Athens Township (part 15 of 21)

The situation of the colonists was now interesting and critical. Lodged in the midst of a vast wilderness, many hundred miles from home and from the protecting care of government, surrounded by bands of hostile savages, who, though quiet at present, were apt to become deadly foes at any moment; and but scantily supplied with the means of living, the brave pioneers had need of all their energies to prepare for the future. No time was lost in providing for the protection and nam immediately began the erection of a fort, near the Muskingum river, comprising a block-house, and other means of defense, which was afterward, during periods of Indian hostilities, crowded with families, and became of the utmost importance. The gigantic trees of the forest were girdled and deadened, the rich soil easily prepared for seeding, and about one hundred and thirty acres of corn were planted this first spring. The rivers abounded with fish; game of every sort was found in the greatest plenty; herds of buffaloes and deer roamed the forests, and innumerable flocks of wild turkeys were added to supply the settlement with fresh meat. The day after their landing, the surveyors commenced laying off lots, and preparing for the expected arrival of other emigrants. The officers of the territory not having yet arrived, a series of regulations or laws for the temporary government of the community was prepared and promulgated by being nailed to the trunk of a large tree on the river bank. This code was rigidly observed till other laws were regularly enacted, and under it the peace of the settlement was never once disturbed. All

* No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there

The little city at the mouth of the Muskingum was first called Adelphia. There were some men of classical education among the directors, and a harmless pedantry was evinced in some of the names adopted by them. Thus the large public square was called Quadranaon, and the smaller one the Capitolium. The wide road, leading up from the river landing to the square, was named Sacra via, and the fort, with its inclosure of blockhouses, etc., was called Campus Martius. At a meeting of the directors, held on the 2d of July, 1788, which was the first convened west of the mountains, the name of the city was changed by the following resolution: + meaning of Muskingum; or you may meet with some other name that will be agreeable. At present, I must confess, I feel a partiality for the name proposed at Boston, and think it preferable to any that has yet been mentioned. I think that Adelphia

* Resolved, That the city near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum be called Marietta; that the directors write to his Excellency, the Count Moustiers (French Minister), informing him of their motives in naming the city, and request his opinion whether it will be advisable to present to her Majesty

The name is compounded from that of the unfortunate young queen of France, Marie Antoinette, who had manifested a constant friendship for the United

While the infant colony of the Ohio Company is being thus auspiciously planted, and the herculean task of subduing the wilderness well begun, let us glance at the measures taken by congress to establish government, law, and order within the territory.

The settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum was made before the arrival in the territory of the governor and judges. Congress, however, had organized the territorial government soon after the passage of the ordinance of 1787. Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor, his commission bearing date February 1, 1788, and to run for three years. He was a citizen of Pennsylvania, had been a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary army, and president of congress, and stood high in the confidence of Washington.

in the Ohio Company), and John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, were appointed judges; and Winthrop Sargent, of New Hampshire (secretary of the Ohio Company), was appointed secretary of the territory. The judges arrived in June, and on the gth of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair reached Marietta. He was escorted by a detachment of troops, under Major Doughty, who had gone up to Pittsburg, from Fort Harmar, some days before to meet the governor, and was received at the fort with military honors and salute. Joseph Buell, who was an orderly sergeant at the time, in one of the companies of United States troops in

« Fuly gth. - Governor St. Clair arrived at the garrison. On landing, he was saluted with thirteen rounds from the fieldpiece. On entering the garrison the music played a salute, and the troops paraded and presented their arms. He was also saluted by a clap of thunder and a heavy shower of rain as he entered the fort; and thus we received our governor of the

After a few days of repose, the governor, on the 18th of July, made his first public appearance before the citizens of the territory. At three o'clock in the afternoon he came over from Fort Harmar in the government barge, escorted by the officers of the garrison, and accompanied by Mr. Sargent, the secretary. He was received in the grove by Gen. Putnam, the judges of the territory, and the principal inhabitants of the settlement, with congratulations and expressions of welcome. The secretary then proceeded to read the ordinance of July 13, 1787, for the government of the territory, and also the commissions of the governor, the judges, and himself. The governor then delivered an inaugural address, to which a response was made *in the name of all the people," and the ceremonies concluded with cheers and congratulations.

We may here digress, a few moments, to remark upon the unique form of civil government thus inaugurated, and formally established in the territory, and which was continued for a period of ten years. It was the first territorial government ever organized by Federal authority, and was, in some respects, crude and anomalous. The people had no part whatever in the government. 'The governor and judges derived their appointments first from congress, and, after the adoption of the Federal constitution, in 1789, from the president. There were no elective officers. The whole power, legislative, judicial, and executive was vested in the governor and judges, and in its exercise they were responsible only to the remote central government. A portion of the expenses of the government were borne by the United States, but the principal part were drawn from the people of the territory by heavy taxes.

seems, worked reasonably well in most respects, and though in some points it was unfriendly to the large liberty of the people, we must never forget the noble principles that were secured to the embryo states of the northwest by the famous ordinance of 1787. In language whose dignity befits the lofty theme, it provides "for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions, are erected; and for fixing and establishing those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in said territory." It secured for all time civil and religious liberty, Aabeas corpus, and other fundamental rights. It enacts that, ''religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged." Finally, it provided that, in the vast area over which it extended, slavery should never exist. Thus, perpetual freedom was secured to the states of the northwest. The borders of Ohio were consecrated while the wilderness was yet unbroken, and long before the state was formed ; and the pioneers who landed at the mouth of the Muskingum trod upon a soil which could bear up none but free men.

publish in the district, such laws of the old states, civil and criminal, as they saw fit, and were to report them to congress from time to time. But they did not confine themselves very strictly to the letter of the ordinance in this regard; for when they could not find laws of the old states suited to the wants and condition of the territory, they made enactments of their own - all of which were, a few years later, ratified and confirmed by the first territorial legislature.

* A LAW for regulating and establishing the MILITIA in the Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, published at the city of Marietta upon the twenty-fifth day of July, in the thirteenth year of the Independence of the United States, and of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, by his Excellency, ARTHUR ST. Crarr, Esquire, 'Governor and Commander-in-chief, and by the Honorable SAMUEL HoLpEN Parsons and James MITCHELL VARNUM, Esquires, Judges." *

* Laws passed in the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio, from the commencement of the government to the 31st of December, 1791. Published by authority. Philadelphia, 1792: p3: lished in the great northwestern territory, and, as its boundaries were then fixed, comprising about one half of the present state of Ohio. The proclamation is as follows:

" By his Excellency, Arthur St. Clair, Esq., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio.

To all persons to whom these presents shall come, Greeting : WnHznEAs, By the ordinance of Congress of the thirteenth of July, 1787, for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, it is directed that for the due execution of process, civil and criminal, the governor shall make proper divisions of the said territory and proceed from time to time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the part of the same, where the Indian title has been extinguished, into counties and townships, subject to future alterations as therein specified. Now, know ye, that it appearing to me to be necessary, for the purposes above mentioned, that a county should immediately be laid out, I have ordained and ordered, and by these presents do ordain and order that all and singular the lands lying and being within the following boundaries, viz.: Beginning on the bank of the Ohio River, where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie; thence along the southern shore of said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river; thence up said river to the portage between that and the T'uscarawas branch the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn westerly to the portage of that branch of the Big Miami, on which the fort stood that was taken by the French in 1752, until it meets the road from the lower Shawanese town to the Sandusky ; thence south to the Scioto river, thence with that river to the mouth, and thence up the Ohio river to the place of beginning; shall be a county, and the same is hereby erected into a county named and to be called hereafter the county of Washington; and the said county of Washington shall have and enjoy all and singular, the jurisdiction, rights, liberties, privileges and immunities whatever to a county belonging and appertaining, and which any other county, that may hereafter be erected and laid out, shall or ought to enjoy, conformably to the ordinance of Congress before mentioned. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the territory to be affixed, this twenty-sixth day of July, in the thirteenth year of the Independence of the United States, and in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight. [Signed] A. ST. Cram."

The "Law for establishing General Courts ot Quarter Sessions of the Peace," published at Marietta August 23d, 1788," provided that that court should | be held at Marietta four times in every year by justices of the peace appointed and commissioned by the governor. There were to be "a competent number" of these justices in each county, not less than three nor more than five of whom (to be specially named by commission), should hold the courts of quarter sessions. Any three of them, one being of the quorum specifically named, might hold special sessions when occasion required.

The county court of common pleas was to be held semi-annually by not less than three nor more than five judges to be appointed in each county and commissioned by the governor. A sheriff was to be appointed in each county by the governor.

The ''General Court of the Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio,"* composed of the judges appointed and commissioned by the Federal authority, was to hold four terms yearly in such counties as the judges should from time to time deem most conducive to the general good. Only one term yearly was to be held in any one county; and all processes, civil and criminal, were returnable to said court wheresoever it might be in the territory.

