Extracts from the history of Cincinnati and the territory of Ohio

Preface

T A 7HILE it is doubtless true that the story of the settlement of Cincinnati has been often told, yet it must be admitted that but comparatively few of our citizens have any definite knowledge of the events which first led to the exploration of the Ohio Valley, the causes which for so many years deferred its settlement, and the perils and hardships endured by the pioneers; while most of them are familiar with the more important historical epochs. The ancient landmarks are being swept away by the demands of an ever increasing population. The old pioneers are falling like ripe grain before the sickle. Events of purely local interest are rapidly passing from memory ; and the fact that the settlement of Cincinnati marked an era in the history of our common country full of interest to all, has been lost sight of or disregarded. To remedy this, to present a truthful, impartial, and readable account of the historical events which gave the first impetus to settling the great Northwest ; the explorations of the Ohio Company ; the border wars, which so long prevented its actual occupancy ; its final settlement ; the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne ; the hardships, the trials, and struggles of the pioneers, and their mode of life ; the names of the founders of the city ; its rapid growth and brilliant future, the author has devoted much time during the past several years, and the result of his labors are soon to be published in two large volumes. From the collection of historical facts colated for that purpose, the narrative contained in the following pages has been extracted, condensed, and published in a cheap form, to place within the reach of all matters of peculiar and particular

interest in this centennial year.

A. E. J.

EXTRACTS

FROM THE

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

CHAPTER I. Rival Claims of England and France to the Territory Northwest

of the Ohio — Interference of Indian Traders With French

Influence With the Indians.

TZ)RIOR to the treaty between England and France, in 1763, the title to

the territory northwest of the Ohio River, between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River, was claimed by both the nations. England claimed it by virtue of a treaty said to have been made by the Commissioners of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland with the Iroquois, or Six Nations, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744.

These Indians owned, or pretended to own, all the Northwest Territory as far west as the Mississippi River, and that southwest of the Ohio River as far south as the Car.olinas and Georgia. According to their traditions, these lands came into their possession and were held by right of conquest, their fathers, many years before, having conquered all the tribes possessing them. The right of the Six Nations to dispose of this territory has been a subject of much discussion ; but whether they had such rights is but of little consequence now, either to its present inhabitants or to the purpose of this work, further than will assist in showing by whom, and under what circumstances the city of Cincinnati was first explored, and the difficulties that followed that exploration previous to its settlement.

It is, however, certain that all the Indian tribes of the Northwest did not recognize as binding, the treaty of Lancaster, that of Logetown in 1752, that made at Winchester in 1753, nor yet that of Fort Stanwix in 1768. That such a treaty was entered into at Lancaster in 1744, by the parties already mentioned, there is no doubt, although it has been charged that it was signed by the Indians while under die influence of spirituous liquors, a bounteous supply of which was furnished at the time by the Commissioners.

The English strenuously insisted that the treaty was deliberately and fairly made, and that the Commissioners of Maryland paid two hundred and twenty pounds in gold, and those of Virginia two hundred and twenty pounds in gold, and the same amount in goods for the territory ceded.

The French, on the other hand, as stoutly maintained that the same territory belonged to the Crown of France by right of discovery, claiming that La Salle, in 1682, and Padre Marquette and his colleague, Jolliete, subjects of France, had crossed from Canada to the Mississippi in 1683, and descended that river as far south as the Arkansas River; and that this, according to an alleged maxim of international law, gave France a valid and indisputable title to all lands watered and drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries; and as Ohio was one of these, therefore all the territory drained by the Ohio and its tributaries belonged of right to the Crown of France ; and furthermore, that the discovery of Marquette was nearly a century before the treaty with the Iroquois at Lancaster.

