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O H I O.
OUTLINE HISTORY *
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THE territory now comprised within the limits of Ohio was formerly a part of that vast region claimed by France, between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, first known by the general name of Louisiana. In 1673, Marquette, a zealous French Missionary, accompanied with Monsieur Joliet, from Quebec, with five boatmen, set out on a mission from Mackinac to the unexplored regions lying south of that station. They passed down the lake to Green Bay, thence from Fox River crossed over to the Wisconsin, which they followed down to its junction with the Mississippi. They descended this mighty stream a thousand miles to its confluence with the Arkansas. On their return to Canada, they did not fail to urge, in strong terms, the immediate occupation of the vast and fertile regions watered by the Mississippi and its branches.
On the 7th of August, 1679, M. de la Salle, the French commandant of Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, launched, upon Lake Erie, the Griffin, a bark of about 60 tons, with which he proceeded through the Lakes to the Straits of Michillimackinac. Leaving his bark at this place, he proceeded up Lake Michigan, and from thence to the south west, till he arrived at Peoria Lake, in Illinois. At this place he erected a fort, and after having sent Father Lewis Hennepin on an exploring expedition, La Salle returned to Canada. In 1683, La Salle went to France, and, by the representations which he made, induced the French Government to fit out ail expedition for the purpose of planting a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. This expedition failed, La Salle being murdered by his own men.
This disaster did not abate the ardor of the French in their great plan of obtaining possession of the vast region westward of the English colonies. A second expedition sailed from France, under the command of M. D'Iberville. This officer entered the mouth of the Mississippi, and explored the river for several hundred miles
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* The principal sources from which this outline is derived, are the MSS. of Hon. Thomas Scott, of Chillicothe, Secretary of the Convention which framed the constitution of Ohio;the historical sketch prefixed to Chase's Statutes, and Perkins' Annals of the West.
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Permanent establishments were made at different points; and from this time the French colony west of the Alleghanies steadily in creased in numbers and strength. Previous to the year 1725, the colony had been divided into quarters, each having its local governor, or commandant, and judge, but all subject to the superior authority of the council general of Louisiana. One of these quarters was established north west of the Ohio.
At this period, the French had erected forts on the Mississippi, on the Illinois, on the Maumee, and on the lakes. Still, however, the communication with Canada was through Lake Michigan. Before 1750, a French post had been fortified at the mouth of the Wabash and a communication was established through that river and the Maumee with Canada. About the same time, and for the purpose of checking the progress of the French, the Ohio Company was formed, and made some attempts to establish trading houses among the Indians. The French, however, established a chain of fortifications back of the English settlements, and thus, in a measure, had the entire control of the great Mississippi valley. The English government became alarmed at the encroachments of the French, and attempted to settle boundaries by negotiations. These availed nothing, and both parties were determined to settle their differences by the force of arms.
The claims of the different European monarchs to large portions of the western continent were based upon the first discoveries made by their subjects. In 1609, the English monarch granted to the London Company, all the territories extending along the coast for two hundred miles north and south from Point Comfort, and "up into the land, throughout, from sea to sea, west and north-west." In 1662, Charles II. granted to certain settlers upon the Connecticut all the territory between the parallels of latitude which include the present State of Connecticut, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. The claims which Massachusetts advanced, during the revolution, to an interest in the western lands, were founded upon a similar charter, granted thirty years afterwards.
When the king of France had dominions in North America, the whole of the late territory of the United States, north-west of the river Ohio, was included in the province of Louisiana, the north boundary of which, by the treaty of Utrecht, concluded between France and England in 1713, was fixed at the 49th parallel of latitude north of the Equator. After the conquest of the French possessions in North America by Great Britain, this tract was ceded by France to Great Britain, by the treaty of Paris, in 1763.
The principal ground whereon the English claimed dominion beyond the Alleghanies was, that the Six Nations owned the Ohio valley, and had placed it with their other lands under the protection of England. Some of the western lands were also claimed by the British as having been actually purchased, at Lancaster, Penn., in 1744, at a treaty between the colonists and the Six Nations at that place. In 1748, the "Ohio Company," for the purpose of securing
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the Indian trade, was formed. In 1749, it appears that the English built a trading house upon the Great Miami, at a spot since called Loramie's Store. In 1751, Christopher Gist, an agent of the Ohio Company, who was appointed to examine the western lands, made a visit to the Twigtwees, who lived upon the Miami river, about one hundred miles from its mouth.