The first judges of the court of common pleas were Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper and Archibald Crary. Return J. Meigs was appointed clerk of the court, and Col. Ebenezer Sproat sheriff, which office he held for fourteen years till the formation of the state government. The first judges of the courts of general quarter sessions were Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper (justices of the quorum), anc

General Putnam resigned his position as judge of the quorum in 1790, and Joseph Gilman, formerly of New Hampshire, was appointed in his place; and on the death of Judge Tupper, in June 1792, Robert Oliver was appointed judge of the quorum to fill

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers attending western emigration, and the perils that surrounded the little settlement, there began to be some arrivals from the east. During the month of - August, 1788, eight families arrived from New England, which increased the population of the colony to one hundred and thirty-two men, with some women and children. At the beginning of the year 1789, there was not a single white family within the present bounds of Ohio save those in this settlement. The settlement at Cincinnati did not begin till the spring of 1789. Flint, himself a pioneer, in his "Indian Wars of the West," thus speaks of early emigration:

«The writer of this distinctly remembers the wagon that carried out a number of adventurers from the counties of Essex and Middlesex in Massachusetts, on the second emigration to the woods of the Ohio. He remembers the black canvas covering of the wagon; the white and large lettering in capitals 'To then, the thought of such a distant expedition furnished to his imagination. Some twenty emigrants accompanied the wagon. The Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, he thinks, had the direction of this band of emigrants. * * * * * * * * * * * General Putnam seems to have been the only one who preceded him in claims to be the patriarch of the Marietta settlement. Dr. Cutler, at the time of his being engaged in the speculation of the Ohio Company's purchase, had a feud - it is not remembered whether literary, political, or religious - with the late learned and eccentric Dr. Bentley, of Salem, Massachusetts. _ Dr. Bentley was then chief contributor to a paper (Salem Register) which he afterward edited. The writer still remembers _and can repeat doggerel verses by Dr. Bentley upon the departure of Dr. Cutler on his first trip to explore his purchase on the Ohio. The first travelers to explore Ohio, availed themselves of the : full extent of the traveler's privilege in regard to the wonders of this new land of promise, and the unparalleled fertility of the soil. These extravagant representations of the grandeur of the vegetation, and the fertility of the land, at first excited a great desire to emigrate to this new and wonderful region. But some returned with different accounts, in discouragement, and the hostility of the savages was painted in the most appalling colors. A reaction took place in the public mind. The wags of the day exercised their wit in circulating caricatured and exaggerated editions of the stories of the first adventurers, that there were springs of brandy, flax that bore little pieces of cloth on the stems, enormous pumpkins, and melons, and the like. Accounts the most horrible were added of hoop snakes of such deadly malignity that a sting which they bore in their tails, when it punctured the bark of a green tree, instantly caused its leaves to become sear and the tree to die. Stories of Indian massacres and barbarities were related in all their horrors. The country was admitted to be fertile; but was pronounced excessively sickly, and poorly balancing by that advantage all those counterpoises of sickness, Indians, copperheaded and hoop snakes, bears, wolves, and panthers.

The tendency of the New England mind to enterprise and emigration thus early began to develop. For all these horrors, portrayed in all their darkness, and with all the dreadful imaginings connected with the thought of such a remote and boundless wilderness, did not hinder the departure of great numbers of the people, following in the footsteps of Gen. Putnam and Dr. Cutler. They were both men of established character, whose words and opinions wrought confidence. Dr. Cutler was a man of various and extensive learning. He was particularly devoted to the study of natural history, and was among the first who began scientifically to explore the botany of our country. He had great efficiency in founding the upper settlement (the Ohio Company's) in Ohio, and his descendants are among the

Thus the love of adventure and the migratory instincts of the New England people, year after year impelled little bands of pioneers to set their faces toward Ohio, and the settlements steadily, though slowly, increased. By long and toilsome journeys, carrying their effects in wagons, camping out at night, and subsisting chiefly on the game which they killed by the way, these brave emigrants crossed the mountains to the head waters of the Ohio, whence they proceeded in large canoes or small flatboats down that river to their various destinations. Arrived there, they were beset with perils and difficulties of the most serious character. There were perils of famine which they more than once bitterly experienced, perils of flood, of Indians, and exposure of every sort. Yet the resolute New Englanders not only successfully combated all these enemies, but, in the midst of the struggle, found time to secure civil rights, establish law and order, introduce a pure religion, and provide

« The most exalted sentiments arise on the consideration of the nature of those men who first broke in upon the forestworld of the West, and successfully planted civilization in the midst of the fiercest barbarism. Their like is never to be known again. In the progress and mutations of human affairs such a concourse of circumstances will never arise. There can never be another such revolution as that of 1776. If that was possible, will there be again such patriots, such men? 'Then came the weakness of their country and their own impoverishment ; afterward the offer of the western lands in compensation for military service, but requiring the protection of military force. The never-lessening patience, perseverance, and piety of those stern characters have no parallel. With all these traits we

By the year 1790 a perceptible 'current of emigration had began to set from the older states to the western country, and Marietta and Cincinnati, the only two points yet settled, promised to become the nuclei of prosperous colonies. The inroad on the wilderness commenced, and, little by little, civilization was making good its advance. The sound of the pioneer's axe was heard, though in but few and widely-separated localities, and the smoke of his cabin chimney ascended from more than one peaceful settlement. Clearings were made, crops and families began to be raised, and the new-comers were taking root in the soil.

But from this peaceful dream there came a sudden and terrible awakening, in the Indian war which now burst upon the settlements with great fury. Indian aggressions had been growing in frequency during the past year or more. The Marietta settlers were peaceable men, who desired to treat the natives justly, and, if possible, to avoid warfare. But the frontier population of Virginia, the **Longknives," as they were called by the Indians, and those of Kentucky, were a different class of men. Born and bred hunters, and always ready for a deadly conflict, they regarded the Indians as vermin, or wild beasts, who were to be shot on sight. This treatment had engendered with the savages a mortal hatred of the whites, and the Ohio Company's settlers were, to some extent, included in their bitter hostility. They regarded the white men as their natural enemies, and, notwithstanding treaty stipulations, resented their settlement on the ancient hunting grounds as an intrusion, and cause of war. Thus, for a year or two past, the incursions and attacks of the Indians had become so frequent as to cause apprehension of a general war. They had announced their purpose of destroying every settlement, and putting out every white man's fire north of the Ohio river. To avert the impending danger, the government first tried negotiations; but, these proving futile, and the depredations growing more frequent and disastrous, General Harmar was directed to attack their towns.

In September, 1790, with thirteen hundred men, he marched from Cincinnati, through the wilderness, to the Indian villages on the Miami, which he burned. On his homeward march he was attacked by a superior force of savages, and, after a desperate battle, was totally defeated. Harmar was barely able to make good his retreat to Cincinnati. His expedition was a failure, and so far from restraining only served to

From this time, for four years, there was uninterrupted war with the Indians, and sad, indeed, were the calamities of the settlers. Wherever the settlements extended, the whole frontier was lighted by the flames of burning cabins and improvements. The first blow struck at the Ohio Company's purchase was on the 2d of January, 1791. On that day, it being a Sunday, the little settlement at Big Bottom, in Washington county, on the Muskingum river, was the scene of one of those bloody episodes, with which pioneer history abounds. We have not space to recount the event in its details; it was characterized by the usual horrible features of stealth and sudden surprise by the savages, of quick massacre and scalping of the victims, and of hasty retreat into the wilderness. In this attack twelve persons were killed, and five carried into captivity. [Hildreth's Pioneer History, pp. 431-439-]

The tidings of this bloody affair were borne to Marietta by special messenger, who reached there the morning after the massacre. The general court of quarter sessions was sitting, and had just convened, when the news arrived. The town was at once thrown into the utmost consternation. It was supposed that Marietta would be the next point attacked, and instant measures of safety were taken. The court hurriedly adjourned. Many of the jurors and witnesses in other exposed settlements, hastened at full speed to their homes, each one expecting, or, at least, fearing, to find his dear ones slaughtered, and his cabin reduced to ashes.

General Putnam, who was always the master spirit in important crises and whose foresight had prepared for such an emergency as this, instantly put Marietta in a state of defense. All the families within reach were summoned thither, and securely placed in the block-houses of the garrison. The defenses were strengthened, guards doubled, and four sentinels placed at each of the bastions of the fort. The garrison was kept under the strictest discipline. The ammunition was inspected and made accessible at a moment's notice, and four-pounder cannon were placed at two of the corners of the fort. The present safety of the people being secured, Gen. Putnam immediately wrote urgent letters to President Washington and to Gen. Knox, the secretary of war, informing them that the storm of Indian war had burst upon the frontiers, and imploring them, by every consideration, to send troops for the protection of the settlers.

