting Duer I proposed it to Sargent, who readily accepted. We answered the letters from the board as jointly commissioned in making the contract. We informed the board that the terms in the resolve of Congress were such as we could not accede to, without some variation. We therefore begged leave to state to the board the terms on which we were ready to close the contract, and that those terms were our ultimatum. This letter' was sent to the board, but the packet having just arrived from England, and another to sail next morning, it was not in their power to attend any further to our business for the day. Dined with Mr. Hilleyas, treasurer of the United States. I spent the evening with Mr. Osgood, president of the board of treasury, who appeared to be very solicitous to be informed fully of our pran. No gentleman has a higher character for planning and calculating than Mr. Osgood. I was therefore much pleased with having an opportunity of fully explaining it to him. We were unfortunately interrupted with company. We, however, went over the outlines, and he appeared well disposed.

July 25th. This morning the board of treasury sent our letter to the secretary of Congress, requesting him to lay it before Congress for approbation or rejection. But the dispatches from Europe received yesterday by the British packet, occupied the attention of Congress for that day. Mr. Osgood desired me to dine with him, assuring me that he had purposely omitted inviting any other company, that we might not be interrupted in going over our plan. I had been repeatedly assured that Mr. Osgood was my friend, and that he had censured Congress for not assenting to the terms I had offered; but such is the intrigue and artifice often practiced by men in power, I felt very suppious, and was as cautious as possible. Our plan, however, I had no scruple to communicate, and went over it in all its parts. Mr. Osgood made many valuable observations. The extent of his information astonished me. His views of the continent of Europe were so enlarged that he appeared to be a perfect master of every subject of this kind. He highly approved of our plan, and told me he thought it the best formed in America. He dwelt much on the advantages of system in a new settlement; said system had never before been attempted; that we might depend upon accomplishing our purposes in Europe, and that it was a most important part of our plan. If we were able to establish a settlement as we proposed, however small in the beginning, we should then have surmounted our greatest difficulty; that every other object would be within our reach, and if the matter was pursued with spirit

* The letter, which was signed by Manasseh Catler and Winthrop Sargent, addressed to this board of treasury, proposed the following conditions :

The subordinate surveys to be completed as mentioned in the act, unless the frequency of Indian interruption should prevent; the mode of payment to be half a million of dollars when the contract should be executed, another half million when the tract should be sarveyed by the proyer officers of the United States, and the remainder in six equal payments; the lands assigned for the establishment of a university to be as nearly as possible in the centre of the first million and a half acres paid for, for to fix it in the centre of the proposed purchase, might too long defer the establishment. (That is, the lands are to be located in the Ohio company's purchase proper, and not beyond these bounds, in the lands bought merely in the name of the company, and for which they had the refusal.) The letter further suggested that the purchasers, when the second payment should be made, should receive a deed for as great a quantity of lands as a million woald pay for at the price agreed upon; that as most of the associates had embarked their private fortunes in the support of the purchase, no security should be required of them but the lands; and that they, the purchasers, should be entitled to no right of entry, or occupancy, except on the lands actually paid for, and to receive no deeds until their payments amounted to one million of dollars, and then only in proportion to such payment.

he believed it would prove one of the greatest undertakings ever yet attempted in America. He thought Congress would do an especial service to the United States, even if they gave us the land, rather than that our plan should be defeated; and promised to make every exertion in his power in my favor. We spent the afternoon and evening alone, and very agreeably.

July 26th. This morning I accompanied General St. Clair and General Knox on a tour of morning visits, particularly to the foreign ministers: Sieur Otto, French charge; Don Diego Guardoqoi, Spanish; Van Berckle, Dutch, a frank open Dutchman, who speaks bad English, but is very talkative. He is fond of conversing about the western country, and seems to interest himself much in the settlement of the western lands.

Being now eleven o'clock, General St. Clair was obliged to attend Congress. After we came into the street General St. Clair assured us he would make every possible exertion to prevail with Congress to accept the terms contained in our letter. He appeared much interested and very friendly, but said we must expect opposition. I was fully convinced it was good policy to give up Parsons and openly to appear solicitous, that St. Clair might be appointed governor. Several gentlemen have told me that our matters went on much better since St. Clair and his friends had been informed that we had given up Parsons and that I had solicited the eastern members in favor of St. Clair's appointment. I immediately went to Sargent and Duer. We now went into the true spirit of negotiation with great bodies. Every machine in the city it was possible to set to work we now put in motion. Few, Bingham and Kearney are our principal opposers. Of Few and Bingham there is hope, but to bring over that stubborn mule of a Kearney is beyond our power. The board of treasury, I think, will do us much service, if Dr. Lee is not against us, though Duer assures me that I have got the length of his foot, and that he calls me a frank, open, honest New England man, which he considers as an uncommon animal; yet from his zealous, cautious make, I feel suspicious of him, especially as Mr. Osgood tells me he has made every attempt to learn his sentiments, but is unable to do so. His brother, Richard Henry Lee, is certainly our fast friend, and we have hopes he will engage him in our interests.. Dined with Sir John Temple in company with several gentlemen. Immediately after dinner I took my leave of them and called on Dr. Holton. He told me Congress had been warmly engaged in our business the whole day; that the opposition was lessened, but our friends did not think it prudent to come to a vote, lest there should be a majority in favor. I left much discouraged, and told Dr. Holton I thought it in vain to wait any longer, and should certainly leave the next day. He cried out on my impatience; said if I obtained my purposes in a month from that time I should be fin more expeditious than was common in getting much smaller matters through Congress; that it was of great magnitude, for it far exceeded any private contract ever made before in the United States; that if I should fail now I ought still to pursue the matter, for I should most certainly finally obtain the object I wished. To comfort me, he assured me it was impossible 'for him to conceive by what kind of an address I had so soon and so warmly engaged the attention of Congress; for since he had been a member of that body he assured me, on his honor, that he never knew so much attention paid to any one person who made application to them on any kind of business, nor did he ever know them more pressing to bring it to a close. He could not have supposed that any three men from New England, even of the first characters, could have accomplished so much, in so short a time. This I believe was mere flattery, though it was delivered with a very serious air; but it gave some consolation. I now learned very nearly who were for and against the terms. Bingham has come over, but Few and Kearney are stubborn. Unfortunately there are only eight States represented, and unless seven of them are in favor no ordinance can pass.* Every moment of this evening until two o'clock was busily employed. A warm siege was laid on Few and Kearney from different quarters, and if the point is not effectually carried, the attack is to be renewed in the morning. Duer, Sargent and myself have agreed that if we fail, Sargent shall go on to Maryland, which is not at present represented, and prevail on the members of that State to come on and interest themselves, if possible, in our plan. I am to go on to Connecticut and Rhode Island to solicit the members from those States to go on to New York, and to lay an anchor to windward with them. As soon as those States are represented Sargent is to renew the application, and I have prom-

* The vote of seven out of the thirteen States was necessary to carry any measure. No State could vote anless two of its delegates were present, and in that case both mast vote the same way or their ballots would be neutralized. If three delegates were present the vote of two would carry the State.

The contingency for which this careful provision was made did not arise. We come now to the entry in the journal which describes the last day's action and the success of Dr. Cutler's labors:

Friday, July 17th.—1 rose very early this morning, and after adjusting my baggage (for I was determined to leave New York this day) I set out on a general morning visit and paid my respects to all the members of Congress in the city, and informed them of my intention to leave the city that day. My expectations of forming a contract, I told them, were nearly at an end. I should, however, wait the decision of Congress, and if the terms which we had stated, and which I considered to be very advantageous to Congress, considering the state of the country, were not accepted, we must turn our attention to some other part of the country. New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, would sell us lands at half a dollar an acre, and give us exclusive privileges beyond what we had asked of Congress. The speculating plan concerted between the British of Canada, and the New Yorkers, was now well known. The uneasiness of the Kentucky people with respect to the Mississippi was notorious. A revolt of that country from the Union, if a war with Spain took place, was universally acknowledged to be highly probable; and most certainly a systematic settlement in that country, conducted by men strongly attached to the Federal Government, and composed of young, robust, hardy, and active laborers, who had no idea of any other than the Federal Government, I conceived to be an object worthy of some attention. Besides, if Congress rejected the terms now offered, there could be no prospect of any application from any other quarter. If a fair and honorable purchase could now be obtained, I presumed, contracts with the natives, similar to that made with the Six Nations, must be the consequence, especially as it might be much more easily carried into effect. These, and such like, were the arguments I urged. They seemed to be fully acceded to, but whether they will avail is very uncertain. Mr. R. H. Lee assured me he was prepared for one hour's speech, and he hoped for success. All urged me not to reave the city so soon, but I assumed an air of perfect indifference, and persisted in my determination, which had, apparently, the effect I wished. Passing the city hall as the members were going into Congress, Coloner Carrington told me he believed Few was secured; that little Kearney was left alone, and that he was determined to make one trial of what he could do in Congress. Called on Sir John Temple for letters to Boston; bade my friendsgoodbye, and as it was my last day, Mr. Henderson insisted on my dining with him and a number of his friends whom he had invited.

At half-past three I was informed that an ordinance had passed Congress on the terms stated in our letter, without the least variation, and that the board of treasury was directed to take order and close the contract. This was agreeable but unexpected intelligence. Sargent and I went immediately to the board, who had received the ordinance, but were then rising. They urged me to tarry the next day, and they would put by all other business to complete the contract; but I found it inconvenient, and after making a general verbal adjustment, left it with Sargent to finish what was to be done at present.

Dr. Lee congratulated me and declared he would do all in his power to adjust the terms of the contract, so far as was reft to them, as much in our favor as possible. I proposed three months for collecting the first half million of dollars, and for executing the instruments of Congress, which was acceded to. By this ordinance we obtained the grant of near five millions of acress of lands, amounting to three and a half millions of dollars. One million and a half acres for the Ohio company, and the remainder for a private speculation, in which many of the principal characters in America are concerned. Without connecting this speculation similar terms and advantages could not have been obtained for the Ohio company. On my return through Broadway I received the congratulations of my friends in Congress and others with whom I happened to meet. At half-past six I took my leave of Mr. Henderson and family, where I had been most kindly and generously entertained. Left the city by way of the Bowery. . . .

On his way home Dr. Cutler again stopped at Middleton, Connecticut, and called on General Parsons. Under date of July 30th he enters the following in his journal:

When I had informed the general of my negotiations with Congress, I had the pleasure to find it not only met his approbation, but he expressed his astonishment that I had obtained terms so advantageous, which, he said, were beyond his expectation. He assured me he pre-

ferred the appointment of first judge to that of governor, especially if General St. Clair was governor. He proposed writing to General St. Clair and his friends in Congress that they would procure an appointment for me on the same bench; but I absolutely declined, assuring him I had no wish to go in the civil line.

The reader who has followed the extracts given from Dr. Cutler's journal has seen that the diplomatic lobbyist accomplished far more than he first set out to achieve. Instead of a million and a half acres of land, he made arrangements to purchase five and a half millions of acres.

A colossal scheme of land speculation and immigration was concocted, which looked for fulfilment not simply to New England but to the countries of the old world, especially Holland and France. There was reason to believe that the vast plan could be successfully carried out; and, had it been, results would have been exhibited in the west which we cannot imagine. Unfortunately, however, the sanguine men who joined in securing the services of Dr. Cutler to negotiate a purchase for them, in connection with his bargain for the Ohio company, were doomed to disappointment. One of the illy developed results of that stupendous scheme was the settlement of the French at Gallipolis, in I790, under the auspices of the Scioto company. They were defrauded, suffered innumerable hardships incident to pioneer life, for which they were poorly fitted; and, finally, failing to secure the lands for which they bargained, the larger part of them left Gallipolis, and, with much painful privation, found homes elsewhere, though a few remained at the scene of their early suffering, where some of their descendants still dwell. Much of the history of the Scioto company is shrowded in oblivion. It is certain, however, that Dr. Cutler and the Ohio company were in no degree responsible for the sad failure of that plan of immigration which brought the poor Frenchmen to America. Dr. Cutler acted only as the agent for the parties interested in the purchase, who could not by their own efforts secure the attention or favor of Congress. It is undoubtedly true that he obtained better terms for the Ohio company by including the other and making a huge purchase. To go further, it is improbable that Barlow and Duer had any wrong intent in their management of the Scioto company's business, but that really culpable parties were their sub-agents upon the other side of the Atlantic. But this is a topic, the consideration of which would take us far outside our province in writing a history of Washington county.

