The Second Settlement of Ohio

THE WAR of the Revolution was over. The treaty of Paris had been signed. The people of the new-born Republic were addressing themselves to the amicable adjustment and settlement of foreign and inter-state questions—to devising and working out a form of government, wiser, juster, freeer and stronger than that under the Articles of Confederation—to strengthening Nat ional Credit, and to the development of the vast natural resources of the new nation, Under the Treaty of Paris the United States had received from England’s King his title to all that territory stretching from the Alleghenys to the Missisippi, and from the Ohio River to the great lakes, a Territory 241,421 square miles in extent, nearly twice as large as that of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales combined; with great variety of climate; with marvelous productiveness of soil; with inexhaustible mines of coal and iron and copper and salt; with numous broad and navigable rivers and lakes winding through its vast area and along either side of it, and flowing for thousands of miles to the Ocean and the Gulf, inviting the future commerce of the world to their shores.

This new acquisition of territory to that of the original colonial states, soon came into the possession and control of the nation and naturally attracted the attention of Congress and the public spirited citizens of the east to its importance and development. It seemed to offer to the government the means for payment of of the national debt, which at that time hung like a pall over the people.

Nor was this Territory at that time a terra incognita. For more than an hundred years had the indomitable Jesuit missionaries traversed its wilds and held aloft the Emblem of the religion of Christ for conversion of the savage tribes; and France had erected a line of fortifications to protect the territory against the invasion of her English enemies.

But no settlements had been made save those on the shores of the northern lakes, and a few within the territory, and these were established for missionary purposes, to aid in the work of converting the Indians to christianity, rather than for permanent settlement and the introduction of a new civilization. It now remained for the citizens of the New Republic to go in, purchase from the natives, and take possession and build up, on this wide border-land homes and free local government, and a prosperity before unsurpassed, under the beneficent Ordinance of 1787.

THE MIAMI PURCHASE.

On the 29th of August John Cleves Symmes of Morris town, New Jersey, being encouraged by the resolutions of Congress of the 23rd and 27th of July previous; stipulating the conditions of a transfer of federal lands on the Scioto and Muskingurn rivers unto Winthrop Sargent and Manasseh Cutler, Esquires, and their associates, of New England, petitioned Congress, on behalf of the citizens of the United States westward of Connecticut, to direct that a contract be made with him by the Hon. Commissioners of the Treasury Board, for him and his associates, similar to the contract with Sargent and Cutler, for the purchase of the tract lying north of the Ohio River and between the Great and Little Miami Rivers. Upon this application Congress on the rd. of Oct. 1787 authorized the Treasury Board to enter into a contract with said Symmes for the purchase of the tract, to be known as the Miami Purchase, and on the 26th day of November following Judge Symmes issued a proclaimation “To the respectable Public” setting forth the terms and conditions of purchase and settlement and inviting co-operation. The price required to be paid was 2-3 of a dollar per acre, in liquidated certificates, exclusive of the interest due on such certificates, to be paid by the purchaser on the receipt of his land warrant.

After the 1st of May following, the price was to be raised to $ 1.00 per acre, and after November 1st to a still higher price, if the country should be settled as fast as expected.

Gen. Knox, the Secretary of War, had assured him of his friendly disposition to support the settlers against the Indians by replacing a garrison of Federal troops in the Fort which was still remaining on the land at the mouth of the Great Miami; and this he claimed would greatly facilitate the settlement and in some measure secure safety to the first adventurers.

In this proclaimation Judge Symmes announced that he re served certain rights as follows;— “The subscriber hopes that the respectable public will not think it unreasonable in him, when he informs them that the only privilege which he reserves for himself, as a small reward for his trouble in this business, is the exclusive right of electing or locating that entire township which will be the lowest down in the point of land formed by the Ohio and Great Miami rivers, and and those three fractional parts of townships which may be north, west and south, between such entire township and the waters of the Ohio and Great Miami. This point of land the subscriber intends paying for himself, and thereon to lay out a handsome town plot, with eligible streets and lots of 6o feet wide in front and rear and 120 feet deep, every other lot of which shall be given freely to any person who shall first apply for the same” on condition of improvement and occupancy within two years after purchase, and to continue for a consecutive period of three years.

