Adams County, Ohio - Chapter 3, 1880

Chapter 3

We can at this late day. but faintly imagine the outlook that presented itself to the view of the pioneers and their feelings, when they first landed upon the borders of the wilderness in which they were to fnakc their homes.

Before them lay the boundless wilderness covered with a dense forest of trees that were in many places interlaced and festooned with the wild grape vines, which also frequently covered the smaller timber with their closely intertwined branches that made an almost impenetrable canopy of green. Through these forests roamed countless numbers of ferocious wild beasts, as well as the savage and cruel Indian, while beneath his feet lurked venomous reptiles.

A wilderness of great extext, presenting the virgin face of nature, unchanged by human cultivation or art, is one of the most sublime terrestrial objects which the Creator ever presented to tlio view of man.

One prominent feature, of a wilderness is its . solitude. Those who plunged into this forest left behind them not only the busy hum of men, but domestic animal life generally. The parting rays of the sun did not receive the requiemsjof the feathered songsters of the grove, nor was the dawning of tlio early morn, udicrod in by the shrill clarion of the domestic fowls. The solitude of the night was interrupted only by the howl of tlio wolf, the melancholy moan of the ill boding owl, or (he shriek of tlio frightful panther. Even tho faithful dog, the only steadfast companion of man among the brute creation, partook of the silence of the desert; tho discipline of his master forbid him to bark or move, but in obedience to bis command, and bis native sagacity, soon taught him tho propriety of obedience to this severe government. Tho clay was, if possible, more solitary than the night. Tho noiso of the wild turkey, the croaking of the raven, or the wood-pecker tapping the hollow beech tree, did not much enliven tlio dreary scene. The cravings of hunger often compelled him from day lodas tosustaiu the fatigues of the chase. Eager in the pursuit of his game his too much excited immaginatiou, sometimes presented him with the phantom of the object of his chase, in a bush, a log, or mossy bank, and occasioned him to waste a load of his ammiinilion, more precious than gold, on a creature of his own brain, and he repaid himself tho expense by making, a joke of his mistake. His situation was not without its dangers. lie did not know at what tread his foot might bo stung by a serpent, at what moment ho might be met by tlio formidable bear, or if in the evening, ho know not, on what limb of a tree, over his bead, tlio murderous panther might be perched, in a squatting attitude, to drop down upon, and tear him to pieces in a moment. 'When watching a deer lick from his blind at night, the formidable. panther was often his rival in the same business, and if by hi&growl, or otherwise, the man discovered the presence of his rival, the lord of tho world always retired as speedilyjand secretly as possible, leav: ng him the undisturbed possession of tljc chance of game for ho night. 1 1 is situation was perilous in tho extreme. The bite < a serpent, a broken limb, a wound of any kind, or sickness without medical skill, without those accommodations which wounds and sickness require, was a dreadful calamity.

Organization Of The Territory

The United States having secured title to the "Great Northwest," Congress soon deemed it advisable to take the preliminary steps looking to the permanent establishment of civil government in the new and extensive territory of which that body had just become the legal custodian. Accordingly, after much mature deliberation and careful consideration of the subject, as well as prolonged discussion of the important questions involved, they, on the 13th of July. 1787, gave to the world the results of their deliberations in "An ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States north-west of the river Ohio," which has come to be best known as "The Ordinance of '87," sometimes also called "The Ordinance of Freedom." This ordinance was the fundamental law.

First Officers Of The Territory

Congress, in October, 1787, appointed General An Him* St. Clair, Governor, Major Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, and James M. Varnum, Samuel II. Parsons, and John Armstrong, Judges of the Territory ; the latter of whom, however, having declined the appointment, John Clcves Symmes was appointed in his stead in February, 1788. General St. Clair arrived at Marietta, and finding *hc Secretary and a majority of the Judges present, proceeded to organize the Territory. The Governor and the Judges - ora majority of them - were the sole legislative power during tho existence of the first grade of Territorial government. Such laws as were in force in any of the States and were deemed applicable to the condition of the people of the Territory, could be adopted by the Governor and Judges, and after publication, became operative, unless disapproved of by Congress to which body certified copies of all laws thus adopted had to be forwarded by the Score tary of the Territory.

The further duty of the Judges, who were appointed to serve during good behavior, was to hold court four times a year, whenever the business of the Territory required it. but not more than once a year in any one count)*.

Second Grade Of Territorial Government

The "Ordinance of '87," provided that "After it shall have been ascertained that five thousand lY white male inhabitants actual reside in the Territory, the seen: grade of Territorial government could of right, be establish^ which provided for a Legislative council, and also nil elect i* House of Representatives, the two composing the law-inakii power of the Territory, provided always that the Governor's absent to their acts was had. lie possessed tlio absolute veto power, and no act of the two Houses of the Legislature, even if passed by a unanimous vote in each branch, could become a law without his consent. The conditions that authorized the scebnd grade of Territorial government, however, did not e^iist until 1798, audit was not really put in operation until September, 1799. after the first grade of government had existed for eleven years."