Early in 1752, the French having heard of the trading house of the Miami, sent a party of soldiers to the Twigtwees and demanded the traders as intruders upon French lands. The Twigtwees refused to deliver up their friends. The French, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas, then attacked the trading house, which was probably a block house, and after a severe battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, took and destroyed it, carrying away the traders to Canada. This fort, or trading house, was called, by the English, Pickawillany. Such was the first British settlement in the Ohio valley, of which we have any record.
After Braddock's defeat, in 1755, the Indians pushed their excursions as far east as the Blue Ridge. In order to repel them, Major Lewis, in Jan., 1756, was sent with a party of troops on an expedition against the Indian towns on the Ohio. The point apparently aimed at was the upper Shawanese town, situated on the Ohio, three miles above the mouth of the Great Kanawha. The attempt proved a failure, in consequence, it is said, of the swollen state of the streams, and the treachery of the guides. In 1764, Gen. Bradstreet, having dispersed the Indian forces besieging Detroit, passed into the Wyandot country by way of Sandusky Bay. He ascended the bay and river as far as it was navigable for boats, and there made a camp. A treaty of peace was signed by the Chiefs and head men. The Shawnees of the Scioto river, and the Delawares of the Muskingum, however, still continued hostile. Col. Boquet, in 1764, with a body of troops, marched from Fort Pitt into the heart of the Ohio country on the Muskingum river. This expedition was con ducted with great prudence and skill, and without scarcely any loss of life, as treaty of peace was effected with the Indians, who re stored the prisoners they had captured frown the white settlements. The next war with the Indians was in 1774, generally known as Lord Dunmore's. In the summer of that year, an expedition, under Col. M'Donald, was assembled at Wheeling, marched into the Muskin gum country and destroyed the Indian town of Wapatomica, a few miles above the site of Zanesville. In the fall, the Indians were de feated after a hard fought battle at Point Pleasant, on the Virginia side of the Ohio.. Shortly after this event, Lord Dunmore made peace with the Indians at Camp Charlotte, in what is now Pickaway country.
During the revolutionary war, most of the western Indians were more or less united against the Americans. In the fall of 1778, an expedition against Detroit was projected. As a preliminary step, it was resolved that the forces in the west, under Gen. M'Intosh, should move up and attack the Sandusky Indians. Preliminary to this.
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Fort Laurens, so called in honor of the President of Congress, was built upon the Tuscarawas, a short distance below the site of Bolivar, Tuscarawas county. The expedition to Detroit was abandoned and the garrison of Fort Laurens, after suffering much from the Indians and from famine, were recalled in August, 1779. A month or two previous to the evacuation of this fort, Col. Bowman headed an expedition against the Shawanees. Their village, Chillicothe, three miles north of the site of Xenia, on the Little Miami, was burnt. The warriors showed an undaunted front, and the whites were forced to retreat. In the summer of 1780, an expedition directed against the Indian towns, in the forks of the Muskingum, moved from Wheeling, under Gen. Broadhead. This expedition, known as "the Coshocton campaign," was unimportant in its results. In the same summer, Gen. Clark led a body of Kentuckians against the Shawnees. Chillicothe, on the Little Miami, was burnt on their approach, but at Piqua, their town on the Mad River, six miles below the site of Springfield, they gave battle to the whites and were defeated. In September, 1782, this officer led a second expedition against the Shawanese. Their towns, Upper and Lower Piqua, on the Miami, within what is now Miami county, were destroyed, together with the store of a trader.
There were other expeditions into the Indian country from Kentucky, which, although of later date, we mention in this connection. In 1786, Col. Logan conducted a successful expedition against the Mackachack towns, on the head waters of Mad River, in what is now Logan county. Edwards, in 1787, led an expedition to the head waters of the Big Miami, and, in 1788, Todd led one into the Scioto valley. There were also several minor expeditions, at various times, into the present limits of Ohio.
The Moravian missionaries, prior to the war of the revolution, had a number of missionary stations within the limits of Ohio. The missionaries, Heckewelder and Post, were on the Muskingum as early as 1762. In March, 1782, a party of Americans, under Col. Williamson, murdered, in cold blood, ninety-four of the defenceless Moravian Indians, within the present limits of Tuscarawas county. In the June following, Col. Crawford, at the head of about 500 men, was defeated by the Indians, three miles north of the site of Upper Sandusky, in Wyandot county. Col. Crawford was taken prisoner in the retreat, and burnt at the stake with horrible tortures.
