Ohio History Journal

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Archaeological and Historical

PUBLICATIONS.

 

 

 

MONUMENT ON THE SITE OF FORT WASHINGTON.

 

CEREMONIES AT THE UNVEILING OF MONUMENT,

1789-1808.

The monument erected in Third street, between Broadway

and Ludlow street, in Cincinnati, to mark the site of Fort Wash-

ington, was unveiled on June 14. It was erected by a committee,

representing patriotic societies in Ohio, as follows:

Mayflower Descendants-Mrs. Frank J. Jones, Mr. Herbert

Jenney, Mr. W. H. Doane.

Colonial Dames of America-Mrs. M. Morris White, Miss

Anna K. Lewis, Miss Fanny Bryce Lehmer.

Colonial Wars-Mr. J. W. Bullock, Mr. N. Henchman

Davis, Mr. Howard S. Winslow.

Cincinnati Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution-

Mrs. Brent Arnold, Mrs. Frank W. Wilson, Mrs. Peirce J. Cad-

walader.

Cincinnati Chapter Sons of American Revolution-Dr.

George A. Thayer.

Sons of the Revolution-Dr. William Judkins, Dr. Andrew

Kemper, Mr. Robert Ralston Jones.

Cincinnati Chapter Children of the American Revolution--

Mrs. Lowell F. Hobart.

War of 1812--Mrs. T. L. A. Greve.

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2         Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. Loyal Legion-Major W. H. Chamberlain, Col. W. A. Cochran, Col. A. W. McCormick. There are upon the monument two tablets; upon the upper one is the following inscription, surrounded by thirteen stars.   This Tablet Erected by the Patriotic Societies of Ohio Marks the Location of Fort Washington Built 1789 Demolished 1808   MDCCCC

Upon the lower tablet is a plan, showing the location of Fort Washington with reference to the neighboring streets. drawn by Mr. Robert Ralston Jones, of the U. S. Engineer's office of Cincinnati. Bugle Call-"Reveille," by the buglers of 2nd U. S. I. Star Spangled Banner, by the band of the 1st Reg. O. N. G. Prayer, by Rev. George A. Thayer.

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.              3   Mr. Herbert Jenney, chairman of the committee, said in introducing General Cowen: To-day has no significance in the history of Fort Wash- ington, but it is our National Flag Day, the anniversary of the day-June 14, 1777-on which the American Congress in ses- sion at Philadelphia, established by its resolution, That" the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alter- nate red and white: that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

Although the independence of the states had been declared nearly a year before, this resolution is the first recorded legis- lative action relating to a national flag for the new sovereignty. The thirteen stripes were not a new feature; the flag of the thirteen united colonies raised at Washington's headquarters at Cambridge January 2, 1776, had the thirteen stripes as they are to-day, but it also had the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew on a blue ground in the corner.

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4        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

There is said to be no satisfactory evidence that any flag

bearing the union of the stars had been in public use before

June, 1777.

It is a pleasant incident, that through the courtesy of the

Cincinnati Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu-

tion, we have with us to-day a fac-simile of the flag which was

displayed on January 2, 1776, from Washington's headquarters

at Cambridge, and it is another pleasing incident that the com-

mittee has been able to arrange for the ceremonies of the un-

veiling of the monument before you to take place on the first

"Flag Day" in the twentieth century.

There are two prominent jurisdictional periods in the his-

tory of the United States Reservation, bounded by Broadway,

Fourth street, Ludlow street and the river, in which Fort Wash-

ington was built, and within the lines of the fort we are now

assembled. The first of these two periods was the jurisdiction

of the United States. It seemed eminently fitting to the com-

mittee that the one to speak to you to-day should be officially

connected with our National Government, and one has been

chosen who served in the War of 1861-5, was brevetted Brigadier-

General U. S. Volunteers, was granted leave of absence to be-

come Adjutant General of Ohio, and did more than any other

individual to place the "one hundred day men" from the State

of Ohio so promptly and well equipped in the field as to merit

and receive the commendation of the War Department; then

he became Assistant Secretary of the Interior during General

Grant's administration, and was Special agent of Indian affairs

in the West, is now a member of the Order of the Loyal Legion,

and the very efficient Clerk of the United States Circuit and

District Courts in the Southern District of Ohio; the records of

proceedings had in that Circuit Court in 1829 locate the site of

Fort Washington.

It is with great pleasure that the committee presents to you

General Benjamin Rush Cowen, who will tell us what the monu-

ment before us means, and what it is to us.

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.       5

 

 

ADDRESS OF GENERAL COWEN.