As St. Clair, who had bcoi\ appointed £Jovcrnor the preceding October, bad not arrived, it became necessary lo erect a temporary government for tficir internal security, for w.liMi purpose, a set of laws was passed and published by being nailed to a tree in the village, and Return Jonathan Meigs was appointed to administer them. This was tlio first rode of written law* ever adapted | in Ohio, though what it was we arc not informed.

tiuitc a number of laws were necessarily mioptcil and established during 1788 and the following year. From 171)0 to 1795 they published sixty-four, tbirtv-four of them having been adopted at Cincinnati during the months of June, July, and August of the last named year, by the Governor and Judges Symmes and Turner. Tlicr are known as the "Maxwell Code," from the name of the publisher, and woro intended, says the author of - Western Annals,'' to form a pretty complete body of statutory provisions." In 1798clcvcn more were adopted. It was the published opinion of the late Chief Justice Chase, "that it maybe doubted whether any colony, at so early a period after its first establishment, ever had so good a code of laws." Among thorn was that "which provided that the common law of England, and all statutes in aid thereof, made previous to the fourth year of James ]. should bo in full force within the Territory." Probably fmir-lifths of the laws adopted were selected from those in forco in lVnusvlvania : the others were mainly taken from the statutes of

Vuioro the earliest laws adopted wasono which provided foilin'institution of a county court of common pleas, to ho eompos. d of not less than three nor more than live Judges, commissioned hv the Governor, who were to hold two sessions in each vear. Pursuant to its provisions, the first session of said court was li,, id and for Washington county, September 2, 1788. The .1 udircs of the court were Gen. Rufus Putnam, Gen. Benjamin Tapper, and Col. Archibald Crary. Col. Return Jonathan Meigs was Clerk, and Col. Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff. Elaborate details of the opening of this, the first court held in the North-west Territorv. liaVe come down to us. showing it to have been a stylish. dignified proceeding. Briefly, "a procession was formed at the Point (the junction of the Muskingnm with the Ohio River) of the inhabitants and the officers from Fort Harmar, who escorted the Judge of the court, the Governor of the Territory, and the Territorial Judges to the hall appropriated for that purpose, in the North-west block-house in "Campus Martius." "The procession.'' says Mitchencr," was headed by the Sheriff, witli draws sword and baton of office." "After prayer by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the court was organized by reading the commissions of the Judges Clerk, and Sheriff; after which the Sheriff proclaimed tlmt the court was open for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent without respect of persons; none to bo punished without a trial bv their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the ease."

On the 23d day of August, 1788, a law was promulgated for cstablisliii ' "general courts of quarter sessions of tire peace." This court was composed of not less than three nor more than five Justices ol the Peace, appointed by the Governor, who were to hold four sessions in each year. The first session of this court

V A> held at "Campus Martins" September 9, 1788. The commission appointing the Judges thereof was read. Gen. Rufus Putnam and Gen. Benjamin Tapper, says Mitchener, constituted the Justices of the quorum, and Isaac Pearce, Thomas Lord, and Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., the assistant Justices ; Col. Return Jonathan Meigs. Sr., was Clerk. Col. Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff of Washington county fourteen years. The first grand jury of the North-west Territory was impannelcdby this court, and consisted of the following named gentlemen : William Stacey, (foreman),

The first permanent settlement in the new Territory was made at .Mari' tta, at the mouth of the Muskingum, by the Ohio Land Company. It was known as Foe "Muskingum Settlement."

On the 2d of July, a meeting of the directors and agents was held on the banks of the Muskingum, for the purpose of naming the new horn city and its public squares. A6 yet the settlement had been merely "The Muskingum," hut the name Marietta was now formaly given in honor of Maria Antoinette; the square upon which the block house stood was named Campus Martius; tire square No. 19, CapiloUum; the square No. 61, Cecilia; and the great road, the covert way, Sacra Via.

The second settlement was made at Cincinnati late in ^788. ' There were two or three different companies of emigrants that came soon after each other, but the day and hour in which the party came, that laid out the village that has grown up to be the present city of Cincinnati, is. not witli certainty known, although historians and writers have puzzled their brains over the question for many a day. It appears to he settled that this party left Maysville on the 29th of January, 1789, hut as it has failed to record the day of its arrival, writers have undertaken to estimate the amount of hindering causes to navigation, such as ioc and the bad woathcr usually occurring at that season of the year, but no two arrive at exactly the same conclusion. Therefore, each reader must make hi* own calculation.

in their researches. Now we state that Mathias Denman, the original purchaser, bought about eight hundred acres, for which ho paid live shillings per ncre, in continental certificates, which were worth then, in specie, five shillings on the pound - so that the specie price per acre was fifteen ponce. That sum multiplied by the number of acres v II gi\ tlio original cost of the plot of Cincinnati.

