Delaware County, Ohio - Chapter 3: Settlement of the Northwest Territory and Organization, 1908

Chapter 3: Settlement of the Northwest Territory and Organization

Boundaries Defined - Derivation of Title and Early Explorations - Achievement of George Rogers Clark - State Cessions and Indian Treaties - Settlement - Indian Wars - St. Clair's Defeat - Wayne's Campaign and Battle of Fallen Timber - Organization of the Northwest Territory - Organization of the State of Ohio,

Delaware County is one of the civil subdivisions of the first State formed out of the old Northwest Territory. Of itself it constitutes but a small portion of that vast domain which embraced within its limits all of the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Yet the history of Delaware County cannot be properly written without some account of the more important events that concern the exploration, development and organization of the territory as a whole. Long before the first white man had set foot on the soil of what is now Delaware County, her destiny was being shaped by events of even greater importance than any that have transpired within her own borders; and long prior to her organization as a county, wars were being fought, treaties made, and laws enacted through which alone her very existence was made a possibility. While the present work contemplates particularly an accounl of those events which are peculiar to Delaware County as a separate civil subdivision of the State, and while the reader must Tie referred to the larger and more pretentious histories of the Northwest Territory and Ohio for fuller information regarding them as a whole, yet it is deemed necessary to a proper understanding of the history of the county to review some of the leading events that characterized the development of the entire domain, and to present, in outline, some of the chief circumstances that have contributed to the present condition of prosperity and power occupied by this widely extended area. No portion or our nation's history is more replete with interest and importance.

Our purpose shall be, not so much to give a consecutive account of events in the order of their occurrence as to present, in outline, the different lines of development that go, as a whole, to make up the history of the state and territory. The chief topics that will receive consideration are: I. The derivation of the title; 2, the settlement; 3, the various Indian wars; 4, the organization.

Derivation Of Title

The claims first asserted to lands in the Western Hemisphere by European monarchs were based on discoveries made by their subjects. Accordingly we find all that vast region between the Allegheny and the Rocky Mountains, originally known by the general name of Louisiana, claimed by France, in consequence of the explorations, chiefly, of Father Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, and La Salle. In 1673 Marquette, accompanied by M. Joliet, starting from Mackinac, traced their way southward from there to the Wisconsin River, which they followed to its junction with the Mississippi. They then descended the Mississippi for a 1,000 miles, and, on their return to Canada, urged in the strongest terms the immediate occupation of this vast and fertile region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries. There are other accounts of the discovery of the [Mississippi, but the one ascribing it to Marquette seems to be the first that is authentic.

Between the years 1678 and 1682 La Salle with Father Hennepin, conducted a series of explorations around the great lakes and along the [Mississippi, going as far south as Peoria Lake, Illinois. Here they erected a fort, after which La Salle returned to Canada. Father Hennepin explored the region now embraced within the limits of Ohio and is said to have published a volume containing an account of his discoveries "in the country between New Mexico and the frozen ocean," together with maps of Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan, and a plat of the larger streams of Ohio. In [683 La Salle went to France and induced the French Government to fit out an expedition for the purpose of planting a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. The expedite in failed completely, however. La Salle being murdered by one of his own men.

The French still persisted in their efforts to gain possession of this vast region, west of the Alleghenies and the English colonies. Under the command of M. DTberville a second expedition sailed from France, entered the mouth of the Mississippi (March 2, 1699), and explored the river for several hundred miles. A chain of trading, missionary and military posts was ultimately established extending from New Orleans to Quebec by way of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, and thence, by way of Mackinaw and Detroit, to Lakes Erie and Ontario. This route was afterward shortened by following the Ohio River to the Wabash, and then following the latter upward and down the Maumee to Lake Erie. The French colonies, increasing steadily in numbers and strength, aroused the jealousy of the English, who. to check their advancement, formed what was known as the Ohio Company. This company made some attempts to establish trading houses among the Indians. The French, however, established a chain of fortifications back of the English settlements and thus secured to themselves the entire control of the Mississippi Valley.

Inasmuch as this same territory was claimed by the English Crown, it is necessary to consider the basis of the rights which she asserted. Her chief ground for claiming title to the territory west of the Alleghenies. was a treaty made with the Six Nations in the Ohio Valley. It was claimed that these nations had placed their lands under the protection of the British Crown. It was further asserted that in 1744 the British had purchased lands of these Six Nations by treaty at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1748 the Ohio Company, organized by a number of Virginians and Londoners, obtained a charter from the British Government with a grant of 6,000 acres of land on the Ohio. The English, reverting to the times of the Cabots, claimed that by right they held the entire country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, bounded by the parallels of latitude defining their Atlantic Coast settlements. Inasmuch as France claimed the region drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, together with the Great Lakes and their tributaries. Ohio was within the disputed territory. When the surveys for the lands of the Ohio Company were begun, the Governor of Canada entered a vigorous protest by establishing the line of forts to which we have before alluded. The dispute over this territory between the French and English was finally settled by the treaty following what is familiarly known in history as the French and Indian War. By the terms of that treaty, made in Paris in 1763. the British Crown came into undisputed possession of all the vast territory northwest of the Ohio.

The territory included within the present limits of Ohio, together with the entire domain northwest of the Ohio River of unknown extent, was originally claimed by Virginia. Her title rested upon three grants fr< im the British Crown. The first charter was granted in j 606 by James I. to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers and others, authorizing them to establish two colonies, the first being known in history as the "London Company," and the second as the "Plymouth Company." The grant to the London Company covered a strip of sea coast fifty miles broad between the 34th and 41st parallels. In 1606 King James granted a second charter to the London Company. The territorial limits of the first charter were extended to embrace the whole seacoast, north and south, within two hundred miles of Old Point Comfort, extending "from sea to sea, west and northwest." A third charter, granted in 16 12, annexed to Virginia all the islands within three hundred leagues of the coast.

Virginia, however, was not undisputed in her assertion of title to the whole of this extensive region. Both Connecticut and Massachusetts claimed portions of the territory. In [662 Charles II. granted to certain settlers upon the Connecticut all the territory between the parallels of latitude which include the present State of Connecticut, from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The claims of Massachusetts were founded on a similar charter granted thirty years later. New York also had claims which she asserted.