Ladies and Gentlemen:-I congratulate you on account of

the auspicious circumstances under which we meet here this

afternoon to assist in the performance of a patriotic duty. Our

national condition is such as to justify expressions of pride and

displays of patriotism. The remarkable achievements of our

fleets and armies have excited the wonder and admiration of

brave men the world around, and have exalted this Nation into

a great world power with which other nations have found it

necessary to reckon in their future schemes of conquest. In

military and naval prowess, in diplomacy and statecraft, in wise

and sagacious legislation, in productive industries and in methods

for the promotion of the greatest good to the greatest number,

we stand to-day a united Nation, at peace with all the world,

the peer of the proudest, the champion and exemplar of the

rights of man and the ripe product of a true civilization.

From this standpoint, as we look backward across a hun-

dred years of our history to the event which calls us here to-

day, let us strive to evoke some useful lessons from the succes-

sive steps in our evolution.

If it be true as was said by a Grecian writer twenty-three

centuries ago, that "History is philosophy teaching by exam-

ples," we should be able to evolve from the scenes enacted in,

and the influences which radiated from this place a hundred

years ago an entire system of ethical philosophy. Looked at

from the standpoint of this day of great things the Fort Wash-

ington of 1789 may seem a trifling and unimportant incident in

the history of a nation now in the very front rank of the world

powers. But that was a time of beginnings, of experiments in

government, of doubt, even whether this was really to become

a nation in the later and larger sense of the word.

Fort Washington at the time of its erection was the most

considerable military post in the Northwestern Territory. It

marked the dividing line between the conditions of our country;

between civilization of the East and the barbarism of the un-

known West. Its importance is indicated by the fact that three

of the Commanders-in-Chief of the Army of the United States

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6        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

were stationed here from time to time. During the occupancy

of the fort it was the scene of the most important military opera-

tions of the time. From this point was organized and sent out

the unfortunate expedition of Josiah Harmar in 1790, against

the hostile tribes of the Northwest. Here, also, in the following

year the army was organized, and equipped under Arthur St.

Clair, which met with the disastrous defeat on the banks of the

Wabash, and it was this fort the survivors of that ill-fated ex-

pedition sought, in their humiliation, as a city of refuge.

From here in 1794 went out that other army under the

hero of Stony Point, the "lion hearted," "Mad Anthony Wayne,"

Commander-in-Chief, an army of 2000 regulars and 1500 Ken-

tucky militiamen, by which the decisive battle with the allied

tribes of the Northwest at Maumee Rapids was fought and won.

I say that battle was decisive, because it gave peace to an

exposed line of frontier extending from Fort Pitt to the southern

boundary of Tennessee, and in fact it marked the close of the

revolutionary war; because the Indians who took part with

Great Britian in that struggle never laid down their arms until

the great victory of 1794.

After that victory we find in command here a young Vir-

ginia subaltern who had been a staff officer of Wayne, in his

campaign of 1794, and who filled a larger place in the public

eye for the next forty years, as a successful soldier, secretary

and governor of Indiana Territory, member of Congress, United

States Senator and President of the United States, William

Henry Harrison, whose descendants have honored his illustrious

name and lineage.

Here came the gallant hero of "Old Vincennes," George

Rogers Clarke, who did so much to make the frontier a safe

dwelling place and who, to our shame be it said, died in pov-

erty and obscurity.

From this point went out with the Wayne expedition Rufus

Putnam, of noble lineage and honorable memory as soldier and

jurist whose posterity to this day arise to call him blessed.

But it is a task beyond my power to perform and it would

overtax your patience were I to attempt to name all, or many

of those who bore a part in the stirring scenes enacted here

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.      7

 

in that early time. With those who fell in battle and those

who fell in single-handed fights with the savage foe, many hun-

dreds in number, they are for the most part the unknown heroes

and martyrs who with no hope of fame or gain gave their lives

as a witness to the pervading love of country and of kind.

Now that a century has elapsed and our country has be-

come great beyond the wildest dreams of those who built Fort

Washington and defended this frontier will not the memory

of their daring and suffering revive in our hearts the love of

country and of all who live within our boundaries?

To find the lessons which this event has for men of to-day

we must look beyond the mere incident which this monument

is designed to commemorate to find if possible the causes which

made the labors of those men productive of such grand results.

Fort Washington was a way-station, so to speak, in the

rapid triumphal march of our civilization athwart the continent,

which, beginning at tide water on the Atlantic early in the

seventeenth century, is now, at the dawn of the twentieth cen-

tury, pluming itself for further and bolder flights westward from

the vantage ground of the Pacific slope. So rapid was that

movement that whereas at the time of building Fort Washing-

ton the center of population was at tide water at Baltimore,

only sixty years later it was within a mile of this spot.

