Wayne County, Ohio - Chapter 1: The Northwest Territory, 1910

Chapter 1: The Northwest Territory

The discovery of what is now known as North America, by Sebastian Cabot in 1498, was at a time when no white man had probably trodden upon the soil of this country. It was the empire, as is generally believed, of the native American, a barbaric people who roamed not unlike the wild beasts of the field over its extensive domain, all untamed and ungoverned by any regular type of civilized, Christianized life. The discoveries of both Columbus and Cabot opened up the immigration for the European countries. Soon Spain, England and France - the great rival nations - vied one with the other for possession and final occupancy of the New World.

It was Spain that had the distinction of being the founder of the first colony in North America, the same being established at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, it being by forty years the most aged city in the United States.

The second colony was planted by the French people in 1604, at Port Royal, in Acadia, the original name of Nova Scotia. The third settlement was effected by the English at Jamestown, Virginia, in the month of April, 1607, the first English settlement on the continent.

The French people had commenced to make rapid strides toward settlement and naturally England soon became alarmed at the French encroachments in the north part of the new-found world, as then known and styled. Hence the counti*y was divided into two grand divisions, that portion lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of northern latitude, and James I by grant disposed of that portion of the country included between the forty-fourth and forty-first degrees to an association of merchants, called the London Land Company, and to the Plymouth Companv, which later settled New England, between tlie thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees. 'I'lie Cabots had visited Nova Scotia as early as 1498, though there ^2)

European colony established until the above named, but Henry IV of France had as early as 1603 granted Acadia to De Monts, a Frenchman, and his followers, and some Jesuits, who for a number of years tried to form a settlement in Port Royal and St. Croix, but who were finally expelled from the country by the English governor and colonists of Virginia, who claimed the country by right of discovery of Sebastian Cabot. The grant to De Alonts comprised the lands between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of latitude, and hence included the lands at present composing the state of Ohio.

The grant of James I of England to the London Company also embraced Ohio, and the grant of the same monarch to the Plymouth Company compassed a portion of it. France, much desiring to hold sway and possess this domain, sent forth her boldest adventurers to explore and really possess the country in question. Among these men may be mentioned La Salle, Champlain and Marquette. Forts were built by them on the lakes and the Mississippi, Illinois, Maumee and Wabash rivers, and the whole Northwest Territory was included by them in the province of Louisiana. In brief, according to the geographers the entire country was known as New France, except that eaist of the great ranges of mountains whose streams flow into the Atlantic ocean, and of this portion they even claimed the basin of the Kennebec and all of Maine to the east of that valley. As early as 1720 they had strong and well fortified posts on the Wabash river, and a line of communication was established to Acadia by way of this stream, the lakes and the St. Lawrence. The English not only claimed the Northwest Territory by reason of discovery and by grant of the King of England, but by virtue of the purch'ase of the same from the Indians by treaty at Lancaster, in 1744. By that treaty the Six Nations ceded the territory to the English, as they claimed. For the purpose of formally possessing it and vying with the French in its settlement, a company, denominated the Ohio Company, was organized in 1750 and during that year obtained a grant from the British Parliament for six hundred thousand acres of land on or near the Ohio river, and in 1750 the English built and established a trading post - "trading house" - at a place called Loramie's Store, on the Great Miami river, and which was the first English establishment erected in the Northwest Territory, or in the great Mississippi valley. In the early part of 1752 the French demolished this trading house and carried the inhabitants off to Canada. This brought on somewhat of a conflict, and the Ottawas and Chippeways assisting the French, fourteen of the Indian warriors were killed and many more wounded before tbe affair was adjusted.

It was in 1762 that the Moravian missionaries, Post and Heckwelder, had established a station upon the Muskingum river. One year later the French ceded their possessions in the Northwest and, indeed, in North America, to Great Britain, and from that time forward the English had only the natives with whom to contend. After many conflicts had ensued and much blood and precious life had been lost, the English became masters of the soil. In 1774, by act of Parliament of the English government, the whole of the Northwest Territory was annexed to and made a part of the province of Quebec.