To this claim of the French, England answered that John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, explored the Atlantic coast, in North America, from Labrador to Chesapeake Bay, in 1497, and had taken possession thereof in the name of the Crown of Great Britain ; and that by reason of this discovery all the lands from the Atlantic west to the Pacific Ocean belonged to Great Britain, and that in 1684 Lord Howe made a treaty with the Five Nations, when they placed themselves under the protection of the British Government, and at the same time executed a deed of sale to the British Government of a vast tract of land south and east of the Illinois River, extending north, across Lake Huron into Canada; and that another deed was made by the Chiefs of the Indian Confederacy in 1726, by which these same lands were conveyed in trust to England, to be protected and defended by his Majesty for the use of the grantors and their heirs ; and that France, at the treaty of Utrecht, had agreed not to invade the lands of the allies of Great Britain.

The dispute, however, finally resolved itself into the questions : whether the tribes forming the Indian Confederacy were the allies of England, and whether they had conquered the tribes owning the territory in dispute.

At the date of the treaty of Utrecht they were, unquestionably, allies of

Great Britain; and the French, by invading these lands, violated one of the stipulations of that treaty, if the territory rightfully belonged to them.

The evidence of their title, even by conquest, however, rested only on tradition, as they did not occupy the lands in dispute. Their claim may or may not have been just, and is one of those questions in history which can never be satisfactorily solved.

Such were the flimsy foundations upon which England and France determined to maintain their respective claims, and which led to a long and bloody war.

The most valuable part of the territory in dispute was between the great Lakes of the North and the Ohio River, inhabited by mixed tribes of savages, consisting of Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas, Mingoes, Iroquois and Miamies, over whom the French also pretended to hold a protectorate.

French influence had, however, been seriously interfered with among them by traders from Pennsylvania, who had penetrated far into the western wilds, and becoming thoroughly acquainted with the Indian character, had established a lucrative traffic with them, carrying blankets, bright colored cloths, trinkets and ammunition (not forgetting whisky and rum) to the Indian towns, exchanging them for valuable furs, deer and buffalo skins.

The traders, as a rule, were rough, lawless men, dressed in semi-Indian costume, and little better in their manners and habits than the Indians themselves, and were exceedingly jealous of the interference of the French with what they claimed as their rights, acquired by the treaty of Lancaster between the Iroquois and the Commissioners of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

Chapter II

Organization of the Old Ohio Company — Lawrence and Augustine Washington, Brothers of General George Washington, Members of the Company — Lawrence Washington's Liberal Policy.

"C^ARLY in 1749, a grand scheme to colonize the western country was conceived by some of the most prominent men of Virginia, among whom were Thomas Lee, President of the Council of Virginia; Augustine and Lawrence Washington, elder brothers of George Washington; and John Hanbury, a wealthy merchant of London.

An association was organized by these gentlemen under the name of the Ohio Company, now known as the Old Ohio Company, in contradistinction to another which adopted the same title, organized in Boston in 1786, composed principally of ex-revolutionary soldiers.

The mother country encouraged this enterprise as one which would, if successful, enable it to possess itself of the coveted prize, and thereby more firmly establish the claims of England, by actual occupancy.

A charter was issued to the company, and a grant made of six hundred thousand acres of land on the southeast side of the Ohio River, between the Monongahela and Kanawha Rivers, with the privilege, however, of taking a part of it on the northwest side of the Ohio. The conditions upon which the charter was issued, were that the company should settle one hundred families on the grant within seven years from the date of the charter, build a fort and maintain a sufficient force to protect the settlers, who were to pay no quit rent for ten years.

Thomas Lee, one of the Commissioners who had made the *reaty with the Iroquois at Lancaster in 1744, was the leader in the movement until his death, which occurred soon after the organization of the company. After his death the management of its affairs devolved upon Lawrence Washington, the elder of the brothers.