The purchase money for the whole tract was not paid within the time stipulated, but by special act of Congress passed in 1792. a Patent was issued to John Cleves Symmes and associates for so much of the lands as he might be able to pay for, and on settlement with the Treasury department in 1794 it was found that he had paid for 248,540 acres of land for which he received a patent Sept. 1794. But as the law of 1792 provided for granting a college township for the use of the Miami Purchase, this with other reserved sections were included in the Patent; so that the boundaries described in it contained 311,682 acres.

SETTLEMENTS.

The first attempt toward the establishment of a permanent settlement in this Purchase was made in the early fall of 1788.

Matthias Denman of Springfield New Jersey had purchased from Judge Symmes the fractional Section lying on the banks of the Ohio opposite the mouth of the Licking river, and the section adjoining on the north.

On the 22nd. day of September 1788 Matthias Denman, Col. Robert Patterson of Lexington Ky. and John Filson, a surveyor, in company with Judge Symmes, Israel Ludlow, of Morristown New Jersey, who had been appointed by Surveyor General Hutchins to make a survey of the purchase, and others, arrived at the present site of Cincinnati for the purpose of observation, and of laying out a town opposite the mouth of the Licking river, in accordance with the plan previously agreed upon. Patter son and Filson had taken each a one-third interest in Denman’s purchase, and they had named their proposed town Losanteville, (Le-os-ant-e-ville) the village opposite the mouth, a name said to have been suggested by an imaginative Frenchman.

Ludlow’s business was to survey the Miami Purchase, Filson’s to lay out the town according to the plat agreed upon. By the terms of the contract the east line of Denman’s purchase was to be twenty miles from the mouth of the Great Miami, and he required that this should first be established. While Denman and Ludlow were engaged in this work, Symmes, Patterson Filson and others made an excursion into the wilderness. Filson separated from the party, or got lost, and was never after heard of. ‘the natural inference was that he was surprised and slain by the Indians. The party at once returned to the site of the new town with this sad news, and such was the consternation and fear from the loss of Filson that they abandoned their work, and the whole party went back to Limestone, now Maysville, Ky.

Here Denman and Patterson took Ludlow into their enterprise with one-third interest, in the place of John Filson, and he was to make the survey of the town. A new plat was made, modeled after that of Filson’s and the name of the future city was changed to Cincinnati. So that while the young settlement was for some time popularly known as Losanteville, it never officially had any other name than Cincinnati.

Denman’s purchase amounted to about 800 acres for which he paid five shillings per acre in continental certificates worth only five shillings on the £ or 15d. per acre, £50 for the whole. While the Denman party were perfecting their plans and gathering recruits at Limestone to make their settlement a permanent thing, Maj. Benjamin Stites, with a party of eighteen or twenty associates, landed near the mouth of the Little Miami river, near the present site of Columbia, about five miles above the site of Cincinnati, in November, I built a block-house for protection against the Indians and made a settlement which prospered well, and for two or three years had more inhabitants than any other in the purchase.

Among these first settlers were Cot. Spencer, Maj. Gano, Judge Goforth, Francis Dunlavy, Judge Foster, Col. Brown, Maj. Kibby, Rev. John Smith, Mr. Hubble, Capt. Flinn, Jacob White and John Riley, all men of energy and character, well fitted to battle successfully with the hardships and dangers of this wild country.

On the 24th of December 1788 Denman, Patterson and others to the number of about twelve or fifteen, landed a second time at the site of their proposed town opposite the mouth of the Licking, and proceeded to provide the necessary means for shelter and protection against the treacherous Indians.

