A History of Ohio, with biographical sketches of her Governors and the ordinance of 1787

Preface

. No political society of ancient or modern times has progressed in material growth as has Ohio in the hundred years of her history. Her splendid advance ment represents, in a stronger degree than that of any other State in the Union, the development of the American people. Her favorable situation made her the point of concentration for the early emigration from the East, and her rich resources induced perma nent location. The pioneer blood of Ohio was the bravest and truest that New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia could give. A century has mingled with it the strong and healthy emigration of other lands. The result has been a powerful, patriotic and wealthy State. Its history covers no more years than the life time of many men, but it shows a wondrous trans formation from a land of savagery to a commonwealth of the highest civilization.

The annals of mankind do not furnish a parallel. To narrate the founding, the building and the completion of this State, is the purpose and aim of this volume. Nothing has been attempted by the writer beyond giving, in an interesting and succinct form, a consec utive narrative of Ohio events. In doing this, how ever, he has not confined himself to constructing a mere skeleton of facts, but he has, in many places, clothed it with his own comments, criticisms and views. For this he has no apology to offer. A history should not be a mere chronological table ; half of its merit depends upon the deductions and lessons which we draw from its narration. Much has been written upon Ohio, and from all sources the facts of this volume have been gleaned. It represents much investigation into official records, and a careful study of State progress.

If it can but aid the student of history in more intelligently appre ciating the growth of a great State, its purpose is ac complished. The biographical sketches of the Governors of Ohio are presented for the first time in a shape not too dif fuse nor too extensive for popular circulation. The biographies of such men make the history of the State, and both should be read to have a full idea of our career and strength. Daniel J. Ryan. Portsmouth, Ohio, September 17, 1888. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter I

1669-1783. La Salle Discovers the Ohio River — French Possession of the Ohio Valley — Conflict of Races — The Ohio Company — Gist's Journey — Lord Dunmore's War — The Moravian Massacre — The Crawford Tragedy — The Indian Tribes 9

Chapter II

1 783-1788. After the Revolution — Settling the Title to Ohio Territory — Cessions of States, and Indian Treaties — The Ordinance of 1787 — Arthur St. Clair Appointed Governor—Inauguration of Law at Marietta— General St. Clair and the Judges 23

Chapter III

178S-1799. The Ohio Company of Associates — The First Settlement in Ohio — The Character of the Marietta Colonists — The Pioneers of Cincinnati — The French Settlement at Gallipolis — Nathaniel Massie Settles in the Scioto Valley — The Western Reserve — The Growth of Towns — General Harmar's Campaigns Against the Indians — St. Clair's Defeat — General Anthony Wayne's Victory — The Treaty of Greenville — The Growth of the Northwest Territory 32

Chapter IV

1 799- 1 803. The First Territorial Legislature — Movement for Statehood — Division of the Territory— Condition of the People in 1880 — The Removal of Governor St. Clair — The Constitutional Convention — Admission to the Union chapter v. 1803-1810. Edward Tiffin Elected Governor— The First Legislature — Effect of Louisiana Purchase — Action on Proposed Amendment — The Conspiracy of Aaron Burr — Conflict Between the Legislature and Judiciary — The Sweeping Resolution— State Capital Removed to Zanesville — Progress of Ohio — Education — Politics 59

Chapter VI

1810-1825. The First Steamboat on the Ohio River — Columbus Fixed as the Capital — War with England — Hull's Surrender — Siege of Fort Meigs — Defense of Fort Stephenson — Gallantry of Major Croghan — Perry's Victory on Lake Erie — Ohio in the War — Conflict with the United States Banks — Resolutions of Nullification — The Era of Internal Improvements and Common Schools — Construction of the Canals — Their Value and Mission— Efforts for Popular Education — Caleb Atwater's Commission — The School Law of 1825 — Growth of the Ohio School System 70

Chapter VII

1825-1840. Lafayette's Visit — Mormonism in the Western Reserve — The Flight of Joseph Smith and His Followers — The Flood of 1832 — The Toledo War — The New State House — The Census of 1840 — The Log Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign — The Immense Meeting at Dayton II2