By an act of the Parliament of Great Britain, passed in 1774, the whole of the late north-western Territory was annexed to, and made a part of, the province of Quebec, as created and established by the royal proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763. But nothing therein contained, relative to the boundary of the said province of Quebec, was in any wise to affect the boundaries of any other colony.
The colonies having, in 1776, renounced their allegiance to the British king, and assumed rank as free, sovereign and independent States, each State claimed the right of soil and jurisdiction over the district of country embraced within its charter. The charters of
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several of the States embraced large portions of western unappropriated lands. Those States which had no such charters, insisted that these lands ought to be appropriated for the benefit of all the States, according to their population, as the title to them, if secured at all, would be by the blood and treasure of all the States. Congress repeatedly urged upon those States owning western unappropriated lands, to make liberal cessions of them for the common benefit of all.
The claim of the English monarch to the late north-western Territory was ceded to the United States, by the treaty of peace, signed at Paris, September 3d, 1783. The provisional articles which formed the basis of that treaty, more especially as related to the boundary, were signed at Paris, November 30th, 1782. During the pendency of the negotiation relative to these preliminary articles, Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner, proposed the river Ohio as the western boundary of the United States, and but for the indomitable perseverance of the revolutionary patriot, John Adams, one of the American commissioners, who opposed the proposition, and insisted upon the Mississippi as the boundary, the probability is, that the proposition of Mr. Oswald would have been acceded to by the United States commissioners.
The States who owned western unappropriated lands, with a single exception, redeemed their respective pledges by ceding them to the United States. The State of Virginia, in March, 1784, ceded the right of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country embraced in her charter, situated to the north-west of the river Ohio. In September, 1786, the State of Connecticut also ceded her claim of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country within the limits of her charter, situated west of a line beginning at the completion of the forty-first point degree of north latitude, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania; and from thence by a line drawn north parallel to, and one hundred and twenty miles west of said line of Pennsylvania, and to continue north until it came to forty-two degrees and two minutes north latitude. The State of Connecticut, on the 30th of May, 1801, also ceded her jurisdictional claims to all that territory called the "Western Reserve of Connecticut." The States of New York and Massachusetts also ceded all their claims.
The above were not the only claims which had to be made prior to the commencement of settlements within the limits of Ohio. Numerous tribes of Indian savages, by virtue of prior possession, asserted their respective claims, which also had to be extinguished. A treaty for this purpose was accordingly made at Fort Stanwix, October 27th, 1784, with the Sachems and warriors of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras; by the third article of which treaty, the said Six Nations ceded to the United States all claims to the country west of a line extending along the west boundary of Pennsylvania, firom the mouth of the Oyounayea to the river Ohio.
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A treaty was also concluded at Fort McIntosh, January 21st, 1785, with the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa, and Ottawa nations, by which the boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware nations was declared to begin "at the mouth of the river Cuyahoga, and to extend up said river to the Portage, between that and the Tuscaroras branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Laurens, then westerly to the Portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French, in 1752; then along said Portage to the Great Miami, or Omee river, and down the south side of the same to its mouth; then along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, where it began." The United States allotted all the lands contained within said lines to the Wyandot and Delaware nations, to live and hunt on, and to such of the Ottawa nation as lived thereon; saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts, six miles square at the mouth of the Miami, or Omee river, and the same at the Portage, on that branch of the Big Miami which runs into the Ohio, and the same on the Lake of Sandusky where the fort formerly stood, and also two miles square on each side of the Lower Rapids of Sandusky river.
The Indian title to a large part of the territory within the limits of Ohio having been extinguished, legislative action on the part of Congress became necessary before settlements were commenced as in the treaties made with the Indians, and in the acts of Congress, all citizens of the United States were prohibited settling on the lands of the Indians, as well as on those of the United States. Ordinances were accordingly made by Congress for the government of the North-western Territory, and for the survey and sale of portions of lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished.
In May, 1785, Congress passed an ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of these lands. Under that ordinance, the first seven ranges, bounded on the east by Pennsylvania, and on the south by the Ohio river, were surveyed. Sales of parts of these were made at New York, in 1787, the avails of which amounted to $72,974, and sales of other parts of said range were made at Pittsburg and Philadelphia, in 1796. The avails of sales made at the former place amounted to $43,446, and at the latter, $5,120. A portion of these lands were located under United States military land warrants. No further sales were made in that district until the Land Office was opened at Steubenville, July 1st, 1801.