At Belpre and at Waterford, the panic caused by the massacre was even greater, as their means of defense were less. Quite a number of families had joined these settlements during the years 1789 and 'go, and there were several women and little children. The news was brought to the latter settlement about ten o'clock p. m. of January 2d. Men, women, and children were roused from their sleep by the fearful cry of "Indians," and woke to hear the story repeated with numberless exaggerations, to which, in their terror, they gave ready credence. It was believed, and not without reason, that the savages would fall upon them before daylight. All the inhabitants, amounting to about thirty souls, were hurriedly gathered into the largest and strongest cabin. Their most valuable portable property and necessary cooking utensils were brought in. A supply of water was hastily procured. The doors and windows were strongly barred. Interstices were made in the sides of the cabin, by punching out the chinking between the logs, for the men to fire through. Thus prepared, the rest of the night was passed in painful anxiety, and momentary expectation of attack. About daylight the Indians approached the cabin. Their forms were dimly seen by the sentinel, gliding among the trees, as if reconnoitering the position. The alarm was given, and the settlers awaited the onslaught with such firmness and composure as they could. The women and children were huddled into the safest corner of the cabin, and the men stood with finger on the trigger, prepared to fight it out.

But the attack did not come. Finding the inhabitants of the settlement awake and prepared for them, the Indians refrained from attacking the place. Having spent some time in reconnoitering, as day fairly

Everywhere, throughout the territory, the same consternation prevailed. The exposed out-posts were abandoned, and the people rushed for safety to the block-houses and garrisons. This state of things filled President Washington with the utmost anxiety for the vigorous prosecution of the Indian war. A second army, in all respects superior to Harmar's, was assembled at Cincinnati. Governor Arthur St. Clair was placed in command. His force consisted of three regiments of infantry, two companies of artillery, one of cavalry, and about six hundred militia. "With this army he marched toward the Indian towns on the Maumee.

Disaster followed St. Clair from the beginning. On the march, a considerable portion of the militia deserted in a body. A whole regiment was detached - a portion to pursue the deserters, and a portion to save the expeditionary stores, which it was feared the deserters intended to plunder. With his force thus weakened by desertion and details, St. Clair advanced into the enemy's country. On the morning of the 4th of November, 1791, just before daylight, he was attacked with great fury by the combined army of the northwestern tribes. The battle was short and the result decisive: St. Clair was totally defeated, with a

The government had hitherto prosecuted the war with little vigor and weak determination. In fact, there was opposition to the Indian war, and reluctance to enter on a difficult and dangerous campaign. The country had, as yet, hardly begun to recover from the prostration that followed the revolutionary struggle. Industry was paralyzed, the debt burdensome, and the currency disordered. But no alternative was now left. The existence of all the western settlements, and, perhaps, even our possession of the territories already acquired from the Indians, depended on a vigorous prosecution of the war. President Washington made new appeals to congress, and, in spite of violent Opposition from certain quarters, the necessary supplies were voted, and the Indian war went on.

General Anthony Wayne was now appointed to the command. He was an officer of revolutionary experience, great energy, personal enthusiasm, and executive ability. He arrived at Cincinnati in the spring of 1793, and began the work of organizing a third army. It was not, however, till July, 1794, that, with a force of about thirty-five hundred men, he marched against the Indians. They had collected their whole force, amounting to about two thousand men, at the Maumee rapids. "Wayne encountered the Indians on the 20th of August. The battle which ensued resulted in the utter defeat of the Indians, and was the beginning of their downfall in the northwestern territory.

Wayne followed up his victory, and gathered all its fruits. He burned their villages, destroyed their growing crops, and laid waste their whole country. Forts were erected in the heart of their territory, and they were made to feel, as they had never felt before, the energy and power of the government. Convinced, at last, of their inability to maintain the contest, or resolved, perhaps, to accept their inevitable doom, they sued for peace. A general council was convened at Greenville (now in Darke county), at which Gen. Wayne represented the United States, and the following tribes were represented by their chiefs, viz: the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese, Ottawas, Chippewas, Putawatomies, Miamis, Eel-rivers, Kickapoos, Weeas, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias. By the treaty here made, it was declared that ''henceforth all hostilities shall cease; peace is hereby established and shall be perpetual; and a friendly intercourse shall take place between the said United States and Indian tribes." Prisoners were given up, boundary lines established, large cessions of land made, annual allowances of money to the Indians assured, certain hunting privileges granted, and provisions for trading agreed upon. * the basis of a permanent peace in this part of the country. The tomahawk was buried, the Indians gave up their ancient hunting grounds and the graves of their fathers, and the white man's title to the lands of

The following anecdotes of Gen. Wayne are furnished to the author by the venerable Dr. C. F. Perkins, of Erie, Pennsylvania, formerly a resident of Athens:

Some time after the conclusion of the treaty above named, Gen. Wayne was stationed at Erie, Pennsylvania. During his last illness his distress was greatly augmented and his nerves much excited by clouds of smoke from an ill-constructed chimney in his military cabin. Sending for the unfortunate mason who had built the chimney (a worthy man by the name of Hughes), Gen. Wayne berated him with considerable violence, and threatened to severely chastise him on the morrow. But the mason escaped punishment, for the brave general died before the dawn of the next day.

The body of Gen. Wayne was interred in the military ground near the block-house at Erie and on the bay of Presque Isle. After it had rested for at least a few years undisturbed, his son came from Wyoming to Erie to look after the body of his deceased parent. It was exhumed and found to be undecayed and almost entire. The son wished to convey the body to Wyoming for interment, but he had traveled on horseback and had no vehicle. Beside, no wheeled vehicle could be drawn through the unbroken forest without the greatest labor. The question was what could be done? It was solved by an army surgeon, who suggested that if the bones were divested of their covering, the young man might take them home with him in a portmanteau. "Though uncongenial to the son's feelings, this proposition was acted upon. 'The osseous frame work was denuded by cutting away the solid flesh, and finally by boiling it in water and scraping thoroughly. Thus cleansed the bones were separated and carefully placed in the two ends of a large portmanteau and carried on horseback to Wyoming. The above was related to Dr. Perkins by an old citizen of Erie, who held a candle for and saw the entire operation.

Charter

limits of Athens county was made in the early part of the year 1797 (eight years before the organization of the county), at the site of the present town of Athens. At this time the state of Ohio was practically an unknown region, and from the river to the lakes was almost an unbroken wilderness. Cincinnati had been laid out, on paper, a few years before, but was not settled till 1789, and did not begin to be a growing village till 1802. The sites of the cities of Columbus, Cleveland, etc., had not been thought of. The settlements on the Ohio Company's purchase and about Cincinnati, in the Miami valley, comprised nearly the whole population of the northwestern territory. The treaty of Greenville, and the cessation of the Indian war, removed the last obstacle to the peopling of this extensive region. The active spirit of emigration, free, and the living column began its westward movement with an impetus that was destined steadily to increase till the whole vast area should be possessed and populated. Every part of New England furnished its quota, and New York and Pennsylvania contributed to swell the tide of emigration as it rolled across their borders to the promised land of the West.

« Never," says an early writer, "since the golden age of the poets, did 'the syren song of peace and of farming? reach so many ears, and gladden so many hearts, as after Wayne's treaty at Greenville in 1795. 'The Ohio,' as it was called, seemed to be, literally, a land flowing with milk and honey. The farmer wrote home of a soil 'richer to appearance than can possibly be made by art ;' of 'plains and meadows without the labor of hands, sufficient to support millions of cattle sum- mer and winter;' of wheat lands that would vie with the island of Sicily; and of bogs from which might be gathered cranberries enough to make tarts for all New England; while the lawyer said that as he rode the circuit, his horse's legs were dyed to the knee with the juice of the wild strawberry. At that time the diseases and the hardships of frontier life were not dwelt upon; the administration of Washington had healed the - divisions among the states; the victory of Wayne had brought to terms the dreaded savages; and as the dweller on the barren shore of the Atlantic remembered these things and the wonderful facts, in addition, that the inland garden to which he was invited was crossed in every direction by streams even then counted on as affording means for free commercial intercourse, and lake coast, the inducements for emigration became too strong to be resisted ; the wagon was tinkered up at once, the harness patched anew, and a few weeks found the fortune seeker looking down from the Chestnut Ridge or Laurel Hill upon the far-reaching forests of the West."

During the year 1796, nearly one thousand flatboats or ''broadhorns," as they were then called, passed Marietta laden with emigrants on their way to the more attractive regions of southwestern Ohio. Reports as to the comparative sterility of the lands of the Ohio Company's purchase had been widely bruited, and, at that time, were generally credited. Yet, though thousands passed its barren hills scoffing as they guided their keels to the richer regions about the Miami, its progress in population, etc., was of the most encouraging kind. Those who stopped here were willing to work hard and content to earn independence and moderate fortunes by economy, thrift, and laborious effort.