The men who built and those who garrisoned the fort

and those who went from here to drive a savage foe from our

borders were no mere carpet knights. They realized the needs

of the times and went direct to their object. They did not stop

to discuss any theories as to the "consent of the governed,"

but, recognizing the fact that this fair land was destined to be

the home of a civilized people, they proceeded direct to their

purpose, which was to remove every obstacle that lay in the

way of that consummation.

They were pioneers of that civilization which, in all lands

and under all conditions is most masterful. Wherever they

plant the foot the latest progress in science and art springs up,

wherever they plant their home all that is best in our latter

day civilization takes root and grows and flourishes.

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8         Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Most of those men had passed through the hardships of

the colonial wars or of the revolution and had profited by that

experience. They were at once yeomen, soldiers and statesmen;

living epistles of a new faith and fit founders of a new system

of government "of the people, by the people and for the peo-

ple." In this faith they lived and in it many of them died. The

honor of their achievement is this country and its institutions

which we enjoy. The fruit of their efforts is our glorious herit-

age.

Did time permit I might tell in fuller detail how those men

braved the dangers of the forest and subdued it to the uses

of an advanced civilization; how civil order prevailed even be-

fore there was any semblance of organized power by which the

various functions of government could be exercised. Such was

in fact their self-governing capacity that, with none of the ordi-

nary appliances for the maintenance of private and public rights

they held them secure and gave of their scanty means for their

support. Jealousy of power and envy of the superiority were

subordinated to considerations of public and private good, in-

suring submission to laws intended only for their own happiness.

Not only did these men do battle with the forces of nature

and establish a stable government, they fought and destroyed

the savage tribes, their predecessors in the ownership and occu-

pancy of the soil, without a thought of any effort at "benevo-

lent assimilation." This latter was by no means the least of

their achievements. From Massasoit, King Philip and Pow-

hatan down to Ouray, Sitting Bull and Geronimo every gen-

eration and every nation of Indians has produced men of mark.

The Narragansets, the Pequods and the Iroquois are extinct,

King Philip, Powhatan, Red Jacket, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Logan,

Black Hawk, Cochise, Captain Jack, Sitting Bull, a grim pro-

cession of fearless and indomitable heroes, many of them men

of striking statesmanship and diplomacy, have stalked across

the pages of our history proving their humanity by leaving

behind them one more trail of blood. They were forest bred;

reared in the shadow of our mountains, their familiar music the

thunder of our cataracts, their daily haunts our forests, our

lakes and our rivers.

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.       9

It is this American climate, this teeming soil and this life

giving sunshine of ours which we must rely on to make and

continue us a great, free, liberty loving and God fearing people

that produced the race we have supplanted, whose deeds of

valor should place them beside the Saxon and the Greek in

history.

What was the secret of this success against such fearful

odds? Who were the men who wrought the mighty change?

What was their origin, their equipment, their inspiration?

We shall see that they and those who came after them were

allied in blood with all the older states and with all the civilized

nations of the world. Drawn here by that mysterious affinity

of our better nature for truth and freedom, no word is spoken

n any civilized language but we may claim in it a family in-

erest, see in it a family tie.

Much has been said and written about the great advantage

of purity of race in the organization of society and government,

ut it is the unquestioned lesson of history that those nations

which have become most powerful are composed of mixed races.

cross-breeding produces the best results. It fortifies, rein-

forces, improves the stock, and mental development is most

robust and practical in the sound body. Given a proper climate,

and a kindly soil as we have here and the conditions are pro-

uctive of the best results. In fact, the descendants of emi-

rants, under favorable physical, moral and intellectual condi-

tions are always physically, mentally and morally stronger than

lose from whom they sprung. Every native of this soil was

the descendant of some man more enterprising, more energetic,

ore venturesome than his neighbor who thought it best to

ay at home.

In Ohio we had some five centers of original settlement by

people of different origin. At this point known as the "Symmes

purchase," lying between the Great and the Little Miami Rivers,

e pioneers were chiefly from New Jersey, with a dash of

uguenot, Swedish, Holland and English blood. East of us

the Virginia Military District, with its center at Chillicothe,

first settlers came principally from Virginia and were of

English lineage, with a tincture of Norman and Cavalier. At

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10        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Marietta, the first settlement in Ohio, the pioneers were from

Massachusetts and other New England states. Their fathers

were English Protestants who emigrated thither in search of

religious freedom. In the century and a half since their migra-

tion from Europe they had drawn widely apart from the Vir-

ginians and the other colonies and acquired an individualism all

their own. On the "Seven Ranges," so called, extending from

the Ohio River north to the fortieth parallel, being the first

of the surveys and sales of public lands in Ohio, the first set-

tlers were of Pennsylvania, some of the Quaker stock introduced

by William Penn, others of Dutch, Irish, Scotch and Scotch-

Irish. On the Western Reserve they were of Puritan stock,

from Connecticut, with center at Cleveland. West of the "Seven

Ranges" to the Scioto River and south of the Greenville Treaty

line was the United States Military Reservation, where the first

settlers were holders of bounty land warrants for military service

and they came from all the states and from beyond the sea.