On the 27th of October, 1787, a contract in writing was entered into between the Board of Treasury for the United States of America, of the one part, and Manassah Cutler and Winthrop Sargeant, as agents for the directors of the New England Ohio Company of associates, of the other part, for the purchase of the tract of land bounded by the Ohio, from the mouth of the Scioto to the intersection of the western boundary of the seventh range of townships then surveying; thence by said boundary to the northern boundary of
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the tenth township from the Ohio; thence by a due west line to Scioto; thence by the Scioto to the beginning. The bounds of that contract were afterwards altered in 1792. The settlement of this purchase commenced at Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum river, in the spring of 1788, and was the first settlement formed within the limits of Ohio. An attempt at settlement within the bounds of Ohio had been made in April, 1785, at the mouth of the Scioto, on the site of Portsmouth, by four families from Redstone, Pa.; but difficulties with the Indians compelled its abandonment.
The same year in which Marietta was first settled, Congress appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, an officer of the revolution, Governor; Winthrop Sargeant, Secretary; and the Hon. Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes, Judges; in, and over the Territory. The territorial government was organized, and sundry laws were made, or adopted, by the Governor and Judges Parsons and Varnum. The county of Washington, having its limits extended westward to the Scioto, and northward to Lake Erie, embracing about half the territory within the present limits of the State, was established by the proclamation of the Governor.
On the 15th of October, 1788, John Cleves Symmes, in behalf of' himself and his associates, contracted with the Board of Treasury for the purchase of a large tract of land situated between the Great and Little Miami river, and the first settlement within the limits of that purchase, and second in Ohio, was commenced in November of that year, at Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami, five miles above the site of Cincinnati. "A short time after the settlement at Marietta had commenced, an association was formed under the name of the "Scioto Land Company." A contract was made for the purchase of a part of the lands included in the Ohio Company's purchases. Plats and descriptions of the land contracted for, were, however, made out, and Joel Barlow was sent as an agent to Europe to make sales of the lands for the benefit of the company; and sales were effected of parts thereof to companies and individuals in France. On February 19th, 1791. two hundred and eighteen of these purchasers left Havre de Grace, in France, and arrived in Alexandria, D. C., on the 3d of May following. During their passage, two were added to their number. On their arrival, they were told that the Scioto Company owned no land. The agent insisted that they did, and promised to secure to them good titles thereto, which he did, at Winchester, Brownsville, and Charleston (now Wellsburg). When they arrived at Marietta, about fifty of them landed. The rest of the company proceeded to Gallipolis, which was laid out about that time, and were assured by the agent that the place lay within their purchase. Every effort to secure titles to the lands they had purchased having failed, an application was made to Congress, and in June, 1798, a grant was made to them of a tract of land on the Ohio, above the mouth of the Scioto river, which is called the "French Grant."
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The Legislature of Connecticut, in May, 1795, appointed a committee to receive proposals and make sale of the lands she had reserved in Ohio. This committee sold the lands to sundry citizens of Connecticut and other States, and, in September of the same year, executed to several purchasers deeds of conveyance therefor. The purchasers proceeded to survey into townships of five miles square the whole of said tract lying east of the Cuyahoga; they made divisions thereof according to their respective proportions, and commenced settlements in many of the townships, and there were actually settled therein, by the 21st of March, 1800, about one thousand inhabitants. A number of mills had been built, and roads cut in various directions to the extent of about 700 miles.
The location of the lands appropriate for satisfying military land bounty warrants in the district appropriated for that purpose, granted for services in the revolutionary war, commenced on March 13th, 1800; and the location of the lands granted to the Canadian and Nova Scotia refugees commenced February 13th, 1802. The lands east of the Scioto, south of the military bounty lands, and west of the fifteenth range of townships, were first brought into market, and offered for sale by the United States on the first Monday of May, 1801.
The State of Virginia, at an early period of the revolutionary war, raised two description of troops, State and Continental, to each of which bounties in land were promised. The lands within the limits of her charter, situate to the north-west of Ohio river, were withdrawn from appropriation on treasury warrants, and the lands on Cumberland river, and between the Green and Tennessee rivers on the south-easterly side of the Ohio, were appropriated for these military bounties. Upon the recommendation of Congress, Virginia ceded her lands north of the Ohio, upon certain conditions; one of which was, that in case the lands south of Ohio should be insufficient for their legal bounties to their troops, the deficiency should be made up from lands north of the Ohio, between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami.