A third party under Judge Symmes left Limestone Jan. 29, 1789, and after a perilous voyage, down the Ohio, consequent upon the floating ice, reached North Bend in the early part of February, where he proposed to lay out and build up Ike important town of the Purchase.

Thus were the three settlements begun that were afterwards to be welded together and become the Queen City of the West.

On application of Judge Symmes, Gen. Harmar, in command at Marietta had sent Capt. Kearsey with forty eight rank an file to protect the settlers in the Miami Country. The soldiers landed at North Bend, and finding no fort fit for occupancy and having no tools with which to erect one, they soon after left the settlement and proceeded down the river to Louisville whet they found comfortable accommodations, with other troops.

The Judge wrote to the commandant at Louisville complaining bitterly of the action of Capt. Kearsey, whereupon a company of 17 or 18 men under command of Ensign Luce were dispatched to North Bend with instruction to select a suitable site for erecting a block-house or fort for the protection of the Miami settlements. They arrived promptly and the settlers were thus assured of safety.

The Ensign seemed to feel that he was charged with the duty of erecting fortifications at such place as was best calculated to afford the most extensive protection to all the Miami settlers, and in spite of the persistent entreaties and opposition of Judge Symmes he left the Bend and with his command went to Cincinnati, where he at once selected a favorable place and commenced to build strong military works. This military movement was followed by very important results. The settlers at the Bend realizing the dangers to which they were exposed, in the absence of trained soldiers, soon removed to Cincinnati, and the hopes for the future city, so fondly dreamed of, were thus destroyed.

The following Summer, 1789, Maj. Doughty arrived at Cincinnati with 140 troops from Fort Harmar and, approving the military judgment of Ensign Luce, began the construction of Fort Washington, -the most extensive and important military work in the territory.

While it is no doubt the simple fact that the reason for building Fort Washington on the site where it was erected, on the first shelf, 50 ft. above low water and almost opposite the mouth of the Licking, was purely a military one, being near the place where the old Indian trail from the lakes down through the Miami Country crossed the Ohio and lead into Kentucky and the South, and that this location was by far the best for the protection of the Miami settlers, still there is a romantic story connected with the location of this site, related by Judge Burnett in his “Notes on the North-west Territory,” that may be of interest. It is this:— “It was said and believed that while officer Luce was looking out very leisurely for a suitable site on which to build a blockhouse he formed the acquaintance of a beautiful, black-eyed female, who called forth his most assiduous and tender attention. She was the wife of one of the settlers at the Bend. Her husband saw the danger to which he would be exposed if he remained where lie was, and therefore removed to Cincinnati.

When the gallant commander, discovered that the object of his admiration had changed her residence he began to think that the Bend was not an advantageous situation for a military work. This opinion he communicated to Judge Symmes, who strongly opposed it. His reasoning, however, was not as persuasive as tile sparkling eyes of the fair dulciana. He visited Cincinnati, found the military position there superior to that at the Bend, and commenced the building of a block-house.”

That movement, produced by a cause whimsical, and apparently trivial in itself, was attended with results of the greatest importance.

It settled the question whether North Bend or Cincinnati was to be the great commercial town of the miami country.

“The incomparable beauty of a spartan dame produced a ten years war, which terminated in the destruction of Troy; and the irresistable charms of another woman transferred the commercial emporium of Ohio from the place where it had been commenced to the place where it now is. If this captivating Helen had remained at the Bend the garrison would have been erected there, population, capital and business would have continued there, and there would have been the Queen City of the West.”

Upon such slender threads hang the fate of cities and nations.

INDIAN HOSTILITIES.

The professions of friendship on the part of the Indians made in the Winter of I under the treaty of Fort Harmar, were of short duration. The lives and property of the settlers were insecure. Acts of violence and murder followed in quick succession. The settlement of Major Stites, at Columbia, was plundered; an attack was made upon the Bend and one of the settlers there was killed. Hunt, Cutler, Freeman, Truman, Hardin, and many others were assassinated not long after. The protecting influence of Fort Washington was circumscribed within a narrow limits, and the utter extermination of the Miami settlement was seriously threatened.