Achievement Of George Rogers Clark

By the treaty of peace, signed at Paris, September 3, 1783, the claims of the English monarch to the whole of the northwest territory were ceded to the United States. "The provisional articles which formed the basis of the treaty, more especially as related to boundary, were signed al Paris, November 30, [782. During the pendency of the negotiation of these preliminary articles. Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner, proposed the River Ohio as the western boundary of the United States, and but for the indomitable perseverance of the Revo lutionary patriot, John Adams, one of the American commissioners, who opposed the proposition, and insisted upon the Mississippi a> the boundary, the probability is that the proposition of Mr. Oswald would have been acceded to by the United States Commissioners." That the British were prevented from making a reasonable claim to the territory northwest of the Ohio was due, in large measure, to the fact that this extensive domain was wrested from their hands during the Revolutionary war through the valor and foresight of General George Rogers Clark. On the outbreak of the Revolution he saw through the whole plan of the British who held all the outposts. Kaskaskia, Detroit, Vincennes and Niagara. It was the hope of the British that b) means of these outposts they might encircle the Americans anil also unite the Indians in a common war against them. Clark knew that many of the Indian tribes were divided in their feeling or but indifferent in their support of the British. He conceived the idea that if the British could be driven from their outposts, the Indians could be easily awed into submission or bribed into neutrality or friendship. Acting upon this theory, and first enlisting the support of Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, he organized an expedition which was entirely successful in wresting control of the country west of the Ohio from the British. To him, as well as to John Adams, is due unlimited credit for the fact that the Ohio River was not made the boundary between Canada and the United States.

State Cessions And Indian Treaties

At the close of the Revolutionary war, the title to the British possessions having passed to the several colonies, each one, as a sovereign and independent state, claimed the right of soil and jurisdiction over the lands which had been originally granted it in its charter. As we have already observed, several states laid claim to portions of the vast, unappropriated tracts northwest of the Ohio. It was insisted by those states whose charters gave them no claims to any portion of this territory that inasmuch as the entire demain had been won from the British by the united efforts of all the colonies, the lands themselves should be approprated for the benefit of all the states. It was repeatedly urged upon the states themselves which claimed ownership in these lands, that they should cede them for the common benefit of all. Responding to this demand the State of Virginia, on March i. 1784. ceded to the United States her claims to ownership and jurisdiction over the entire part of the country embraced in her charter lying northwest of the Ohio. She made a condition, however, that in case the lands King south of the Cumberland river were not sufficient to satisfy the bounties in land which she had issued to her soldiers during the Revolutionary War, then this deficiency was to be made up out of lands in this territory, lying between the rivers Miami and Scioto. The jurisdiction over all the land, In 'wever, passed to the United States. Likewise Connecticut, on September 13, 1786, relinquished to the United States all her claims to lands lying within this same territory, with the exception of the tract known as the Western Reserve. This she deeded to the United States May 30. 1800. The president, however, immediately conveyed the fee of the soil to the governor of the State for the use of grantees and purchasers claiming under her, similar to the manner in which Virginia had also been allowed the fee of the soil in a certain portion to satisfy her military warrants. Massachusetts and New York also gave up their claims, thus giving to the United States a clear title to the whole of this vast region in so far as it had been claimed by European p' iwers.

There still remained, however, the claims of the Indians to the lands as the original possessors of the soil. It was necessary that these should be disposed of before the white settlers could- rightfully take possession. Accordingly a treaty was made with the Six Nations, embracing the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas. Oneidas and Tuscaroras, at F >rt Stanwix. October 27, 1784. By the terms of this treaty, all the lands west of a line drawn from the mouth of Oswego Creek, about four miles east of Virginia, to the mouth of Buffalo Creek and on to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, thence west along that boundary to its western extremity, thence south to the

Ohio River, were ceded to the United States. There were other Indian nations, however, liesides those mentioned, who also asserted ownership over this territory. They included the Wyandot, Chippewa, Delaware and Ottawa Nations. With these also the United States made a treaty at Fort Mcintosh on the 21st day of January. 1785. By this treaty the boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware Nations was declared to begin "at the mouth of the river Cuyahoga and to extend up said river to the Portage, between that and the Tuscaroras branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing-place above Fort Laurens, then westerly 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 1752; then along said Portage to the Great Miami, or Omee River, and down the south side of the same to its mouth; then along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where it began." "The United States allotted all the lands contained within said lines to the Wyandot and Delaware Nations, to live and hunt on, together with such of the Ottawa Nations as lived thereon, saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts, six miles square at the mouth of the Miami or Omee River, and the same at the Portage, on that branch of the Big Miami which runs into the Ohio, and the same on the Lake of Sandusky where the fort formerly stood, and also two miles square on each side of the Lower Rapids of the Sandusky River." This treaty was afterwards renewed and confirmed by Governor St. Clair, and the Wyandot, Chippewa, Pottawatomie, and Sac Nations at Fort Harmar in 1789.

On the 3rd of August, 1795, a treaty was made with the Delawares, Ottawas, Pottawatomies and Eel River Indians by General Wayne after the close of his successful campaign against them. The basis of this treaty was the previous one at Fort Harmar, the boundaries made at that time being reaffirmed, and the whites secured on the lands now occupied by them or granted by former treaties.

A treaty was made with the Indians at Fort Industry, on the present site of Toledo, in 1805, by which the United States acquired, fi ir the use of the grantees of Connecticut, all that part of the Western Reserve which lies west of the Cuyahoga. The lands west of Huron and Richland Counties, and north of the Indian boundary line fixed by Wayne's treaty at Greenville, to the western limits of Ohio, were purchased by the United States in 1 8 18 by a treaty made at St. Mary's. The lands ceded at this time were called the New Purchase. Certain reservations were made within the purchased tracts to the Delawares, Wyandots, Senecas, etc., which were subsequently ceded to the United States, the last by the Wyandots in 1842, they then being the only Indian tribe left within the State. Thus through a long series of explorations, wars cessions and treaties has the title of the United States to lands of Ohio been derived. The organization of the Northwest into a territorial subdivision and the subsequent formation and admission to the Union, of the State of Ohio, has been reserved for later consideration.