The wise and liberal policy adopted by Mr. Washington as manager gave great promise of success to the enterprise, and preparations were actively inaugurated to perfect the necessary arrangements to take possession and

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

commence the settlements. It was his desire to form colonies of Germans from Pennsylvania ; but here a difficulty presented itself which could not be easily overcome. The grant was within the jurisdiction of Virginia, in which the Church of England was established by law and maintained by tithes, and therefore settlers would be compelled to pay parish rates for the maintenance of the clergy; and the Germans of Pennsylvania, being dissenters, were not willing to submit to this condition. Lawrence Washington sought to have them relieved from this tax, but without success. A single quotation from his writings at the time will serve to show his liberal and enlightened views :

" It has ever been my opinion," said he, " and hope it ever will be, that restraints on conscience are cruel in regard to those on whom they are imposed, and injurious to the country imposing them. England, Holland and Prussia, I may quote as examples, and much more Pennsylvania, which has flourished under delightful liberty so as to become the admiration of every man who considers the short time it has been settled.

" This colony — Virginia — was greatly settled in the latter part of Charles the First's time, and during the usurpation, by the zealous churchmen, and that spirit which was then brought in, has ever since continued, so that, except a few Quakers, we have no dissenters. But what has been the consequence ? We have increased by slow degrees, while our neighboring colo dies, whose natural advantages are greatly inferior to ours, have become populous."

While it is true that Lord Baltimore had promulgated and established the principles of religious freedom in Maryland, and it was tolerated in Pennsylvania previous to this, still the sentiments expressed in the foregoing quotations from Mr. Washington are remarkable as coming from a member of the Established Church of England ; and it is a striking coincidence that they should be almost identical with the principles contained in the ordinance of 1787, under which the Northwest Territory was organized nearly thirty years afterward, and in the Constitution of the United States and State of Ohio, leaving to every man the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.

General- George Washington was then a youth under the guidance and influence, in a great measure, of his brother, Lawrence, who took a parental interest in the education and direction of his youth. May not the early

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

teachings he then received have resulted in that liberal policy and love of liberty he ever manifested in his public life, and developed that remarkable character which so eminently qualified him to lead his countrymen to victory in their struggle for independence.

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

CHAPTER III. The Ohio Company Employ Christopher Gist to Explore the Lands

Northwest of the Ohio River as Far West as the Great Falls —

Gist Explores the Lands Between the Two Miamis, and on the

Kentucky River.

T N the meantime the Ohio Company had been making preparations to

carry out their scheme of colonization, and employed Christopher Gist, of Virginia, a hardy pioneer, and noted hunter and woodsman, who had much experience in dealing with the Indians, to explore the country on the northwest of the Ohio River, as far west as the Falls of the Ohio, now Louisville.

He started from Virginia on the 31st day of October, 1750, traveling through an unbroken wilderness over the mountains, and crossed the Ohio River near Beaver Creek, below Pittsburg, and struck boldly out into the wilderness through the country now forming the great State of Ohio, examining it as he traveled, until he reached Muskingum, a town of the Wyandots and Mingoes, where he met George Croghan, the agent of the Governor of Pennsylvania.

Gist was well received by these tribes, as he was also by the Shawanees and Delawares, whom he visited with Croghan, at their town on the Scioto River. From the Shawanee town, at the mouth of the Scioto, Croghan and Gist traveled northwest near two hundred miles, crossing the Great Miama on a raft, swimming their horses, and arrived at the Indian town of Piqua, the principal town of the Twigtrees, a tribe of the Miamis, on the 17 th day of February, 1 75 1.

In this journey Gist had favorable opportunities for examining a wide extent of territory, which, on his return to Virginia, he described as incomparably fertile, covered with magnificent timber, watered by abundant creeks and rivulets, the forest and plains everywhere abounding in game and the streams with excellent fish, saying, "there was nothing wanting but cultivation to make it a delightful country."

From Piqua Gist and Croghan returned to the Shawnee town, on the Scioto, from whence Gist pursued his course toward the Great Falls, noting

I2 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

carefully the fitness of the country for cultivation, and the course and size of the streams emptying into the Ohio River.