The amount of land for which Dr. Cutler secured the refusal for the Ohio company was one million five hundred thousand acres, but for reasons which will be hereafter shown, they finally became possessed of only nine hundred and sixty-four thousand two hundred and eighty- five acres.

At a meeting of the directors and agents of the Ohio company held at the Bunch of Grapes tavern, in Boston, August 29, 1787, Dr. Cutler made the following report of his action at New York:

That in consequence of resolves of Congress of the twenty-third and twenty-seventh of July last, he agreed on the conditions of a contract with the board of treasury of the United States, for a particular tract of land containing in the whole as much as the company's funds will pay for. Should the subscriptions amount to one million of dollars, agreeably to the articles of association, at one dollar per acre—from which price is to be deducted one-third of a dollar for bad lands and defraying the expenses of surveying, etc., etc.

That the rand be bounded on the east by the western boundary of the seventh range of townships; south by the Ohio; west by a meridian line to be drawn through the western cape of the Great Kanawha river, and extending so far north that a due east and west line from the seventh range of townships to the said meridian line, shall include the whole.

This tract to be extended so far northerly as to comprehend within its limits, exclusively of the above purchase, one rot of six hundred and forty acres in each township for the purposes of religion; an equal quantity for the support of schools, and two townships of twenty-three thousand and forty acres each for an university, to be as near the centre of the whole tract as may be; which lots and townships are given by Congress and appropriated for the above uses forever; also three lots of six hundred and forty acres each in every township, reserved for the future disposition of Congress; and the bounty lands of the military associators to be comprised in the whole tract; provided they do not exceed one-seventh part thereof.

That five hundred thousand dollars be paid to the board of treasury upon closing the contract.

In consideration of which, a right of entry and occupancy for a quantity of land equal to this sum, at the price stipulated be given, and that as soon as the geographer or some proper officer of the United States shall have surveyed and ascertained the quantity of the whole, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars more be paid, amounting in the whole to one million dollars, for which the company are to be put in possession of the whole moiety of the lands above described, and receive a deed of the whore from the said board of treasury.*

It was resolved "that the above report and the proceedings of Dr. Cutler be fully approved, ratified and confirmed," and on the first of September it was ordered that the contract be closed. The same day the record shows that directors' and treasurer's bonds were entered into "in the sum of twenty thousand dollars each, at six shillings the Mexican dollar."

On the twenty-seventh of October, 1787, the contract was closed at New York, and signed by Samuel Osgood and Arthur Lee of the board of treasury of the United States, and Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, for the Ohio company.* It was formed in all respects as foreshadowed by Dr. Cutler's report (which we have presented above), even to the provisions in regard to college, townships, and ministerial lands.

In this connection a letter from Manasseh Cutler to his son, Judge Ephraim Cutler, written as late as 1818, is very interesting. He says:

The fact is, the people of Ohio are wholly indebted to me for procuring the grant of those townships (for the university) and the minister's lands in the Ohio company’s purchase; and, indeed, for simirar grants in Judge Symmes’ purchase. When I applied to Congress for the purchase, no person, to my knowledge, had an idea of asking for such grants. When I mentioned it to Mr. Sargent and others friendly to the measure, they were rather opposed, fearing it would occasion an increased price for the lands. I had previously contemplated the vast benefit that must be derived from it in a future time, and I made every exertion to obtain it. Mr. Sargent, indeed, cordially united with me in endeavoring to surmount the difficulties which appeared in the way, till the object was obtained. It is well known to all concerned with me in transacting the business of the Ohio company, that the establishment of a university was a first object and lay with great weight on my mind.*

Preparations for Planting a Colony at the Mouth of the Muskingum.—Activity of Leaders in the Ohio Company.—Personal Persuasion.—Dissemination of Information Concerning the West.— A Pamphlet on the Ohio Country Published by Dr. Cutler in 1787.—Prediction that in Fifty Years the Northwestern Territory would Contain More People than all New England.—Prophecy that Western Rivers would be Navigated by Steamboats, Made Twenty Years before Fulton's Success on the Hudson.—Causes which Operated to Prevent Immigration.—Opposition Brought into Existence, and Taking the Form of Ridicule.—" Putnam's Paradise" and "Cutler's Indian Heaven."—Quotations from Cotemporaneous Correspondence of Hazard and Belknap.—Cutler and Sargent as Enthusiasts.—Various Inquiries in Regard to the West. —Anxiety Regarding the Attitude of the Indians.—Letter from Washington to Lafayette.—Preparations of the Ohio Company as an Organization.—Plan Agreed upon for a City at the Confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio.—Scheme for the Division of the Lands.—Surveyors Employed.—Boat Builders and Mechanics.— General Rufus Putnam Appointed Superintendent of the Colony.— Meeting of the Company at Providence, Rhode Island.— Measures Taken for Securing Education and Religious Instruction in the New Settlement.—Boat Builders and Mechanics Leave Danvers,;‘, Massachusetts, December, 1787, for the Youghiogeny.—The Second Party Rendezvous at Hartford, Connecticut, January 1, 1788.— Putnam Detained by Business at New York.—He Overtakes the I Party.—Crossing the Alleghenies in Winter.—Slow Progress and Privations of the Pioneers.—Arrival at the "Yoh."—Boats Built, and Provisions Bought.—The "Mayflower. "—The Company Leaves Sumrill's Ferry April 1st. —Extracts from the Journal of Joseph Buell.—Stopping by the Way.—Beauty of the Ohio.—Advancement of Vegetation.—Arrival at the Muskingum.—An Apochryphal Account of the Origin of the Term "Buckeye State."—Names of the Forty-seven Pioneers.

THE year 1787 was one full of doing and rich in result. The constitution of the United States was adopted, the Ordinance of Freedom enacted, and the Ohio company's purchase negotiated—the first of a series of transactions by which a revenue was obtained from the public domains to lessen the National debt and restore prosperity.

The year was a busy one with the leading men of the Ohio company. Both before and after the passage of the ordinance and the negotiation of the purchase, they were actively engaged in securing subscriptions and in finding men to go out to the Ohio country. General Putnam, General Tupper, General Parsons, Winthrop Sargent, and Dr. Cutler were using all of their influence to promote the affairs of the company, and to induce emigration. The latter was a difficult work. Personal persuasion was resorted to, and the public prikts were used to disseminate knowledge concerning the west and the scheme for its settlement. Dr. Cutler published at Salem a pamphlet (though anonymously), which had a large circulation. It gave the fullest information attainable in regard to the lands beyond the Ohio, especially the Muskingum region, and contained some prophecies which were probably regarded as the wildest kind of improbabilities born of an imaginative brain, and yet nearly all that was said in the sanguine prophecies of Dr. Cutler, came to pass. He asserted that in fifty years the Northwestern Territory would contain more people than all New England, and that many people then living would see the western rivers navigated by steam. We find the following passage, copied from the original pamphlet:

The current down the Ohio and Mississippi, for heavy articles that suit the Florida and West India markets, such as 1ndian 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 rate 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.

This was written twenty years before Fulton's successful application of steam to navigation. But Miller, in Scotland, the same year that Dr. Cutler wrote, had demonstrated the practicability of the employment of steam for propelling boats. Dr. Cutler was a scientific man, in every way abreast of the age in which he lived—in many ways ahead of it. He doubtless knew of Miller's encouraging experiments, and his prediction regarding steamboats on the western rivers may have been principally based upon the achievement of that genius toiling on the other side of the Atlantic. But the people generally in that time, more than now, regarded the success of almost all novel and wonderful undertakings as impossible. There were doubtless many good New Englanders who regarded as an impracticable visionary the man who predicted steanr navigation on the Ohio, and he was doubtless derided for this prophecy (if the authorship of the pamphlet was discovered) as he was for his zeal in advocating immigration.

After the purchase had. been made preparations for removal to the Muskingum were carried on more actively than before, and as the time for an actual emigration approached, adverse criticism became more outspoken than it had been before.

There were various incentives to combat the movement that was steadily gaining ground. Families were divided as to opinions upon western settlement, and arguments arose between friends upon personal grounds as well as differences between factions. It must often have been the case that a father opposed his sons in their desire to seek their fortune in a new land, that wives opposed their husbands, and sweethearts their lovers. People who could not or would not emigrate, themselves very naturally disliked the idea of having their relatives and friends venture into the far west to find permanent homes. Opposition often took the form of ridicule. The enthusiasm with which the chief characters of the Ohio company labored to develop their plans, and the roseate-hued accounts that were given of the country to which a colony was to be sent, provoked some merriment and some sneering. The Ohio valley was dubbed "Putnam's Paradise" and "Cutler's Indian Heaven," and these and other names came into quite common use even among the men who were friendly to the movement these phrases were intended to ridicule. From the prominence in negotiating the purchase and his subsequent devotion to the Ohio company's interest, Dr. Cutler's name seemed to have been oftener mentioned in connection with the colonization movement than any other. Ebenezer Hazard,* writing to the

"Hon. Ebenezer Hazard was at this time Postmaster General and Treasurer of Congress. The Rev. Jeremy Belknap was in 1787 pastor of a church in Boston. Both were quite eminent historians. Their correspondence has been published.

Rev. Jeremy Belknap in 1787, says: "Cutler and Sargent are enthusiasts in the cause; and really, some degree of enthusiasm is necessary in all. great undertakings." As the time drew nigh when the Ohio company was to send out the pioneers the people became more and more familiar with the subject of emigration, which was then a new one in Massachusetts and her sister states, and people began to make intelligent inquiries in regard to the country toward which the movement was directed, and the prospects of peace or war with the Indians. In a letter from Belknap to Hazard the writer after speaking of the lawlessness and vindictiveness of the Kentuckians, propounds the queries:

Whether the neighborhood of such a set of rascals will not be injurious to the Muskingum? Will the Indians make a distinction if the New England people should behave themselves differently towards them ? Have they a good title from the Indians to the land? Or, if they have from some, will not others put in a claim?

Similar questions to these were doubtless asked by hundreds. Mr. Hazard writes that he "should not be fond of going there (to Muskingum) before the settlers had enjoyed one year's profound peace." There were many who were of this way of thinking. But notwithstanding danger, there were a few who had decided to be of the first company of adventurers, many more who had determined to go later, after a beginning had been effected, and it appears that in September, 1787, at least two families were on their journey to the Ohio company's purchase, though they must have fallen by the way as they did not reach their destination. On the twenty- ninth of the month Mr. Hazard wrote to Mr. Belknap:

Two families from Cutler's parish, Sawyer and Porter, by name, passed through here yesterday on their way to this Indian Heaven, with two or three wagons, built in the western styles. Some people pitied them as sheep going to the slaughter; others wished themselves in company, so different are the opinions of men, and I might add, women on the subject.

I have thoughts of hiring a farm and retiring into the woods, where I may at least enjoy liberty, and that not without some hopes of independence, and Cutler's Indian Heaven (where I own a seat) has been more than half seriously in contemplation.