The first English attempt at settlement of winch we have any record, within the present limits of the State of Ohio, was at a point in Shelby County on Loramie Creek, about sixteen miles northwest of the present city of Sidney, and since known by the name of Loramie's Store. Here some English traders established themselves about the year 1749, and gave it the name of Pickawillany from the tribe of Indians there. The settlement however, was doomed to he of short duration. As we have heretofore seen, this location was clearly within the limits claimed bv the French, and immediately aroused them to action. They could not endure so evident an invasion of their country, and gathering a force of the Ottawas and Chippewas, their allies, they attacked the fort in June, 1752, having first demanded its surrender of the Miami-, who had granted the English the privilege of its erection. In the battle that ensued, fourteen of the Miamis were slain and all of the traders captured. They were either burned or taken to Canada as prisoners.

The real history of the occupation of Ohio by English settlers begins with the settlement at Marietta, on April 7, 1788. We have already traced the various steps by which the title to the lands became vested in the United States, and through which alone the settlers could be secure in their possession. The final cession by the various states claiming rights in the northwest territory, to the Central Government, was the occasion for the formation of various land companies in the East, having for their purpose the settlement of this western d iuntry. The Ohio Company, before mentioned, emerged from the past and again became active. In the year 1786 Benjamin Tupper, a Revolutionary soldier, and General Rufus Putnam, circulated a pamphlet proposing the formation of a company for the purpose of settling the Ohio lands. It invited all those interested to meet in February in their respective counties and choose delegates to a convention to be held at the "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern in Boston on March 1, 1786. The purpose was to be the formation of a company and the adoption of definite plans for establishing a settlement in the Ohio Valley. On the day appointed eleven persons appeared, an outline was drawn up, and subscriptions began at once. The principal features of the plan were as follows: "A fund of $1,000,000, mainly in continental certificates, was to be raised for the purpose of purchasing lands in the western country, there were to be 1000 shares of $1000 each, and upon each share $10 in specie were to be paid for contingent expenses. One year's interest was to be appropriated for the charges of making a settlement and assisting those unable to move without aid. The owners of every twenty shares were to choose an agent to represent them and attend to their interests, and the agents were to choose the directors. The plan was approved, and in a year's time from that date the company was organized."

On the 8th of March. 1787. a meeting of the agents chose General Parsons, General Rufus Putnam and Rev. Manassah Cutler, directors for the Company. The selection of Manassah Cutler was extremely fortunate for the success of the enterprise, as few men could have been better fitted, both in character and ability, to conceive and execute a project of such importance as this would prove to be. A contract was made with the Treasury Board by Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, as agents for the Board of Directors of the Ohio Company, on October 27, 1787, by which there was conveyed to the company a vast region bounded on the south by the Ohio River, west by the Scioto, east by the seventh range of townships then surveying, and north by a due west line drawn from the north boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio direct to the Scioto, for the consideration of $1 per acre. Later, in 1792, the boundaries of the purchase were fixed as follows: The Ohio on the south, the seventh range of townships on the east, the sixteenth range on the west, and a line on the north so drawn as to make the grant 750,000 acres, besides reservations, this grant being the portion which it was originally agreed the company might enter into at once. In addition J 14.285 acres were granted as army bounties, and 100,000 acres as bounties to actual settlers. While these preliminary arrangements for the occupation of the new territory were being carried out, Congress was likewise providing a plan for its government. The famous instrument known as the Ordinance of 1787. under which the first organization of the territory was effected, was passed on July 13th of that year, but of it we shall speak more in detail later on.

In the winter of 1787 General Rufus Putnam and forty-seven pioneers proceeded as far as the mouth of the Youghiogheny River, and, having built a boat for transportation down the Ohio, proceeded in the spring to the mouth of the Muskingum, where they landed on the 7th of April, 17S8. Fort Harmar had previously been built at the mouth of the Muskingum, and it was on the opposite side of this river that the pioneers established their settlement which they later called Marietta, in h of Marie Antoinette.

This was the first permanent settlement established within the limits of Ohio. An attempt at settlement within the limits of Ohio had been made in April, 1785, at the mouth of the Scioto on the present site of Portsmouth by four families from Redstone. Pennsylvania. Difficulties with the Indians, however, compelled its abandonment. With regard to this first occupation of the soil of Ohio, George Washington wrote: "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property, and 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."

Soon after their arrival the settlers began the erection of a stockade fort, which occupied their time until the winter of 1791 . During the early years of the settlement, however, the Indians were friendly, no hostilities being experienced. One of the pioneers describes the progress of the colony during its first year as being all that could be expected, arrivals coming faster than provision could be made for them. By the close of the year 1 790 eight settlements had been made within the Ohio Company's purchase, two at Belpre, one at Newbury, one at Wolf Creek, one at Duck Creek, one at the mouth of Meigs' Creek, one at Anderson's Bottom, and one at Big Bottom.

Not long after the grant of lands was made to the Ohio Company, John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, contracted with the Treasury Board for the purchase of a large tract of land lying between the Great and Little Miami Rivers. The terms of his purchase were similar to those of the Ohio Company. In July. 1788. he got together thirty people and eight four-horse wagons who started for the West. After meeting with Mr. Stites and a company from Redstone, Pa., they proceeded, under his leadership, to the mouth of the Little Miami, where they arrived before the 1st of January. 1789, and located on a tract of 10.000 acres which Stites had purchased from Symmes. This settlement, which they named Columbia and which was located about five miles above the site of Cincinnati. was the second settlement within Ohio territory.