In the early part of 1797, a considerable number of newly arrived emigrants were assembled in Marietta, eager to obtain lands on the best terms they could and to form settlements. The two townships of land appropriated by the Ohio Company for the benefit of a university had been selected in December, 1795. They were townships Nos. eight and nine in the fourteenth range, constituting at present Athens and Alex- ander townships. The township lines were run in 1795, and the sectional surveys made in 1796, under the supervision of General Putnam, the Company's surveyor, who, from the first took an ardent interest in the selection of these lands and the founding of the university. His policy (in which he was seconded by the other agents) was to encourage the early settlement of the college lands, make them attractive and productive, and so begin the formation of a fund for the

"These lands," says Ephraim Cutler, ** with a large surrounding region, were one of the most favorite portions of the hunting ground which the Indians had surrendered in their several treaties ; and the trcaty of 1795 seemed to close the last fond hope of ever after enjoying them. Yet the hunters living about Sandusky, and on the different branches of the Muskingum not only continued to visit there, but until the winter of 1810-11, they were in large parties during the hunting season, coursing through that extensive range of country comprising the lands watered by the Raccoon, Monday, Sunday and the heads of Federal creek. It was here that they formerly found the buffalo, the elk, and the bear. The buffalo and the elk were not exterminated until the year 1800. The bear continued in considerable abundance until the last great hunt of the Indians in the winter of 1810-11. That winter was a favorable season for them to effect the object they seemed to have in view, which was to destroy the game, the weather being cold with several falls of snow. The carcasses of many deer were found in the counties, which appeared to be wantonly destroyed by the savages. A young buffalo, believed to be the last seen in this part of the country, was captured a few miles west of Athens, on a branch of Raccoon, in the spring of 1799, brought to the settlement, and reared by a domestic cow."

In 1795 a man named Gillespie and two of the Fleeharts, noted frontiersmen, cime up the Hockhocking to hunt. Landing at the mouth of Federal creek just at dark they found Indian signs so abundant and recent that they were afraid to proceed or remain. They built up a large fire, supplied it well with logs and hung up a blanket and one or two other articles to signify that they would soon be back, and leaving this to deceive the Indians, and throw them off their track, they hurriedly embarked again and returned down the river to Virginia whence they came. The next autumn (1796), the same party came up the river again to hunt. There was now not much fear of Indians, and they landed again at the mouth of Federal, where they camped and hunted for two days. The third day they agreed to explore the country somewhat; one of the Fleeharts kept the camp, the other went up Federal, and Gillespie up Hockhocking. He camped the first night at the mouth of Sunday creek. The next morning he crossed the river there, and came down on the other side to the ripple about where Bingham's mill Here he rested and removed his At the water's edge he noticed the track of a large animal which seemed to have crossed recently. Tracing it over the shallow stream and up the opposite bank he found the peavines still wet from the animal's dripping legs, and from the broken underbrush and size of the path it had made concluded it was a buffalo. He followed on about a quarter of a mile, and coming upon a little rise just where the present Fair ground west of Athens 1s, he saw a very large male buffalo grazing there. Gillespie immediately fired and hit the animal, but not being fatally wounded it dashed off through the woods with Gillespie's dog in close pursuit, and himself at the best pace he could make. He followed the buffalo to the present site of Athens, and found him not far from where the court house now stands - a few rods south - (Gillespie frequently visited Athens in after years) tearing in great rage and pain at the roots of a fallen tree, and charging furiously at the dog, who was safely ensconced under the trunk. Gillespie lost no time in getting a second shot and this time killed the brute, whose tongue and choice parts he carried into camp with him the same night.*

* This incident is related to the writer by Mr. John P. Thompson, who was born in Athens township in 1808, and who, while on a visit to Crawford county in 1832, where he hunted with the Wyandot Indians, made the acquaintance of Gillespie. Gillespie after the settlement of Athens became familiar with its localities, and told the story to Thompson as we have set it down.

Encouraged by Gen. Putnam, who wished to introduce permanent settlers as soon as possible, a number of the emigrants who had stopped at Marietta decided to locate on the college lands. Among these were Alvan Bingham, Silas Bingham, Isaac Barker, William Harper, John Wilkins, Robert Linzee, Edmund, William and Barak Dorr, John Chandler, and Jonathan Watkins. They made their way down the Ohio and up the Hockhocking in large canoes early in the year 1797. Having ascended as far as the attractive bluff where the town of Athens now stands, they landed and sought their various locations. A few of them fixed on the site of the present town, but most of them scattered up and down the adjacent bottoms. The surrounding country was then covered with dense forests, and the echo of their axes was the first sound of civilized industry heard in all this region. The bluff and bottoms were heavily timbered with hickory, walnut, ash, poplar, and other trees indicative of good soil; while the course of the tortuous Hockhocking was marked as far as the view extended by the gigantic sycamores that grew thick-set and lofty along its edge.

The first business of each settler was to make a little clearing and erect a log cabin, which was built with unhewed logs, poles, clapboards, puncheons, and, in those days, wooden pins instead of nails. In its erection, no tools were necessary except an axe, an auger, and, perhaps, a cross-cut saw. Straight trees of the proper size were cut down, and either drawn by a team, or carried with the assistance of neighbors, to the building spot. The logs being cut of proper lengths were notched and laid up somewhat as children build cob-houses. Ifa large, or **double," cabin was desired, the logs were laid up to form two square pens, with an open space between, connected by a roof above and a floor below, so as to form a parallelogram, nearly three times as long as wide. In the open space, the family sometimes took their meals in pleasant weather, and it served the triple purpose of kitchen, lumber room, and dining room. The roof was covered with thin splits of oak, something like staves, about four feet long, from four to six inches wide, and about one-third of an inch thick. Instead of being nailed, these staves or clapboards were generally confined in their place by heavy timbers, laid at right angles across them, giving the roof a unique and rough appearance. A door-way and windows were made by chopping out the logs of proper length and hight before laying them up, so as to make suitable apertures. The doors were made of thin clapboards, split, like the roofing, from fresh-cut timber, and were generally hung, in an ingenious fashion, on large wooden hinges, and fastened with a substantial wooden latch. Frequently the latch was raised from the outside by a small leather string attached to it, and passing through a hole from. within. When this string was drawn in, the latch | could not be raised from the outside, nor the door opened; hence the western expression to signify hospitality, that **the latch string is always out." Into the window apertures, small pieces of wood were fitted for sash, and upon them paper was pasted, and rendered translucent by oiling. Wooden shutters, made of staves, like the doors, were attached to the windows and closed at night. The floors (when any were used) were made of short, thick plank, split from poplar, walnut, or oak. In some cases, the more wealthy settlers had the logs hewed on the inside, and the puncheon floor hewed and planed. For a fire place and chimney, a space about six feet square was cut out of the end of the cabin, the lower part of the chimney built of rough stones, and the rest laid up with small logs and flat pieces, like laths, cemented with clay mortar, well intermixed with short cut straw or hay. The chimney had a huge aperture, and tapered upward like a pyramid. The hearth was made with clay mortar, or sometimes a large slab of sandstone. Finally, the spaces between the logs were filled with timber, split like fire wood, from some soft tree, and made impervious to wind and rain by daubing the cracks with mud. A few chairs and stools, a bedstead of poles interlaced with bark, and furnished with plenty of bear skins, a table split from a large log, and some cooking and eating utensils, constituted, perhaps,

Many of our readers, early settlers, are rae with cabins of this sort, not a few of which are still to be found in the less thickly settled parts of the county, and very generally throughout the west. Though rude in structure and limited in accommodations, no one will read the description with contempt who has had any experience of new countries. Such cabins as those described have formed the germ of all the powerful and prosperous communities of the west. Not only have their rough walls sheltered rural plenty, manly independence, guileless honesty, contentment, and happiness, but they have been the birth-place of men and women who have left their impress on the age in which they lived. No more charming picture of honest industry and unalloyed happiness can be imagined than is sometimes afforded by the interior of these rude cabins. When the wintry wind blows and the shutters are barred, and the walls of hewed logs show the white lines of plaster which mark the interstices; when the fire blazes high in the wide, open chimney, illuminating the stores of dried meats or vegetables which hang from the rafters, and the rustic table, around which are gathered the happy and healthy family, smokes with woodland plenty - at such a time no one could doubt that even these primitive log

The pioneers soon opened up several clearings about Athens, and a little corn, for corn bread, was put in the first spring. The clearings, however, were irregular and scattered, and no effort was made, as yet, to lay out a town. Early in 1798 a number of emigrants arrived, among whom were Solomon Tuttle, Christopher Stevens, John and Moses Hewitt, Cornelius Moore, Joseph Snowden, John Simonton, Robert Ross, the Brooks, and the Hanings. Some of these had families. Some settled in Athens and some in Alexander township. Mrs. Margaret Snowden, wife of Joseph Snowden, was honored by having "' Margaret's creek" named after her, she being the first white woman who reached this central point in the county.