What Washington thought of the emigration scheme of some of his old officers and brother patriots is shown by a letter he wrote February 7, 1787, to Lafayette:

A spirit of emigration to the western country is very predominant. Congress has sold in the year past a pretty large quantity of lands on the Ohio for public securities, and thereby diminished the public debt considerably. Many of your military acquaintances, such as Generals Parsons, Varnum and Putnam, Colonels Tupper, Sproat and Sherman, with many more, propose settling there. From such beginnings much may be expected.

While individual efforts were being made to induce emigration, and with the result of producing a very general interest in the subject, the Ohio company as an organization was engaged • in measures of practical preparation for the great work that lay before its members. On the thirtieth of August, 1787 (the day after Dr. Cutler had made his verbal report of the action of Congress in granting him the refusal of the lands), the company roughly mapped out upon paper the city near the conflu-

ence of the Muskingum and Ohio, which was to be Marietta. Five thousand seven hundred and sixty acres were to be reserved for the city and common. It was resolved that "within the said tract and in the most eligible situation there be appropriated sixty squares, in an oblong form of ten squares in front and six deep, with streets one hundred feet in width; that four of the said squares be reserved for public use, and the remaining fifty-six divided into house lots, each to contain twelve of sixty feet front and one hundred feet depth, and six of fifty- three feet front by one hundred and fifty feet depth, amounting in the total to one thousand and eight lots." This plan was to be followed as nearly as the situation of the ground would permit. (It was afterwards changed considerably.) It was also decided that the lots should be drawn for, and that each one should become a part of each proprietary share. It was further resolved that one hundred houses should be built, thirty-six by sixteen feet in dimensions, on three sides of one of the oblong squares, and that for their protection they should be connected or surrounded by a stockade. (Here is the first suggestion of Campus Martins.) At this meeting General James M. Varnum was elected a director, and Richard Platt, of New York, treasurer. The meeting was continued to the first of September, and on November 21st (the contract having been closed October 27th), another meeting was held, at Cromwell's Head tavern, Boston, for the consideration of various important details in the arrangements. At this meeting the plan of the proposed city was altered by the insertion of a provision that the lots should be ninety feet front by one hundred and eighty in depth, and that the centre street should be one hundred and fifty feet in width. The following resolutions were adopted, a past of which never came into effect, because the lands to which they would have applied never came into the possession of the company:

Resolved.—That the lands of the Ohio company may be allotted and divided in the following manner, anything to the contrary in former resolutions notwithstanding, viz: Four thousand acres near the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers for a city and commons- and contiguous to this, one thousand lots of eight acres each, amounting to eight thousand acres.

Upon the Ohio in fractional townships, one thousand lots of one hundred and sixteen and forty-three one hundredths acres, amounting to one hundred and sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty acres.

In the townships on the navigable rivers, one thousand lots of three hundred and and twenty acres each, amounting to three hundred and twenty thousand acres.

And in the inland towns one thousand lots of nine hundred and ninety-two acres each, amounting to nine hundred and ninety-two thousand acres, to be divided and allotted as the agents shall hereafter direct.

Resolved, farther, That there be the following reservations, viz: One township at the falls of the Great Hockhocking river; one township at the mouth of the Great and Little river of that name, and one township opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha river; which reservations may be allotted and decided as the directors and agents shall see fit. Resolved. That the army bounty rights be considered in part payment of the shares of military associates in the ratio of one dollar to every acre to which they are entitled; and that this rule be observed by the agents of the subscribers in rendering their returns, and by the agents appointed by the directors for the several payments to the board of treasury.

Resolved. That no further subscriptions be admitted after the first day of January next, and that all interest, arising on sums paid since the payment of the first half-million to the board of treasury, until the second payment he completed, shall accrue to the benefit of the com-

pany's funds; and that the agents pay all the money they may have in their possession into the treasury of the company by the first day of March next.

Resolved. That the eight acre lots be surveyed and a plat or map thereof be made, with each lot numbered thereon, by the first Wednesday in March next, and that a copy thereof be immediately forwarded to the secretary and the original retained by the companys superintendent; that the agents meet on the first Wednesday in March next, at Rice's tavern, in Providence, State of Rhode Island, to draw for said lots in numbers, as the same shall be stated upon the plat; that a list of the drawings be transmitted by the secretary to the superintendent, and a copy thereof preserved in the secretary's office.

Resolved. That this meeting of the directors and agents of the Ohio company be and is hereby adjourned to the first Wednesday in March, 1808, to be then holden at Rice's tavern, in the town of Providence, and State of Rhode Island.

Although the company had adjourned to meet in March the directors and agents came together again only two days later, or upon the twenty-third of November, at Brackett's tavern, where the following decisions were agreed upon and placed on file in the company's records:

Ordered. That four surveyors be employed under the superintendent hereinafter named; that twenty-two men shall attend the surveyors; that there be added to this number twenty men, including six boat-builders, four house carpenters, one blacksmith, and nine common workmen.

That the boat-builders shall proceed on Monday next, and the surveyors shall rendezvous at Hartford the first day of 'January next, on their way to the Muskingum.

That the boat-builders and men, with the surveyors, be proprietors in the company; that their tools and one axe and one hoe to each man and thirty pounds weight of baggage shall be carried in the company's wagons, and the subsistence of the men on the journey be furnished by the company.

That upon their arrival at the places of destination, and entering on the business of their employment, the men shall be subsisted by the company and allowed wages at the rate of four dollars each per month until discharged.

That they be held in the company's service until the first day of July next, unless sooner discharged, and that if any of the persons employed shall leave the service, or wilfully injure the same, or disobey the orders of the superintendent, or others acting under him, the person so offending shall forfeit all claim to wages,

That their wages shall be paid the next autumn in cash, or lands, upon the same terms as the company purchased them. That each man furnish himself with a good small-arm bayonet, six flints, a powder-horn and pouch, priming wire and brush, half a pound of powder, one pound of balls, and one pound of buckshot. The men so engaged shall be subject to the orders of the superintendent and those he may appoint, as aforesaid, in any kind of business they shall be employed in, as well for boat building and surveying, as for building houses, erecting defences, clearing lands, and planting, or otherwise, for promoting the settlement; and as there is a probability of interruption from enemies, they shall also be subject to orders as aforesaid in military command during the time of their employment.

That Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, from Rhode Island; Mr, Anselem Tupper, and Mr. John Mathews, from Massachusetts, and Colonel R. J. Meigs, from Connecticut, be the surveyors.

That General Rufus Putnam be the superintendent of all the business aforesaid, and he is to be obeyed and respected accordingly; that he be allowed for his services forty dollars a month and his expenses, to commence from the time of his leaving home.

On March 5th the directors and agents assembled pursuant to adjournment, at Rice's tavern, Providence, Rhode Island, General Parsons being chairman. On this occasion the lots of the city (on paper) at the mouth of the Muskingum, were drawn for in the names of the proprietors, each share being entitled to one. One thousand shares were represented, the agents and the number of proprietary shares they represented being as fol-

lows: Edward Harris, forty ; John May, thirty-five; Eliphalet Day, eighteen; Manasseh Cutler, one hundred and fifty-one; William. Dodge, seventeen; Ephraim Cutler, nineteen; Winthrop Sargeant, one hundred and sixty- six; Benjamin Tupper, thirty-seven; Henry Jackson, thirteen; William Corliss, one hundred and twelve; Nathaniel Freeman, twelve; Rufus Putnam, sixty-two; S. H. Parsons, ninety-nine; Joel Barlow, twenty-seven; Archibald Crary, one hundred and two; Ebenezer Sproat, forty-three; Benjamin Tallmadge, forty-seven—one thousand.

A number of the agents mentioned were represented, as were of course the proprietors, by proxies. While this business was being transacted the pioneer party were on their way to the Muskingum country.

By far the most important measure acted upon at this meeting was that looking toward the establishment of schools and churches. The action was of importance in itself, and doubly interesting as showing the spirit of the men who formed the New England Ohio company. It was in exact accordance with the desires exhibited by Dr. Cutler in the ordinance and conditions of purchase. A committee was appointed "to consider the expediency of employing some suitable person as a public teacher at the settlement now making by the Ohio company." Its members were Dr. Cutler, General Varnum, and Colonel John May. They made a report in the following language:

That the directors be requested to pay as early attention as possible to the education of youth and the promotion of public worship among the first settlers; and that, for these important services, they employ, if practicable, an instructor eminent for literary accomplishments and the virtue of his character, who shall also superintend the first scholastic institutions, and direct the manner of instruction; and to enable the directors to carry into execution the intentions expressed in this resolution, the proprietors, and others of benevolent and liberal minds are earnestly requested to contribute, by voluntary donation, to the formation of a fund to be solely appropriated thereto.'

Prior to the later transactions we have chronicled the Ohio company's party of pioneers were on their way to the Muskingum. The first party, consisting of twenty- two men, and including the boat-builders and mechanics, started from Danvers, Massachusetts, on the first of December, 1787. f They were under the command of Major Haffield White, who seems also to have been commissary, and were sent ahead to build boats on the Youghiogheny which, in western parlance, was commonly called the "Yoh." The advance company arrived at Sumrill's Ferry on this stream (about thirty miles above Pittsburgh), on the twenty-third of January, after a wearisome journey.

The other party, including the surveyors and their assistants and a number of the proprietors of the Ohio company, rendezvoused at Hartford, Connecticut, on the first of January, 1788. They were met here by General Putnam who was to have commanded the march, but as he was under the necessity of going to New York, the

* It was under the provisions of this resolution that the Rev. Daniel Story was employed and sent to the Ohio company's settlement, as the first ordained minister in the Northwest Territory. His character and services are spoken of at length in the chapter on the churches of Marietta.

company went forward in command of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat General Putnam dispatching his business at New York, pressed forward and overtook the company at Lincoln's inn on the Lanterdale creek, January 24th. In his autobiography General Putnam says that this creek "was hard frozen, but not sufficient to bear the wagon, and a whole day was spent in cutting a passage. So great a quanity of snow fell this day and night, as quite blocked up the road; it was with much difficulty we got the wagon so far as Coopers, at the foot of the Tuscarawas mountains (now Strawsburg), where we arrived the twenty-ninth." As serious an obstacle to the progress of the pioneers as the snow had been up to this time it was much worse in the mountains. General Putnam says that they "found nothing had crossed the mountains since the great snow and in the old snow, twelve inches deep, nothing but pack horses." But the march of these resolute, hardy men toward their destination was not to be stayed by storm or the almost impossible condition of the narrow winding mountain trails which were dangerous enough at any time. "Our only resource" reads the brief, and simple narrative, "was to build sleds, and harness tandem, and in this manner with four sleds, and men marching in front, we set forward and reached "Yoh" the fourteenth of February.

For two weeks the little company consisting of a few more than a score of men, but all active, strong and hopeful, were winding slowly around the mountain passes, breaking a way through the deep snow for their jaded horses to draw along the cumbersome sledges with their heavy loads of baggage and provisions. Only a few miles were gained each day and that with the utmost toil. At night the men slept around huge blazing fires, which they often had difficulty in kindling. They suffered much from the arduousness of their labor by day and their exposure at night. General Putnam writing to Dr. Cutler some time after the arrival of the pioneers at the Muskingum said: "It would give you pain and me no pleasure to detail our march over the mountains or our delays afterwards on account of bad weather or other misfortunes."

Arriving at the Youghiogheny in the middle of February, and expecting to find preparations so far advanced for the journey down the Ohio that they could soon start, General Putnam and his associates were again disappointed. It is stated in the same letter from which we have quoted above, that there were "no boats built, no boards or planks in readiness, or person capable of building a canoe, much less a boat, among the party— mill froze up and no boards to be had. He (Major White) had, however, three canoes such as they were, on the stocks; and five of his men were sick with the small-pox, which they took by inoculation."