Chapter VIII

1 840- 1 860. Tom Corwin Elected Governor — Ohio in the War with Mexico — Corwin's Speech in the Senate — A Revolution in Iron-Making — Legislative Blockade in the House and Senate — The Second Constitutional Convention—A New Constitution Formed and Adopted Table of Contents. — The Repeal of the Black Laws— Election of Salmon P. Chase to the United States Senate — Organization of the Republican Party — Chase Elected Governor — His Administration — The Election of William Dennison 135

Chapter IX

1860-1865. The Radical Triumvirate — Answering Lincoln's Proclamation — The Million Dollar Bill — Governor Dennison's Administration — The Election of David Tod, Governor — The Seige of Cincinnati — Gen. Lew Wallace's Address — Arrest and Trial of Vallandigham — His Flight to Canada — Morgan's Raid — His Capture and Escape — Vallandigham Nominated for Governor — Defeated by John Brough — The Meeting of the War Governors — Brough's Administration — Ohio Women's Work During the War — The Record of the State — Peace 1 50

Appendix

. I. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE GOVERNORS. Edward Tiffin, Thomas Kirker, Samuel Huntington, Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., Othniel Looker, Thomas Worthington, Ethen Allen Brown, Allen Trimble, Jeremiah Morrow, Duncan McArthur, Robert Lucas, Joseph Vance, Wilson Shannon, Thos. Corwin, Thos. W. Bartley, Mordecai Bartley, William Bebb, Seabury Ford, Reuben Wood, William Medill, Salmon P. Chase, William Dennison, David Tod, John Brough, Charles Anderson, Jacob D. Cox, Rutherford B. Hayes, William Allen, Thomas L. Young, Richard M. Bishop, Charles Foster, George Hoadly, and Joseph B. Foraker 167 II. Ordinance of 1787

Chapter I

1669-1783. La Salle Discovers the Ohio River — French Possession of the Ohio Valley — Conflict of Races— The Ohio Company— Gist's Journey — Lord Dunmore's War — The Moravian Massacre — The Crawford Tragedy— The Indian Tribes. The tireless tread of human travel and adventure has ever been westward. There has always been a longing in humanity to pursue the setting sun. The famous line of Bishop Berkley — " Westward the course of empire takes its way," embodies a fact of history that is hard to explain. He wrote it as a plea for the future greatness of the Western land, which, in his prophetic vision, he seemed to see. In 1640, the indomitable Jesuit missionary, Jean de Brebeuf, while on an exploring expedition to the Straits of Mackinac, first saw, as he coasted on Lake Erie, the northern shores of Ohio.

It was but a passing glance ; the brave Frenchman's destiny was farther West — nearer the setting sun. To the adventurous Robert Cavelier de La Salle must be given the glory of individualizing the name of Ohio in the annals of American adventure and discovery. La Salle was a strange character. An enthusiast, yet serious and full of brain power ; he SI possessed many of the fantastic ideas as to the Unknown Western Land, common to the age in which he lived. For instance, he had a firm belief that the Mississippi River emptied itself into the Vermillion Sea, and he thought that by floating on its bosom to its mouth he could finally reach China and India. Full of that spirit of dash and daring, partaking of religious enthusiasm, he mixed with it the keen and shrewd sense of a commercial trader.

His residence was at Montreal, which he named La Chine (China), with the idea of his ultimate point to be reached in discovery. At his home at La Chine, there came to visit him in 1667 the Iroquois, who told him glowing stories about a great river, which, on account of its beauty, the Indians called Oyo. They told of its wonderful length and width, of its rare splendor, of the rich valley through which it passed as it flowed, unvexed, on its long, long way to the sea. La Salle's ambitions were aroused. He saw for himself and France new conquests and enlargement of territory. His passion for new fields of discovery was as strong as his youth was fresh, and at the age of twenty-six he started to find the beautiful river of the Iroquois — the Ohio. He sold La Chine, and equipping himself with the proceeds, he started on his journey.