In 1783, the Legislature of Virginia authorized the officers of their respective lines to appoint superintendents to regulate the survey of the bounty lands promised. Richard C. Anderson was appointed principal surveyor of the lands of the troops of the continental establishment. An office for the reception of locations and surveys was opened at Louisville, Kentucky, August 1st, 1784, and on the 1st of August, 1787, the said office was open for the reception of surveys and locations on the north side of the Ohio.
In the year 1789, January 9th, a treaty was made at Fort Harmer, between Gov. St. Clair and the Sachems and warriors of the Wyandot, Chippewa., Potawatomie, and Sac nations, in which the treaty at Fort McIntosh was renewed and confirmed. It did not, however, produce the favorable results anticipated. The Indians, the same year, assuming a hostile appearance, were seen hovering round the infant settlements near the mouth of the Muskingum and between
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the Miamies, and nine persons were killed within the bounds of Symmes' purchase. The new settlers became alarmed and erected block-houses in each of the new settlements. In June, 1789, Major Doughty, with 140 men, from Fort Harmar, commenced the building of Fort Washington, on a spot now within the present limits of Cincinnati. A few months afterwards, Gen. Harmar arrived, with 300 men, and took command of the fort.
Negotiations with the Indians proving unavailing, Gen. Harmar was directed to attack their towns. In pursuance of his instructions, he marched from Cincinnati, in September, 1790, with 1,300 men, of whom less than one-fourth were regulars. When near the Indian villages, on the Miami of the lake in the vicinity of what is now Fort Wayne, an advanced detachment of 210, consisting chiefly of militia, fell into an ambush and was defeated with severe loss. Gen. Harma;r, however, succeeded in burning the Indian villages, and in destroying their standing corn, and having effected this service, the army commenced its march homeward. They had not proceeded far when Harmar received intelligence that the Indians had returned to their ruined towns. He immediately detached about one-third of his remaining force, under the command of Col. Hardin, with orders to bring them to an engagement. He succeeded in this early the next morning; the Indians fought with great fury, and the militia and the regulars alike behaved with gallantry. More than one hundred of the militia, and all the regulars except nine, were killed, and the rest were driven back to the main body. Dispirited by this severe misfortune, Harmar immediately marched to Cincinnati, and the object of the expedition in intimidating the Indians was entirely unsuccessful.
As the Indians continued hostile, a new army, superior to the former, was assembled at Cincinnati, under the command of Gov. St. Clair. The regular force amounted to 2,300 men; the militia numbered about 600. With this army, St. Clair commenced his march towards the Indian towns on the Maumee. Two forts, Hamilton and Jefferson, were established and garrisoned on the route, about forty miles from each other. Misfortune attended the expedition almost from its commencement. Soon after leaving Fort Jefferson, a considerable party of the militia deserted in a body. The first regiment, under Major Hamtramck, was ordered to pursue them and to secure the advancing convoys of provisions, which it was feared they designed to plunder. Thus weakened by desertion and division, St. Clair approached the Indian villages. On the third of November, 1791, when at what is now the line of Darke and Mercer counties, he halted, intending to throw up some slight fortification for the protection of baggage, and to await the return of the absent regiment. On the following morning, however, about half an hour before sun rise, the American army was attacked with great fury, as there is good reason to believe, by the whole disposable force of the north-west tribes. The Americans were totally defeated. Gen. Butler and upwards of six hundred men were killed.
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Indian outrages of every kind were now multiplied, and emigration was almost entirely suspended.
President Washington now urged forward the vigorous prosecution of the war for the protection of the North-west Territory; but various obstacles retarded the enlistment and organization of a new army. In the spring of 1794, the American army assembled at Greenville, in Darke county, under the command of Gen. Anthony Wayne, a bold, energetic and experienced officer of the revolution. His force consisted of about two thousand regular troops, and fifteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky. The Indians had collected their whole force, amounting to about two thousand men, near a British fort, erected since the treaty of 1783, in violation of its obligations, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee. On the 20th of August, 1794, Gen. Wayne encountered the enemy, and after a short and deadly conflict, the Indians fled in the greatest confusion, and were pursued under the guns of the British fort. After destroying all the houses and corn fields above and below the British fort, on the Maumee, the victorious army returned to the mouth of Au Glaize, where Wayne erected Fort Defiance. Previous to this action, various fruitless attempts had been made to bring the Indians to peace. Some of the messengers sent among the Indians for that object were murdered.