The latter part of February and the whole of the month of March was consumed in building boats. The three canoes which Major White had on the stocks were completed, and lumber being brought from a considerable distance a galley was built, which had an estimated capacity of fifty tons, and a flatboat of about three tons burthen, designed to be used as a ferry boat by the set- tiers at the station, and was named the Adelphia. The canoes were hewn from logs. The large boat, which was called the Adventure Galley, and which General Putnam speaks of as the Union Galley, was afterwards appropriately named the Mayflower, in commemoration of the ship which brought across the ocean the Plymouth colony. Her bows were raking or curved; she was decked over and strongly built throughout. She was designed to pass and repass between Marietta and Buffalo creek or Cross creek, to carry letters and merchandise, but proving too large and unwieldy she was used only for a few trips.

In the afternoon of the first day* of April, which was a Tuesday, the little flotilla left Sumrill's ferry, on the Youghiogheny, and, floating down that stream to the Monongahela, was borne onward to the Ohio. Several stoppages were made to take on provisions, which had been bought the few weeks prevrous and brought to the river. Among other stores were "three thousand weight of flour, two thousand of which was at nine shillings a hundred, and one.thousand at ten shillings, or one dollar sixty-six cents," bought of one man, and seven thousand pounds of another at the price last mentioned, also several bushels of beans. Many of the purchases were made by John Mathews, a nephew of General Putnam, who had been in the west since the summer of 1786 as a surveyor. Numerous extracts from his journal have been given in a former chapter of this work, and we now present several more, which, however unimportant, are interesting as contemporary jottings in regard to the journey of the colony :

Thursday, April 3rd. . . General Putnam arrived with coals at the mouth of Harman's creek before sunrise, and not being acquainted, fell some below the landing. Esquire Foster and myself attended to getting the provisions to the river, and a very disagreeable time we had of it, on account of the rain. I am to take General Putnamsis horse by land to Buffalo tomorrow.

Friday, 4th. I left Greathouse's in the morning. Found Colonel Sproat at McMahan's, and rode with him to Wells' mills, and hurried on the provisions to the landing. From thence we went to the mouth of Buffalo, where the boat had arrived. She will not be loaded to-day.

Saturday, 5th. . . . Our boats tarried all day in the mouth of the creek, and we have everything to put on board in the morning. They also took on here a quantity of poplar boards for the erection of temporary huts, until more substatial buildings could be built.

Sunday, 6th. Cloudy and rainy all day. At half past eight o'clock A. M. everything on board, and we started for Muskingum. . . . At four o'clock P. M. came to at "Round Bottom" and proposed waiting until nine or ten o'clock in the evening, in order to arrive at Muskingum in the forenoon.

At half-past nine got under way and run all night, without meeting with any accident.

One may imagine something of the feelings of those first adventurers to Ohio as they floated down la belle riviere. The season was well advanced and there was a noticeable difference between the condition of the vegetation in the country passed on the last half of the journey and that of the upper Ohio. The forest which clad the hills was etherialized by the first touch of kindly spring and the virgin soil of the many beautiful islands was

* In Hildreth Pioneer History and Charles M. Walker's History of Athens County, it is stated that the journey from the Youghiogheny was begun upon the second of April. General Purnam's autobiography is authority for the statement that it was upon the first.

mantled with the vernal green of scores of luxuriant shrubs and grasses and vines, strange to the eyes which now beheld them. The shores were for the most part devoid of the indications of human life. Only upon the Virginia side did the voyagers see an occasional cabin, and they lost even the slight sense of companionship that these afforded as they drew nearer to their destination, so that they looked with even more of joy than they otherwise would upon the rough log buildings and bristling stockade of Fort Harmar, and the little cabins of Isaac Williams and his fellow pioneers on the Virginia bank. As their boats swept around the curves and new landscapes were revealed how eagerly must those pioneers have watched for the first appearance of the place that was to be their home, the lands that some of them were individually to own, till, live and die upon. We can imagine groups of questioners gathered about John Mathews and Anselem Tupper, the only men in the company who had any personal knowledge of the "lands at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio," on which it had been decided far away in Massachusetts that a city should be built.

The morning of the seventh of April (which was Monday) was cloudy and during the greater part of the day rain fell. As the afternoon passed away the pioneers knew that the place of their destination could not be far away, and watched closely for some sign which would indicate it. Just as they had floated by the foot of Kerr's Island Captain Devol said to General Putnam, "I think it is time to take an observation; we must be near the mouth of the Muskingum." The current bore the boats onward at a good speed, and although many eyes were watching anxiously for the Muskingum they did not see it until too late to round into the harbor it afforded. The rain and fog and the huge sycamores upon the banks leaning over the outlet obscured it, undoubtedly, until they were quite near it. Fort Harmar was also unseen. The strong current of the Muskingum swerved the boats from their course, shot them way out into the Ohio, and before the pioneers were fully conscious of their whereabouts they had swept so far down the stream that they were unable to regain the place where they had intended to disembark. A landing was affected not far below the fort,. and the commandant, Major Doughty sending some soldiers to their aid General Putnam's little band towed the boats up the stream, and, crossing the Muskingum, landed upon the site of Marietta (at the point) about noon.*

* It is traditionally asserted that in an episode which speedily followed the landing at Marietta originated the application to the early settlers of the name "Butt eyes," which afterwards became a kind of genuine appellation fora pthe people of Ohio, and led in fact to the second christening of the first commonwealth of the Northwest Territory with the sobriquet of "the Buckeye State."

It has been frequently related that two of the pioneers on springing ashore at the point, selected trees to be felled to the earth, and began a good-natured rivalry in chopping to see which one should first lay low a monarch of the forest. Strict regard for probability compels one to doubt whether either tree could with propriety be called a "monarch." They were undoubtedly about the smallest trees discoverable which were still large enough to have passed the undignified age of saplings. But however this may have been does not effect the story. One man selected, accordrng to the tradition, a hard wood tree—a gum tree—and

They were welcomed by a party of about seventy Wyandot and Delaware Indians, warriors, women, and children, of whom the famous Captain Pipe was the principal character. The pioneers undoubtedly looked upon this friendly greeting as an omen of peace and good-will and their vague fears were tranquillized. The work of landing a portion of their provisions and the boards brought from Buffalo creek for the erection of temporary places of shelter was begun immediately, and General Putnam's large tent, known as a marquee,* was soon riased.

The pioneers who arrived on the "Mayflower" at the site of Marietta, were forty-seven in number, and their names are embraced in the following list:

* This marquee was a very large one, and was taken, with some other baggage, on board the store boats of Burgoyne's army, a few days before its surrender, by the intrepidity of Major Goodall, who was attached to General Putnam's regiment. It had probably belonged to some of the general officers of the enemy. 1n the division of the spoils it fell to General Putnam, and now, eleven years after that event, was doing service on the banks of the Ohio, in the far wilderness of the Northwest Territory. . . New England Historical and Genealogical Register, October, 1860. Note to journal of Rev. Manasseh Cutler (journey to Marietta, 1788), by Dr. S. P. Hildreth.

t The number is commonly stated as forty-eight. Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, however, who is usually included in the list and who was really with the pioneer party on the upper Ohio, is shown by Joseph Buell in his journal, and by other authorities, to have arrived on the twerfth of April.

the other, a buckeye, the wood of which is very soft. Very naturally the buckeye fell first to the ground, and from this circumstance its name is said to have been given to the settlers and to the State. The successful man is said to have been Captain Daniel Davis, of Killingly, Connecticut. The chief champion of the story has been a New England clergyman of the Reformed Episcopal church, J. P. Davis, by name, who had been engaged in compiling a genealogy of the Davis family, and who, when in Ohio in 1879, made several contributions to the newspapers upon this subject. He accounts for the fact that Ohio is called "the Buckeye State," and its people "Buckeyes" by the result of the chopping competition, and supports the authenticity of the story handed down from one generation to another by the statement that "during ninety years it has not been contradicted by any history or denied by any counter-statement."

In this the reverend writer was mistaken, not only has a counter statement been made, but it was published many years ago, and by a most excellent authority, Dr. S. P. Hildreth. In his biography of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, he says that his "tall commanding person, . . . soon attracted their (the Indians) attention, and they gave him the name of Hetuck, or Big Buckeye. From this, no doubt, originated the name of buckeye, now applied to the natives of Ohio, as the phrase was familiar to all the early settlers at Marietta. The name was commonly used at as early a date as 1791. Thus it appeared that Dr. Hildreth, himself a resident of Marietta, early in the present century, writing many years ago—prior at least to 1852—when he had exceptionally good advantages for gleaning items of pioneer history, either knew nothing of the Davis story or regarded it so doubtful as not to be entitled to a place in either of his two volumes made up of the minutiae of early local occurrences. Still the Davis story may be true.

Standing against its plausibility, however, is the common trend of evidence, afforded by a number of early pioneers who have left accounts of the application of the term Buckeye. Some of them seem to have had knowledge of the Davis tradition, bur their explanations agree with, rather than contradict, Dr. Hildreths’ statement. Briefly to summarize what has been given as the opinion of many of the pioneers and their descendants, we may say that the company of forty-seven, the first settlers of Marietta, arrived early in a well-advanced spring; that the flowers of the Buckeye were the first that met their sight, and from this circumstance they may have called the country in which they had taken up their residence Buckeye land or Buckeye settlement, or alluded to themselves as Buckeyes, from the fact that they appeared simultaneously with the blossoms of these trees. Again, it has been suggested by some that because of the tall, erect forms, and the soldierly bearing

Captain Jonathan Devol

" Josiah Munroe.

" Daniel Davis..

" Peregrine Foster..

" Jethro Putnam.

" William Gray.

" Ezekiel Cooper.

Phineas Coburn.

David Wallace..

Gilbert Devol, jr.

Jonas Davis.

Hezekiah Flint.

Josiah Whitridge.

Benjamin Griswold.

Theophilus 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 Danton.

Samuel Felshaw.

Antos Porter, jr.

John Gardner.

Elizur Kirtland.

Joseph Lincoln.

Earl Sproat.

Allen Devol.

William Mason.

Simeon Martin.

Peletiah White.

These men, on Monday, the seventh of April, 1788, made the first lawful, organized English settlement within the limits of the great Northwest Territory.

of many of those pioneers of 1788, the Indians may have called them Buckeyes, or given them the appellation in their language equivalent to that term, after that species of tree, which is notably tall and perfectly straight. Or, the name might have been given by the Indians on account of the time of their advent. Either of these motives for the bestowal of the name would have been in entire accordance with the poetical and descriptive system of Indian nomenclature. The name having once been applied in a general way, it followed naturally that Colonel Sproat, who "towered like a Saul, a full head above the height of other men," should have been dubbed by the Indians as Dr. Hildreth says, the Big Buckeye.

There is another possibility. Muskingum (originally Mooskingom) means Elks Eye river. May it not also have been called Bucks Eye or Buckeye river, and the name have been either adopted by the settlers at its mouth, or applied to them by the Indians?

It has been very generally believed that Jervis Cutler, son of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, was the first one of the forty-seven to jump ashore at the mouth of the Muskingum, but upon the toad or Fort Hamar side. He there cut down a small tree with a small axe which he drew from his coat.

When the boat reached the east or Marietta side of the Muskingum, it is said Allen Putnam and Amos Porter had a race, and both made desperate reaps to see who should have the honor of first putting foot on the shore. Putnam won, springing on to the bank five seconds ahead of Porter, and so was the first pioneer who landed at Marietta.