This was in the summer of 1669. He has left no record of his wonderful mission, but it is settled beyond dispute that on this trip he discovered the Ohio River, and descended upon its waters to the falls, or where Louisville now stands. This, and other discoveries by La Salle, with those of his contemporary adventurers, vested in France From 1669 to 1783. 11 the title of the Mississippi Valley ; and on the ninth day of April, 1682, he asserted its ownership by right of discovery and possession. In honor of his sover eign, Louis XIV, he named the immense territory Louisiana. France claimed the area of what now constitutes Ohio under that title, and held it until the treaty of Paris in 1763, when it came into possession of Great Britain. Thus ended a century and a half of intrigue, bloodshed, and continual strife be tween the French and the English over the occu pancy of and title to the Northwest Territory.

The object of the early expeditions of the French into the territory northwest of the Ohio River was not that of permanent settlement. Their purpose, and their trading stations, always temporary, were simply for commerce. They established trading posts as early as 1680 on the Maumee River, near where Toledo now stands. " La Salle had for sever al years," before 1679, " employed canoes for his trade on the rivers Oyo ( Ohio ) and Oubache (Wa bash) and others in the surrounding neighborhood which flow into the river Mississippi." He went to France in 1677, and secured from the king the mo nopoly of the purchase and sale of buffalo skins, and was the first extensive fur trader of the West. French trading stations were established at vari ous points in Ohio, along Lake Erie and the Ohio River.

Soon came the conflict of the two races of powers, the old story of the two civilizations. As early as 1730, the English commenced establishing stations on what the French claimed was their terri tory. In 1745, the Pennsylvanians and the Virgin ians began to roam into the territory of Louisiana. Gradually rivals for territory were approaching each other, and with French and English, this meant war. It always has. Subsequent events proved that his tory is simply a repetition of the past. The first English-speaking settlement ever made in Ohio, was established at the mouth of Laramie's Creek on the Great Miami River, in what is now Shelby County. It was called Pickawillany, and was settled in 1749, but lasted only until June, 1752, when the French with their allies, the Chippewas and Ottawas, attacked the post.

The result was the first massacre of white settlers in Ohio. All the traders, with the exception of two, were either killed or captured, and their Indian friends, the Miamis, were treated likewise. In 1748, a party of English and Virginia gentle men organized the " Ohio Land Company" for the purpose of settling the newly discovered Ohio Val ley. The Virginians were Lawrence and Augustine Washington and Thomas Lee, and the principal Englishman was a Mr. Hanberry, of London. This was the first intelligent effort to bring that country into usefulness. This company must not be con founded with the celebrated and more successful " Ohio Company" of a later date. Christopher Gist, a young Virginian, headed the first exploring parties of the " Ohio Land Company" in 1750. His journey must be looked upon as a striking piece of adventure and romance.

The record of his strange tour has been published as " A Journal of Christopher Gist's journey from Colonel Cresap's at the old town on the Potomac River, Maryland, Octo ber 3X> J750) continued down the Ohio within fifteen From 1669 to 1783. 13 miles of the falls thereof; and from thence to the Roanoke River in North Carolina, where he arrived in May, 1751." The immensity of the undertaking can scarcely be realized at this late day. To be fully appreciated, it must be remembered that he journeyed through a pathless forest, much of which was unknown even to the Indian tribes of that day. The feeble traces of an Indian trail were all he had to guide him. The subsequent adventures of Indian fighters, accompanied as they were by armed com panions, seem tame to the brave explorations of Christopher Gist.

He came over the mountains from his starting point, and crossed the Ohio River at about Pittsburgh, striking for the interior of Ohio, and following a trail, he passed the Muskingum River at Dresden, where an Indian town was then located ; crossing the Licking and Hockhocking Riv ers, he traveled down the Scioto, until he reached Shawnee town,which was an Indian settlement below where Portsmouth now stands. This town of a once famous tribe, was located on both sides of the Ohio River. It was composed of "about forty houses on the south side of the river, and about a hundred houses on the north side, with a kind of state house about ninety feet long, with a tight cover of bark, in which councils were held." He reached this point on the 28th day of January, 1751, thence he continued his journey westward, un til he reached the falls of the Ohio, when he returned by way of the Cumberland Mountains to his home in North Carolina.