The victory of Wayne did not at first reduce the savages to submission. Their country was laid waste, and forts were erected in the heart of their territory before they could be entirely subdued. At length, however, they became thoroughly convinced of their inability to resist the American arms and sued for peace. A grand council was held at Greenville, where eleven of the most powerful north-western tribes were represented, to whom Gen. Wayne dictated the terms of pacification. The boundary established by the treaty at Fort McIntosh was confirmed and extended westward from Loramie's to Fort Recovery, and thence south-west to the mouth of Kentucky river. The Indians agreed to acknowledge the United States as their sole protector, and never to sell their lands to any other power. Upon these and other conditions, the United States received the Indian nations into their protection. A large quantity of goods was delivered to them on the spot, and perpetual annuities, payable in merchandise, & were promised to each tribe who became a party to the treaty.
While the war with the Indians continued, of course, but little progress was made in the settlement in the west. The next county that was established after that of Washington, in 1788, was Hamilton, erected in 1790. Its bounds included the country between the Miamies, extending northward from the Ohio river, to a line drawn due east from the standing stone forks of the Great Miami. The name of the settlement opposite the Licking was, at this time, called Cincinnati.
At this period, there was no fixed seat of government. The laws were passed whenever they seemed to be needed, and promulgated
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at any place where the territorial legislators happened to be assembled. In 1789, the first Congress passed an act recognizing the binding force of the ordinance of 1787, and adapting its provisions to the federal constitution. At this period, the judges appointed by the national executive constituted the supreme court of the territory. Inferior to this court, were the county court, courts of common pleas, and the general quarter sessions of the peace. Single judges of the common pleas, and single justices of the quarter sessions, were also clothed with certain civil and criminal powers to be exercised out of court.
In 1795, the governor and judges undertook to revise the territorial laws, and to establish a system of statutory jurisprudence, by adoptions from the laws of the original States, in conformity to the ordinance. For this purpose they assembled in Cincinnati, in June, and continued in session until the latter part of August. The general court was fixed at Cincinnati and Marietta; other courts were established, and laws and regulations were adopted for various purposes.
The population of the territory now continued to increase and extend. From Marietta, settlers spread into the adjoining country. The Virginia military reservation drew a considerable number of revolutionary veterans, and others, from that State. The region between the Miamies, from the Ohio far up toward the sources of Mad river, became chequered with farms, and abounded in indications of the presence of an active and prosperous population. The neighborhood of Detroit became populous, and Connecticut, by grants of land within the tract, reserved in her deed of cession, induced many of her hardy citizens to seek a home on the borders of Lake Erie. In 1796, Wayne county was established, including all the north-western part of Ohio, a large tract in the north-eastern part of Indiana, and the whole territory of Michigan. In July, 1797, Adams county was erected, comprehending a large tract lying on both sides of Scioto, and extending northward to Wayne. Other counties were afterwards formed out of those already established. Before the end of the year 1798, the North-west Territory contained a population of five thousand free male inhabitants, of full age, and eight organized counties.
The people were now entitled, under the ordinance of 1787, to a change in their form of government. That instrument provided that whenever there were five thousand free males, of full age, in the territory, the people should be authorized to elect representatives to a territorial legislature. These, when chosen, were to nominate ten freeholders of 500 acres, of whom the president was to appoint five, who were to constitute the legislative council. Representatives were to serve two, and councilmen five years. The first meeting of the territorial legislature was appointed on the 16th of September, 1799, but it was not till the 24th of. the same month that the two houses were organized for business; at which time they were addressed by Gov. St. Clair. An act was passed to confirm and give
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force to those laws enacted by the governor and judges, whose validity had been doubted. This act, as well as every other which originated in the council, was prepared and brought forward by Jacob Burnet, afterwards a distinguished judge and senator, to whose labors, at this session, the territory was indebted for some of its most beneficial laws. The whole number of acts passed and approved by the governor was thirty-seven. William H. Harrison, then secretary of the territory, was elected as delegate to Congress, having eleven of twenty-one votes.