In 1788 Mathias Denman purchased of Symmes a tract of land opposite the Licking River, and, in company with Robert Patterson and John Filson, to each of whom he sold a third interest in his purchase, projected the location of a town on the present site of Cincinnati. There is some uncertainty as to the exact time when a settlement was first made here. but it seems to have been late in 1788 or early in 1789. Symmes himself had contemplated building his main town at North Bend, near the mouth of the Great Miami. The fact, however, that this point, as well as Columbia, suffered severely during a great flood which occurred in 1789, while Losantiville, as Cincinnati was then called, escaped, had much to do with the fact that the latter soon outstripped the others in its growth. Ensign Luce, who had been commissioned by General Harmar to establish a fort, decided that North Bend was not a suitable location for that purpose, and, contrary to the wishes of Symmes, selected Losantiville. Fort Washington was thus established here. About the 1st of January. Governor St. Clair organized the county of Hamilton and constituted Cincinnati its seat of justice. The settlement at once began an active growth, outstripping that of all the others in the Ohio Valley.

At the time Dr. Cutler secured the grant of lands for the Ohio Company, he likewise secured a large additional tract, as he himself writes, "for private speculation, in which many of the prominent characters in America are concerned: without connecting this speculation, similar terms and advantages could not have been obtained for the ( )hi<> Company." A company was at once formed known by the name of The Scioto Land Company, which contracted with Cutler and Sargent on behalf of the Ohio Company for a tract of land west and north of the Ohio Company's purchase. Joel Harlow was senl to Europe, as the ; of the company, to make sales of the lands thus contracted for. He sold parts of the land to companies and individuals in France. It developed, however, that the lands which Barlow had presumed to sell were included within the Ohio Company's purchase, and that the purchasers were without title. In ignorance of tin'-, fact, however, two hundred and eighteen of these purchasers sailed from Havre de Grace, in France, on the 19th day of February, 1791, and arrived in Alexandria, D. C, m the 3rd of May following. On their arrival they proceeded to Marietta, where fifty of them landed, the remainder going to the present site of Gallipolis. which the agent of the campany assured them was within their purchase. Prior to their arrival General Putnam had had the site cleared and buildings erected for their reception. As before stated, however, the lands to which alone they could lay any claim, were still farther to the West. Morei iver, the Scioto Land Company, by having failed to make good the payments on its contract, forfeited its title to the land which it had purchased, thus leaving the settlers themselves without any vestige of title. These settlers, unlike the hardy pioneers who came, from New England, were little accustomed to toil or to the privations of frontier life. Their condition was pitiable in the extreme and manygave up in despair, some seeking homes in the East and a few returning to France. Every effort to secure titles to the lands on which they had settled having failed, they petitioned Congress for assistance and in June. 1798, a grant was made to them of land on the Ohio above the mouth of the Scioto River. The tract included 24,000 acres and is known as the French Grant.

During the progress of the various campaigns against the Indians, conducted successively by General Harmar. General St. Clair. and General Wayne, and of which some account will be given later, the settlement of ( )hio was interrupted to a large extent. Prior to the treaty made with the Indians by General Wayne in 1795. however, a start had been made in several counties, in addition to those in Washington and Hamilton counties already mentioned. The settlement at Gallipolis has already been described. There were also small settlements in Adams.. Belmont and Morgan Counties. They were blockrhi mse settlements and were in a continual state of defence. The first was settled in the winter of 1790-91 by General Nathaniel Massie, near where the town of Manchester now is. This was the first settlement within the bounds of the Virginia Military District and the fourth in the State. In spite of the dangers due to the hos tility of the Indians, it continued to grow and. in two years after peace was declared, Adams County was constituted by order of Governor St. Clair.

During the Indian war a settlement was commenced near the present town of Bridgeport in Belmont County, by Captain Joseph Belmont, a noted officer of the Revolutionary War. Shortly afterwards a fort, called Dillie's Fort, was built on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Grave Creek. In 1794 a company of men located on the present site of Hamilton in Butler County. The town was first laid out under the name of Fairfield. These were about all the settlements begun prior to the close of the Indian War and they were, fi ir the most part, of a temporary character and maintained only at constant risk and great loss of life. With the termination of the war. however, and the cessation of Indian hostility emigration took a new impetus, and from that time the growth of the State's population was constant and vigorous.

Early in the spring of 1796 the first settlement was begun in Montgomery County. The town of Dayton was laid out in November of 1795. It was within the tract originally covered by Symmes' purchase. Judge Symmes, having been unable to pay for his purchase, the land reverted to the government and the settlers found themselves without title. Congress, however, came to their aid. permitting them to enter their lands at the regular government price.

It was likewise in 1796 that the first settlements were made in the Western Reserve. The mouth of the Cuyahoga River had always been considered an important place in the

West and destined to become a great commercial mart. A corps of surveyors laid out the town of Cleveland in September, 179'). It was named in honor of General Moses Cleaveland, the agent of the land company which had made large purchases in the Western Reserve along the Cuyahoga River. Mahoning County was settled about the same time, as were also the counties of Ashtabula, Ross, Licking, Madison, Trumbull, and Warren. In a sketch of such a limited character as this we cannot pursue the history of the individual settlements further. It was not long until the settlers had penetrated to every portion of the State, clearing the land, starting industries of various kinds, and preparing the way for the marvelous prosperity which has ever since characterized the history of the Commonwealth.

Indian Wars

Ohio has had its full share of conflict with the various tribes of Indians which were the original possessors of its soil. Being the first State in the Vast region northwest of the Ohio River within whose limits settlement by the English was begun, it naturally became the scene of the early struggles through which the savage tribes were subdued and the land made possible of habitation for the white man. While we have given, in tracing the derivation of the title to the lands, the various Indian treaties which formed a link in that title, we have reserved for statement, here, a brief account of the wars which led up to the making of these treaties, or their enforcement. With regard to the wars which took place prior to the organization of the government of the territory, we quote the concise account given in Howe's History :