July 4, 1776, the colonists declared their independence and renounced further allegiance to the British crown, and each colony then claimed jurisdiction over the soil embraced within its charter. The Revolutionary war terminating favorably to the American colonies, the King of England, Septemlber 3, 1783,. ceded all claim to the Northwest Territory of the United States. By charter, Virginia claimed that portion of the territory which was situated northwest of the river Ohio, but in 1784 she ceded all claim to the territory to the United States. By virtue of this act or deed of cession the General Assembly of Virginia did, through her delegates in Congress March I, 1784, "convey (in the name of and for and on behalf of the said commonwealth), transfer, assign and make over unto the United States, in Congress assembled, for the benefit of said states, Virginia included, all right and title and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, to the territoiy of said state lying and being to the northwest of the river Ohio."

After this great northwestern domain had been secured to the United States, Congress directed measures toward the permanent organization of civil government in the same, it now being within the legitimate province of its legislation. July 13, 1787, Congress passed "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the Ohio river," the same being styled "the Ordinance of 1787." This was made the supreme law of the territory, and from its principles grew all further legislation.

The ordinance referred to provided that the territory should be divided into not less than three nor more than five states, as soon as Virginia should alter her acts of cession and the proper bounds should be fixed. The western state in such territory should be bounded by the Ohio, Mississippi and Wabash rivers ; a direct line from the Wabash at Port Vincent due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by said line direct to the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi. The middle state was fixed by a direct line from the Wabash at Port Vincent, to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Miami to the saiid territorial line. The eastern state was fixed as by the last named direct line, the Ohio and Pennsylvania, and to the said territorial line. Provision was, however, made that two other states might be made from the territory by Congress; further that when any one of these states has sixty thousand people that it might be admitted into the Union as a state and no longer be under a territorial government.

Article six of the ordinance provided that "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 and service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his labor and services aforesaid."

Population

It is estimated that at the date of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 the entire population of all the villages and settlements of the territory in question did not exceed three thousand souls. These settlements were chiefly made in the northwest and western portion of it. The French were the occupants of the villages and environments, chief among which was Detroit, on the Detroit river; St. Vincent, on the Wabash; Cahokia, a few miles below St. Louis ; St. Philip, forty-five miles below St. Louis, on the Mississippi river; Kaskaskia, six miles above the mouth of the stream by the same name ; Prairie du Rocher, near Fort Chartres ; and Fort Chartres, fifteen miles northwest of Kaskaskia.

Original Squatters

the world developed among them peculiar characteristics. They assimilated themselves with the Indians, adopted their habits, and alm/ost uniformly lived in harmony with them. They were illiterate, careless, contented, but without much industry, energy and forethought. Some were hunters, trappers and anglers, while others run birch bark canoes by way of carrying on a small internal trade, and still others cultivated the soil. The traders or voyageurs were men fond of adventure, and of a wild, unrestrained Indian sort of life, and would ascend many of the long rivers of the West, almost to their sources, in their little birch-bark canoes and load them with furs bought from the Indians. The canoes were light and could be easily carried across the portages between the streams.''

There was attached to these French villages a "common field" for the free use of the villagers, every family, in proportion to the number of its members, being entitled to a share of it. It was a large, enclosed tract for farming purposes. There was also at each village a "common," or large enclosed tract, for pasturage and feed purposes, and timber for building.

Character Of The People

The Western Annais had this to say concerning the inhabitants of this territory : "They were devout Catholics, who, under the guidance of their priests, attended punctually upon the holidays and festivals and performied faithfully all the outward duties and ceremonies of the church. Aside from this, their religion was blended with their social feelings. Sundays, after mass, was their special occasion for their games and assemblies. The dance was the popular amusement with them, and all classes, ages, sexes and conditions, united by a common love of enjoyment, met together to participate in the exciting pleasure. They were indifferent about the acquisition of property for themselves or their children. Living in a fruitful country, which, moreover, abounded in fish and game, and where the necessaries of life could be procured with little labor, they were content to live in unambitious peace and comfortable poverty. Their agriculture was rude, their houses were humble, and they cultivated grain, also fruits and flowers ; but they lived on, from generation to generation, without much change or improvement. In some instances they married and intermarried with surrounding Indiana tribes."

These remote villages and settlements were usually protected by military posts - Detroit especially, which in 1763, when held by the English, had resisted the assaults of the great Pontiac - and had witnessed the wrinkled front of grim-visaged war a century before the adoption of the Ordinance of 1787.