"Within a few months after the close of this session, Connecticut ceded to the United States her claim of jurisdiction over the northeastern part of the territory; upon which the president conveyed, by patent, the fee of the soil to the governor of the State, for the use of grantees and purchasers claiming under her. This tract, in the summer of the same year, was erected into a new county by the name of Trumbull. The same congress which made a final arrangement with Connecticut, passed an act dividing the North-western Territory into two governments, by a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery, and thence northward to the territorial line. East of this line, the government, already established, was continued; while west of it another, substantially similar, was established. This act fixed the seat of the eastern government at Chillicothe; subject, however, to be removed at the pleasure of the legislature."
On the 30th of April, 1802, Congress passed an act authorizing the call of a convention to form a State constitution. This convention assembled at Chillicothe, November 1st, and, on the 29th of the same month, a constitution of State government was ratified and signed by the members of the convention. It was never referred to the people for their approbation, but became the fundamental law of the State by the act of the convention alone; and, by this act, Ohio became one of the States of the Federal Union.
"Besides framing the constitution, the convention had another duty to perform. The act of congress, providing for the admission of the new State into the Union, offered certain propositions to the people. These were, first, that section sixteen in each township, or, where that section had been disposed of, other contiguous and equivalent lands, should be granted to the inhabitants for the use of schools; second, that thirty-eight sections of land, where salt-springs had been found, of which one township was situated on the Scioto, one section on the Muskingum, and one section in the United States military tract, should be granted to the State, never, however, to be sold or leased for a longer term than ten years; and third, that one-twentieth of the proceeds of public lands sold within the State, should be applied to the construction of roads from the Atlantic, to and through the same. These propositions were offered on the condition that the convention should provide, by ordinance, that all lands sold by the United States after the thirtieth day of June, 1802; should be exempt from taxation, by the State, for five years after sale.
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"The ordinance of 1785, had already provided for the appropriation of section sixteen to the support of schools in every township sold by the United States; and this appropriation thus became a condition of the sale and settlement of the western country. It was a consideration offered to induce purchases of public lands, at a time when the treasury was well-nigh empty, and this source of revenue was much relied upon. It extended to every township of land within the territory, except those in the Virginia military reservation and wherever the reserved section had been disposed of, after the passage of the ordinance, Congress was bound to make other equivalent provision for the same object. The reservation of section sixteen, therefore, could not, in 1802, be properly made the object of a new bargain between the United States and the State: and many thought that the salt reservations and the twentieth of the proceeds of the public lands were very inadequate equivalents for the proposed surrender of the right to tax. The convention, however, determined to accept the propositions of Congress, on their being so far enlarged and modified as to vest in the State, for the use of schools, section sixteen in each township sold by the United States, and three other tracts of land, equal in quantity, respectively, to one thirty-sixth of the Virginia reservation, of the United States military tract, and of the Connecticut reserve, and to give three per centum of the proceeds of the public lands sold within the State, to be applied under the direction of the legislature, to roads in Ohio. Congress assented to the proposed modifications, and thus completed the compact."
The first General Assembly under the State constitution met at Chilicothe, March 1st, 1803. The legislature enacted such laws as were deemed necessary for the new order of things, and created eight new counties, namely: Gallia, Scioto, Franklin, Columbiana, Butler, Warren, Green, and Montgomery. The first State officers elected by the assembly were as follows, viz.: Michael Baldwin, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Nathaniel Massie, Speaker of the Senate; William Creighton, Jr., Secretary of State; Col. Thomas Gibson, Auditor; William A. McFarIand, Treasurer; Return J. Meigs, Jr., Samuel Huntington, and William Sprigg, Judges of the Supreme Court; Francis Dunlavy, Wyllys Silliman, and Calvin Pease, Judges of the District Courts.
The second General Assembly convened in December, 1803. At this session, the militia law was thoroughly revised and a law was passed to enable aliens to enjoy the same proprietary rights in Ohio as native citizens. At this session, also, the revenue system of the State was simplified and improved. Acts were passed providing for the incorporation of townships, and for the establishment of boards of commissioners of counties.
In 1805, by a treaty with the Indians at Fort Industry, the United States acquired, for the use of the grantees of Connecticut, all that part of the western reserve which lies west of the Cuyahoga. By subsequent treaties, all the country watered by the Maumee and the
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Sandusky have been acquired, and the Indian title to lands in Ohio is now extinct.