The Farmers Delighted with their New Home.—Bright Prospects.— General Putnam to Dr. Cutler.—Washington's Opinion of the Colony. —Hopes Disappointed. —Combination of Adverse Circumstances.—Opposition to Emigration in New England from various motives.—Fear of Indian Hostility.—Derision of the West by Wits and Wags.—Parodies upon Panegyrics.—Caricatures Published.— " I am going to Ohio and "I have been to Ohio."—Employment of the Settlers During the first Season Clearing Land, Planting and Surveying.—The Great Cornfield.—Uneasiness Regarding the Attitude of the Indians—The Building of Campus Martins.— Dwelling Houses.—New Arrivals in the Colony.—The first Families.—General Arthur St. Clair Governor of the Territory.—His Formal Reception at the "Bowery."--Opening of the first Court.—Proceedings of the Ohio Company.—Troubles Respecting Section Twenty-nine.—The "City" and the Ancient Works Named.—Measures for the Encouragement of Settlement.—A Plan for Donating Lands Agreed Upon. —Lots of One Hundred Acres Each to be given Actual Settlers.—A Committee Appointed to Explore the Purchase and Select Locations for Settlements.—The first Offshoots of the Original Colony.—Belpre and Waterford.—Wolf Creek Mills.—Settlements at Big Bottom, Meigs' Creek, and the Forks of Duck Creek—Measures for the Encouragement of Improvements.— Kindly and Protective Policy of the Ohio Company.—Loans Made to Needy Settlers.—General Putnam's Contract with the Scioto Company.—Houses Built at Gallipolis.—Arrival of Four Hundred French Emigrants.—Their Pitiable Condition.—Number of Men and Families in the Ohio Company's Territory.—Complete List of Arrivals During 1788, 1789, and 179o.

THE members of the little pioneer company who landed from the Mayflower April 7th, and the few who followed them to the Muskingum during the early months of the season, found much to delight them, and were happy in the midst of their strange surroundings. Doubtless there were some who felt at times the comparative isolation and loneliness of their condition, and whose minds fondly and sadly reverted to the friends they had left behind them, and the old familiar scenes— the happy homes—in little New England villages. But such feelings were transitory. There was food for other thought in the busy bustling life of the new colony—the activity impelled by varied human interests. The forest was to be cleared away, the ground was to be titled, seed planted, houses built, preparations made for the reception of loved ones who could not immigrate with their husbands and fathers, and who were looking eagerly forward for a reunion with them in the land of their adoption. And so these pioneers labored with a zest and earnestness of purpose which doubled their accomplishment. To them the country seemed all that was desirable. There was a suggestion of New England in the rugged hills which surrounded them, and a fertility in the soil of the valleys which they had never seen equalled. Their new life, or the new chapter in life, had opened auspiciously, and the future appeared bright with promise.

Gen. Putnam wrote to Dr. Cutler, about the middle of May: "The men are generally in good health, and I believe much pleased with the country; that I am so myself you may rest assured. I can only add, the situation of the city plat is the most delightful of any I ever saw." And another of the colonists said: "This country, for fertility of soil and pleasantness of situation, not only exceeds my expectations, but exceeds any part of Europe or America I ever was in."

friends could have wished. The aspect of its affairs appeared promising alike to those immediately interested and to those who were outsiders. George Washington wrote from Mt. Vernon on the nineteenth of June, 1788, to Richard Henderson, an inquirer in regard to western lands, the following eulogium of the Ohio company's settlement:

No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as 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.*

But notwithstanding the qualifications of these men of whom Washington wrote in glowing terms; in spite of the fair prospect which opened before the Ohio company, no one of the characteristics mentioned in the letter except "information" was soon to be possessed by the settlement began April 7, 1788, at the Muskingum. "Property and strength" were attained very slowly and only through a long, hard struggle. With its splendid organization, systematic methods and capable men, the Ohio company, there was every reason to believe, would rapidly develop its purchase and present every aspect of thrift and prosperity in its settlements. But there was a great disparity between the actual results achieved and the sanguine expectations which the pioneers indulged. The period of five years of Indian war, which closely followed the inauguration of the settlement, was the principal preventive of progress. Other causes conspired to retard the fulfilment of well grounded hopes. The failure of the Scioto company doubtless led some people to mistrust the ability of the Ohio company to carry out its plans, and the organization suffered in some degree from unwise elements in its own policy, from the failure of its treasurer and from the strong opposition to western settlement which was aroused in New England. When all of the unusual obstacles which lay in the way of the company are considered in addition to those which are common to pioneer life, the small advancement of the colony during the first ten or twenty years of its existence does not seem strange, but on the other hapd there is cause for wonder that the New Englanders in Ohio were not completely and irretrievably overwhelmed.

Relegating to subsequent chapters the sad story of the Indian war, the cessation of improvement and the embarrassment of the Ohio company, which was caused by it, we shall endeavor to give an idea of the earlier impediments to progress and of what was accomplished anterior to 1791. And, that the reader may more thoroughly understand why the increase in population was so small, comparatively, during the earliest years of the settlement, before the Indian war had opened in earnest, let us turn again to glance at the condition of public feeling in Massachusetts. It is a question whether the worst results of the Indian war would not have been averted had not the undue fear of that war restrained emigration.

In other words, if the progress of settlement had not been stayed by the dread of Indian hostilities, would not the Ohio company's colony have become strong enough by 1791 to have passed in perfect safety through the period of five years succeeding. The exact effect upon emigration of the few Indian depredations and hostilities prior to 1791 cannot be known, but the exaggerated stories of border barbarities circulated in New England must have served to keep many a would-be pioneer at home.

But the uncertainty in regard to the attitude of the Indians, at first, and the terror created by the appalling colors in which at a later day pictures of their incursions were painted, were by no means the only agencies operating against emigration.

One of the most potent of the causes tending to defeat the full accomplishment of the Ohio company's plans was the ridicule of western emigration in New England. Timothy Flint, a Massachusetts man, personally acquainted with many of the Ohio company settlers, in his little book on the west,* has the following paragraph describing the feeling which had an existence in the region in which he dwelt:

The first travellers to explore Ohio availed themselves of the full extent of the traveller's privilege in regard to the wonders of this new land of promise and the unparalleled fertility of the soil. These extravagant representations of the grandeur of the vegetation and the fertility of the land at first excited a great desire to emigrate to this new and wonderful region. But some returned with different accounts, in discouragement. . . . A reaction took place in the public mind.

The wags of the day exercised their wit in circulating caricatured and exaggerated editions of the stories of the first adventurers, that there were springs of brandy, flax that bore little pieces of cloth on the stems, enormous pumpkins, and melons and the like. Accounts the most horrible were added of hoop snakes of such deadly malignity that a sting which they bore in their tails, when it punctured the bark of a green tree, instantly caused its leaves tobecome sear and the tree to die. Stories of Indian massacres and barbarities were related in all their horrors. The country was admitted to be fertile, but was pronounced excessively sickly, and poorly balancing by that advantage all these counterpoises of sickness, Indians, copper-headed and hoop snakes, bears, wolves and panthers.

Much of derision seems to have been directed against Dr. Cutler, no doubt because he was a leading man in the Ohio company and because he was an enthusiast. The author from whom we have already quoted, says:

Dr. Cutler, at the time of his being engaged in the speculation of the Ohio company's purchase, had a feud—it is not remembered whether literary, political or religious—with the late learned and eccentric Dr. Bently, of Salem, Massachusetts. Dr. Bently was the chief contributor to a paper, which he afterward edited. The writer still remembers, and can repeat doggerel verses by Dr. Bently upon the departure of Dr. Cutler on his first trip to explore his purchase on the Ohio.

Very interesting reading indeed, would these verses make for the present generation of the men of the west.

One word said against the western country had doubtless more effect than ten said in its favor, and so the few people who returned from the settlement of the Muskingum may have done much to prevent others from journeying thither. One of them, Theophilus Knight, an adventurer to the west in the summer of 1788, said that himself and two companions returned because they did not think "it was so much better than any other country that it would pay a man for carrying a large family to such a

At a later period than that of 'which we have written the opposition to emigration was increased rather than diminished, and derision of the Government and its friends became more general, more outspoken and more broad. It assumed in fact the form of burlesque. One early resident* of Ohio has said:

The powerful engine of caricature was set in motion. I have a distinct recollection of a picture I saw in boyhood, prefixed to a penny anti-moving-to-Ohio pamphlet, in which a stout, ruddy, well-dressed man on a sleek, fat horse, with a label "I am going to Ohio," meets a pale and ghastly skeleton of a man, scarcely half dressed, on the wreck of what was once a horse, already bespoken by the more politic crows, with a rabel "I have been to Ohio."

The attention of the little band of pioneers, who landed at the Muskingum the seventh of April, 1788, was first directed to the building of small cabins or huts for shelter. These were in part constructed of the poplar boards brought from Buffalo creek, and they were of the smallest and rudest kind which would afford any protection from the weather; for a more important work than building comfortable or commodious houses lay before the company. They had to make preparations for those whom they expected soon to arrive, and also to sow and plant that they might have a harvest for their maintenance in the autumn.

The survey was commenced on the ninth of April that the lots might be ready to assign to the new immigrants as soon as they should arrive.

Colonel Ebenezer Sproat and John Mathews, with thirteen men, engaged in this work, but their progress was slow, as General Putnam wrote to a friend, "because of rainy weather and their being obliged to survey so much more land than was expected in order to obtain lands suitable to the purpose. They did not complete their work of laying off the necessary lots until the middle of May. At that time General Putnam wrote: "The city lots will be ready to draw by the first Wednesday of July, as proposed at the meeting in Providence, but the others will not."

While the surveyors were carrying on their work, the remainder of the men were engaged under the immediate supervision of General Putnam in clearing land and deadening timber. The first clearing was at the point, on the east side of the Muskingum, and it is there that the first houses were built. In six days as many acres were cleared, though of course roughly. The forest fell fast under the blows of a score of axes, and by the latter part of May the greater part of the land had been planted. Several small pieces of ground cleared by individual labor—by the several proprietors who were of the pioneer company, or who had arrived later in tne spring—had been planted earlier. But the great cornfield, planted for the common good of the colony, cleared and made ready for a crop by the men in the employ of the Ohio company, was not seeded until the time designated. It included nearly or perhaps quite an hundred

* Judge Timothy Walker, in address delivered before the Ohio Historical and Philosophical society at Cincinnati in 1837, and published in the "Transactions."

and thirty acres, and the settlers were gratified at the richness of the soil which was exhibited by the rapid growth of this fine crop. One letter writer chronicled the fact that "the corn has grown nine inches in twenty- four hours, for two or three days past." It was of this cornfield of which Dr. Cutler, when visiting the colony in August, said: "It astonished me on account of its magnitude. I should be as soon lost in it on a cloudy day as in a cedar swamp." The field occupied a portion of the high plain back of the site of Campius Martius (which was not built until after the crop was planted) and extended southward towards the Ohio, so as to include in its limits the great mound. It must not be understood that all of this land was cleared. In a portion of it the trees were deadened by girdling, and the leaves remaining upon some of them so shaded the ground as to interfere with the growth of the crop. Only about one-third of the field was plowed or harrowed, the rest being broken up for planting with hoes. Very little besides corn was raised the first season.* The other crops planted were chiefly those of the garden, and were grown in small quantity. Beans and potatoes were the principal of these.

During all the time that the labor of surveying, clearing and planting land was going on, we may imagine that the pioneers found much beside to interest them, and to form subjects for conversation. The ancient works with their far extending walls, the great mound, the graded way leading down to the Muskingum, and the huge platforms of earth, or truncated pyramids caused universal wonder alike among the educated and the unlearned, and were carefully examined. There was much to admire in the verduer-clad hills and the beautiful valleys of which the fertility was asserted by the most luxuriant growth of herbage and every variety of plant life which had a home in this latitude. Many strange forms of vegetation greeted the eyes of the curious and admiring. Game was abundant in the woods, and during the first few months richly furnished the rude but substantial larders of the pioneers. Later in the year the Indians drove away or killed off the larger game, but during the summer and early fall of 1788 nearly all varieties of animals and fowl known to the western country abounded in the woods. Hunting was engaged in with zest not alone for the sport which it afforded but for the value of the products of the chase. One of the pioneers writing home reltrew England, says: "We have started twenty buffaloes in a drove. Deer are as plenty as sheep with you. Beaver and otter are abundant. I have known one man to catch twenty or thirty of them in two or three nights. Turkeys are innumerable."