For the enforcement of laws and preservation of order, Alvan Bingham had been commissioned a magistrate, and his brother, Silas, a deputy sheriff. One of their most difficult duties was to prevent illegal entries and occupations of land by new comers; but this, and their other duties, sometimes delicate and accompanied with danger, they discharged with firmness and general acceptance. Ephraim Cutler, who came in a little later than the Binghams, and settled in Ames township, was also a magistrate, and in a certain class of land cases, which required two magistrates and a jury, he and Judge Bingham held court together. In those early notwithstanding the primitive state of society, the judges had proper ideas of the sanctity of law, and the dignity of a court. It is related that at one of these trials of forcible entry, the leaders of the disorderly class came forward and threatened violence; the magistrates ordered them to leave the room, which they did, but uttering threats to put a stop to such courts. The judges, determined to vindicate their judicial dignity, instantly issued warrants, and ordered the sheriff to arrest the parties immediately, and take them to Marietta. They were arrested accordingly, and it is not easy to conceive of men more frightened; the idea of being taken to Marietta, to be tried by a court that had established a reputation throughout the territory for firmness and strict justice, filled them with terror. Silas Bingham (who, to great shrewdness and dispatch in business, united an unconquerable humor) did nothing to allay their fears, but told them the better way would be to come into court, and, on their knees, ask forgiveness and promise amendment. The ringleader of the offending party replied that "it was too bad to be compelled to kneel down and ask forgiveness of two Buckeye justices;" but he concluded to submit, rather than be taken to Marietta, and the penitential ceremony was accordingly performed. [E. Cutler's Sketch.] During the first year of the county, the court was held in a private house, obtained for the occasion. In December, 1806, Silas Bingham was allowed twelve dollars for the use of a room occupied by the courts during that year, and an allowance of six dollars was made by the county commissioners to "Edmund Dorr and Baruch Dorr, for guarding and victualling John Farmer one month." The two Binghams, Judge Alvan and his brother Silas, were natives of Litchfield county, Connecticut, and had both served in the revolutionary army. The former was a man of strong common sense, and his judicial mind and well-trained conscience, admirably qualified him for the position of judge, which he filled for many years. He is said to have been a person of quiet and dignified manners, stern and uncompromising in his sense of right. Silas was **full of anecdote and humor, social and kind in his feelings, a man of excellent sense, and a terror to evil-doers." The promptness with which these men acted in enforcing the laws had the effect to rid the settlement of nearly all disorderly persons. Alvan Bingham was the first treasurer of Athens county, and Silas was for several years a constable.

One of the greatest troubles that the pioneers had to contend with was the extreme scarcity of salt, and the high price of that essential article often caused severe privation. At the time of the first settlement of Athens and Ames, it was sold for six dollars a bushel, and had to be packed on horseback a great distance. As early as 1788, when the first colony arrived at Marietta, it had been rumored that salt springs existed on a stream, since called Salt creek, which flows into the Muskingum river near Duncan's falls, Muskingum county, and even during the Indian war a party was sent up the river from Marietta to search for them. The exploration was made at great risk, but the springs were not found. White men, held as prisoners by the Indians, had seen them make salt at these springs, and had noted their locality. An accurate description of the country having been gained from these persons, another exploring party of hunters and experienced woodsmen was sent out, a year or two later, to find the springs. This time they were successful, and brought back with them a small supply of the precious article. In 1796, a joint stock company was formed of fifty shareholders, at one dollar and a half each, making a capital of seventy-five dollars, with the object of buying castings, erecting a furnace, and manufacturing salt. Twenty-four kettles were bought at Pittsburg, and transported by water to Duncan's falls, and thence, on pack-horses, to the salt springs, seven miles further. A well was dug, near the edge of the stream, about fifteen feet deep, to the bed rock, through the crevices of which the salt water oozed and rose, though not very abundantly. The trunk of a hollow sycamore tree was fixed in the well to exclude the fresh water. A furnace was built, of two ranges with twelve kettles each. The water was raised from the well by a sweep and pole. The company was divided into ten sections of five men each, who worked, in turn, for two weeks at a time, and the works were thus kept in operation day and night, the men standing regular watches. They were thus able to make about one hundred pounds of salt in twenty-four hours, using about sixteen hundred gallons of water. This was the first attempt to manufacture salt in Ohio, and the product was a very inferior and costly article. For several years, all of the salt used by the pioneers of Athens county was brought from these works, and afterward from the Scioto salt licks,* in Jackson county, on pack horses. It was both a great luxury and a prime necessity, and every grain of it was carefully husbanded.

The settlement was about two years old when an act was passed by the territorial assembly, relative to laying off the town of Athens. At this time only one town had been incorporated in the northwestern territory, viz: Marietta, the act incorporating which was passed less than three weeks previously. (Cincinnati was not incorporated till January 1, 1802. In the year 1800, the population of Cincinnati was 750; in 1805,

* These salt licks, in Jackson county, were considered of so much value, that, on the organization of the state, in 1802, a tract of land six miles square containing them was reserved from sale. The salines were worked for several years under state supervision, and were not sold until 1826, when the proceeds went into the state treasury.

«* WHEREAS, In the county of Washington, within this territory, the townships Nos. eight and nine in the fourteenth range have been appropriated and set apart for the purpose of endowing an university, and, whereas, the application of the same to the purpose aforesaid has been entrusted to the legislature of this territory ; therefore, to enable the said legislature the better to determine the situation whereon to establish the said university:

Be it resolved by tbe Legislative Council and House of. Representatives in General Assembly, That Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Ives Gilman and Jonathan Stone, esquires, be requested to lay off, in the most suitable place within the townships aforesaid, a town plat which shall contain a square for the college, also lots suitable for house lots and gardens, for a president, professors, tutors, etc., bordering on or encircled by spacious commons, and sucha number of town lots adjoining the said commons and out-lots as they shall think will be for the advantage of the university, who are to make a return of the said town plat and lots, describing their situation within the said townships, to the legislature at their next session, and shall receive such compensation for their services as the legislature shall and may direct and allow.

Edward Tiffin

Pursuant to this act the town plat was surveyed and laid off by Messrs. Putnam, Gilman, and Stone in the summer of 1800, and a copy thereof returned to the legislature, as required.

"WHEREAS, By a. resolution of the legislature of this territory, of the 18th day of December, 1799, Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Ives Gilman and Jonathan Stone, esquires, were requested to lay off a town in the most convenient place within the townships numbered eight and nine, in the fourteenth range of townships as set apart by the agents and directors of the Ohio Company, for the uses and purposes of an university, which should be so laid off as to contain a square for colleges, and lots suitable for house-lots and gardens for a president, professors and tutors, with out-lots and commons. And, whereas, the said Putnam, Gilman and Stone in conformity to the said resolution, have laid off the said town within the ninth, tenth and fifteenth, sixteenth and twenty-second sections of the aforesaid ninth township, and have returned a plat of the same; therefore, to establish and confirm the same:

SEcTION I. Be it enacted by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives in General Assembly, And it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that the return and report of the said Putnam, Gilman and Stone be accepted and approved, and that the said town be confirmed and established by the name of the town of Athens ; Provided, that the trustees of the university therein to be established shall have power to alter the plan of the said town, by extending the house-lots into the commons or out-lots, which adjoin the town, or by altering the streets, when, on actual survey, they may find it necessary or convenient. Provided, alse, that such alterations be made and a plat of the town, out-lots and commons, with a designation of the uses of the commons, be recorded in the office of the recorder of the proper county prior to the offering to lease of any of the said lots.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the house-lots numbered fifty-five and fifty-six in the said town of Athens, or some other two lots therein equally well situated, to be designated and set apart by the trustees of the said university when appointed, shall be reserved for the accommodation of public buildings that may be necessary to be erected for the use of said town and the county in which it may be situated; which two lots, when agreed upon by said trustees, shall be particularly noted on the plat of said town and vest in the county to and for the uses designed thereby.

Robert Oliver

At this time there were not more than five or six cabins occupied on the town plat. A Mr. Earhart lived on the brow of the hill near where Bing's carriage shop now is. Othniel Tuttle had a cabin on the S. W. corner of the old graveyard. In 1800 Dr. Perkins bought his cabin and moved it down the road and added it to his own, near where Dr. E. G. Carpenter now lives. Solomon Tuttle lived in a cabin near where Love's grocery now is - opposite the Currier homestead. Christian Stevens had a cabin just back of the college green, and a man by the name of Brakefield lived 20 or 30 rods east of the S. E. corner of the green. Alvan Bingham lived half a mile N. E., where widow Bingham now lives.

During the next four or five years the settlement at Athens, though increasing but slowly, received the addition of numbers of valuable citizens, sketches of some of whom will be found elsewhere. About this time John Hewitt built the first grist mill in the county (in 1800), on Margaret's creek, about a mile above its mouth, where Timothy Goodrich afterward built a saw mill. Hewitt's mill was much resorted to by the settlers for grinding their breadstuffs. Previous to this the nearest mills were in Washington county, on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, which could only be reached by tedious journeys. Soon after this a small mill was built by Charles Shepard, in Alexander township, on the place now owned by Samuel Armstrong. The horse mill below Athens, built by Capt. Silas Bingham, is believed to have been the next in order of time. During this period Henry Cassel, an ingenious man, manufactured small hand mills which ground corn tolerably well The stone from which they were made was found on the old Shepard place in Alexander township, now owned by John S. Miller. These hand mills of Cassel's were visited by the neighboring settlers almost daily, each taking his turn and grinding one quart, when he would yield the mill to some one else. Some families were provided with a private ** hominy block," in which the corn was pounded and broken as with a pestle.

