| Warren County
Local History by Dallas Bogan |
| Contributor: |
Dallas Bogan on 10 August 2004 |
Source: |
"The Pioneer Writings of Josiah Morrow" by Dallas Bogan |
| Return to Index to see a list of other articles by Dallas Bogan |
December 9, 1909
The story of the backwoodsmen who peopled the great states on both sides of
the Ohio in the latter part of the eighteenth century can never become a tiresome
one. This story is told in Theodore Roosevelt's great history,
the Winning of the west. The distinguished author begins his history with the
declaration that during the past three centuries the spread of English speaking
peoples over the world's waste places has been the most striking feature in
the world's history. And we may add that the remarkable emigration from the
Atlantic states over the mountains and thru the wilderness to the Ohio valley
in the years succeeding the revolution is the most striking fact in the population
movements of our country.
The swarming of multitudes from states not yet old or thickly populated into
a wilderness is one of the most curious facts in all history. During the revolution
and for some years after its close the emigration was chiefly into Kentucky,
but after Wayne's victory over the Indians the tide was turned into the Northwest
Territory and of all portions of this great region the Miami valley received
a much larger share than any other area of equal size. In the Miami valley,
the three lower counties of Hamilton, Warren and Butler received the largest
number of immigrants, and in the first year of Ohio's existence as a state a
census taken in August 1803, showed that Warren county had more inhabitants
than Butler, Montgomery, Greene or Clermont, and stood among its neighbors second
to Hamilton only.
The two chief routes of the emigrants westward were the Wilderness Road and
the Ohio river. The first of these had been opened up in 1775 by Boone-Daniel
Daniel Boone, who with thirty ax-men made a bridle path or
pack-horse trail from the Holston to the Kentucky thru Cumberland Gap. It was
sometimes called the Wilderness Road and sometimes Boone's trace and was the
most famous road in the early history of Kentucky. Tens of thousands traveled
over it from Virginia and the Carolinas seeking new homes in the west.
But the emigrants' chief highway was the Ohio river, because going down stream
in a boat was usually the cheapest, quickest and most comfortable way the emigrant
had of taking his family on a long journey and it was also much the easiest
way for him to carry with him household goods and implements of husbandry. It
must not be supposed, however, that the emigrant's family found the voyage down
the Ohio a pleasure ride. Passengers and live stock would be huddled together
into the smallest possible space; there was little protection from storms and
low water often caused annoying delays.
The emigrants usually selected the late fall or early winter for embarking on
the Ohio as the river was generally too low for navigation until after the autumn
rains. Sometimes the cold weather set in before the waters rose. According to
Judge Francis Dunlevy
this was the case in the autumn of 1779. Having his home in the Red Stone country,
Dunlevy saw crowds of emigrants gathered and waiting for the
rains to raise the river in that autumn. They had come from Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Maryland and the Carolinas to the principal branches of the Ohio and built boats.
The season had been remarkably dry and the rivers remained low until Christmas
when a deep snow fell and the cold became intense. Hundreds of men, women and
children lay in open camps or rude cabins until the early spring. Dunlevy
relates that among these crowds of emigrants some were residents of the frontiers
of western Pennsylvania and Virginia who had sold their lands in a country still
new in order to remove still further west.
Even the emigrants who went down the Ohio by boat often had long journeys to
make from their old homes to reach the place of embarking, and another to reach
their lands after embarking. These overland journeys were made in many ways,
on foot, on horseback, by ox-carts, by large Pennsylvania wagons, and by the
little southern wagons, drawn by one or two little southern horses.
The emigrants often took cattle and hogs with them. Sometimes the women and
smaller children would ride and the men and older boys would walk to drive and
look after the live stock. Sometimes a dozen pack-horses would be led along
in single file all heavily loaded. The mother of a pioneer family, in moving
from Pennsylvania to Marietta in 1789, walked most of the way leading a cow.
Charley Williams, the first settler in Coshocton county, Ohio,
relates that in moving westward from his home in Maryland when a youth, he walked
barefooted over the mountains, starting in October, 1779.
In the autumn of 1784, James Trimble, two of his sons became
distinguished in Ohio history, removed from the valley of Virginia to the Ohio
valley, first settling in Kentucky. A number of Virginia families accompanied
him, forming a band of emigrants, bold, energetic and intelligent, nearly all
of Scotch-Irish descent. Mrs. Trimble made this journey on
horseback, carrying in her arms a babe eleven months old, christened Allen.