"After Braddock's defeat in 1755 the Indians pushed their excursions as far east as the Blue Ridge. In order to repel them, M; Lewis, in January, 1756, was sent with a party of troops on an expedition against the Indian towns on the Ohio. The point apparently aimed at was the upper Shawanese town, situated on the Ohio, three miles above the mouth of the Great Kanawha. The attempt proved a failure, in consequence, it is said, of the swollen state of the streams and the treachery of the guides. In 1764, General Bradstreet. having dispersed the Indian forces besieging Detroit, passed into the Wyandot country by way of Sandusky Bay. He ascended the bay and river as far as it was navigable for boats, and there made a camp. A treaty of peace was signed by the chiefs and head men. The Shawnees of the Scioto River and the Delawares of the Muskingum, however, still continued hostile. Colonel Boquet, in 1764. with a body of troops, marched from Fort Pitt into the heart of the Ohio country on the .Muskingum River. This expedition was conducted with great prudence and skill and with scarcely any loss of life. A treaty of peace was effected with the Indians, who restored the prisoners they had captured from the white settlements. The next war with the Indians was in 1774, generally known as Lord Dunmore's. In the summer of that year an expedition under Colonel McDonald was assembled at Wheeling, marched into the Muskingum country, and destroyed the Indian town of Wapatomica, a tew miles above the site of Zanesville. In the fall the Indians were defeated after a hard-fought battle at Point Pleasant, on the Virginia side of the Ohio. Shortly after this event Lord Dunmore made peace with the Indians at Camp Charlotte, in what is now Pickaway County.

"During the Revolutionary War most of the western Indians were more or less united against the Americans. In the fall of 1778 an expedition against Detroit was projected. An a preliminary step it was resolved that the forces in the West, under General Mcintosh, should move up and attack the Sandusky Indians. Preliminary to this. Fort I. aureus, so called in honor of the I 'resident of Congress, was Innlt upon the Tuscarawas, a short distance below the site of Bolivar, Tuscarawas County. The expedition to Detroit was abandoned, an. I the garrison of Fort Laurens, after suffering much from the Indians and from famine, was recalled in August, 1771;. A month or two previous to the evacuation of this f< 'it Colonel Bowman headed an expedition against the Shawnees. Their village, Chillicothe, three miles north of the site of Xenia, on the Little Miami, was burned. The warriors showed an undaunted front and the whites were forced to retreat. In the summer of 1780 an expedition directed against the Indian towns in the forks ot the Muskingum, moved from Wheeling under General Broadhead. This expedition, known as the 'Coshochton campaign,' was unimportant in its results. In the same summer General Clark led a body of Kentuckians against the Shawnees. Chillicothe, on the Little Miami, was burnt on their approach, but at Piqua. their town on the Mad River, six miles below the site of Springfield, they gave battle to the whites and were defeated. In September, 1782, this officer led a second expedition against the Shawnees. Their towns, Upper and Lower Piqua, on the Miami, within what is now Miami County, were destroyed, together with the store of a trader

"There were other expeditions into the Indian country, which although of a later date, we mention in this connection. In 1786 Colonel Logan conducted a successful expedition against the Mackachack towns, on the head waters of Mad River, in what is now Logan County. Edwards, in 1787, led an expedition to the head waters of the Big Miami, and, in 17SN. Todd led one into the Scioto Valley. There were also minor expeditions at various times into the present limits of Ohio.

"The Moravian missionaries, prior to the war of the Revolution, had a number of missionary stations within the limits of Ohio. The missionaries, Heckewelder and Post, were on the Muskingum as - early as 1762. In March, 1782, a party of Americans, under ninety-four of the defenceless Moravian Indians, within the present limits of Tuscarawas O unity. In the June following. Colonel Crawford, at the head of about 500 men, was defeated by the Indians three miles north of the site of Upper Sandusky, in Wyandot County. He was taken prisoner and burnt at the stake with horrible tortures."

Although by the various treaties which we have heretofore mentioned, the English had secured title to the lands northwest of the Ohio, yet the Indians did not take kindly to the coining of the white settlers, and it was not long after their arrival that they began to show themselves hostile. That they were instigated, in some measure, by the British, cannot be doubted. Much could be traced to the malicious influence of the British superintendent of Indian affairs. Colonel McKee, his assistant. Captain Elliott, and the notorious white renegade. Simon Girty. A treaty confirming the former one made at Fort Mcintosh, was made with the Indians at Fort Harmar in the year 1789. It had little effect, however, in staying Indian hostilities. In 1790 a company of 36 men went from Marietta to a place on the Muskingum known as Big Bottom. In view of the apparent unfriendliness of the Indians, the postponement of the settlement was advised by General Putnam and others. Moreover proper precautions were not taken against possible attacks. In an unguarded moment these settlers were set upon by the Indians and twelve of them killed. The settlers throughout the new territory immediately became alarmed and block-houses were erected for their protection. In 1789 Fort \\ ashington was built within the present limits of Cincinnati, and a few months later General Harmar arrived with 300 men and assumed command. It was determined by Governor St. Clair and General Harmar to send an expedition against the Maumee towns and secure that part of the country. While St. Clair was forming his army and arranging for this campaign three expeditions were sent out against the Miami towns. One against the Miami villages, not far from Wabash, was led by General Harmar. With about fourteen hundred men, of whom less than one-fourth were regulars, he marched from Cincinnati in September. 1790. When near the Indian villages an advanced detachment fell into ambush and was defeated with severe loss. General Harmar, however, succeeded in burning the Indian villages and destroying their standing corn, after which he commenced the return to

Cincinnati. Having received intelligence, however, that the Indians were returning to their ruined towns, he detached about a third of his remaining force, with orders to bring the Indians to an engagement. In the engagement which followed, more than one hundred of the militia were killed and all but nine of the regulars, the remainder being driven back to the main force. The expedition served little purpose other than to make the Indians, if anything, bolder than before. An army under Charles Scott was sent against the Wabash Indians. Nothing was accomplished save the destruction of towns and standing corn. In July another army under Colonel Wilkinson, was sent against the Eel River Indians. It became entangled in extensive morasses on the river and accomplished no more than the other expeditions which had preceded it.