On the 1st of October, 1790, Gen. Harmar, with 1300 men, mostly undisciplined militia, started north from Fort Washington an expedition against the Indian villages. When within forty miles of them lie learned they were unoccupied, and immediately sent forward a detachment of 600 men to destroy them. The villages were burned to the ground, and the corn and fruit trees were utterly destroyed. The expedition returned to the main body, when Gem Harmar sent one-third of his troops back, under Col. Hardin, to find and engage the enemy. They found the enemy and were badly defeated and cut to pieces. The survivors and the remainder of the arm hastened their retreat to Fort Washington, followed and harassed by the victorious enemy. The expedition was a failure, and the savages were naturally more hostile than before.

The following year Gen. St. Clair set out from Cincinnati with an army of 2,300 men, determined to put a stop to the Indian hostilities, On his way up the Miami country he built Forts Hamilton and Jefferson, about forty miles apart. But misfortune attended the expedition from the start. When 27 miles beyond Fort Jefferson, on the morning of the 4th of November, 1791, the American Army was attacked by Indians in great force, and was defeated with heavy loss. Among the killed were the gallant Maj. Gen. Butler, Col. Oldham and Maj. Ferguson.

The settlements natura1 had few accessions while subject to threatening dangers from an infuriated foe. This uncertain condition continued until the Spring of 1794, when Gen. Anthony Wayne, with 2,000 regulars and 1,500 mounted volunteers from Kentucky, met the enemy in their own country, at Fallen Timbers, a few miles above the present Maumee City, and defeated them. He maintained every advantage gained and rendered his fortifications impregnable to his wily foe. The Indian chiefs gradually came to a realizing sense of their inability to succeed against the army of Gen. Wayne and began to consider the terms of peace that had already been urged by the United States, and their deliberations finally resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, signed on the 3d day of August, 1795, settling a permanent peace with all the Indian tribes north-west of the Ohio river, and giving security to the settlers.

PEACE

It is not difficult to imagine with what joy the suffering pioneers at Cincinnati hailed the proclamation of peace. It was no longer necessary for them to attend divine service with loaded rifles by their side. They could now extend and cultivate their fields beyond the range of the Fort and the Blockhouse.

The white population of the whole north-western territory, including all ages and both sexes, was, at the close of 1795, only 15,000. In 1800, by the census then taken under the authority of Congress, the number was 45,365.

Authorities differ as to the population of Cincinnati in 1795, but it probably fell considerably short of 500. In 1800 it is given at 750; 1810, 2,540; 1820, 9,602; 1830, 46,338; 1840,54,851. Cincinnati became a city in 1819

Prior to the Treaty of Greenville the improvements of Cincinnati were few, and of anything but a permanent character. Fort Washington was the principal object of interest and was located between Third and Fourth Streets produced east of Eastern Row, now Broadway, which was then a two-pole alley, and was the eastern boundary of the town as originally laid out. Fort Washington was evacuated in 1804 and the troops transferred to the New Port Barracks. Col. Sargent, Secretary of the territory, had a convenient frame house, on the north side of Fourth St., immediately behind the fort. On the east side of the fort Dr. Allison, the Surgeon General of the Army, had a plain frame dwelling, in the centre of a large cultivated garden, called Peach Grove.