A general feeling of content existed among the settlers. All were pleased with their surroundings, with the climate of the country, the prospect for the future, and the attainments of the first few months. They had reason to be thankful for the enjoyment of good health. As late as

* The first wheat sown in the Ohio company's purchase, and in the State of Ohio, was a small quantity sown near Campus Martius, late in the fall of 1788, by Captain Trueman Guthrie, who brought a small quantity of seed with him from Connecticut.

But one cause of uneasiness remained, though it was probably little thought of except by General Putnam and a few others who occupied stations of responsibility in the colony. Some precaution was deemed necessary to insure safety in case of the manifestations of Indian hostility. The fortification known as Campus Martins (military camp) arose as an expression of this fear, as an evidence of the isolation of the colony and a tangible reminder of its danger. Little did the builders of that defence apprehend the hardships, perils, and atrocities of which its picture reminds their descendants of to-day. General Putnam had suspended the survey about the middle of May, because of the uncertainty of the Indians remaining at peace, but it was resumed and carried on with little interruption—and that not because of hostilities—through the season and, in fact, through the year 1788. Preparations for a treaty had been made soon after the landing of the pioneers, but it was not finally negotiated until the beginning of 1789 (as will be shown in the following chapter). Several times during the summer Captain Pipe of the Delaware tribe and other chiefs and warriors visited Fort Harmar and the little settlement on the east side of the Muskingum. They had dined with General Putnam in his marquee and made great professions of friendship, but had expressed displeasure at the building of houses and planting of crops before the making of a treaty.

Taking into consideration the feeling that existed among the Indians, the Ohio company decided to carry out a plan which should give the settlers protection in case it was needed. The first measure taken toward this work was the cutting of a road through the woods from "the point" where most of the houses were built, to the site which was selected for the stockade, which was a mile away, up the Muskingum. The ground was well chosen. It was the margin of the plain which had once been the bank of the Muskingum. On either side there were small ravines; in the rear .stretched the smooth and gently rising plain, and in the front there was a somewhat abrupt descent to the lowest river terrace which, about one hundred and fifty yards distant, was washed by the Muskingum. The location is best described to those not familiar with it by the statement that it is bounded by Washington and Second streets, respectively upon the south and east. Here in the form of a parallelogram, the sides of which measured one hundred and eighty feet each, was built the stockade which for five years was to be the dwelling place and refuge of a large portion of the Ohio company's colony. The sides were formed of continuous lines of dwelling houses two stories in height. They were constructed of timber four inches thick, sawed by hand, and fitted together at the corners in the same manner as those of a hewed log house. At the corners were block-houses, solidly made and of quite imposing appearance. They were a trifle higher than the houses which formed the sides of the fort, were covered with shapely four square roofs, three of which were surmounted at their apexes with towers intended to be used as sentry boxes, large enough to accommodate four men each. On the fourth there was a tower very similar to the others, but capped with a cupola for the reception of a bell, "which," says a letter writer of the period, "we are told is coming on as a present from a gentleman in Boston."*

The block-houses projected six feet beyond the sides of the stockade. They were twenty feet square at the ground, and the second story of each projected two feet over the lower. Heavy gates were hung at the entrances in the south and west fronts, and over that in the latter (toward the Muskingum) was a house of logs or hewed timber, projecting like the second floors of the corner block-houses. This was intended for the protection of the gate in case of an attack. The watch-towers were found inconvenient of access after the Indian war broke out, and small, square bastions were built at each angle of the stockade for the accommodation of the sentries. In those at the southwest and northeast angles small cannon were placed. In addition to the two rows of windows along the sides of the fort, the walls were pierced with loop-holes for musketry. The houses were nearly all provided with good brick chimneys, the bricks being made upon the ground and burned by men experienced in that line of industry. Good shingle roofs afforded a protection from the weather. Shingle-making was then a difficult and slow work. They were split from blocks about two and a half feet long, and sloped with the axe, and at the end exposed to the weather were nearly or perhaps quite an inch thick. Several of the houses included in Campus Martius were built at private expense, and were finished in detail as the owner's fancy dictated, but all conformed in general design to the plan by the superintendent and considered most advantageous to the general good. There were seventy-two rooms of eighteen feet square and upwards, in this work of defence, and it was estimated that when necessity required nearly nine hundred people could be shielded from an enemy in the enclosure.

As a basis of this estimate it is supposed that twelve persons should occupy a room. Campus Martius, however, never contained half as many people as the number mentioned. In the centre of the enclosure, which measured one hundred and forty-four feet each way, a well eighty feet deep (which still remains in use), was dug to supply water in the event of a siege. Near the well was placed a large sundial made by Major Anselm Tupper, which marked the flight of time—slow albeit—through all the Indian war, and was kept for many years as an interesting relic of the pioneers.

Although the greater part of the work of building Campus Martius was accomplished during the first year

Upon information from Colonel May that Mr. Joseph May, of Boston, bad presented a bell to the Ohio company for the first public buirding to be erected in the territory of the company, and such building ordered by the agents,

Resolved, That the thanks of the company be presented to that gentleman, and the directors be requested to take measures for transferring it from Boston to the Muskingum.

{This sundial was owned for many years by A. T. Nye, esq., and was consumed in his hardware store on the occasion of the great fire in Marietta in 1857.

of the settlement, and in fact much of it by August, the details of the defence were not completed until the Indian war broke out in earnest in 1791. The illustration represents it at that time in its finished state. Rows of palings were planted from corner to corner of the blockhouses, sloping outward at an angle of forty-five degrees, and supported by posts and railing. At a distance of twenty feet from these sharp raking pickets, and surrounding the entire work, was a line of heavy palings eight or ten feet in height; and again outside of this there was an abatis formed of the boughs of trees with the smaller limbs pointed and projecting outwards. The work thus perfected was almost absolutely impregnable. It is probable that the obvious strength of the defence discouraged attack, for during the whole period of Indian disturbance no attempt was made against it, and so far as is known no plan ever formed for an assault.

Campus Martius, judging from the picture of it (which is in all essential matters historically correct), must have presented a striking appearance with its background of fields and wooded hills, and really have merited the enthusiastic words of one of the pioneers, who, in writing home, said it was "the handsomest pile of buildings on this side of the Allegliany mountains."

Upon the shore of the Muskingum, directly in front of the stockaded fort, was constructed a substantial timber wharf at which lay moored the Mayflower, the lesser craft and canoes when not in use, plying back and forth between Campus Martius and Fort Harmar, or "the point."

Beside the dwellings in Campus Martius about twenty- five, mostly at "the point," were built during the season.

We must now return to the narralive of some important history of the year 1788 over which we have passed in chronicling the building of Campus Martius.

The first company of pioneers of the Ohio company's settlement were followed to the shores of the Muskingum during the summer of 1788 by many more, of whom some were adventurers, but the majority people seeking permanent homes.

In May came General Samuel Holden Parsons, a man already familiar with the western country, who was now under appointment as judge of the territory. Also in the same month there arrived Captain William Dana, Ebenezer Battelle, Major Jonathan Haskell, Colonel Israel Putnam,

Aaron Waldo Putnam, Major Robert Bradford, Jonathan Stone, Major Winthrop Sargent, Colonel William Stacey, and Colonel John May.* The latter came down the river from Pittsburgh with quite a party, not all of whom, however, were settlers. He hat made note of the fact that on board of the boat forty-two feet long were "twenty-seven men, two cows, two calves, seven hogs and nine dogs, besides eight tons of baggage."

* Colonel John May, of Boston, kept a journal which has been published and is very interesting reading for the antiquarian and student of western history. We shall have frequent occasion to quote from it. It appears from this journal that Colonel May arrived at "the delightful Muskingum" at three o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, May 26th. Colonel May was one of the agents of the Ohio company. He cherished the hope of settling permanently in the colony, but did not realize it. He died in Boston in 1812.

In the month of June there were many more arrivals, among them Hon. James M. Varnum, judge of the territory, Major Dean Tyler, Griffin and Charles Greene, Colonel Joseph Thompson, Dr. Jabez True and Paul Fearing. The two last named are known to have arrived on the sixteenth. Judge Varnum, as is shown by Colonel May's journal, came upon the fifth, "with about forty souls in company."

Judge Varnum, one of the ablest and noblest men in the Ohio company's colony, was an invalid when he came to the Muskingum. His wife was unable to accompany him. James Owen and wife were of his party, and Mrs. Owen acted as his nurse until death claimed him, early in 1789. She was the first woman who settled in the Ohio company's colony. There were, however, several at Fort Harmar, the wives of the officers, before the arrival of the forty-seven pioneers. They could not be called with propriety settlers. They were merely temporary sojourners at a United States military post. The Owen family did not remain in the country through the Indian war, but returned soon after, and were known as most estimable people. Some of their descendants now reside in Washington county. Mrs. Owen performed very valuable humane services during the prevalence of small-pox in Marietta in 1790, and from this fact, and also, perhaps, in consideration of her being the first woman inhabitant of Marietta, the Ohio company gave her one of the donation lots of one hundred acres in extent. The family emigrated from South Kingston, Rhode Island. Mrs. Owen died in 1800* and her husband ten years later.

No other families arrived in the settlement until August. f On the nineteenth of that month six families landed. They were those of General Benjamin Tupper, Colonel Ichabod Nye (son-in-law of the former) Major Nathaniel Cushing, Major Nathan Goodale, Major Asa Coburn, sr., and Andrew Webster, his son-in-law. The first four mentioned reached Wellsburgh (Buffalo creek), Virginia, in July, and waited there six weeks for Major Coburn and Andrew Weber. Colonel Ichabod Nye left them, and with two single men came down the river on the Virginia side, bringing the horses. He arrived August 9th. The ladies of the above families, within a day or two after their arrival, were called upon by the wives of the officers at the fort and soon invited them to partake of the hospitality that the garrison afforded. Other families came out later, but the dates of their arrival, with one or two exceptions, have not been preserved. The family of Ebenezer Battelle undoubtedly landed in December. He had come out in May, with Colonel John May, but went to Baltimore to meet his

+ With the party who arrived on the nineteenth of August was one man who had a keen and curious interest in seeing the territory owned by the Ohio company. That man was the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, who had negotiated the purchase with Congress—a leading man in the counsels of the company from the first. He came not as a settler, but as an observer of the colony he had been so largely influential in planting upon the Ohio. He remained at Marietta until the ninth of September, and then went up the river with Colonel Vigo to Pittsburgh, from whence he returned to Massachusetts.

family in October. Colonel Robert Oliver's family arrived November filth, as is shown by a letter written that day by Rowena Tupper. She says: "What, do I hear below? Colonel Oliver is now landing. I fly to meet them." Arrivals were, indeed, the cause of excitement and joy to a degree which can hardly be realized in this age of quick mail and telegraph facilities. Altogether, says General Putnam, fifteen families arrived during 1788. Hildreth says the same. But in a list made of settlers, General Putnam gives the names of nineteen families who were in Marietta before the close of the year. There were sixteen at least whose names have been preserved, as follows: General Benjamin Tupper, Andrew Webster, Colonel Ichabod Nye, James Owen; Nathaniel Cushing, Asa Coburn, sr., Major Nathan Goodale, Asa Coburn jr., Benjamin Converse, Griffin Greene, Charles Greene, Benoni Hurlburt, Nathaniel Moody, Israel Pierce, Robert Oliver, and Ebenezer Battelle. Commodore Abraham Whipple was a noted arrival of this year. Colonel Ichabod Nye says in his autobiography that "during the fall five or six other families arrived and other adventurers and workmen. Some had returned to New England for their families. The winter began with about a hundred or more in the settlement." Rufus Putnam states that in addition to the pioneer party eighty-four men came to the settlement during 1788, making in all one hundred and thirty-two.*

General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, arrived in Marietta on the ninth of July. He had been commissioned by Congress October 16, 1787, the commission to take effect on the first of February, 1788. At the time of his appointment he was president of Congress, but prior to that had been a general in the Revolutionary war ; had fought gallantly in the French and Indian war, and carried a standard at the storming of Quebec, in 1759. Like most of the Revolutionary officers, he was impoverished by the long struggle for independence. + He was undoubtedly in full sympathy with the worn-out veterans who were the leading men of the only English settlement in the territory he was to govern, and his appointment was certainly agreeable to their desires. His arrival was an event of importance to the little community. "This," says Colonel May, "is in a sense the birthday of this western world." Hitherto law had only a nominal existence. Now government was to be organized; the governor was to dwell in the new settlement. It had already been foreseen by some of the leading men of the Ohio company that when other settlements were founded the governor might make one of them his residence. This they wished to prevent. Colonel May who, when on his way to the Muskingum, met St. Clair at Pittsburgh, and felt obliged to tarry and make him a visit, says:

For one I confess I am moved to the visit by two motives; one the respect due to the governor of the Western Territory; the other, a little selfish, as we wish him to make the Muskingum the seat of government and place of his residence. And we have no doubt if proper at-

*The subject of settlement is briefly treated here, as a full and correct list of the settlers of 1788, 1789 and 1790 is presented at the conclusion of this chapter.

tention is paid to these -littre matters, as well as to those of great er magnitude, the object will be accomplished."