It was at this time, between the ioth and 14th of March, 1751, he explored the country between the two Miamis, including the present site of Cincinnati, going up the Great Miami as far as Loramie Creek, forty six miles above the now city of Dayton, Ohio, and about one hundred miles above the mouth of that river.

The country in the neighborhood of Loramie Creek was the hunting ground of the Piankashas, another tribe of the Miamis. The English erected a fort and trading post on this creek the next year, 1752.

(list had been warned by the Shawnees not to go to the Falls, as there was at that time a party of warriors, allies of the French, hunting in that vicinity; and that if he did, he would surely lose his scalp. Notwithstanding this warning, he came down the Miami, and proceeded toward his destination; but when within about fifteen or twenty miles of the Falls, he discovered unmistakable evidences of the proximity of savages, and seeing their traps and hearing the report of their guns, lie changed his course, crossed the Ohio, and for six weeks followed up the Kentucky River, exploring the country bordering on its waters as far as Bluestone. This was nineteen years before Daniel and 'Squire Boone visited the same country.

From Bluestone, Cist wended his* weary way to Virginia, crossing the Kanawha on a raft, reaching his home, on the Yadkin River, in May, only to find that the Indians had attacked the settlement and destroyed his house and property, but he soon learned that his family had escaped to a neighboring settlement and was safe.

It is possible, indeed highly probable, that French voyagers had navi gated the Ohio River in its whole length in their canoes prior to this time. as they had several trading posts below the Great Falls, on its banks ; but oi this there is no authentic account, and at best is mere conjecture.

So far therefore, as is known, Christopher Gist was the first white man, either French, English, or American, who set foot upon, and explored, and published an account of the country between the two Miamis, in Hamilton County, where John Cleves Symmes made his purchase in 17S7, thirty-six years afterward, upon which Mathias Denman, Robert Patterson and Israel Ludlow surveyed the next year, >7SS, the town of Losantiville.

After Gist's return a report of his explorations was published in London in 1755, and in Philadelphia in 1756, which was the first authentic account given of the territory now composing the great State of Ohio, and created a great desire among colonists and emigrants to settle northwest of the Ohio, and especially in the Miami country.

Many efforts had been made by the colonists and English to establish settlements in the territory now comprising our great State after Gist's exploration, but all were unsuccessful. Thousands of pioneers had been murdered or captured and held prisoners. The borders of Pennsylvania and West Virginia had time and time again been almost totally depopulated by the tomahawk and seal ping-knife of the ruthless and bloodthirsty savages, instigated, as was probably justly believed, by the French, to prevent the colonists or English from permanently occupying any part of the territory. And thus it continued until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. Hardships, trials and sufferings are sometimes, when we know it not, " blessings in disguise ;" and in looking back over the early history of our country and realizing the blessings we now enjoy, he who does not see the hand of providence in all this must indeed be skeptical, for had the British Government been enabled to establish permanent settlements in the northwest with people loyal to the crown of Great Britain, and to have erected forts manned by British soldiers previous to the struggle for independence, with their navy and army attacking our country in the east and north and loyal subjects in the west, aided by the hordes of savages then occupying it, coming upon the rear, the patriots of '76 could never have achieved the independence of the colonies. And even after the independence of the colonies had been acknowledged, and the coveted territory had been ceded to the United States, there seemed to be a higher power than man preventing its occupation for some wise purpose. And not until the ordinance of 1787, making it an absolutely free territory where the clanking chains of slavery or involuntary servitude should never be heard, and establishing civil and religious liberty had been adopted as the fundamental law of the land, where every man could worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience; where there were none to molest or make them afraid; and declaring that religion, morality and education were necessary to the happiness of a free people — not until that had been adopted was there permitted any settlement to be made in our glorious State.