The Presbyterian Church, built in 1792, stood on Main St. Here the Rev. James Kemper was installed Oct. 23d of that year. It was a substantial frame building about 30X40 feet, enclosed by clapboards, but neither lathed, plastered nor ceiled. ‘The floor was of boat plank, laid loosely on the sleepers; the seats were of the same material, supported by blocks of wood. There was a breastwork of unplained cherry boards, called the pulpit, behind which the clergyman stood on a piece of plank resting on blocks of wood. In that humble edifice the pioneers and their families assembled statedly for public worship; and during the continuance of the war they always attended with loaded rifles by their sides. The frame school house stood on the north side of Fourth St., opposite where St. Paul’s Church lately was. A room in the tavern of George Avery, near the frog pond, at the corner of Main and Fifth Streets had been rented for the accommodation of the courts, and as the penitentiary system had not then been adopted and Cincinnati was a seat of justice, it was ornamented with a pillory, stocks and whipping post, and occasionally with a gallows. These were all the structures of a public character then in the place, according to the authority of Judge Burnett, who took up his residence in Cincinnati in 1796.

FIRST NEWSPAPER.

The first newspaper printed north of the Ohio was established at Cincinnati by Wm. Maxwell, Nov. 9 1793, and named “The Sentinel of The North-West Territory.” It was evidently non-partisan in its character, with the motto “Open to all Parties—Influenced by none.

It was printed on a half sheet, royal quarto size, and naturally had a very limited circulation.

At a legislative session held at Cincinnati in the Summer of 1795 the Governor and Judges, discovering that their enactments had not been legally approved, as required by Congress, and were therefore of doubtful authority, prepared a code of laws adapted from the Statutes of the original states.

This was printed at Cincinnati by William Maxwell, in 1795, and hence was called the Maxwell Code. It was the first job of printing ever executed in the north-western territory.

In 1799 the first regular weekly newspaper was published by Joseph Carpenter, called the “Western Spy and Hamilton Gazzette”

After the Treaty of Greenville the territory was rapidly settled, and the country between the Miamies from the Ohio up to the Mad river soon became thickly dotted with farms and abounded with evidences of a rapidly growing and abiding prosperity.

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT

Under the ordinance of 1787 the people were entitled to a change of government when there should be 5,000 free males of full age, in the territory. At the close of 1798 the north-west territory contained the requisite number and Governor St. Clair issued his proclamation for an election to choose representatives to a Territorial Legislature. The election was held accordingly and on the 16th. day of Sept. 1799 the first Territorial Legislature of the north-west met at Cincinnati.

Hamilton County was represented in the first Legislature by Jacob Burnett, William McMillan, John Smith, John Ludlow Robert Benham, Aaron Cadwell and Isaac Martin, men of strong character and eminent ability.

William Henry Harrison, at that time Secretary of the Territory was chosen as delegate to the National Congress.

Judge Burnett, in speaking of the habits and character of the soldiers and citizens of Cincinnati at this period says:

“Idleness, drinking and gambling prevailed in the army to a greater extent than it has done at any subsequent period.

This may be attributed to the fact, that they had been several years in the wilderness, cut off from all society but their own, with but few comforts or conveiences at hand, and no amusements but such as their own ingenuity could invent.

Libraries were not to be found; men of literary minds, or polished manners, were rarely met with; and they had long been deprived of the advantages of modest, accomplished female society which always produces a soulutary influence on the feelings and moral habits of men. Thus situated, the officers were urged, by an irresistible impulse, to tax their wits for expedients to fill up the chasms of leisure, after a full discharge of their military duties; and as is too frequently the case in such circumstances, the bottle, the dice box and the card-table were among the expedients resorted to, because they were the nearest at hand and the most easily procured.

It is a distressing fact, that a very large proportion of the officers under Gen. Wayne and subsequently under Gen. Wilkin son, were hard drinkers. Harrison, Clark, Shomberg, Ford, Strong and a few others, were the only exceptions.

As a natural consequence, the citizens indulged in the same practices and formed the same habits. As . proof of this it may be stated, that when Mr. Burnett came to the bar, there were nine resident lawyers engaged in the practice, of whom he is, and has been for many years, the only survivor. They all became confirmed sots and decended to premature graves, excepting his brother, whose life was terminated by a rapid consumption in the summer of 1801.