The formal reception of the governor was postponed until the fifteenth, but "his landing was announced by the discharge of fourteen cannon, and all rejoiced at his coming."t He was domiciled at Fort Harmar.

In the afternoon of the day set for the official welcoming, the governor came over to the Marietta side of the Muskingum in the barge belonging to Fort Harmar, on the oars of which, we are told, the word "Congress" was painted in bright letters. He was escorted by the garrison officers and by Major Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the territory, and was received, says Hildreth, "by General Putnam, the judges of the territory, and the principal inhabitants of the new colony." The formal inauguration of government in the Northwest Territory took place in the "Bowery," which was not as might be supposed one of Nature's shady temples but a structure reared with hands.$ The secretary read the Ordinance of Freedom, the commission of the governor, those of the judges, and his own; a short address of welcome was made to his excellency and "three cheers closed the ceremonies of the day." The people generally were presented to Governor St. Clair and the utmost good feeling prevailed. One of the officers present wrote of the occasion "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. Shortly after this occasion, and within the month of July, the first laws of the territory were framed and published, and Washington county was established—but of these subjects we shall speak elsewhere.

Another interesting ceremonial which occurred not long after the governor's arrival in the colony was the opening of the first court in the Northwest Territory. The demonstration was simple from necessity; there was not much of pomp or splendor in the ceremony, but it must have been suggestive to the denizens of this isolated pioneer settlement df an idea that was majestic. The formal establishment of the institution which is at once the people's palladium and the organized exemplar of civilization's most distinctive force and characteristic quality, could not have been other than an absorbingly interesting incident in the lives of those who witnessed it. On Tuesday, the second of September, 1788, the people and the officers from Fort Harmar formed in procession at "the point" and marched to Campus Martins, escorting the governor, territorial judges, and the judges of the court of common pleas. In front was the sheriff of the county of Washington, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, tall, erect and of a fine military bearing, with his drawn sword and wand of office. The spectacle was a strange one to the few friendly Indians who were present, for it was the first

7++ Our long bowery is built on the east bank of the Muskingum."— Colonel May's journal, page 78.

ceremonial which they had seen the white men perform, and it doubtless had upon their minds an awing effect. Arrived at the garrison the procession filed into the northwest corner of the block-house, and the great hall was filled with people. The Rev. Manasseh Cutler opened the exercises of the day with solemn prayer. The commissions of the judges, the clerk, and the sheriff were then read, after which the court of common pleas of Washington county was opened for business by the proclamation of the sheriff, beginning in the old form with the monitory, "Oyez, oyez, oyez." "Although this scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the State, few ever equalled it in the dignity and exalted character of its principal participators." As there were no cases to be tried, the court was immediately adjourned. The first judges were General Rufus Putnam, General Benjamin Tupper, and Colonel Archibald Crary, the sheriff, as has been stated, Colonel Sproat, and the clerk, Colonel R. J. Meigs. Paul Fearing, esq., was admitted an attorney, and was the first in the territory.

The Ohio company was actively engaged during the whole of the period that has been sketched. Consideration of the unforseen difficulties which arose occupied much of the time of the directors and agents. New plans had to be devised and put in operation, and in many cases measures which had been deemed adequate to the end in view had to be materially modified to meet existing circumstances. The progress of the company's affairs, although for the most part smooth enough, was not entirely without the halting and unevenness which indicated cross purposes On the part of some of the members. There was something in the way of internal strife, though it was not serious. Colonel May gives some intimation of this in an entry in his journal:

General Varnum and his party are making difficulties about the eight acre lots not being drawn contiguous to the city; also with respect to the Scioto purchase. . . . General Putnam did not strictly adhere to orders given at Brackett's tavern at Boston and Rice's at Providence. +

The same writer found considerable fault with the slow progress that had been made in the company's colony, late in May, the day after his arrival, jotting down the following language:

As to our surveying, buildings, etc., they are in a very backward way. Little appears to be done and a great deal of time and money misspent.

The first meeting of the Ohio company, west of the mountains, was held July 2nd, and continued by adjournment, until August 14th. There were present Samuel Holden Parsons, Rufus Putnam, and James M. Varnum, directors, and the following agents (each of whom represented the number of shares indicated): Colonel John May, 36; Major Winthrop Sargent, 166; Colonel Archibald Crary, 102; Major William Corliss, 112; Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, 99; Captain Aaron Barlow, 25; Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, 43; Major Haffield White, 20; General Putnam, 66. Total shares represented, 669.

kingum was named Marietta. Among transacted the first day, was the action it the

three-acre ,lots. It was moved, as a meas. looking toward the safety and well-being of the colony, "that the lots 21, 30, and fractional parts of 35 and 36, of township number 2, in range 8, and numbers 19, 25, and 20, and fractional parts of 31 in the third township of range 8, the same being in commons laid out adjoining the city, be laid out in one thousand and five three-acre lots."

The mile square section No. 29, reserved out of every township for the support of religion, happening to be that on which the city was laid out, the company made a strenuous effort to have an exception made in this case. It was proposed to Congress that other lands should be reserved instead of this section, but the arrangement could not be effected. Hence it was given up, greatly to the disappointment of the proprietors, and other lots were laid out at the mouth of the great Hockhocking. Portions of the section, however, were leased for a term of years. Section No. i6, set apart for the use of schools, which fell near the mouth of Duck Creek, was also leased in lots. The common lands, "between the highway and Muskingum and in Market square," it was decided might be assigned to individuals for gardens for the term of ten years (from March 1, 1788), on condition that they should be cleared within two months, fenced by March 1, 1792, and that within three years trees should be set out.

The ancient works received attention at this meeting. It was resolved that the elevated square, No. I t, be called Quadranaou; No. 19, Capitolium; No. 6x, Cecelia; and that "the great road through the covert way" be named Sacra Via. It was further resolved that the reserved public square in the city, including the buildings at the block-house, be called Campus Martius.

The company took action on many matters intended to advance the interests of the colonists. and among the other resolutions which, appear in their record* is the following, under date of August 13, 1788:

WHEREAS, It is necessary that mills be erected as soon as possible, it is ordered that any persons who shall build a wind-mill on the banks of the Ohio, and near the mouth of the Muskingum, by the frrst of December next, shall have right to occupy a tract of land one hundred and fifty feet east and west and two hundred feet north and south for a term of twenty years.

This tempting offer was not accepted, and it was not until sometime later that the colonists had the benefit of a mill within the limits of their purchase.

"It soon became evident," says General Putnam, "that some new plan must be adopted to divide lands or the settlement would come to naught, and to remedy this the proprietors were notified to meet at Marietta the first Wednesday of December, 1788, and devise a plan. This they failed to do, and the agents, under the circumstances, conceiving that they had the authority to act in the matter, on February 6, 1789, repealed the resolutions for the division of lands passed at Boston November 21, 1787, and adopted the following:

Resolved, That there shall be granted to persons who shall settle in such places within the purchase as the agents may think most conducive to advance the general interest of the proprietors, and under such restrictions and limitations as they shall think proper, lands not exceeding one hundred acres, out of each share in the fund of the company, and that a committee be appointed to investigate the purchase so far as may, in their opinion, be necessary in order to point out and fix upon proper plans and praces for settlements.

As early as July this matter had been under consideration. The inability of the directors to dispose of any lands within the purchase had prevented the growth of the settlement, for thousands of emigrants had passed down the Ohio, many of whom it was believed would have located in the Ohio company's purchase had they been able to buy lands. Most of them were on their way to Kentucky but were not the owners of any lands there. General Putnam, Samuel Parsons, and Colonel Archibald Crary, who were appointed a committee for the consideration of this matter, rehearsed the foregoing facts to the shareholders and made a report, in concluding which they said: "We are of the opinion that giving a part of the lands to industrious people, on performing certain duties in settling, clearing, etc., will be very much for the interest of the proprietors." It was in accordance with this spirit that the action was taken by the agents which we have above indicated.

A committee, consisting of General Rufus Putnam, John Dodge, Griffin Greene, Alexander Oliver, Jonathan Devol, Colonel Robert Oliver, R. J. Meigs, Captain Dana, and Major Nathan Goodale, was appointed to explore the purchase and select suitable locations for settlements. It was decided to grant lands in one hundred acre parcels as contemplated by the resolution, and it was further provided that "no settlement should consist of less than twenty men able to bear arms, they to be well provided with arms and ammunition, and to erect such works of defense as should be appointed by the committee. The company made the following further requirements, viz: Each settler to furnish lands for highways when needed; to build, within five years, a dwelling house to be at least eighteen by twenty-four feet in dimensions; to plant not less than fifty apple and twenty peach trees within three years; to clear and put in meadow or pasture fifteen acres and into tillage not less than five acres within five years; to be constantly provided with arms and be subject to military duty.

The time had now arrived when Marietta should put forth her first off-shoot. Among the locations favorably mentioned by the exploring committee was the tract of land extending along the Ohio, a short distance above and four or five miles below the Little Kanawha, terminating two miles above the Little Hocking, and the broad alluvial bottom below the latter stream. During the winter of 1788-89 lots were surveyed and platted in these localities, and a company of about forty associates (as they were called) was organized to make a settlement. In reality there were four settlements (the lower being usually called Newbury), and they included sixty-eight lots. The lots being drawn the settlers began moving onto them early in April, 1789. Here the same slow, hard processes were repeated, which had resulted in the attainment of the improved condition of things at the mouth of the Muskingum. The settlers built little cabins along the river bank, clearing away the forest around them. The community was made up of men of sterling character—most of them schooled in the long struggle of the Revolutionary war for the future that was before them. They began hopefully and toiled on in privation, patiently enduring the many hardships of their lot, and endeavoring to see in the future a reward for their labors. They did not know how soon they should suffer other ills than those which they already encountered, but the time was fast approaching when the fortitude of every man should be put to the severest test. This group of settlements was called Belle Prairie, which term became contracted to Belleprie, and finally to the present form—Belpre.