Encouraged by the meager success of the whites in these expeditions, the chiefs of the Miamis, Shawnees and the Delawares now began the formation of a confederacy among all the tribes of the northwest territory, which, they conceived, would be strong enough to expel the whites beyond the Ohio. While they were making ready, however, Governor St. Clair was engaged in the organization of a new army. He gathered together a force consisting of 2,300 regulars and 600 militia. It was his purpose to establish a chain of forts from the Ohio, by way of the Miami and Maumee Valleys, to the lakes. The plan was favored by Washington and General Knox, then secretary of war. It was said that a spirit of idleness, drunkenness and insubordination characterized the army at this time and had much to do with the defeat which followed later. On September 17. the army began its march and moved to a point on the Great Miami, where Fort Hamilton was established, the first in the chain mentioned above. The army then proceeded forty-four miles further on and erected Fort Jefferson, about six miles south of the present town of Greenville, in

Darke County. On the 24th of October it again began its march through the wilderness, marshy and boggy and infested with savage foes. By the 3rd of November a stream was reached which St. Clair supposed to be a branch of the St. Mary of the Maumee, but which in reality was a tributary of the Wabash. The point was on what is now the line between Darke and Mercer Counties. The army had been so far depleted by desertion at this time that only about 1.400 men were left. St. Clair sent the first regiment, under Major Hamtramck. to pursue the deserters and secure the advancing convoys of provisions which it was feared the deserters intended to plunder. When they halted on the banks of the stream before mentioned, it encamped in two lines and threw up some slight fortifications against the Indians who wore known to be in the neighborhood. On the next morning, about half an hour before sunrise, it was attacked furiously by the Indians. The evil effects of the insubordination before mentioned and the lack of sufficient drill were now made manifest. The army was thrown into hopeless confusion. It is probable that the whole disposable force of the tribes in the Northwest participated in the attack on St. Clair's army at this time. After losing about 800 men it began its retreat, which was a disgraceful, precipitate (light. After reaching Fort Jefferson it proceeded, by way of Fort Hamilton, back to Fnrt Washingti m.

This defeat was one of the worst ever suffered by an American army at the hands of the savage tribes, outrivaling even Braddock's defeat in this regard. It left the entire frontier exposed to the onslaughts of the savages, wdio were determined now, more than ever before, to exterminate the whites entirely. Execrations were heaped upon St. Clair who led the army to its terrible defeat. Under a more forceful commander, perhaps the result might have been different, yet the defeat was due. not alone to the inefficiency of St. Clair, but to the general demoralization of the soldiers whose insubordination we have before mentioned.

Plans were immediately formed for another campaign against the Indians. General Wayne, whose bravery and ability, as well as Ins experience during the Revolution, rendered him peculiarly well fitted for the task, was called to take command of the army which was raised. He immediately began the work of drill and organization.

Meanwhile efforts were being made by the United State- to conciliate the Indians and avoid the necessity of warfare. The Iroquois were induced to visit Philadelphia, and were partially secured from the confederacy which we have before mentioned. Five independent embassies were sent among the western tribes in an effort to win them over and prevent war. All the embassadors were slain, however, except Putnam, who succeeded in reaching the Wabash Indians and effecting a treaty which was later rejected by Congress on account of its terms. A great council of the Indian-, in which were represented all the tribes of the Ni nthwest, and many others, assembled at Auglaize during the autumn of 1792, and prepared an address to the" President wherein they agreed to abstain from hostilities until they could meet with the whites at the rapids of the .Maumee in the following spring for a conference. The President appointed commissioners who, in accordance with the arrangement, met the representatives of the tribes at the appointed place. The Indians, however, would consent to nothing save the Ohio Riiver a- the boundary of their lands. This being 1 nit 1 if the question for the whites, the negotiations came to an end.

Nothing was now left save war. General Wayne, on being informed of the termination nf the efforts at securing a treaty, immediately began active preparations for a campaign against the Indians. Pending the negotiations with the Indians he had been sending out so luts and spies on errands of discovery and he had his plans by this time practically ma- tared. All his information showed plainly that the Indians were receiving constant aid and encouragement from the British. He had spent the winter of 1793-94 at a fort which he had built on a tributary of the Great Miami, and which he called Greenville. The present town of Greenville is near the site of the fort. On the 26th of July, 1794. General Scott, with 1,600 mounted men from Kentucky, joined General Wayne at Greenville, and two days later the entire army moved forward, reaching the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee on the 8th of August, where they erected Fort Defiance. As Wayne's army moved northward the Indians abandoned their towns and collected their entire force, amounting to about two thousand men. near a British fort, erected in violation of the treaty of 1783, at the rapids of the Maumee. Before attacking the Indians, however. Wayne made still another attempt to conciliate them. He sent Christopher Miller, who had been naturalized among the Shawnees. and taken prisoner by Wayne's spies, as a messenger of peace. Miller returned with the message that if the Americans would delay for ten days the Indians would, within that time, decide the question of war or peace. Knowing the Indian character, however, Wayne determined to move forward. On the 1 8th of August, having marched forty-one miles from Auglaize, and being now near to the enemy, a fortification was erected which they called Fort Deposit. They remained here until the "20th, when they again took up their March. After having proceeded about five miles the foe was encountered. In striking contrast with the condition of St. Clair's army at the time it had suffered its crushing defeat, the army was now well disciplined and fully able to cope with the enemy. The conflict which ensued was one of the fiercest in the history of Indian warfare. The Indians were completely routed and many of them were slain, while the American loss was comparatively slight. This celebrated engagement is what is familiarly known as the battle of Fallen Timber. It was fought almost under the walls of the British fort. When the commander of that fort demanded an explanation of Wayne as to why he had fought so near and in evident hostility to the British, \\ replied, not only by telling him he had no rights in the country, but by also marching ward and devastating the Indian country.

While the Indians were not immediately subdued by the crushing defeat received from Wayne, yet it went a long way towards breaking the strength of their hostility. Recognizing, at length, that opposition to the encroachments of the whites was useless, and that their ultimate subjugation was only a matter of time, they were willing to sue for peace. They arranged to meet General Wayne in June, 1795, at Greenville and form a treaty. This plan was carried out and the Greenville treaty, which marked the close of the Indian wars in the West, was the result.