The first house was erected on the town plat in 1798, by Capt. John Chandler, a brother-in-law of Judge Alvan Bingham, on lot No. 1, near where Bing's carriage shop now stands. John Havner built a hewed log house on the opposite side of the street, very soon after. Dr. Perkins lived in a log cabin on State street, near where Dr. Carpenter now resides. Dr. Leonard Jewett, who came in 1804 or '5, occupied a hewed log house, previously erected by Capt. Silas Bingham, on the lot now occupied by Geo. W. Norris, on College street. Joel Abbott succeeded Captain Chandler, and erected one of the earliest brick houses, in 1803 or '4. William McNichol built, and occupied as a tavern, a hewed log house nearly opposite to Abbott's. About this time, William Dorr built, and occupied as a store, a double, hewed log house, on the lot where Judge Barker now resides. Afterward the house was occupied as a tavern. John Johnston built pen's grocery now is. Jared Jones built a log house on the lot now occupied by Mr. Topky. One of the first brick houses was built, and occupied as a store and dwelling, by Joseph B. Miles, near the corner known as '' Brown's Corner."

Meanwhile the settlement had grown to a size that entitled it, in 1803, to the honor of mention by, probably, the first professional tourist who visited the northwest,* and who said: ''Athens, on the Great Hockhocking river, forty miles by water from the Ohio, lies in the election district of Middletown. This settlement commenced in the year 1797. The town is regularly laid out, on elevated ground, of easy ascent, round which the river forms a graceful bend. The situation is healthy, and the prospect delightful beyond description. "The town is abundantly supplied with never-failing springs of excellent water, and the adjacent country is thought to be superior to any in the state for pleasantness and fertility."

* The Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, a Massachusetts clergyman, who made a trip to the western country in 1803, in search of health and pleasure, an account of which he published in 1805. His book is, and has long been, a very rare one. Dr. Pierce said of it, nearly

"The celebrated John Foster, of London, author of Essays, on Decision of Character, etc., employed me to find or procure it for him. As it could not be found in any book store, I reluctantly parted with my own copy, to satisfy the curiosity of this

At this time, and for many years after the county was organized, various kinds of game were abundant in the forests, and deers, bears, wild turkeys, etc., were killed in great numbers. Wolves and panthers were a great annoyance, and, to the sheep growers, a great scourge. The first board of. county commissioners, in June, 1805, ordered that a bounty of three dollars be paid for the scalp of every wolf or panther killed within the county, under six months old, and four dollars for every one over six months. This rate was continued for six years. June 11, 1811, the board resolved that from and after that date, the county would pay, for every wolf and panther scalp, one dollar, in addition to the state bounty, which was then two dollars for those under six months old, and four - dollars if over six months. December 4, 1811, the commissioners ordered that, from and after that date, they would pay, in addition to the state bounty, two dollars per scalp. In September, 1813, the bounty it was renewed, and fixed at two dollars per scalp. June 5, 1817, the commissioners resolved, **that the bounty on wolf scalps be discontinued from and after the sth day of June, 1818." The bounty on panther scalps was discontinued not long afterward.

The following persons, in addition to those already named, were residents of the town or township of Athens in 1805, viz: John Simonton, Andrew Hig-

. Francis Whitmore, Isaac and Michael Barker, Jonathan and Timothy Wilkins, William and Charles Harper, and Jehiel Gregory - the last named represented the county in the legislature, in 1805 and '6, and built one of the earliest mills on the Hockhocking, east of Athens.

The names of some of the pioneer settlers, mentioned in these pages, are preserved in different parts of the county, as follows: Moore's run, in Athens township; Brown's branch, Ewing's branch, Wyatt's branch; Walker's branch, Linscott's branch, and Brawleys branch, in Ames; Ross run, in Alexander; Pilcher's branch, Hoskinson's branch, Buckley's branch, and Mansfield's branch, in Canaan; Guthries branch, Davis's branch, and Lottridge P. O., in Carthage; Bailey's branch and Jackson run, in Dover; Cassel's run and Shidler's branch, in Lee; Thomp- .son's fork, Pratt's fork, Dailey run, Dinsmore branch, and Douglas branch, in Lodi; Stewart's run, Case run, Herrold run, Hatch branch, Rowell branch, and Green branch, in Rome; Frost branch, Washburn branch, Ross branch, and Devol's run, in Troy; Woodbury

The settlement of the county was now fairly begun, and the population was receiving steady additions. The time was approaching when they would divide from Washington county, and begin a separate career. Before speaking, however, of the organization of Athens county, let us, in order to complete our view of this period, and gain a better understanding of some points in the early annals of the county, glance at

The ordinance of 1787 provided that, as soon as there should be 5,000 free male inhabitants of full age, in the territory, and on proof thereof being made to the governor, the people should be authorized to elect representatives to a territorial legislature. The requisite population being reached in 1798, an election of representatives was ordered by proclamation of Governor St. Clair, to be held on the third Monday in December of that year. The lower house of the territorial assembly was to consist of one member for every five hundred voters, but the total not to exceed twentyfive members. The privilege of voting was confined to free-holders, in fee simple, of fifty acres of land within the district; and none but free-holders, in fee simple, of five hundred acres, were eligible as reprecem oo SS UM Oe oT sentatives. The upper house, corresponding now to the senate, was to consist of a council of five members, each of whom should be a free-holder of not less than five hundred acres, to be chosen by the representatives from their own number, and to be confirmed and appointed by congress. At this election (the first ever held in the state), Col. Robert Oliver, Return J. Meigs, and Paul Fearing were chosen representatives from Washington county, receiving the hearty support of the voters of Athens and Ames, or, as it was then called, the Middletown district. The representatives elect assembled, according to the governor's proclamation, at Cincinnati, on the 4th of February, 1799, to transact certain business, preliminary to their regular meeting. After due deliberation, they nominated for the legislative council of five, Henry Vanderburg, of Vincennes, Robert Oliver, of Marietta,: James Findlay and Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, and David Vance; all of whom were subsequently confirmed and appointed by Federal authority. Col. Oliver was chosen president of the council and held that position until the formation of the state government. The following is from a letter, written in 1837, by Jacob Burnet," of Cincinnati, himself a member of the territorial legislature. * Jacob Burnet, one of the ablest among the early lawyers of the

"On the 16th of September, 1799, both branches of the territorial legislature assembled at Cincinnati, and organized for business. The governor met the two houses in the representatives' chamber, and in a very elegant address recommended such measures as he thought were suited to the condition of the people. The body continued in session till the rgth of December, when, having finished their business, the governor prorogued them, at their request, till the first Monday in November.

This being the first session it was necessarily a very laborious one. The transition from a colonial to a semi-independent government, called for a general revision as well as a considerable enlargement of the statute book. Some of the adopted laws

"At this time, the country to which I united myself, and with which -it was my purpose to rise or fall, was, literally, a wilderness. The entire white population, between Pennsylvania and the Mississippi, from the Ohio to the lakes, was estimated at fifteen thousand. Cincinnati was a small village of log cabins, including perhaps a dozen of coarse frame houses, with stone chimneys, most of them unfinished. Not a brick had been seen in the place. It may aid in forming an idea of the appearance of the place at this time, to state that, at the northeast corner of Main and Fifth streets (now - 1837 - the centre of business and tasteful improvements), and contiguous to a rough, half finished frame house, in which our courts were held, there was a pond, filled with alder bushes, in which the frogs serenaded us regularly, from spring to autumn. The morass extended so far into Main street, that it was necessary to construct a causeway of logs, in order to pass it with convenience; and it remained in its natural state, filled with alder bushes and frogs, three or four years after my residence there began. The population of the town, including officers and followers of

History of. Athens County, Ohio. 135 were repealed, many others altered and amended, and a long list of new ones added to the code. New offices were to be created and filled, the duties attached to them prescribed, and a plan of ways and means devised to meet the increased expenditures, occasioned by the change which had just taken place. As the number of members in each branch was small, and a large portion of them either unprepared or indisposed to partake largely of the labors of the session, the pressure fell on the shoulders of a few. Although the branch to which I belonged was composed of sensible, strong-minded men, yet they were unaccustomed to the duties of their new station, and not conversant with the science of law. The consequence was that they relied chiefly and almost entirely on me to draft and prepare the bills and other documents, which originated in the council. One of the important duties which devolved on the legislature, was the election of a delegate to represent the territory in congress. As soon as the governor's proclamation made its appearance, the election of a person to fill that station excited general attention. Several persons were spoken of, and among them myself. Many of my friends solicited me to become a candidate, and ventured to give strong assurance of my election if I would consent to serve ; but being at that time engaged in an extensive and lucrative practice, and not wealthy, I could not afford to quit my profession, or to abstract from it as much time and attention as the duties of the station would require. In addition to this, it appeared to me that I could be more useful to the people of the territory in their own legislature, than in congress. For these reasons I declined to be a candidate; and, before the meeting of the legislature, public opinion had settled down on William Henry Harrison and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., who were eventually the only candidates, On the 3d of October, 1799, the two houses met in the representatives' chamber, according to a joint resolution, and proceeded to an election. The ballots being taken and counted, it appeared that William Henry Harrison had eleven votes, and St. Clair ten votes; the former was therefore declared to be duly elected. Having received his certificate of election, General Harrison resigned the office of secretary of the territory, proceeded forthwith to Philadelphia, and took his seat, congress being then in session. Though he represented the territory but one year, he obtained some important advantages for his constituents. He introduced a resolution to subdivide the surveys of the public lands and to offer them for sale in small tracts, which measure he succeeded in getting through both houses, in opposition to the interests of speculators who were, and who wished to be, the retailers of land to the poorer classes of the community. His proposition became a law, and was hailed as the most beneficent act that congress had ever done for the territory. It put it in the power of every industrious man, however poor, to become a freeholder, and to lay a foundation for the future support and comfort of his family.