I am happy to know that the character of the Cincinnati Bar has radically changed in this respect since those early days.

NAVIGATION OF THE OHIO.

The original mode of navigation down the Ohio, was by flat- boats, impelled by sail and oar, with the aid of the current.

The pioneer from the east came over the mountains at first with pack-horses to carry his goods, and later in the Pennsylvania wagon to Pittsburg, and there took a flat-boat and floated down the river to his destination. Up to 1795 they were exposed to the attacks of hostile savages from either shore.

In 1794 a line of two keel boats, with bullet proof covers and port-holes, provided with cannon and small arms, was established between Cincinnati and Pittsburg, making the trip once in four weeks. The brawny muscle and sinew of crew and passengers furnished the power for propulsion; and so, for several years, was the traffic and commerce of enterprising Cincinnati carried on from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, and up the tributaries of the Ohio and the Mississippi by the pole, the oar and the current.

It was a necessity during this period, and a custom for many years after, for traders to load their large flat-boat at Cincinnati, float with the current to New Orleans, dispose of their cargo and boat, and walk back.

In 1811 Fulton and Livingston established a Ship yard at Pittsburgh, and built the Orleans, as an experimental boat, the first ever placed on our western waters. This boat had a stern wheel and masts; her first tri from Pittsburgh to New Orleans was made in the winter of 1812.

In 1816 Cincinnati began to build steam-boats and to trade with the most distant parts of the Mississippi valley.

Cincinnati’s remarkable growth is due to her favorable situation for commerce, and the energy and business push of her pioneer citizens. She became the mart of a vast commerce and the distributing point of a large territory depending upon her for supplies.

The voyages to distant places were now made in as many days as it had taken weeks; and suddenly 30,000 miles of river coast open ed to this young Queen city a commerce and traffic as extensive as if she had been placed on the shores of the Mediterranean or the Pacific. New Orleans at I,5oo miles distant, and the tributaries of the Missouri at thousands, were as accessible to her as Rome was to ancient Alexandria.

Nor were the advantages of Cincinnati and her early and rapid growth due alone to the remarkable river whose commerce she so largely controlled.

FAVORABLE LOCATION.

The site upon which the city is built is pecularly favorable to comfort and health. It lies on a natural plateau, through which the Ohio passes from the S. E. to the S. W. This plain is nearly 12 miles in circumference, and is bisected by the river into nearly equal parts. On the north half is Cincinnati and on the south are Covington and Newport, separated by the Licking river. This great plain is almost entirely surrounded by hills 300 ft. in height, forming one of the most beautiful natural Amphitheaters to be found anywhere on the continent, from whose hilltops may be seen the splendid panorama of the cities below, with the winding Ohio, its steamers and barges and incessant movements along its shores. No other large City of the United States affords such a variety of position and scenery. Its is one which a painter would have chosen for its beauty, and a shrewd machanic for the utmost facilities of building, of water, and of drainage.

The growth and commanding influence of a city depend more upon the energy, faith and wisdom of its citizens than upon the most favored gifts of nature. Fortunately for Cincinnati, her early pioneers were men and women of great energy and force of character. They established manufactories, fostered and built up an extensive commerce, opened and sustained large wholesale houses and made Cincinnati for many years the New York of the north-west. Nor did they neglect the still more important matters of education, religion and culture. In these things they held equal rank with the older civilization of the eastern Cities.

The public Schools of Cincinnati were the first in the United States into which was introduced a graded system of instruction.

In all the growth and prosperity of this Metropolis of Ohio, we discern the beneficent influence of her hardy pioneers whose stalwart characters sowed the seed and nurtured the tender plant for the abundant fruitage of after years.

All honor then, to the enterprising spirit, patient courage, lofty faith and energetic character of those who in the summer and fall of 1788 made the second permanent settlement of Ohio, at Cincinnati.