H

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

Chapter IV

English Emissaries Incite Indians to Murder Settlers in the Northwest — Major Stites Explores Territory Between Mi amis — Determines to Make Purchase — Visits Congress at New York- Prevails Upon John Cleves Symmes to Make Purchase. "\ A J HEN the Revolutionary War broke out the English incited the savages to hostility against the Americans, furnishing them with arms and ammunition to murder those who might attempt to settle northwest of the Ohio; and during that long struggle no settlements were formed within the limits of the State of Ohio. When the war was over the whole of the northwest had been ceded to the United States of America by the treaty of Paris in 1783, and men again began to cast their eyes to this land of promise ; disappointment for a time, however, as before, was to be their doom.

The Indians disregarded every treaty they had made, declaring the land was their own and did not belong to England, and that the British Government had no right to cede it to the United States. To this course there was no doubt they had been instigated by English emissaries who had still some hope that a republic would prove to be a failure and that they would once more possess our fair heritage ; and thus affairs continued until after the Indian titles had been extinguished by the treaties of Fort Stanwix, Fort Mc- Kintosh, Muskingum and Fort Finney, and the ordinance of 1787 adopted. Virginia had on the 1st of March, 1784, magnanimously ceded her right and title to the Northwest, insisting upon this condition only, that contracts made with her continental soldiers should be held inviolable, and reserved tor their benefit all the lands on the Ohio between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers.

From the first exploration of the Miami country, made in 1751, the fertility of its soil had been well-known, and many were the pioneers who longed to settle thereon, but were prevented by the hostility of the Indians, incited by the English ; but now, as these difficulties had apparently disappeared, explorers were again seeking it.

In 1786 a company was organized in Boston by Generals Putnam, Par-

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

*5 sons and the Rev. Dr. Cutler, composed principally of Revolutionary soldiers, to purchase territory on the Ohio River. They selected the mouth of the Muskingum, where they landed on the 7th of April, 1788, and made the first permanent settlement within the limits of the present State of Ohio.

In 1786 Captain Benjamin Stites, of Red Stone (Brownsville), Pa., came down the river with provisions from the Monongahela River for the settlers, stopping at Lime Stone (Maysville, Ky.) While there the Indians had stolen many horses from settlers in Kentucky, and a party was organized and sent out to recapture them Captain Stites joined the party and followed on their track to the mouth of the Little Miami, thence up that stream for a considerable distance to Old Town, then across the country to the Great Miami above Hamilton, and down the Great Miami and Mill Creek to the Ohio River. In this expedition he noted the beauty of the country and fertility of the soil in the valleys of both Miamis, and was so pleased with what he had seen that he determined to make application to Congress for a purchase of land between the two. He could not obtain any east of the Little Miami, because that had been reserved by Virginia as a military district for soldiers on the Continental establishment (as it is designated in deeds and records). To make this purchase he traveled to New York on foot, as is claimed, where Congress was in session.

Whether on foot or on horseback, he ''got there all the same" and made the acquaintance of John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, whom he requested to assist him in securing the purchase.

After Judge Symmes had heard Captain Stites' glowing description of the Miami country he concluded the purchase had better not be made until he (Symmes) had seen it. In 1787 he visited the west and examined the territory between the two Miamis and found, like the Queen of Sheba, that lo! "the half had not been told him," and immediately went back and made application in his own name to purchase two million acres between the two Miamis, and secured a contract for one million acres, which, after being surveyed between the designated boundaries, was found to contain less than 600,000 acres. Of this tract he sold to Captain Stites 20,000 acres, as is shown by the following curious contract copied from the records of Hamilton County :

"Whereas, Congress, by the resolutions of the 22d day of October, 1787, directed the Commission of the Treasury Board to contract with John

C. Symmes for all the lands lying between the two Miami Rivers to a certain line which forms the north bend thereof, these may certify that if Captain Benjamin Stites shall raise certificates to pay for 20,000 acres of the same, or any larger quantity, he shall have it at the price agreed with the Treasury Board, which is five shillings per acre, making payment therefor, and in all things conforming to the conditions of the contract, with the Treasury Board, and also with the articles or conditions of the sale and settlement of the land, which will be published by John C. Symmes. On Captain Stites purchasing 20,000 acres, or any larger quantity, he shall have the privilege of appointing one surveyor to assist in running out the country, so far as the proportion he purchases shall be to the whole contract.