Strange to say, he was peacefully received by the Indians through whose territory he passed. He reported to his principals the story of his travels ; the most seducing tales of the country and rich romances failed, however, to start settlements north of the Ohio River. Thus the wild and romantic journey of Christopher Gist, worthy of much good results, was barren of everything except that of publishing to the Virginians that the wilderness of the northwest was worth attention. His travels, however, had the effect of producing among the Indians a kind and friendly disposition toward the white man. These journeys and attempted settlements by the English colonists aroused the attentions, as well as the jealousies, of the French. They regarded the territory within the limits of what is now Ohio, as their own.

As early as 1749, to fix formally their boundaries, they implanted all along the Ohio River, leaden inscriptions assertive of their authority. It was but natural, then, that they viewed with concern the reckless inroads of the English, or, more properly speaking, the American Colonists. The result of this conflict of authority was the determination of both parties to assert their dominion over the disputed territory. Upon the complaint of the Ohio Company to Lord Dinwiddie, Governor of Virginia, Washington, in 1753, then a young man of twenty-two, was sent to negotiate with the French. The result was unsatis factory. The next year the Ohio Company, still tenacious of its rights, sent a Captain Trent with thirty-three men to build a fort where Pittsburg now stands. This, of course, was war to the French.

Ac cordingly, a thousand Frenchmen under Captain Contrecoeur came down the Alleghany, and capturing From 1669 to 1783. 15 the proposed stronghold, called it Fort Duquesne. Then came the French and Indian war, which was a sanguinary and heartless conflict as far as the frontiers were concerned. The nine years of struggling for supremacy was ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed February 18, 1763, and by the terms of which, the French colors went down forever in the history of America. While the rich and boundless territory of the North-west was annexed to the colony of Great Brit ain by conquest, it was not open to emigration and settlers, but was reserved by royal proclamation to the purposes and uses of the Indians. The great, newly acquired west was shut off from the colonists. The territory east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River was apparently under the jurisdiction of Virginia, for that colony, in 1769, passed an act erecting Botetourt County, of which the pres ent limits of Ohio was a part.

For ten years there was comparative peace on the frontier. There was an absence of bloodshed that augured for the white man the .richest promises of progress. The peace was broken by the perfidy of the whites. In April, 1774, through the attacks of certain whites led by Captains Cresap and Great house, the latter of whom participated in the murder of the family of the famous Chieftain, Logan, the en tire Ohio Valley was plunged into a frontier struggle for life. It was Indian against white man. Lord Dun more, the royal Governor of Virginia, organized an army of Virginians to march against the Indian tribes. His active prosecution and control of the campaign has placed it in history as " Lord Dunmore's War." Lord Dunmore struck for the very heart of the Indian country on the Scioto River. It was in Octo ber, 1774, when the forces of the whites encamped at Camp Charlotte, so named by Dunmore in honor of the young queen of England, and Lord Dunmore met the principal chiefs of the belligerent tribes ; the result was a treaty.

It was at this time that the celebrated speech of Logan, the Mingo Chief, was de livered. Lord Dunmore sent for him, and through an interpreter, upon a belt of wampum, Logan ex pressed himself so strongly that Jefferson spoke of it saying, " I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of" any more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished any more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo Chief, to Lord Dunmore when Gov ernor of Virginia." So closed Lord Dunmore's War in Ohio, in November, 1774. The War for Independence soon came on, and although the wild Northwest had no colonial rights, it was good territory to preserve, and, in 1778, the Continental Congress sent out General Lachlin Mc- Intosh, as the Commander of the Western Military Department, to protect the frontier.

He left Fort Pitt with one thousand men, intending to destroy Detroit and the Indian towns on the Sandusky River. He stopped, however, at the present location of Bolivar, on the Tuscarawas River, and erected Fort Laurens, the first military stockade erected within Ohio boundaries. Here he stationed one hundred and fifty men, and returned to Fort Pitt. Fort Laurens was aban doned in 1779. In 1780, and the five years following, Ohio was the From 1669 to 1783. 17 theatre of active warfare against the Indians. It was campaign after campaign, and the rifle shot broke the stillness of the wilderness with fearful frequency. It was the struggle for peace. It was war, in order that the security of the settlers which should follow these brave bands might be assured. On the Little Miami River, within what is now Greene County, were a series of Shawanese villages.