What was called the "second association" was formed also in the winter of 1788-89, for the purpose of making a settlement about twenty miles up the Muskingum on an allotment of donation lands, and also upon Wolf creek. The association numbered thirty-nine members and being afterward increased by the addition of one new member, took forty lots of one hundred acres each. A village, now Beverly, was laid out on the "peninsula," on the west side of the Muskingum and in a bend of Wolf creek. The settlement was made on the twentieth of April, 1789, by nineteen men, who leaving Campus Martins rowed up the Muskingum in canoes to the place of their destination. By the middle of May cabins were built for each family and gardens made. By the middle of July corn was growing among the girdled trees and upon the fertile plain, which had probably been tilled by the Indians, as when the settlement wag made it was covered only with bushes and small saplings. A blockhouse was also erected during the summer. As the Wolf creek settlement was made simultaneously with that on the Muskingum (and, in fact, depending upon it) Colonel Robert Oliver, Major Haffield White, and Captain John Dodge, with a company of laborers erected what was known as the Wolf Creek mills, the first mill in the State of Ohio. This name was applied not alone to the building but to the settlement—the little cluster of houses which were also erected at this point, one mile from the mouth of the creek, though the term Millersburgh was also often used. These two settlements (that upon the Muskingum and that upon Wolf creek) were covered by one name, Plainfield, which, however, remained in use but a short time, being superseded by Waterford. The mill was of great service to the settlers in the immediate vicinity and also to the people of Marietta, both before and during the war. We have now mentioned briefly the two principal offshoots of the Marietta colony.* There were several other small settlements made prior to the war. In the fall of 1790 an association of thirty- six members founded the ill-fated settlement at Big Bottom, which is fully described in the following chapter.

* For a full account of the early affairs of Belpre and Waterford the reader should see the chapters devoted respectively to them, and for the occurrences during the Indian war, the two chapters which follow this.

The same season a block-house was built for twenty men at Meigs creek, and a few settlers took up hundred acre donation lots at the forks of Duck creek, and in the meantime a few cabins appeared along the Ohio from the Muskingum to Duck creek.

Lands had been granted Captain Enoch Shepherd early in 1789, for the erection of mills on Duck creek, but the project did not result successfully, and Shepherd and his partners, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat and Thomas Stanley, lost all of the time and money they had expended. This saw-mill was completed in September, 1789, but a flood so injured it and the dam that they could not easily be repaired, and as the Indian war soon afterwards came on, the enterprise was abandoned.

In the year 1790 one hundred and twenty acres of land was granted Dudley Woodbridge in section three, township number four, range eleven, on condition that he should build a good horse-mill, and at the same time Robert Potts, from New London, Connecticut, was given permission to build a mill, and land was granted him fur that purpose on Mill creek, two miles north of Marietta. Neither of these projects was realized, because of the more frequent occurrence of Indian hostilities which indicated an increased hazard in following any occupation, which necessitated removal from the immediate vicinity of the garrisons. The Robert Potts mill building was nearly completed when the danger became so great as to cause the workmen to abandon the building, and it was soon after destroyed by the Indians.

It must be borne in mind that during the years 1789 and 1790 the settlers were almost constantly harassed by the savage neighbors; and several murders were committed, but we have reserved for full consideration in subsequent chapters the topics of Indian affairs and the period of war.

Another grist-mill was projected by some of the Belpre settlers, among whom were Griffin Greene and Robert Bradford. The mouth of the Little Hocking was chosen as the location and the Ohio company donated to the builders a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land. Work was begun in 1790 under the supervision of two experienced millwrights from Redstone, Pennsylvania, and very gratifying progress made, but the opening of the Indian war in January, 1791, put a stop to operations, and no mill was erected at this locality until after the restoration of peace. The people returned to the laborious method of grinding their corn by hand or pounding it in mortars until the completion of the famous floating mill, at Belpre, built by Captain Jonathan Devol, an ingenious mechanic, at the suggestion of Griffin Greene, who had seen one in Holland a number of years before. This mill was built upon two boats, one a large canoe made from a sycamore tree trunk, and the other a flat boat forty-five feet in length and ten feet wide. The grinding stones were placed upon the largest boat and the water wheel between this and the smaller. A small frame house was erected over the machinery. When the mill was in readiness for use it was towed to a point not far from Farmers Castle, and abreast of the middle of Backus' (afterward Blannerhassett's) island, where it was anchored in a strong current. This mill was owned by seven persons, and the capital of the stock company which they formed was divided into twelve shares. The cost of construction was fifty-one pounds and eight shillings in Massachusetts currency. This was quite a large sum of money to be expended at that time, but it proved a good investment. The situation of the mill rendered it safe from destruction at the hands of the Indians, and it was of immense service during the whole period of the war, not alone to the people of Belpre, but to the residents of Marietta as well. It is said that from twenty- five to fifty bushels of grain could be ground per day at this mill, according to the swiftness of the current.

Turning backward chronologically to the year 1789, we see in Marietta a continuation of the work of improvement carried on so diligently in 1788. The settlement felt severely the loss of those men who had gone out to Belpre and Waterford, for although quite a large number of accessions were made to the population, not many of the late corners were men to be compared in character with those who had taken their departure.

The results accomplished showed plainly the loss, for although the best was done under the circumstances, no more corn was planted than during the first season, and comparatively little building or other improvement was carried on.

General Varnum died in January of this year, and his place as director of the Ohio company was filled by the election of Griffin Greene. 'The company in February passed a resolution ordering that "the seventh of April should forever be considered as a day of public festival in the territory of the company." The Rev. Daniel Story, of Massachusetts, employed by Dr. Cutler for the Ohio company as preacher and teacher, arrived in the spring and began his labors as chaplain of the new settlement. He preached not only at Campus Martius and the Point, but made pastoral visits to Belpre and Waterford, using on those occasions a log canoe. His visits were made quite regularly through the years 1789 and 1790, and only suspended when the danger from Indian attacks was considered too great.

The Ohio company continued in the exercise of its wise and kindly policy toward the people in its settlements. The surveys were continued when the attitude of the Indians would permit, and donation allotments were surveyed in several localities, amounting in all to fifty-seven thousand acres.

The condition of healthfulness among the settlers, which has been remarked upon as existing through the summer of 1788 did not prevail during the two years following, and a dearth of food became an additional and serious evil. Under these circumstances the Ohio company humanely came to the assistance of its people and made small loans without interest to those among them who were sick or destitute, supplying a total of about three thousand dollars. Much of this sum was lost, as when the Indian war came on many of the settlers were unable to carry on their avocations by which they otherwise would have obtained money with which to discharge their indebtedness.

In the summer of 1790 General Putnam, who had contracted with William Duer, of the Scioto company, to erect houses at Gallipolis for the expected French emigrants, employed, at his own expense, Captain William Burnham and forty men, to perform the work. General Putnam expended two thousand dollars, which was a total loss. The Scioto company had been premature in selling lands and inducing emigration before they had completed their purchase of Congress. The company failed, and Duer became a bankrupt. The poor duped Frenchmen arrived in this country in the summer, and on the sixteenth of October were at Marietta on their way to the village which Putnam's men had built for them. They came to Marietta in six Kentucky flatboats, and numbered four hundred souls. The odd dress, wooden shoes, and strange tongue of the emigrants made them the subject of much curious observation, and awakened a general interest among the settlers. There was no little pity for these unfortunate foreigners among those at Marietta who knew the probabilities in regard to their losing the lands which they expected to settle upon, and the almost penniless condition of the majority made their situation doubly deplorable. All that was possible was done to make their condition bearable, and a few of the French who remained permanently at Marietta were cared for until able to provide for their own wants. The greater proportion of the four hundred tarried briefly and went on to Gallipolis, and, owing to the troubles which soon after beset the Ohio company settlers, the woes of the French were less thought of than would otherwise have been the case. The Ohio company was obliged to exert every power to provide for its own emigrants. The total number of men in the company's territory was now upwards of three thousand. The total number arrived was about five hundred, but fully two-fifths had come as adventurers, or if emigrating with the intention of making a permanent settlement, had either returned to New England, or sought homes in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Kentucky. During the first year the number of males who came to the colony was one hundred and thirty-three; during 1789 the number was one hundred and fifty-two, and during 1790, one hundred and sixty-five. Nearly one hundred families had come to the settlement during the three years.

arrivals in the Ohio company's purchase during the first three years of settlement.

[The list does not include the members of the pioneer party who arrived April 7th.]

Bryant, Bazaleel,

Battelle, Ebenezer, family,

Cushing, Nathaniel, family,

Converse, James,

Crary, Frederick,

Cheever, Lot,

Coburn, Asa, family,

Coburn, Nicholas,

Dana, Luther,

Denney, Samuel,

Dunham, Daniel, family (1789),

Dorrenie, Samuel,

Eldridge, Sylvanus,

Fuller, Oliver,

Greene, Richard,

Greene, Charles, family,

Goodale, Mayor Nathan, family,,

Gridley, William, family (1789),

Hart, Selah,

Holland,

Kimble, Ephraim,

Knight, Theophilus,

Lasa, John,

Lunt, William P.

Lord, Thomas,

Minot, James,

Mitchell, John,

Matthewson, Jeffrey,

McGuffey, Neil,

Owen, James, family,

Pierce, Stephen, family (1789),

Oliver Robert, family,

Oliver, Launcelot,,

Putnam, Israel,

Rice, Oliver,

Stratton, John,

Skinner, John,

Stanley, Elias

Stacey, Col. William, family (1789),

Tupper, General Benjamin, family,

Tyler, Dean,

Tupper, Edward W.,

Vamum, James (died Jan. 1789),

Woodward, Levi,

Whittemore, Ebenezer,

Backus, James,

Brayman, James

Converse, Benjamin, family,

Crary, Archibald,

Cheever, Joshua

Chouchip, Jeffrey

Coburn, jr., Asa, family,

Dana, William, family (1789)

Dana, Edmund,

Dicks, Nathan

Delano, Cornelius,

Elliott, Richard

Fearing, Paul

Greene, Griffin, family

Greene, Philip

Gilbert, Jonathan

Goodale, Timothy

Hurlburt, Benoni, family,

Hutchinson, Thomas

Ingersoll, George

Knowles, Charles

Kerr, Hamilton

Lunt, Ezra

Leach, James

Laughton, Dick (half Indian)

Miller, John (half Indian)

Mitchell, Samuel

Mathews, Abel

Moody, Nathaniel, family,

Nye, Ichabod, family

Parsons, Samuel H.

Pierce, Israel, family,

Oliver, Alexander, family

Oliver, William,

Putnam, Waldo A.

Sargent, Winthrop

Stratton, Samuel

Stone, Jonathan, family (1789)

Stebbins, Samuel

Shipman, Joshua, family (1789)

True, Jabez

Tupper, Judah (died in war)

Tupper, jr., Benjamin,

Wright, Simeon

Webster, Andrew, Family,

[In all eighty-five men, making with the first party forty-eight, a total of one hundred and thirty-three arrivals of males during the year.]

* Among the papers of General Putnam there appears a list of the settlers in the Ohio company's purchase during the years 1788, 1789 and 1790, or to the opening of the Indian war. This list, which is undoubtedly reliable, forms the only complete record of the settlement of Washington county, and has never heretofore appeared in print. It includes all who came to the county during the years above mentioned, except those men who were hired by the Ohio company, most of whom had no intention of remaining permanently in the colony. Many of those whose names are given did not continue in the Ohio company's lands, but either removed to other settlements in Ohio, Virginia or Kentucky or returned to New England. Those who remained through the Indian war (or fell victims to it) are indicated by a star. The French settlers, and those who removed to Gallipolis (quite a large class) are designated by General Putnam, and as we have thought that part of the record might be of interest to many readers, it is copied with the original indications or notes opposite the names. The whole is a literal transcript of the original document by the painstaking and careful superintendent of the colony.

[The total number of men who arrived during 1789 was one hundred and fifty-two, and the number of families fifty one.]

[The total number of arrivals (men) in 1790, was two hundred; inclusive of French one hundred and sixty-five— number of families thirty-one. Of the whole number of French people, thirty-five men and two families remained some time at Marietta.]