The third settlement made in^lhio was at Manchester, Adams county, by Gen. Nathaniel Massie and a company of sotno twenty or thirty families or persons who located where the upper part of tlio town now staltds. v

The exact day upon which these first emigrants pitched their tents there is not known, but it must Iiavo been tlio latter part of December, 1790, or early in January, 1791, for we loam that by the middle of March, of 1791, they 'Anil their cabins built and enclosed hv a stockade that contained four or fivo acres of land.

We are aware tlmt most writers say Gnlliopolis was the third point settled ill tlio State and they likewise give the date ns 1791. But this we think erroneous, because Massie's arrangements for a settlement being completed in the latter part of 1790, and his contract with his colonists being written and signed on tlio first day of December of that year,- and thoso colonists living at no greater distanco than Maysvillc, the inference is tlmt hut a brief time would elapse before they were on the ground.

This, in connection with the amount of labor they had performed by the middle of March, is conclusive evidence tlmt they must have settled here in the very beginning of 1791, if not in the closing days of the preceding yenr.

Again, in regard to the Galliopolis settlement, which was made by Frenchmen, we learn that in May or June, 1783, Joel Barlow, an agent for tlio "Scioto Land Company," left this country for Europe, "authorized to disposo of a very large body of land" in the West. In 1790, this gentleman distributed proposals in Paris for the sale of lands at five shillings per acre, which promised, says Volncy, "a climate healthy mid delightful ; scarcely such a thing as frost in winter ; a river called by the way of eminence, 'The Beautiful,' abounding in fish of enormous size ; magnificent forests of a tree from which sugar flows, and a shrub which yields candles ; venison in abundance, without foxes, wolves, lions or tigers; no taxes to pay ; no military enrollments : no quarters to find for soldiers."

During the year 1791, says history, a considerable number of Frenchmen with deeds in their poeketsfor farms in this beautiful happy land, embarked for America, where they arrived in 1791 -92. From this the reader can readily see whether Galliopolis was settled before Manchester. Besides, he can imagine the feelings of these poor foreigners, who had spent their all to reach this promised land, when they found in addition to the disapointment of their anticipated expectations of its excellence, tlmt those of whom they bought did not own a foot of it, and their deeds were worthless.

As stated elsewhere, in this work, Gen. Nathaniel Massie was largely interested in the sale of land in the Virginia military district, north of tlio Ohio river, ns well as in surveying.

For his better security in surveying and also to start a trade in land, lie was anxious to effect a settlement somewhere on these lands. As an inducement to start a colony, lie offered to the first twenty-five persons that would join him in making a settlement, one inlot and one outiot in a new town he proposed lay off, also 109 acres of land somewhere in the country near the proposed town. Thirty persons soon accepted his offer.

"Articles of agreement between Nathaniel Massie, of one part, and the several persons that have hereunto subscribed, of thcothcr part, witnesseth, that the subscribers hereof doth oblige themselves to settle in the town laid off, on the northwest side of the Ohio, opposite the lower part of the two islands ; and make said town, or the neighborhood, on the northwest side of tlio Ohio, their permanent scat of residence for two years from the date hereof; no subscriber shall absent himsoif for more than two months at a time, and during such absence furnish a strong, able-bodied man sufficient to bear arms at least equal to himself; no subscsiber shall absent himself tiic time . above mentioned in ^ase of actual danger, nor shall such absence be but once -. year; no subscriber shall absent himself in case of actual danger, r if absent shall return immediately. Each of the subscribers doth oblige themselves to comply witli the rules and regulations that shall be agreed on by a majority thereof for the support of the settlement.

In consideration whereof, Nathaniel Massie doth bind and oblige himself, bis heirs, &c., to make over and convoy to such of the subscribers, that comply with the above mentioned conditions, at the expiration of two years, a good and sufficient title unto one inlot iu said town, containing five poles in front and eleven back, one outiot of four acres convenient to said town; in the bottom, which tlie said Massie is to put them in immediate possession of, also one hundred acres of land, which the said Massie has shown to a part of the subscribers ; the conveyance to be mado to each of tlie subscribers, their heirs Dr. assigns.

Although tlie offer of this bounty was to tlio first twenty-five that accepted* the invitation, nud history Informs us that tiiirl> joined tlio colony, tlie contract as given shows but nineteen signatures. Who the rest of the thirty were, or whether they received tlie bounty, wo linvo no means of knowing. Thoso mou were doubtloss the pioneer settlers of Adains count)'. They remained nt Manchester, mostly in the stockade, for protection against tlio Indians, until after Wayne's victory over tlie Indians at Greenville, August 20th, 1791.

These colonists then began to venture out to locate, scttlo, and improve their lauds. When a man located his hundred acres, he had tlie privilege of buying as much adjoining land as lie had tlie means to purchase. In this way these first farms were made of various sizes. These colonists mostly settled tlie section of country called "Gift Ridge." It is very questionable in our mine, whether there were any permanent settlements made in the interior of the county, or outside of Manchester, previous to 1793 or 'DC, and probably but few were made before 1797 or '98.

For the times and places of tlie first settlements in the county the reader is referred to tlie several township histories, as they appear in tlie work.