"This surveyor shall be entitled to receive the same fees for his services as the other surveyors employed in that survey shall receive, as soon as credit or time of payment can be given, agreeable to the contract. Captain Stites shall have the benefit thereof as all other purchasers shall have, but this is not till after the two first payments.

[Signed.] "John Cleves Symmes,

"New York, 9th of November, 1787."

This was followed by another contract made at Brunswick, N. J., on December 7, 1787 :

"Captain Benjamin Stites enters 10,000 acres and the fraction on the Ohio and Little Miami Rivers, and is to take in Mr. John Carpenter as^one of his company, to be on line or sections on the Ohio and Little Miami from the point, and 10,000 acres on equal lines and sections at the mill stream falling into the Ohio between the Little and Great Miamis, which, when the certificates therefor are paid and the record book open, shall be recorded to him and to such of his company as join therefor.

[Signed.] "John C. Symmes,

"New Brunswick, 7th of December, 1787."

Then there seems to have been a supplement without date or signature :

"The last ten (10,000) thousand acres is to be taken in the following manner: Two sections at the mouth of Mill Creek, and the residue to begin four (4) miles from the Ohio up Mill Creek. Captain Stites takes four (4) sections on the Little Miami, with the fraction adjoining the ten (10,000) thousand acres where it comes to the Little Miami, and four sections with

the section next above the range of township taken by Daniel , Esq.,

on the Little Miami."

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.

On the 8th of February, 1793, Captain Stites paid in full for his land, as will appear from the following receipt :

"Cincinnati, February the 8th, 1793.

"Received of Benjamin Stites, Esq., at different payments, certificates of debts due by the United States, to the amount of ten thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars and twenty-three one-hundredths of a dollar, in payment for different parts of the Miami purchase lying, as may appear by location of Mr. Stites, ten thousand acres round Columbia, seven sections on the waters of Mill Creek for different people, as will appear by the Miami records, and about three or four sections in the neighborhood of Covalt's Station, and in cash orders and other articles to the amount of one hundred and fifty-eight pounds, eight shillings and eight pence, for which lands, accommodated to the several locations, I promise to make a deed in fee simple, as soon as I am enabled by receiving my deed from the United States. [Signed.] " John C. Symmes.

"Attest: John S. Gano."

In the summer of 1788 Captain Stites and his party launched their broad-horn boats on the waters of the Monongahela, and started on their journey to their future homes at the mouth of the Little Miami, and arrived in July at Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky.

There he made clap-boards for roofs of their cabins, and drew up an article of agreement (which we have not been able to find), signed by thirty persons, agreeing to form a settlement at the mouth of the Little Miami. Some of them, however, backed out on account of reports circulated, as was said by Kentuckians interested in settlements in that territory, to the effect that a large party of hostile Indians were encamped at the Miami Those who remained faithful to their contract started from Limestone on the 16th day of November, 1788, and landed below the mouth of the Miami on the 1 8th.

Before arriving at the mouth of the Miami they sent forward three men in a canoe as scouts to ascertain if there were any Indians there encamped ; if there were, they were to signal those in the flatboats to keep near the Kentucky shore and pass on without landing, and if there were no Indians found those in the canoes were to land and the flatboats were to land also. One of the three in the canoe was Hezekiah Stites, brother of Captain Benjamin Stites, who, when the canoe struck the shore, immediately jumped on the land and therefore claimed to be the first settler who landed on the site of

Columbia. The boats all having landed and been fastened. to the shore, they all joined in prayer, returning devout thanks for the safety of their perilous journey and arrival at their future home. After taking the necessary precautions to prevent surprise by the Indians, they proceeded to erect a "block house" on the 19th of November in front of the present residence of Athen Stites, Esq., which is said to be the spot where they landed.