Organization Of The Northwest Territory

After the title to the lands northwest of the Ohio had become vested in the United States, and active perparations for their settlement began to be made, it became necessary for Congress to provide some form of government for the territory. The matter was one calling for the exercise of the highest statesmanship, and various plans were under discussion before a final settlement was reached. At one time Congress, under the influence of the Southern States, voted down Jefferson's proposition excluding slavery forever from the territory. It was likewise proposed to divide the territory into ten states to be known as Sylvania, Michigania. Cheresonisius, Assenispia, Mesopotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga. Washington, Polypotamia and Pelisipia, the ultimate arrangement being, however, that there should be no less than three nor more than five states. The instrument which was finally adopted for the government of the Northwest Territory, and ever since popularly known as the "< )rdinance of 1787," was. in large measure, the result of the efforts of Rev. Manassah Cutler, before mentioned as being instrumental in securing the grant of lands to the Ohio Company. It was passed on the 13th of July, 1787. Its cardinal principles were: 1st. - The exclusion of slavery from the territory forever ; 2nd. - Provision for public schools, giving one township for a seminary and every sixteenth section (this gave one thirty-sixth of all the land for public education) ; 3rd. - Freedom in religious worship and opinion; 4th. - The equal distribution of estates; and 5th. - Protection in civil liberty. It also provided for the appointment of a governor who should likewise be commander of the militia, a secretary, and for three judges. The governor and the judges were to have the power to adopt and publish such of the laws of other states as should be suitable to their circumstances. Whenever there should be 5,000 free male inhabitants, of full age, in the district, they were to have authority to elect representatives to a General Assembly, which was to consist of the Governor, a Legislative Council and a House of Representatives. There was the further provision that not less than three n< ir mi ire than five states were to be formed out of the territory, the states to be admitted to equal standing with the original states of the Union whenever they had a population of 60,000, or sooner if consistent with the general interest. The principles embodied in the ordinance were in the form of a compact irrevocable save by consent of both Congress and the states that should be formed out of the territory. It was li\ reason of this fact that the South was afterwards powerless when they endeavored to have the territory opened to the admission of slavery.

In October, 1 7S7, Congress appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who had been an officer in the Resolution, governor of the new territory, Winthrop Sargeant, secretary, and Samuel H. I 'arsons. John Armstrong, and James M. Varnum, judges. Subsequently Armstrong declined the appointment and John Cleves Syrnmes was given his place. Governor St. Clair arrived at the Marietta settlement on July 9, 1788, and immediately began his duties. On the 25th, the first law, relating to the militia, was published, and the next day the governor issued a proclamation creating all the country that had been ceded by the Indians, east of the Scioto River, into the county of Washington. After organizing the militia he next erected the Courts of Probate and Quarter Sessions, and proceeded to appoint civil officers. Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper and Winthrop Sargeant, were made justices of the peace. The 30th day of August, the day the Court of Quarter Sessions was appointed, Archibald Cary, Isaac' Pierce and Thomas Lord were also appointed justices. Return Jonathan Meigs was appointed clerk of this Court of Quarter Sessions. Ebenezer Sprout was appointed sheriff of Washington County and also colonel of the militia; William Callis, clerk of the Supreme Court; Rufus Putnam, judge of the Probate Court, and Return J. Meigs, Jr., clerk.

On September 2nd, the first court was held. It is thus described by the American Pioneer: "The procession was formed at the Point (where most of the settlers resided), in the following order: The high sheriff, with his drawn sword ; the citizens ; the officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar; the members of the bar; the supreme judges; the governor and clergymen ; the newly appointed judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper.

"They marched up the path that had been cleared through the forest to Campus Martius Hall (stockade), where the whole countermarched, and the judges, Putnam and Tupper, took their seats. The clergyman. Rev. Dr. Cutler, then invoked the divine blessing. The sheriff, Ebenezer Sproat, proclaimed with his solemn 'Oh yes' that a court is open for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and to the rich, to the guilty and to the innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial of their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and the evidence in the case.

"Although the scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the West, few ever equalled it in the dignity and exalted character of its principal participators. Many of them belonged to the history of our country in the darkest as well as the most splendid period of the Revolutionary war."

Residence Of Mrs Silas J. Mann

About the 1st of January, 1790, Governor St. Clair, with his officers, went to Fort Washington, on the present site of Cincinnati, and established the county of Hamilton, in which was comprised all the country 'contiguous to the Ohio, from the Hocking River to the Great Miami. He also appointed a corps of civil and military officers and erected a Court of Quarter Sessions. A short time later he likewise organized the county of St. Clair, whose limits, however, were comprised within the present State of Indiana, and Illinois, including the country from the Wabash to the Mississippi. Before the close of 1795 the governor and the judges published sixty- four statutes. Among other things they provided that the common law of England, and all its statutes made previous to the fourth year of James I., should be of full force in the territory. Wayne County was organized in 1796, Jefferson and Adams in 1797, and Ross in 1798.

As has before been stated, the Ordinance of 1787 provided that whenever there should be 5.000 persons in the territory they should be entitled to a representative assembly. On October 29, 1798, Governor St. Clair proclaimed that the population had reached the required number, and ordered an election for the third Monday in December. The representatives thus elected met in Cincinnati, January 22,\i799, and, under the provisions of the Ordinance, nominated ten persons, from whom the President should select five to constitute the Legislative Council. The persons chosen were : Jacob Burnet, James Finley, Henry Vanderburgh, Robert Oliver and David Vance. The Territorial Legislature again met at Cincinnati on the 24th of September, when a great amount of business was done. They repealed some of the laws that were already in force, adopted others, created and filled new offices and devised various plans and methods for carrying on the government of the new territory. The only lawyer in the body was Mr. Burnet, upon whom, by reason of his profession, a great amount of the work devolved. He seems to have acquitted himself well in the position in which he was thus placed. The whole number of acts passed and approved by the governor was thirty-seven. It is worthy of note that a bill authorizing a lottery was passed by the Council but rejected by the Legislature.

Among other duties which devolved on this session of the Legislature was the election of a delegate to Congress. The choice fell upon William Henry Harrison, the secretary of the territory at that time. He at once resigned his office and proceeded to Philadelphia to take his seat in Congress which was then in session. He was successful in obtaining many important advantages for his constitutents, among others a measure subdividing the surveys of the public lands and permitting them to be sold in smaller tracts, thus making it possible for them to be purchased by individuals without first coming into the hands of speculators.