Organization Of The Ohio Land Company

The best description of this great company is found in the secretary of state's reports of 1876, and is from the pen of that most accurate writer and gatherer of statistics, Hon. Isaac Smiucker, of Licking county:

While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organization of a territorial government northwest of the Ohio river, the preliminary steps were taken in Massachusetts toward the formation of the Ohio Land Company, for the purpose of making a purchase of a large tract of land in said territory and settling upon it. Upon the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the .aforesaid land company perfected its organization and by its agents. Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Ma.j. Winthrop Sargent, made application to the board of treasury July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days before to make sales. The purchase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, embraced a tract of land containing about a million and a half acres situated within the counties (as now known) of Wiashington, Athens, Meigs and Gallia, subject to the reservation of two townships of land six miles square, for the endowment of a college, since known as the Ohio University, at Athens ; also every sixteenth section, set apart for the use of schools, as well as every twenty-ninth section, dedicated to the support of religious institutions; also sections 8, ii and 26, which were reserved by the United States for future sale. After these deductions were made, and that for donation lands, there remained only nine hundred and sixty-four thousand acres to be paid for by the Ohio Land Company, and for which patents were issued.

At a meeting of the directors of the company, held in November, 1787, Gen. Rufus Putnam was chosen superintendent of the company, and he accepted the position. Early in December six boat builders and a number of other mechanics were sent forward to Simrall's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny river, under the command of Maj. Hafifield White, where they arrived in January, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the use of the company. Col. Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tupper and John Matthews, of Massachusetts, and Col. Return J. Meigs, of Connecticut, were appointed surveyors. Preliminary steps were also taken at this meeting to secure a teacher and chaplain, which resulted in the appointment of Rev. Daniel Story, who sometime during the next year arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum in the capacity of the first missionary and teacher from New England.

Early in the winter the remainder of the pioneers, with the surveyors, left their New England homes and started on their toilsome journey to the western wilderness. They passed on over the Alleghany mountains, and reached the Youghiogheny about the middle of February, where they rejoined their companions who had preceded them.

The boat, called the "Mayflower," that was to transport the pioneers to their destination, was forty-five feet long, twelve feet wide and fifty tons burden, and was placed under the command of Captain Devol. Her bows were raking, or curved like a galley, and strongly timbered; her sides were made bullet proof, and she was covered with a deck roof, so as to afford better protection against the hostile savages while floating down towards their western home, and during its occupancy there before the completion of their cabins. All things being ready, they embarked at Simrall's Ferry, April 2, 1788, and passed down the Youghiogheny into the Monongahela, and thence into the Ohio, and down said river to the mouth of the Muskingum, where they arrived April 7th, and then and there made the first permanent settlement of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio.

Many of the Yankee colonists had been officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary war, and were, for the most part, men of intelligence and character and of sound judgment and much ability. In short, they were just the kind of men to found a state in the wilderness. They possessed great energy of character, were enterprising, fond of adventure and daring and were not to be intimidated by the formidable forests, nor by the ferocious beasts sheltered therein, nor by the still more to be dreaded savages, who stealthily and with murderous intent roamed throughout their length and breadth. Their army experiences had taught them what hardships and privations were, and they were quite willing to encounter them. A better set of men could not have been selected for pioneer settlers than were these New England colonists - those brave-hearted, courageous hero-emigrants to the great northwest, who, having triumphantly passed the fiery ordeal of the Revolution, volunteered to found a state and to establish American laws, American institutions and American civilization in the wilderness of the uncivilized West.

First Settlement Under The Ordinance Of 1 787

Of course, no time was lost by the colonists in erecting their habitations, as well as in building a stockade fort and in clearing land for the production of vegetables and grain for their subsistence, fifty acres of corn having been planted the first year. Their settlement was established upon the point of land between the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, just opposite and across the Muskingum from Fort Harmer, built in 1786 and at this time garrisoned by a small military force under command of Major Doughty.