* Congress at that session (1799-1800), divided the northwestern territory, by establishing the new territory of Indiana, of which Mr. Harrison was appointed governor. By the division of the territory, Mr. Vanderburg (one of the legislative council) became a citizen of Indiana, and Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, was appointed to fill the vacancy in that body. The office of secretary, vacated by the election of Mr. Harrison as delegate in congress, was filled by the appointment of Charles Willing Byrd, who was afterward district judge of the United States for the district of Ohio, the seat of government from Cincinnati to Chillicothe. On the 3d of November, 1800, the general assembly convened at that place. The governor met and addressed them, recommending, specifically, the measures to which he desired their attention. On the 6th of November the two houses met for the purpose of filling the vacancy made by the resignation of Gen. Harrison in congress and also to elect a delegate for the next succeeding term. William McMillan, of Cincinnati, was elected to fill the vacancy and Paul Fearing, of Marietta, for the term to begin on the 4th of March then next. On the 2d of December (as the governor's term of office expired on that day) the assembly adjourned sine die."

Governor St. Clair was soon reappointed by President Adams, and a new assembly was elected by the people, which convened at Chillicothe on the 24th of November, 1801. It remained in session till the 23d of January, 1802, when it was adjourned by the governor to be reopened at Cincinnati, on the fourth Monday of November, 1802. This removal of the seat of government from Chillicothe to Cincinnati was (says Burnet), "in consequence of the violent and disgraceful proceedings of a mob, which assembled on two successive evenings for the purpose of insulting the governor and several of the members of the legislature, without any steps being taken by the town authorities to repress it} or to punish the leaders." But the territorial assembly never convened again. Before the day of its adjournment arrived, delegates had been elected to a constitu- tional convention, and preparations were being made for admission as a state into the Federal Union. This step was the theme of a great deal of discussion at that day, and was the most absorbing topic of the times. The territorial government was of brief duration, lasting less than three years, when the contest between those who desired and those who opposed the formation of a state government, resulted in favor of the former; not, however, without a sharp popular struggle and considerable excitement. Indeed, the contest was for some time an active and bitter one. The opponents of a state government (i. e. of forming one at this time), argued that such a measure would be especially injurious to the inhabitants of the Ohio Company's purchase; that they had been struggling with the hardships of opening the wilderness since the year 1788, and for a large part of the time pressed by the merciless savage to the extremes of want, danger, and even death; that the population was sparse and generally poor; that the expenses of a state government would be heavy in proportion to the inhabitants, while the advantages to them in their present situation would be few, perhaps none, over a territorial government; and, finally, that the taxes to support a state government would fall on the actual settlers and land-holders, as the Ohio Company's lands would all be brought on the tax list, while congress lands, daily becoming more valuable by the improvements of the settlers, were to be free from taxation. The people of Washington county were so much opposed to the formation of a state government at that time, that they determined to hold a convention and give purchase, as follows: for Marietta, Paul Fearing and Elijah Backus; for Belpre, Isaac Pierce and Silas Bent; for Waterford, Robert Oliver and Gilbert Devol; for Adams, Joseph Barker; for Newport, Philip Witten and Samuel Williamson; for Middletown (or Athens), Alvan Bingham; and for Gallipolis, "Robert Safford. Gilbert Devol was chosen chairman of the convention, and Joseph Barker secretary. The foregoing arguments were presented, in a paper prepared by Joseph Barker, and after mature deliberation the convention adopted the following: preferment of some sort, under the new government, outnumbered the more sober and cautious representatives. The measure was carried, and it was decided to form a state government. So eager were the ambitious friends of the project for a change, that they relinquished the right of taxing the lands owned by congress, until five years after they had been sold and in the possession of the purchaser; whereas, in equity, they should have been liable to taxation as soon as they were in his possession. The apprehensions of the injurious results to the inhabitants of the Ohio Company's purchase, were soon realized, as the taxes for the support of the new government fell very heavily on them. This inequality remained until the year 1825, when the ad valorem system was introduced, and removed the long continued injustice. [Hildreth.]

The next step in the transition from territorial to state government, was the passage of an act by congress, on the 3oth of April, 1802, *to enable the people of the eastern division of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, to form a constitution and state government." This act provided for the election of delegates to frame a constitution, and fixed the qualifications of electors. It also fixed the present boundaries of Ohio, reserving the territory west and north of it for other states. Delegates to the constitutional convention were elected in the summer of

1802. The inhabitants of Athens (a part of Washington county) were represented by Ephraim Cutler, Rufus Putnam, John McIntire, and Benjamin Ives Gilman. The convention assembled at Chillicothe on the 1st day of November, 1802, and remained in session about three weeks. The constitution being formed, was ratified and signed by the members on the 29th of November. It was never submitted to the people, but became the organic law of the state by the act of the convention alone.

Certain important changes, concerning the school lands, were made by the convention, in the proposition of congress, under which the state was to come into the Union. Congress assented to the proposed modi- . fications by act of March 3, 1803, thus completing the compact and accepting Ohio as a state and a member . of the Federal Union.

Governor St. Clair and most of the leading men during the period of the territorial government, were federalists; but by the time the territorial legislature was chosen (in 1799), democratic or Jeffersonian ideas were becoming popular, and the assembly, which met at Cincinnati in September, 1799, was possessed of some of the democratic temper then prevalent. This, together with the rather arbitrary use of the veto power by Governor St. Clair, caused some clashing between them. The result was that an impetus was given to the growth of democratic ideas in the territory, the con- stitutional convention, which met in 1802, was strongly Jeffersonian, and the constitution which they formed was a thoroughly democratic one. Its excellencies and defects, for it had both, were those of a truly popular form of government.

And now began the contest between ''federalism" and **democracy" - the one school represented by Hamilton and his coadjutors, who believed in a powerful and splendid central government; and the other by Jefferson and his followers who advocated. the largest liberty to the individual, and regarded with the utmost jealousy what they stigmatized as the centralization of and their political and intellectual contests were admired and repeated in the remotest parts of the republic. By these opposing ideas, the actors in the little political arena of Athens county, like those of many other greater or smaller arenas throughout the country, were for many years to come excited and educated.

The time had now arrived when for various reasons, chiefly political perhaps, it was deemed advisable to form a new county on the west of Washington, e to be carved out of it.

Chapter

SECTION I. Be it enacted, etc, That so much of the county of Washington as is contained in the following boundaries, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, which shall be known by the name of Athens, viz: beginning at the southwest corner of township number ten, range seventeen; thence easterly with the line between Gallia and Washington counties, to the Ohio river; thence up said river to the mouth of Big Hockhocking river; thence up the said Hockhocking river to the east line of township number six, of the twelfth range; thence north on said line to the northeast corner of the eighth township, in the said twelfth range ; thence west to the east line of Fairfield county; thence south on said county line and the line of Ross county, to the place of beginning.

Sec. II. That from and after the first day of March next, the said county of- Athens shall be vested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities of a separate and distinct county: provided-always, that all actions and suits which may be pending on the said first day of March next, shall be prosecuted and carried into final judgment and execution, and all taxes, fees, fines, and forfeitures, which shall be then due, shall be collected in the same manner as if this act had never been passed.

Sec. III. That the seat of justice for said county, is hereby established in the town of Athens, any law to the contrary not withstanding. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of March next."