At this first session of the Legislature Governor St. Clair saw fit to veto eleven acts which were passed by it. The greater part of them related to formation of new counties, a right which the governor claimed was vested in him alone. The attitude of the governor served to increase his unpopularity with the people, whose confidence he seems to have lost, in large measure, after his disastrous defeat at the hands of the Indians.

In the year 1800 Congress took up the matter of dividing the Northwest Territory into two parts. The great extent of the territory rendered extremely difficult and unsatisfactory the operations of the government. By reason of the loose administration of justice in its western part, that portion had become a rendezvous for criminals of various character, with the consequent effect of deterring better citizens from settling there. The judiciary was likewise wholly inefficient as regarded civil cases. The far western frontier, being at such a great distance from the seat of both the national and territorial governments, could neither feel for them the attachment or fear their restraint to the extent that a closer relation would establish. In consequence, on the 7th of May an act was passed dividing the territory, the line of division being "a line be- ginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky River, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it intersects the territorial line between the United States and Canada." The same form of government was provided for the new territory as prevailed in the old. Chillicothe was made the seat of government for the old territory and St. Clair retained as governor, while St. Vincent's on the Wabash River, was made the capital of the "Indiana Territory." and William Henry Harrison appointed its governor.

Organization Of The State Of Ohio

The second session of the General Assembly was held at Chillicothe in 1801. Governor St. Clair had, meanwhile, been growingmore and more unpopular. The abuse heaped on the governor and the Legislature at Chillicothe became so great that they decided to renn ive the capital from that place to Cincinnati. Out of this agitation, however, and the general discontent with the governor, there had been rapidly arising a general sentiment in favor 1 1 the formation of a State government. This sentiment was in a minority, however, so far as the General Assembly was concerned. A measure was introduced there proposing that the Ordinance of 17X7 be so changed that the Scioto River, together with a line drawn from its intersection with the Indian boundary to the western extremity of the Reserve, should be the western limit of the most eastern State to be formed out of the territory. To protest against this proposition the minority sent Thomas Worthington to Washington. While he was on his way a resolution introduced into the Legislature for choosing a committee to address Congress with regard to the proposed -tale was defeated. A further attempt providing for taking the census of the territory was postponed by the Council.

Worthington, however, was successful in his mission to Congress, and on the 30th of April that body authorized the calling of a state convention for the purpose of forming a constitution, provided it was found expedient. "The act of Congress, providing for the admission of the new state into the Union, offered certain propositions to the people. These were, first, that Section Sixteen in each township, or, where that section had been disposed of, other contiguous and equivalent lands, should be granted to the inhabitants for the use of schools; second, that thirty-eight sections of land, where salt springs had been found, of which one township was situated on the Scioto, one section on the Muskingum, and one section in the United States Military Tract, should be granted to the state, never to be sold or leased, however, for a longer term than ten years; and third, that one twentieth of the proceeds of the public lands sold within the state, should be applied to the construction of roads from the Atlantic, to and through the same." These propositions were offered on the condition that the convention should provide, by ordinance, that all lands sold by the United States after the 30th day of June, 1802, should be exempt from taxation by the state for five years after sale.

The convention met at Chillicothe on the 1st day of November, 1802. While it believed the consideration offered to the state hardly sufficient for the tax exemption required, it decided to accept the conditions of Congress, providing their propositions should be sufficiently enlarged "so as to vest in the state, for the use of schools. Section Sixteen in each township si ild by the United States, and three other tracts of land, equal in quantity, respectively, to one thirty-sixth of the Virginia Reservation, of the United States Military Tract, and of the Connecticut Reserve, and to give three per centum of the proceeds of the public lands sold within the state, to be applied under the direction of the Legislature, to roads in Ohio." Congress acceded to this modification and there was thus nothing to prevent the formation of the new state.

The time for the meeting of the General Assembly came while the constitutional convention was in session, but, owing to the probability that the territorial government would si 1 si 11 m be superseded by that of the state, they deferred meeting. On the 29th of November the convention having framed a constitution and completed its labors, adjourned. The constitution, though never submitted to the people, was submitted to Congress and accepted by that body, and an act passed admitting Ohio to the Union, February 19, 1803. The constitution framed by this convention continued in force until the adoption, in 185 1, of the present one. The territorial government ended and the state government began on March 1, 1803.

By the new constitution it was provided that the first elections under the new government should be held the second Tuesday of January, 1803. Accordingly at that time Edward Tiffin was chosen governor and Jeremiah Morrow sent to Congress. A General Assembly was also elected, which met on March 3rd and chose the following officers : Michael Baldwin, speaker of the House, and Nathaniel Massie of the Senate; William Creighton, Jr., secretary of state; Colonel Thomas Gibson, auditor; William McFarland, treasurer; Return J. Meigs, Jr., Samuel Huntington and William Spriggs, judges of the Supreme Court; Francis Dunlevy. Wyllys Silliman and Calvin Pease, president judges of the First. Second and Third Districts, and Thomas Worthington and John

Smith. United States Senators. The Assembly also passed such laws as were necessary. Up to the time of the adoption of the state constitution there had been organized the following counties: Washington, July 27, 1788; Hamilton, January 2, 1790; Adams, July 10, 1797; Jefferson, July 29, 1797; Ross, August 20, 1798; Clermont, Fairfield and Trumbull, December 9, 1800; Belmont, September 7, 1801. Eight additional counties were created by the Assembly at its first session, viz. : Gallia, Scioto, Butler. Warren, Greene, Montgomery, Franklin and Columbiana.

The seat of government was first located at Chillicothe. In the year 1810 an act was passed changing its location to Zanesville, but at the next session of the General Assembly it was again taken back to Chillicothe, and commissioners appointed to determine upon a definite location. It is said that they first reported in favor of Dublin, a small town on the Scioto about fourteen miles above Columbus. At the session of the Assembly of 181 3- 14. however, the proposal of parties owning the site of Columbus was accepted and in 1816. the first meeting of the Assembly was held there.