These Indians had committed depredations in Kentucky, and to punish them, Colonel John Bowman, with one hun dred and sixty Kentuckians, attacked the Indians. By some misunderstanding, the attack, owing to a failure of cooperation by the two separated wings of the little army, did not have much effect on the In dians. The Kentuckians were compelled to retreat, and they crossed to their own state at the mouth of the Little Miami River. This failure, for such it was, only served to prompt the savages to further depre dations and outrages on the whites. During the months of July and August in the same year, 1780, Col. George Rogers Clark attacked the Indians on the Miami and destroyed their towns and thoroughly de feated them. The next year saw an expedition led by General Daniel Greathouse, which, unfortunately, bore more of the appearance of a murdering mob than a military campaign.

Harmless Indians were cruelly assassinated, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the officers in command prevented a massacre of the Moravian missions on the Tuscarawas River. The year 1782 opened with a number of atrocious deeds of violence by the Indians. Inno cent women and children were murdered in the most horrible manner. The whites were exasperated, and in February of this year, Colonel Williamson led his memorable expedition against the Indians. It was an expedition of blood, and the maddened whites forgot all the instincts of humanity. They marched into the Tuscarawas country and captured the peaceful and Christian Indians of the Moravian Missions. There was no evidence of the guilt or participation of the Indians in the recent outrages against the whites, but, nevertheless, Colonel Williamson's men, in cold blood and with brutal vengeance, massacred the captured Moravian Indians, ninety-six in number.

To the credit of Colonel Williamson can it be said, that he opposed the massacre, and did all he could to prevent it. The record of Indian brutalities and massacres may furnish parallels, and of course does, to this horrible deed, but the race that was born to the use of the scalping-knife and tomahawk never did any thing to excel it in its devilish and inhuman char acter. Williamson pleaded with his men to take their captives to Fort Pitt, but on the question as to whether they should be taken to Fort Pitt or die, the voice of the expedition was almost unanimous for blood. And on March 8, 1782, "with gun and spear, and tomahawk and scalping-knife, and bludgeon and mallet, the wholesale brutal murder of these defense less people was accomplished." The work was kept up until the silence of death reigned in the settlement.

Then the bodies of the murdered Moravians were burned. Thus was stained with indelible dis grace the border annals of Ohio. The Moravian Indians, through the gentle influence of the mis sionaries, were imbued with the sweet spirit of peace. From 1669 to 1783. 19 They were manly, brave and honorable. True to the teachings of their pastors, they kept aloof from the struggles or warfare of the other tribes. Even during the War of Independence they refused to partici pate in the border bloodshed. Situated between the American fort at Pittsburgh, and the English at De troit, they were importuned and threatened by both. In 1777 they were attacked by the Americans, and in the following year by the English, who sent them a message that ihey would be massacred if they did not help fight the Americans.

Yet they adhered to their views of peace. What a striking commentary on the white man's practice of Christianity ! In 1781 a leading Wyandot chief visited them to warn them of the dangerous position they occupied. His words of advice and their reply were striking and pathetic: "My cousins," said he, "you Christian Indians in Gnadenhutten, Schonbrun and Salem, I am con cerned on your account, as I see you live in a dan gerous situation. Two mighty and angry gods stand opposite each other with their mouths open, and you stand between them, and are in danger of being crushed by the one or the other, or both of them, and crumbled under their teeth." "Uncle," replied they, "and you Shawanese, our nephews, we have not hitherto seen our situation so dangerous^as not to stay here. We live in peace with all mankind, and have nothing to do with the war.

We desire and request no more than that we may be permitted to live in peace and quiet. We will pre serve your words and consider them, and send you, uncle, our answer." Thus they endeavored to cultivate peace and the arts of peace, and did so until the massacre. There is a sadness in their short and tragic career, which has the tinge of a fearful romance. But the war against the red man waged on, and the frightful event of March only seemed to whet the appetite of the whites for Indian blood. In May, 1782, Colonel William Crawford assembled five hun dred men at Mingo Bottoms, near where Steubenville now stands, and started for the Wyandot Indians on the Sandusky River, from which it got the name of the "Sandusky Campaign." Colonel Crawford was a brave officer, and he led his men to conflict at Upper Sandusky, in Wyandot County.