This babe was afterward twice chosen governor of Ohio. The journey occupied
several weeks. Their food was cooked at the campfires. In days of rain no shelter
would be obtained. Governor Allen Trimble, in his autobiography,
tells the thrilling story of his mother crossing the swollen Clinch river on
horseback having two little children on her horse with her. The horse had plunged
into the dangerous waters and had gone too far for her to turn back. With rare
presence of mind she gave the horse the rein, held her two children with her
left arm and grasped the horse's mane with her right hand. The strong horse
stemmed the current for three hundred yards and bore his burden safely to the
shore.
The father of Dr. Ezra Ferris, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., with
his family and two other families started from Stanwich, Conn., for the Little
Miami on September 20, 1789. The journey at that time was looked upon as novel
and daring, and as the emigrants started in wagons they were surrounded by a
crowd of spectators. Their route was along the road on the north side of Long
Island to New York City, thence from New Jersey and Pennsylvania and over the
Alleghenies to the Monongahela river; thence by boats to Columbia at the mouth
of the Little Miami, where they arrived Dec. 12, 1789, after being two months
and twenty days on the journey.
For a generation movers to the west could be seen making their way in all sorts
of vehicles in the older states, sometimes thronging the roads. On Sunday, October
27, 1805, Isaac Burr riding on horseback near the Natural Bridge in Virginia
wrote in his journal: " A multitude of people moving westward; today have
met 60 wagons and carts." And the next day: "I am still meeting families
going westward; a cold time they must have had these few days past."
At first the water craft used in descending the Ohio were canoes, pirogues
and rafts. Next came the flat- boats which were at first only from four to six
feet in width but soon were made much larger. They were constructed of green
oak plank. No nails or iron was used in building them, but the heavy oak planks
were fastened by wooden pins to still heavier frames of timber. The seams were
at first closed with pitch or tar, but this being expensive, tow or some other
pliant substant was afterward used in caulking.
The flat boats were only used in descending the river and when they arrived
at their destination were of no value whatever as boats. They were sometimes
ripped up and their materials used in constructing temporary buildings for shelter
on the bank of the river. At Maysville, Ky., they became so numerous that they
were frequently set adrift in order to make room for others. In 1790 when the
most substantial and solid wooden fortress in the western country was to be
built, General Harmar wrote that he had purchased at Limestone,
from 40 to 50 flatboats at the moderate price of from $1 to $2 each to be used
in the construction of Fort Washington at Cincinnati.
Before the settlement of Symmes Purchase had been commenced the large number
of boats carrying emigrants down the Ohio into Kentucky had attracted the attention
of General Harmar, and on May 14, 1787, he wrote the secretary
of war from Fort Harmar: "Curiosity prompted me to order the officer of
the day to take an account of the number of boats which passed the garrison.
From the 10th of October, 1786, until the 12th of May, 1787, 127 boats, 2,689
souls, 1,333 horses, 756 cattle and 102 wagons have passed Muskingum bound for
Limestone and the Rapids."
Maysville Ky., long called Limestone, was the greatest landing place on the
Ohio river for emigrants to Kentucky. All the merchandise for Lexington and
neighboring towns left the river at this place. Yet Maysville itself long remained
a small town and in 1805 contained only about fifty dwellings and was not growing
rapidly.
One of the first to describe the journey from the tide water to the head of
the Ohio and down that stream by boat as far as the Kanawha was no less distinguished
an American than George Washington, who made the journey and
kept a journal of his travels and observation. This expedition was in 1770,
five years before the commencement of the revolution, and it was in behalf of
soldier's claims to a bounty of 200,000 acres which had been promised by the
colony of Virginia to officers and men. Col. Washington was
accompanied by his friend and neighbor, Dr. Craik. They set
out on October 5, with three negro servants, two belonging to Washington and
one to the doctor. The whole party was mounted and they had a lead horse for
baggage.
Without traveling continuously they reached Fort Pitt in twelve days. Leaving
their horses they embarked in a large canoe for the voyage down the Ohio. Captain
William Crawford accompanied them down the river and they had
two Indians and an interpreter with them.
Washington's journal notes the distances made each day. On
the downward voyage when they rowed all day they made an average of over 30
miles, the greatest distance on any one day being about 32 miles. Going up stream
on the return trip the greatest distance made in one day was 27 miles but after
heavy rains and the river was swollen they made only 18 miles after working
hard the greater portion of one day, and the next day only 5 miles, the current
being strong against them.
On his homeward journey George Washington took his only long
walk in Ohio. On arriving at the remarkable bend in the Ohio river, where it
forms a part of the southern boundary of Meigs county, the boat was sent around
with the baggage and Col. Washington and Captain Crawford
walked across the neck. They were two and one- half hours in walking, and the
distance was estimated at eight miles. Washington carefully
noted the soil and timber and thought that a valuable tract of about 4,000 acres
might be found there. This walk was taken November 5, 1770.
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