At a meeting held on the banks of the Muskingum, July 2, 1788, it was voted that Marietta should be the name of their town, it being thus named in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

Surveys And Public Land Grants

The first survey of the public lands northwest of the Ohio river was the seven ranges of congressional lands, and was executed pursuant to an act of Congress of May 20, 1785. This tract of "the seven ranges" is bounded by a line of forty-two miles in length, running due west from the point where the western boundaiy line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio river; thence due south to the Ohio river, at the southeast corner of Marietta township, in Washington county; thence up the said river to the place of beginning. The present counties of Jefferson, Columbiana, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble, Monroe and Washington are, in whole or in part, within the seven ranges.

The second survey was that of the Ohio Company's purchase, made in pursuance of an act of Congress of July 23, 1785, though the contract was not completed with the Ohio Company until October 27, 1787. One hundred thousand acres of this tract, called donation lands, were received on conditions as a free gift to actual settlers. Portions of the counties of Washington, Athens and Gallia are within this tract, also the entire county of Meigs. The donation lands were in Washington county.

The next survey was the Symmes Purchase and contiguous lands, situated to the north and west of it, and was made soon after the foregoing. The Symmes Purchase embraced the entire Ohio river front between the Big Miami and Little Miami rivers, a distance of twenty-seven miles, and reaching northward a sufficient distance to include an area of one million acres. The contract with Judge Symmes, made in October, 1787, v^as later modified by act of Congress bearing date of May 5, 1792, and by an authorized act of the President of the United States, of September 30, 1794, so as to amount to only three hundred eleven thousand six hundred eighty-two acres, exclusive of a reservation of fifteen acres around Fort Washington, of a square mile at the mouth of the Great Miami, of sections 16 and 29 in each township, the former of which Congress had reserved for educational purposes and religious affairs; exclusive also of a township dedicated to the interests of a college ; and sections 8, 1 1 and 26, which Congress reserved for future sale.

The tract of land situated between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, known as the Virginia military lands, was never regularly surveyed into townships, but patents were issued by the President of the United States to such persons (Virginians) as had rendered service on the continental establishment in the army of the United States (hence the name), and in the quantities to which they were entitled, according to the previous acts of Congress of August 10, 1790. It embraces a body of six thousand five hundred and seventy square miles, or four million two hundred' and four thousand eight hundred acres. The following counties are situated in the tract : Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison and Union entirely, and greater or less portions of Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Warren, Greene, Clarke, Champaign, Logan and Hardin.

Connecticut ceded all lands in the Northwest to which she claimed title to the United States (except the tract which has been known as the Western Reserve), by deed of cession bearing date September 14, 1786, and in May, 1800, by the act of the Legislature of said state, renounced all jurisdiction and claim to the "territory of the Western Reserve of Connecticut." The tract of land was surveyed in 1796 and later into townships of five miles square, and in the aggregate contained about three million eight hundred thousand acres, being one hundred and twenty miles long and lying west of the Pennsylvania state line, all situated between forty-one degrees and forty-two degrees and two minutes of north latitude. Half a million of acres of the foregoing lands were set apart by the state of Connecticut, in 1792, as a donation to the sufferers by fire (during the Revolutionary war) of the residents of Greenwich, New London, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New Haven and other Connecticut villages whose property was burned by the British; hence the name "firelands," by which this tract taken from the western portion of the Reserve has been known. It is situated chiefly in Huron and Erie counties, a small portion only being in Ottawa county. The entire Western Reserve embraces the present counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Trumbull; also the greater portion of Mahoning and Summit and very limiited portions of Ashland and Ottawa.

The French Grant

is a tract of twenty-four thomsand acres of land Ixardering on the Ohio river within the present limits of Scioto county, granted by Congress in

March, 1795, to certain French settlers of Gallipolis who, through invalid titles, had lost their lands there. Twelve hundred acres were added to this grant in 1798, making a total of twenty-five thousand two hundred acres.

The United States Military Lands

were surveyed under the provisions of the act of Congress of June i, 1796, and contained two million five hundred and sixty thousand acres. This tract was set apart to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war, hence the title by which it is known. It is bounded by the "seventh range" on the east, by the Greenville treaty line on the north, by the congressional and refugee lands on the south, and by the Scioto river on the west, including the county of Coshocton entire, and portions of the counties of Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Muskingum, Licking, Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Morrow, Knox and Holmes.