A rout and defeat followed, with a loss of over a hundred of his men, and the capture of Colonel Crawford himself. And here can be recorded another of those terrible events which formed the horrors of border and pioneer his tory. Colonel Crawford was burned at the stake by the Delawares in retaliation for the massacre of some of their own tribe by Williamson's men at the Mo ravian towns. The heartrending story of Colonel Crawford's death makes the blood curdle to think of it. Upon his capture he was stripped naked, and with his hands fastened behind him, he was tied to a post. His torturers then fired powder into his body at least seventy times, from his feet to his head. Then they cut off his ears, and, amid the railingjeers of an Indian mob, he was burned to a crisp. The infamous renegade, Simon Girty, stood by and treated Crawford's appeal for a soldier's death by a friendly rifle shot, with laughter and derision.

Thus ended the life of one of Ohio's bravest pioneers. From 1669 to 1783. 21 Other expeditions were afterwards organized against the tribes in Ohio, the most notable being those of General Clark and Colonel Logan. The result of retal iatory campaigns was very disastrous to the Indians. It was amid such trials and dangerous campaigns as these hardy backwoodsmen endured, that the con ditions were established which afterward enabled the early settlers of Ohio to lay the foundations of the State in peace. The magnificent empire of progress and civilization, which a century later supplanted the pathless sorest through which the border warriors of Clark and Broadhead and Crawford made their marches, owes to them a patriotic remembrance. Many of their campaigns, judged at the firesides of our modern homes, and in a condition of profound safety, may seem to have been but cruel and maraud ing expeditions, having solely bloodshed in view.

But it must be remembered that it was the only way to deal with a savage and treacherous foe. At times the revengeful nature of the pioneers may have car ried them beyond the pale of proper punishment, but the recollections of murders and atrocities committed by the Indians on the whites, and in some instances upon their own families, dimmed all sight of mercy in the frontiersman's heart. At any rate, just or not, the resistless hand of fate, that stays neither for time nor man, pointed to the extermination of the red man. The destiny of the Great West had to be fought out, and the first step was to put the vast ter ritory in shape so that the plowshare, the mill and the schoolhouse should take the place of the rifle, the stockade and the camp. The Indian stood in the way, and he had to go.

While the warfare on the border was being prose cuted with imminent danger, at the same time with vigor by the frontiersmen, the colonies in the East were establishing by their arms a great nation. Their entire energies were directed towards inde pendence, and consequently but little attention was, or could be given, to Indian warfare. As a result, the expeditions occurring up to 1782 were mainly the outgrowth of a spirit of adventure, and, of course, for protection of the early Pennsylvanians and Vir ginians. Most of the campaigns were without warrant either of the Continental Congress or the colonial governments. It was the pressure for the new and rich land of the west that forced the fighting. The entire territory of what is now Ohio, was, during this period, in the possession of the Indian tribes.

The famous Wyandots — the bravest of all the Ohio Indians — occupied the fertile and level region of the Sandusky River, while the rich valleys of the Tuscarawas and Muskingum were the homes of the Delawares. Along the Scioto River, within its beautiful valley, the Shawanese lived in populous towns, and their warriors were famed far and near for their bravery and numbers. The Miamis were confined to the territory between the two rivers to which they gave the names of Great and Little Miami, while along the Ohio was scattered Logan's Tribe, the Mingoes. In the northern part of the State, along the banks of Lake Erie, were the settlements of the Chippewas and Ottawas. There were no white men permanently within this From 1783 to 1788. 23 Indian land, and the tribes knew them only as enemies whose visits always meant war.

They saw with won der the ministering angels of the Prince of Peace that came to preach about a new Great Father, but the wicked ways of the whites often led them to treat the missionaries with scorn, and sometimes with death. Such was Ohio when the Independence of the United States was recognized by the mother country — a great and expansive territory of danger and death to the white man.