In the course of the year 1805, the conspiracy of Aaron Burr began to agitate the western country. The precise scope of the conspiracy does not distinctly appear. "The immediate object, probably, was to seize on New Orleans and invade Mexico. The ulterior purpose may have been to detach the west from the American Union. In December, 1806, in consequence of a confidential message from the governor, founded on the representations of an agent of the general government deputed to watch the motions of Burr, the legislature passed an act authorizing the arrest of persons engaged in an unlawful enterprise, and the seizure of their goods. Under this act, ten boats, with a considerable quantity of arms, ammunition, and provisions, belonging to Burr's expedition, were seized. This was a fatal blow to the project."
The Indians, who since the treaty at Greenville had been at peace, about the year 1810, began to commit aggressions upon the inhabitants of the west. The celebrated Tecumseh was conspicuously active in his efforts to unite the native tribes against the Americans, and to arrest the farther extension of the settlements. His proceedings, and those of his brother, 'the Prophet,' soon made it evident that the west was about to suffer the calamities of another Indian war, and it was resolved to anticipate their movements. In 1811, Gen. Harrison, then governor of Indiana Territory, marched against the town of the 'Prophet,' upon the Wabash. The battle of Tippecanoe ensued, in what is now Cass county, Indiana, in which the Indians were totally defeated. This year was also distinguished by an occurrence of immense importance to the whole west. This was the voyage, from Pittsburg to New Orleans, of the first steamboat ever launched upon the western waters.
"In June, 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain. Of this war the west was a principal theatre. Defeat, disaster, and disgrace marked its opening scenes; but the latter events of the contest were a series of splendid achievements. Croghan's gallant defence of Fort Stephenson; Perry's victory upon Lake Erie; the total defeat, by Harrison, of the allied British and savages, under Proctor and Tecumseh, on the Thames; and the great closing triumph of Jackson at New Orleans, reflected the most brilliant lustre upon the American arms. In every vicissitude of this contest, the conduct of Ohio was eminently patriotic and honorable. When the necessities of the national government compelled congress to resort to a direct tax, Ohio, for successive years, cheerfully assumed, and promptly paid her quota out of her State treasury. Her sons volunteered with alacrity their services in the field; and no troops more patiently endured hardship or performed better service. Hardly a battle was fought in the north-west, in which some of these brave citizen soldiers did not seal their devotion to their country with their blood.
"In 1816, the seat of the State government was removed to Columbus,
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the proprietors of the town having, pursuant to an agreement entered into, in good faith, erected the State-house and other public buildings, for the accommodation of the legislature and the officers of state.
"In January, 1817, the first resolution relating to a canal, connecting the Ohio river with Lake Erie, was introduced into the legislature. In 1819, the subject was again agitated. In 1820, on the recommendation of Gov. Brown, an act was passed, providing for the appointment of three canal commissioners, who were to employ a competent engineer and assistants, for the purpose of surveying the route of the canal. The action of the commissioners, however, was made to depend on the acceptance by congress of a proposition on behalf of the State, for a donation and sale of the public lands, lying upon and near the route of the proposed canal. In consequence of this restriction, nothing was accomplished for two years. In 1822, the subject was referred to a committee of the house of representatives. This committee recommended the employment of an engineer, and submitted various estimates and observations to illustrate the importance and feasibility of the work. Under this act, James Geddes, of New York, an experienced and skillful engineer, was employed to make the necessary examinations and surveys. Finally, after all the routes had been surveyed, and estimates made of the expense had been laid before the legislature at several sessions, an act was passed in Feb., 1825, "To provide for the internal improvement of the State by navigable canals," and thereupon the State embarked in good earnest in the prosecution of the great works of internal improvement."
The construction of these and other works of internal improvement, has been of immense advantage in developing the resources of Ohio, which, in little more than haltf, century, has changed from a wilderness to one of the most powerful States of the Union.
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C O U N T I E S.
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ADAMS.
ADAMS lies on the Ohio river, about fifty miles east of Cincinnati. and derives its name from John Adams, second President of the United States. It was formed, July 10th, 1797, by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, and covered a large tract of country, being then one ot the four counties into which the N. W. Territory was divided. The land is generally hilly and broken, and, in the eastern part, not fertile. The staples are wheat, corn, pork and oats. Many of the first settlers were from Virginia, Kentucky and Ireland. The following is a list of its townships in 1840, with their population: Franklin,
(pages 21-36 not yet transcrobed)
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