The Moravian Lands

are three several tracts of four thousand acres each, situated respectively at Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem, all on the Tuscarawas river. These lands were originally dedicated by an ordinance of Congress of June i, 1796, and were surveyed and patents issued to the Society of the Llnited Brethren, for the purpose above specified.

The Refugee Tract

is a body of land containing one hundred thousand acres, granted by Congress February 18, 1801, to persons who fled from the British provinces during the Revolutionary war and took up arms against the mother country and in behalf of the colonies, and thereby lost their property by confiscation This tract is four and one-half miles wide and extends forty-eight miles eastward from the Scioto river, at Columbus, into Muskingumj county. It includes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking and Muskingum.

is a township of land six miles square, containing thirteen thousand acres, situated in the southeastern part of Tuscarawas county. It was given to

Arnold Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, by act of Congress of February 27, 1801, "in consideration of his having during the Revolutionary war given shelter and aid to the American cruisers and vessels of war."

Indian Treaties

By the terms of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded with the Iroquois or Six Nations (Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras and Oneidas) October 23, 1784, the indefinite claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of the Ohio was extinguished. The commissioners of Congress were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. Cornplanter and Red Jacket represented the Indians.

This was followed in January, 1785, by the treaty of Fort IMcIntosh, by which the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas and Chippewas relinquished all claim to the Ohio valley and established the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuyahoga river, and along the main branch of the Tuscarawas to the forks of said river, near Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to the portage between the headwaters of the Great Miami and the Maumee or Maumee of the lakes, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river. This treaty was negotiated by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. for the United States, and by the chiefs of the aforesaid tribes.

A similar relincjuishment was effected by the treaty of Fort Finney (at the mouth of the Great Miami), concluded with the Shawnees January 31, 1786, the L'nited States commissioners being the same as the foregoing, except the substitution of Samuel H. Parsons for Arthur Lee.

The Treaty Of Fort Harmar

held by General St. Clair January 9, 1789, was mainly confirmatory of the treaties previously made. So was also the treaty of Greenville, of August 3, 1705, made by General Wayne, on the part of the L^nited States, and the chiefs of eleven of the most powerful tribes of the northwestern Indians, which re-established the Indian boundary line through the present state of Ohio and extended it from Loramie to Fort Recovery, and from thence to the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river.

The rights and titles acquired by the Indian tribes under the foregoing treaties were extinguished by the general government by purchase or subse- quent treaties. The Western Reserve tract west of the Cuyahoga river was secured by a treaty formed at Fort Industry, in 1805. The lands west of Richland and Huron counties and north of the boundary line to the western limits of Ohio were purchased in 1818. The last possession of the Delawares was purchased in 1829, and by a treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1842, by Col. John Johnston and the Wyandot chiefs, the last remnant of the Indian tribes in Ohio sold the last acre of land they owned within the limits of the state to the general government, and retired the next year to the far West, settling at and near the mouth of the Kansas river.

First Territorial Officers

In the month of October, 1787, Congress appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, governor; Maj. Winthrop Sargent, secretary, and James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and John Armstrong, judges of the territory; the latter, however, declining, John Cleves was appointed in his place. July 9, 1788, Governor St. Clair arrived at Marietta and, finding the secretary and a majority of the judges present, proceeded to organize the territory. The Governor and judges were the sole legislative power during the existence of the first grade of territorial government. Such laws were in force as were in other states, and were such as applied to the people of the territory,

The Second Territorial Government

The Ordinance of 1787 provided that after it should be ascertained that five thousand free male inhabitants actually resided within the territory the second grade of government could, of right, be established, which provided for a legislative council, and also an elective house of representatives, the two composing the law-making power of the territory, provided always that the governor's assent to their acts was had. He possessed the absolute veto power in each branch, and nothing could become a law without his sanction. The conditions that authorized the second grade of territorial government, however, did not exist until 1798, and it was not really put into operation until September, 1799, after the first grade of government had been in operation eleven years,

Early Territorial Laws

The first law was proclaimed July 25, 1788, and was entitled "An Act for Regulating and Establishing the Militia." Two days thereafter the Governor issued a proclamation establishing the county of Washington, which included all the territory east of the Scioto river to which the Indian title had been extinguished, reaching northward to Lake Erie, the Ohio river and the Pennsylvania line being its eastern boundary; Marietta, the seat of the territorial government, also became the county seat of Washington county.