Longfellow says of the Puritan colony: "God sifted three

kingdoms to find the seed for this planting."

He seems to have sifted every civilized nation to find seed

for the planting of Ohio and the contiguous territory.

These centers were necessarily isolated, self-centered, and

had all they could do in their struggle for subsistence and their

battle for life. They occupied those positions with all the pecu-

liar prejudices and predilections of men of different races and

conditions, though without animosity, because engaged in a

common cause. A majority of them had taken part in the revo-

lutionary war. This gave them courage to meet the difficulties

of pioneer life, in which they were almost constantly in a state

of war until the peace of 1815. Many of them took part in the

campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne. More than a

thousand had lost their lives in those campaigns and in isolated

attacks from Indians. Every man had his rifle and knew how

to use it. Neither idleness nor luxury sapped their energies.

Their food was coarse but plentiful and healthful. The self-

reliance and energy, so necessary to the equipment of the pio-

neer, and which these men possessed in an eminent degree, were

intensified and developed by the sense of the responsibility which

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.      11

 

political democracy compels and the sense of hopefulness which

social democracy imparts to the humblest and the most obscure.

The wars in which they had engaged, like all wars, were

wasting horrors, but they were not without their compensations.

Few men go to war for a great principle, or in defense of their

homes, whose character is not strengthened. They become more

sturdy, more self-reliant, more self-respecting, more courageous,

and these qualities affected those communities to a noticeable

degree.

In the war of 1812-15 the soldiers came together from all

those communities in a common cause and the barriers of preju-

dice were broken down. They rapidly coalesced socially, be-

came better acquainted, more homogeneous and the result was

more frequent intermarriages.

Of course none of the leading men of the time of Fort

Washington were natives of the soil of Ohio. Governor Tiffin

was English; Governor Worthington was of Virginia; Governor

Meigs was from Connecticut; Governor Morrow was from

Pennsylvania; General Harrison was from Virginia; Governor

McArthur was from New York; General Cass was from New

Hampshire.

The different elements which we have seen constituting the

population at that time, elsewhere in the older communities

widely separated by racial and religious prejudices, social rank

or otherwise, here were mingled, acting and reacting upon each

other, so that each community presented in itself an accurate

epitome of the national life. So that men of that time illustrate

the operation of the peculiar forces that wrought their trans-

formation.

Following the peace of 1815, the influence of the West,

twenty years later to become so masterful in the national life,

began to be felt in the national councils, through the native

element.

It is noticeable how the men of the East, accustomed to

rule in public affairs, stood aghast at the intrusion; how the staid

and formal conservatism of the older states was startled at the

impending change which they saw setting in from the West,

and which they looked upon as the decadence, the beginning of

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12       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

a permanent demoralization of our politics. However much

men may now deprecate some of the methods of that rude pe-

riod; however much they may regret that the stately dignity

and method of the Adamses, the Madisons and the Jeffersons

could not have been projected into the aggressive virility of the

West, we now know that the change was not a decadence, but

a renaissance, great and perilous as may have been some of its

crudities and errors. These men showed themselves possessed

of that wonderful assimilative faculty peculiar to the English

stock.

A recent writer endeavors to show that the pioneer work

for every race has been done, not by the ablest and most cul-

tured, but by the strongest and the most enterprising, and this

may explain the masterful influence of those stalwart and vigor-

ous pioneers.

The old order was done away with. A new Nation had

made its entrance on the world's stage and it must be freed

from every trammel of Old World glamour and superstition.

The men thus produced were best equipped for the task and

though they may have entered upon the work with much of

the daring and recklessness of youth, they were determined to

work out for the Nation a destiny of its own. In short our

institutions were born of our necessities, which should inspire

faith in their endurance.

It was a day of experiments, of risks, yet there was nothing

but good at the basis of the new plan in the hearts of those

whose duty it became to exploit it. As in Verona long ago,

"the weakest went to the wall," but the stalwart survivors waxed

strong and took courage under the invigorating tonic of danger

on a virgin soil and in the broad light of a new day. Out of

the apparent confusion they builded a structure founded on the

natural rights of the people without a pretext of mystery or

miracle.