The county as thus established in 1805, contained one thousand and fifty-three square miles, or about thirty regular surveyed townships, and included five townships now belonging to Meigs county, viz: Columbia, Scipio, Bedford, Orange, and Olive townships; two now belonging to Morgan county, viz: Homer and Marion; three now belonging to Hocking belonging to Vinton, viz: Brown, Swan, Elk, Madison, Knox, Clinton, and Vinton townships; and astrip of land about ten miles long and one mile wide now belonging to Washington county. By an act passed January 3oth, 1807, entitled **an act to alter the boundary line between the counties of Athens and Gallia," a strip about ten miles long and one mile wide, was added to the southeast corner of Athens county as it then existed. By an act passed February 18th, 1807, entitled "an act altering the line between the counties of Washington and Athens," the boundary of Athens was changed so as to take in the portion of Troy township lying east of the Hockhocking river ; and the same act detached a strip one mile wide and fifteen miles long, lying along the eastern border of Rome, Bern, and Marion townships, from Athens county, and added it to Washington. By an act passed February roth, 1814, sections thirty-one and thirty-two in township number six, range eleven (Rome). were detached from Washington and added to Athens, and sections eleven and twelve in township number eight, range twelve (now Marion township, Morgan county), were detached from Athens and added to Washington. The creation of the county of Jackson by act of January 12, 1816, took township number ten, range seventeen (now Clinton township, Vinton county), from Athens. The creation of the county of Hocking by act of January 3, 1818, took parts of three townships (Green and Starr, of Hocking, and Brown, of Vinton county), from Athens; and by an act of March 12th, 1845, entitled "an act to attach part of the county of Athens to the county of Hocking," the residue of those townships was stricken off. The creation of the county of Meigs, January 21, 1819, took five townships from Athens and reduced our southern boundary to its present limits. By an act passed March 11, 1845, the townships of Homer and Marion were detached from Athens and added to Morgan county. Finally, the erection of the county of Vinton by act passed March

23, 1850, took the remainder of our outlying possessions in that direction, and the same act detached Ward township from Athens and gave it to Hocking, thus reducing our boundaries all around to their present limits. The present boundaries of the county include about four hundred and eighty-four square miles.

An act of the legislature, passed February 13th, 1804, entitled **an act establishing boards of commissioners," provided that the election for commissioners should be held on the first Monday of the next April. The first election in Athens county resulted in the choice of Silas Dean, William Howlett and John Corey, commissioners. We quote from the record of

" County of Athens, State of Ohio, April 16th, 1805. Agreeably to an act entitled 'an act establishing boards of commissioners,' passed February the 13th, 1804, We, Silas Dean, Wm. Howlett and John Corey, being elected

April, 1805, Silas Dean and John Corey, agreeably to appointment, met this day in order to proceed to business, and have made choice of John Corey for clerk, and then proceeded to divide the county into the following townships :

The township of Ames begins at the N. E. corner of the county, thence running W.to the N. W. corner of said county ; thence S. to the S. W. corner of township No. 12 in the 16th range; thence E. to the S. E. corner of township No. 7 in the 12th range; thence N. to the place of beginning.

$ of township No. 12; thence E. to the S. E. corner of township No. 5 in the 13th range; thence N. to the N. E. corner of the aforesaid township No. 5 ; thence West to the place of beginning.

The township of Alexander begins at the N. W. corner of township No. rr in the 17th range, thence South to the S. W. corner of township No. 10 in the aforesaid 17th range; thence E. to the S. E. corner of township No. 3 in the 13th range ; thence N. to the N. E. corner of township No. 4 in the 13th range; thence W. to the place of beginning.

The township of Troy begins at the S. W. corner of township No. 4 in the r2th range, thence East on the south line of the county until it intersects with Shade river; thence down Shade river to its junction with the Ohio; thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Hockhocking ; thence up the Hockhocking to where the eastern line of the 12th range crosses said river; thence N. to the N. E. corner of township No. 6 in the I2th range; thence W. to the. N. W. corner of the aforesaid 6th township; thence S. to the place of beginning.

By a majority of the board of commissioners Alvan Bingham was appointed treasurer for the county of Athens. April 17th, said Bingham's bonds executed and accepted."

[Here follow proposals and specifications for the building of a log jail and jailor's house, the jail to be 24 feet long in the clear and 13 feet wide, with minute descriptions of every part; but our space does not allow

"The board of commissioners have appointed John Armstrong's house as the first place of meeting for the electors of Alexander township ; John Havner's house as the first. place of meeting for the electors of Athens township ; Ebenezer Buckingham's house as the first place of meeting for the electors of

[This session of the board lasted from the 16th to the roth of April. William Howlett joined the other commissioners on the 17th. Their compensation was $1.50 per day, and the expense of this, the first meeting of the board, was $19.25. They adjourned till the second Monday of June, 180;.]

«The board met agreeably to adjournment on the second Monday of June and proceeded to levy the county tax, and made out one duplicate for the township of Ames, one for Athens and Alexander, and one for Troy.

In conformity to the 11th section of an act for granting tavern licenses, ferriages, &c., passed at Chillicothe the 1st day of February, 1805,

Resolved by tbe Beard of Commissioners, 'That the price of licenses for ferries crossing the Ohio within this county shall be two dollars. The rates for crossing said river shall be as the law prescribes in the aforesaid r1th section.

Resolved, That the license for ferries crossing the Great, Hockhocking river shall be two dollars. The rate of ferriage of the same shall be as follows, viz: For each foot passenger, three cents; for man and horse, ten cents; for loaded wagon and team, fifty cents; for every other four-wheeled carriage, or empty wagon and team, thirty-seven and one-half cents; for every loaded cart and team, thirty-seven and a half cents; for every loaded sled, or sleigh, or empty cart and team, twenty-five cents; for every empty sled, or sleigh and team, twelve and a half cents; for every horse, mare, mule, or ass, and every head of neat cattle, six cents; for sheep and hogs, three cents.

Resolved, That the license for taverns in the town of Athens shall be eight dollars; for the township of Ames, four dollars ; for the township of Troy, five dollars; and for the township of Alexander, four dollars and a half. For the township of Athens, the price of a tavern license shall be six dollars.

The tax assessed on the township of Ames is thirty-nine dollars, as appears by the duplicate; the tax assessed on the townships of Athens and Alexander is ninety-six dollars and forty cents, as appears by the duplicate; the tax assessed on the township of Troy is twenty-two dollars and twenty cents, as appears by the duplicate. The total amount of all the taxes assessed in the county of Athens is one hundred and fifty-seven dollars and sixty cents.

The petition of David Watkins and others for a road, after being read, was rejected, it not being according to law. The petition of William Young and others for a road, after being read, was rejected, it not being according to law. The petition of H. Castle and others praying for a road, after being read, was rejected, not being according to law. The petition of Daniel Weethee and others for the division of the township of Ames was not acceded to. The petition of Elijah Hatch and others praying for the erection of a new township in this county was not acceded to.

County of Athens to Josiah True. Dr. For services by him done in the township of Ames, listing taxable property in the year 1805, - - - - $5 30

Troy, in the year 1805, - - - - - 5 00 County of Athens to George Shidler. Dr. For services done in listing taxable property in the townships of Athens and Alexander, in the year 1805, - - - 8 oo

Resolved, by the Board of Commissioners, that John Corey shall receive twelve dollars for his services as clerk for this board during the time the said board elected him for.

board, that the resolution passed by them the 19th of April last, fixing the place for the first meeting of the electors of the township of Ames, is a grievance, and that the same should be changed, and for that purpose it is Resolved, by the board, that the place for the first meeting of the electors of the aforesaid township of Ames, is the dwelling house of Nathan Woodbury.

July gth, 1805. - William Howlett and John Corey met, pursuant to adjournment, and proceeded, after a more mature deliberation, to strike out the price of license for the town plat of Athens.

WHEREAS, It appears on more mature deliberation by the Board of Commissioners that the petition of David Watkins and others praying for a road to be laid out from Asahel Cooley's to Henry Cassel's mill was done according to law, the said board have appointed George Shidler, Henry Shidler, and Charles Weeks to view said road.

The petition of William Young and others praying for a road to be laid out from Athens toward Lancaster, that was rejected, is now considered according to law, and the Board of Commissioners have appointed Arthur Coates, George Shidler, and Robert Ross to view said road.

It appearing to the board on more mature deliberation that the petition of Henry Cassell and others praying for a road to be laid out from Athens toward Salt Lick, which was rejected, was done agreeably to law, they now appoint Robert Linzee, Samuel Moore, and Joel Abbott to view out said road.

Resolved, by the Board of Commissioners, that Daniel Stewart be appointed collector for the township of Troy, in the room of Stephen Buckingham, delinquent.

November 4th, 1805. - [An election having occurred in October.] Agreeably to an act entitled 'an act establishing Boards of Commissioners,' passed February 13th, 1804, We, William Howlett, William Barrows, and Samuel Moore, being elected commissioners for the county of Athens, have met this day in order to do business.

A petition, bearing date May 3oth, 1805, having been presented to the board by David Watkins and others, of the township of Alexander, praying for a road beginning at the range line between the 12th and 13th ranges, thence onward to the Salt Lick, and George Shidler, Charles Weeks, and Henry Shidler having been appointed to view said road, now report the same useless.

County of Athens to Henry Bartlett. Dr. For services rendered in attempting to get a list of nonresidents lands within said county, - - - - - 5 00

We, the Commissioners, at our first meeting, cast lots, as the law directs, and drew as follows, viz: Samuel Moore to stand three years, William Howlett to stand two years, and William Barrows to stand one year.

at November term, 1805, - - - - - $6 oo To Alexander Stedman. Dr. To two days' attendance as judge, etc. (as above), - - - 6 oo To Silvanus Ames. Dr. : To one day's attendance, and going and returning, - - - 6 oo Adjourned.

County of Athens. Dr. To postage on letter taken out of the postoffice and paid 124 cents by A. Stedman and 124 cents by Samuel Moore - 25 cts.