Quite a number of laws were necessarily adopted and published during 1788 and the following year. From 1790 to 1795 they published sixty-four, forty-four of them being adopted at Cincinnati during the months of June, July and August of the year last named, by the Governor and Judges Symmes and Turner. They are known as the "Maxwell Code," from the name of the publisher, and were intended, says the author of Western Annals, "to form a pretty complete body of statutory provisions." In 1798 eleven more were adopted. It was the published opinion of Chief Justice Chase "that it may be doubted whether any colony, at so early a period after its first establishment, ever had so good a code of laws." Among them was that which provided that the common law of England, and all statutes in aid thereof made previous to the fourth year of James I, should be in full force within the territory. Probably four-fifths of the laws adopted were selected from those in force in Pennsylvania, and others were mainly taken from the statutes of Virginia and Massachusetts.

Organization Of Early Counties

Washington county, embracing the eastern half of the present state of Ohio, was the only organized county of the Northwest Territory until early in 1790, when the Governor proclaimed Hamilton county, which embraced all the territory between the Big and Little Miami rivers, and extended north to the "Standing Stone Forks," on the first-named stream.

Undoubtedly Wayne county was the third in order of organization. The Ordinance of 1787' referring to the territory "Northwest of the River Ohio." divided it into three divisions, the "Western." the "Middle" and the "Eastern." Howe, in his "History of Ohio," says: "Wayne county was established by proclamation of Governor St. Clair, August 15, 1796, and was the third county formed in the Northwest Territory. Its original limits were very extensive, and were thus defined in the act creating it : 'Beginning at the mouth of the Cuvahoga river, upon Lake Erie, and with said river to the portage, between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum: thence down the said branch to the forks at the carrying place above Fort Laurens: thence by a west line to the east boundary of Hamilton county ( which is a due north line from the lower Shawnees town upon the Scioto river) ; thence by a line west northerlv to the southern part of the portage between the Miamis of the Ohio and the St. Mary's river; thence by a line also west northerly to the southwestern part of the portage between the Wabash and the Miamis of Lake Erie, where Fort Wayne now stands; thence by a line west northerly to the southern part of Lake Michigan; thence along the western shores of the same to the northwest part thereof (including the lands upon the streams emptying into the said lake) ; thence by a due north line to the territorial boundary in Lake Superior, and with the said boundary through Lakes Huron, Sinclair and Erie to the mouth of Cuyahoga river, the place of beginning.'

"These limits embrace what is now a part of Ohio. Indiana. Illinois, Wisconsin and all of iMichigan, and the towns of Ohio City, Chicago, Sault St. Mary's, iNIackinaw. etc.'' The same is given in the "Hundred Year Book," issued by the state of Ohio in 1902.

It will be observed that Hamilton was the second county organized in Ohio. There were situated within its limits, when organized, several flourishing villages that had their origin during the closing months of 1788 and early in 1789.

Cincinnati was laid out in 1789, by Col. Robert Patterson, Alathias Denman and Israel Ludlow. Several not very successful attempts had also been made at various points between Cincinnati and the mouth of the Great Miami by Judge Symmes. The early settlers in Hamilton county were mostly from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. The Scioto valley was next to be settled, and chiefly by persons from Virginia and Kentucky.

The early settlement along the shore of Lake Erie, during the closing years of the eighteenth century, had such representative men as Governor Samuel Huntington and Hon. Benjamin Tappan, and the good words that General Washington said of the New Englanders who settled at Marietta could with a slight modiflcation apply to the pioneers of the aforesaid settlement.

Early Ohio Villages And Towns

The following is a list of the principal villages and towns of the Northwest Territory, started and built up during territorial rule, with the time of surveying the first lots, also names of the proprietors :

Columbia, laid out in 1788 by Benjamin Stites, Major Gano and others. Cincinnati, laid out in 1789 by Robert Patterson, Mathias Denman and Israel Ludlow.

At the time the territorial government ended in Ohio, Cincinnati was the largest town within the territory and contained about one thousand population. It was incorporated in 1802.