Page
59
|
The civil organization of the Northwest Territory
was now complete, and notwithstanding the uncertainty of Indian affairs,
settlers from the East began to come into the country rapidly. The New
England .Company sent their men during the Winter of 1787-8 pressing on
over the Alleghenies by the old Indian path which had been opened into
Braddock's road, and which has since been made a national turnpike from
Cumberland westward. Through the weary winter days they toiled op, and
by April were all gathered on the Yohiogany, where boats had been built,
and at once started for the Muskingum. Here they arrived on the 7th of
that month, and unless the Moravian missionaries be regarded as the pioneers
of Ohio, this little band can justly claim that honor.
|
Page
60 |
Gen. St. Clair, the appointed Governor of the Northwest,
not having yet arrived, a set of laws were passed, written out, and published
by being nailed to a tree in the embryo town, and Jonathan Meigs appointed
to administer them.
Washington in writing of this, the first American settlement in the Northwest,
said: " No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable
auspices" as that which has just commenced at Muskingum. Information,
property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of its
settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote
the welfare of such a community."
[picture inserted of]
A PIONEER DWELLING. |
On the 2d of July a meeting of the directors and agents was held on
the banks of the Muskingum, "for the purpose of naming the newborn
city and its squares." As yet the settlement was known as the "Muskingum,"
but that was now changed to the name Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette.
The square upon which the block-houses stood was called "Campus
Martius;" square number 19, "Capitolium;"
square number 61, "Cecilia ;" and the great road through
the covert way, " Sacra Via." Two days after, an oration
was delivered by James M. Varnum, who with S.
H. Parsons and John Armstrong had been appointed
to the judicial bench of the territory on the 16th of October, 1787. On
July 9, Gov. St. Clair arrived, and the colony began
to assume form. The act of 1787 provided two district grades of government
for the Northwest, |
Page
61 |
under the first of which the whole power was invested in
the hands of a governor and three district judges. This was immediately
formed upon the Governor's arrival, and the first laws of the colony passed
on the 25th of July. These provided for the organization of the militia,
and on the next day appeared the Governor's proclamation, erecting all that
country that had been ceded by the Indians east of the Scioto River into
the County of Washington. From that time forward, notwithstanding the doubts
yet existing as to the Indians, all Marietta prospered, and on the 2d of
September the first court of the territory was held with imposing ceremonies.
The emigration westward at this time was very great. The commander at
Fort Harmer, at the mouth of the Muskingum, reported four thousand five
hundred persons as having passed that post between February and June,
1788 — many of whom would have purchased of the "Associates,"
as the New England Company was called, had they been ready to receive
them.
On the 26th of November, 1787, Symmes issued a pamphlet
stating the terms of his contract and the plan of sale he intended to
adopt. In January, 1788, Matthias Denman, of New Jersey,
took an active interest in Symmes' purchase, and located among other tracts
the sections upon which Cincinnati has been built. Retaining one-third
of this locality, he sold the other two-thirds to Robert Patterson
and John Filson, and the three, about August, commenced
to lay out a town on the spot, which was designated as being opposite
Licking River, to the mouth of which they proposed to have a road cut
from Lexington. The naming of the town is thus narrated in the "Western
Annals":—" Mr. Filson, who had been a
schoolmaster, was appointed to name the town, and, in respect to its situation,
and as if with a prophetic perception of the mixed race that were to inhabit
it in after days, he named it Losantiville, which, being interpreted,
means : ville, the town ; anti,
against or opposite to ; os, the mouth ; L.
of Licking."
Meanwhile, in July, Symmes got thirty persons and eight
four-horse teams under way for the West. These reached Limestone (now
Maysville) in September, where were several persons from Redstone. Here
Mr. Symmes tried to found a settlement, but the great
freshet of 1789 caused the "Point," as it was and is yet called,
to be fifteen feet under water, and the settlement to be abandoned. The
little band of settlers removed to the mouth of the Miami. Before Symmes
and his colony left the "Point," two settlements had been made
on his purchase. The first was by Mr. Stiltes, the original
projector of the whole plan, who, with a colony of Redstone people, had
located at the mouth of the Miami, whither Symmes went
with his Maysville colony. Here a clearing had
|
Page
62 |
been made by the Indians owing to the great fertility of
the soil. Mr. Stiltes with his colony came to this place
on the 18th of November, 1788, with twenty-six persons, and, building a
block-house, prepared to remain through the Winter. They named the settlement
Columbia. Here they were kindly treated by the Indians, but suffered greatly
from the flood of 1789.
On the 4th of March, 1789, the Constitution of the United States went
into operation, and on April 30, George Washington was
inaugurated President of the American people, and during the next Summer,
an Indian war was commenced by the tribes north of the Ohio. The President
at first used pacific means; but these failing, he sent General
Harmer against the hostile tribes. He destroyed several villages,
but
[picture inserted of]
LAKE BLUFF
The frontage of Lake Bluff Ground on Lake Michigan,
with one hundred and seventy feet of gradual ascent |
was defeated in two battles, near the present City of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
From this time till the close of 1795, the principal events were the wars
with the various Indian tribes. In 1796, General St. Clair
was appointed in command, and marched against the Indians; but while he
was encamped on a stream, the St. Mary, a branch of the Maumee, he was
attacked and defeated with the loss of six hundred men.
General Wayne was now sent against the savages. In August,
1794, he met them near the rapids of the Maumee, and gained a complete
victory. This success, followed by vigorous measures, compelled the Indians
to sue for peace, and on the 30th of July, the following year, the treaty
of Greenville was signed by the principal chiefs, by which a large tract
of country was ceded to the United States.
Before proceeding in our narrative, we will pause to notice Fort Washington,
erected in the early part of this war on the site of Cincinnati. Nearly
all of the great cities of the Northwest, and indeed of the |
Page
63 |
whole country, have had their nuclei in those rude pioneer
structures, known as forts or stockades. Thus Forts Dearborn, Washington,
Ponchartrain, mark the original sites of the now proud Cities of Chicago,
Cincinnati and Detroit. So of most of the flourishing cities east and west
of the Mississippi. Fort Washington, erected by Doughty
in 1790, was a rude but highly interesting structure. It was composed of
a number of strongly-built hewed log cabins. Those designed for soldiers'
barracks were a story and a half high, while those composing the officers
quarters were more imposing and more conveniently arranged and furnished.
The whole were so placed as to form a hollow square, enclosing about an
acre of ground, with a block house at each of the four angles.
The logs for the construction of this fort were cut from the ground upon
which it was erected. It stood between Third and Fourth Streets of the
present city (Cincinnati) extending east of Eastern Row, now Broadway,
which was then a narrow alley, and the eastern boundary of of the town
as it was originally laid out. On the bank of the river, immediately in
front of the fort, was an appendage of the fort, called the Artificer's
Yard. It contained about two acres of ground, enclosed by small contiguous
buildings, occupied by workshops and quarters of laborers. Within this
enclosure there was a large two-story frame house, familiarly called the
"Yellow House," built for the accommodation of the Quartermaster
General. For many years this was the best finished and most commodious
edifice in the Queen City. Fort Washington was for some time the headquarters
of both the civil and military governments of the Northwestern Territory.
Following the consummation of the treaty various gigantic land speculations
were entered into by different persons, who hoped to obtain from the Indians
in Michigan and northern Indiana, large tracts of lands. These were generally
discovered in time to prevent the outrageous schemes from being carried
out, and from involving the settlers in war. On October 27, 1795, the
treaty between the United States and Spain was signed, whereby the free
navigation of the Mississippi was secured.
No sooner had the treaty of 1795 been ratified than settlements began
to pour rapidly into the West. The great event of the year 1796 was the
occupation of that part of the Northwest including Michigan, which was
this year, under the provisions of the treaty, evacuated by the British
forces. The United States, owing to certain conditions, did not feel justified
in addressing the authorities in Canada in relation to Detroit and other
frontier posts. When at last the British authorities were called to give
them up, they at once complied, and General Wayne, who
had done so much to preserve the frontier settlements, and who, before
the year's close, sickened and died near Erie, transferred his head- |
Page
64 |
quarters to the neighborhood of the lakes, where a county
named after him was formed, which included the northwest of Ohio, all of
Michigan, and the northeast of Indiana. During this same year settlements
were formed at the present City of Chillicothe, along the Miami from Middletown
to Piqua, while in the more distant West, settlers and speculators began
to appear in great numbers. In September, the City of Cleveland was laid
out, and during the Summer and Autumn, Samuel Jackson and
Jonathan Sharpless erected the first manufactory of paper—the
"Redstone Paper Mill"—in the West. St. Louis contained some
seventy houses, and Detroit over three hundred, and along the river, contiguous
to it were more than three thousand inhabitants, mostly French Canadians,
Indians and half-breeds, scarcely any Americans venturing yet into that
part of the Northwest.
The election of representatives for the territory had taken place, and
on the 4th of February, 1799, they convened at Losantiville — now
known as Cincinnati, having been named so by Gov. St. Clair,
and considered the capital of the Territory—to nominate persons
from whom the members of the Legislature were to be chosen in accordance
with a previous ordinance. This nomination being made, the Assembly adjourned
until the 16th of the following September. From those named the President
selected as members of the council, Henry Vandenburg,
of Vincennes, Robert Oliver, of Marietta, James
Findlay and Jacob Burnett, of Cincinnati,
and David Vance, of Vanceville. On the 16th of September
the Territorial Legislature met, and on the 24th the two houses were duly
organized, Henry Vandenburg being elected President of
the Council.
The message of Gov. St. Clair was addressed to the Legislature
September 20th, and on October 13th that body elected as a delegate to
Congress Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison, who received eleven
of the votes cast, being a majority of one over his opponent, Arthur
St. Clair, son of Gen. St. Clair.
The whole number of acts passed at this session, and approved by the
Governor, were thirty-seven — eleven others were passed, but received
his veto. The most important of those passed related to the militia, to
the administration, and to taxation. On the 19th of December this protracted
session of the first Legislature in the West was closed, and on the 30th
of December the President nominated Charles Willing Bryd
to the office of Secretary of the Territory vice Wm.
Henry Harrison, elected to Congress. The Senate confirmed his
nomination the next day. |