Recovering from the war of 1812-15 the native element

began to assert itself in public affairs, the legislature reflecting

the character of the people, at once took advanced ground in

favor of free schools, canals, roads and official honesty. The

progress of two generations thereafter showed enormous ad-

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.      13

 

vances in all directions; in wealth, in numbers, in intelligence,

but the tremendous uprising of 1861, when 320,000 of Ohio's stal-

wart sons rallied to the support of our imperiled nation, showed

that our people had taken to heart the lessons of their fathers

and had not become effeminate.

And to-day, when our trade interests are reaping the benefit

of that perfect freedom, political and conventional; that freedom

of the individual to work out his own destiny unhampered by

government control, or by considerations of caste, the results

of the efforts of the fathers which have given us hope, ambition,

purpose and practical energy, in contradistinction to our com-

mercial rivals who are still under the dwarfing influence of

caste, resulting in slow progress in the adoption of improved

methods, we see additional evidence that we are not deterior-

ating, but still profiting by the lessons of that early time.

It is the conclusion of many careful students that a democ-

racy is the ultimate evolution of government, and it has been

well said that there is nothing beyond it but anarchy. It there-

fore follows that it is here that restless and desperate men will

make their stand in their great struggle to live without govern-

ment.

We should therefore bear in mind that this evolution is of

God, and that in the future as in the past He will continue to

so order that those institutions alone which are founded and

administered in justice and equity will be favored in the final

consummation. Our only safety lies in the maintenance of that

spirit and influence without which no spot of earth has yet been

found fit for decent human occupancy.

In studying the different steps in our progress it is inter-

esting, even startling, to observe that no great human want

sprang up without the means being at hand to supply it. No

sooner had we acquired the Louisiana Territory than Fulton was

ready with his steamboat to explore its ten thousand miles of

navigable rivers and transport to their banks and teeming savan-

nahs a busy and enterprising people, and we became the greatest

steamboat nation of the world.

No sooner had the restless and wandering spirit of the old

Saxon and Teuton seized upon the modern German and Celt

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14        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

than the mighty arms of this great valley were open to receive

them and we became the greatest agricultural nation of the

world.

No sooner had the remote trading posts of our western

rivers grown into towns than the vast spaces of intervening

prairie and forest were spanned with railroads, and when steam

became too slow for the oncoming tide of progress Morse was

ready with his invention and the lightning of Heaven became

their swift messengers. Thus were our distant Mexican ces-

sions bound together with bands and nerves of steel and we

became the greatest railroad and telegraph Nation.

And if I may be permitted to invade the domain of prophecy

I will venture the prediction that our recent insular acquisitions

will as certainly make us the greatest naval Nation of the world.

So that what at the outset of our recent involuntary expansion,

appeared a difficult and dangerous problem will as surely

strengthen us where alone we are weak.

The lessons we have been considering, however, relate to

the tests of adversity, of sacrifice, of hardship, but the tests of

success being more subtle, and more insidious, and more search-

ing, and this is a day of phenomenal prosperity. The financial

center of the world is shifting to this country. We have a new

earth, new forces in operation and a new type of man, who is

rapidly reorganizing the world.

Nations decay and the path of history is strewn with their

ruins, but where a nation is built on such broad and deep

foundations and is administered by the worthy sons of the ad-

mixture of all the Anglo-Saxon stocks I predict that its deca-

dence will be in the far distant future. There is no limit to our

prosperity and welfare if we are true to these lessons and these

institutions. In short, we have nothing to fear except from our-

selves.

Seeing the efficiency of the women of the Society of the

Mayflower, of the Colonial Dames, of the Daughters of the Revo-

lution, of the Children of the Revolution and of the War of

1812 in the erection of this monument, and in other enterprises

of similar character the question has been asked: "What have

women to do with such functions?" "Their office is of peace,

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.      15

 

of home, of family and can have nothing to do with wars and

the stirring events which attend the life and work of the soldier

and the pioneer. That war and its attendant horrors are 'the

white man's burden,' of which women know nothing and with

which they can have nothing to do."

Nay! Nay! War has been the white woman's burden since

long before Persian and Greek fought at Salamis and Marathon.

Every forward movement of the race where sacrifice and hard-

ship were to be incurred has been sanctified by woman's tears.

Every footprint along the bloody trail of civilization has mixed

with it the blood that has oozed from the hearts of sad eyed

women whose burdens, though quietly and patiently borne,

were none the less hard than those of the men behind the guns.

So that any recognition of the heroism, the sacrifices and the

suffering of those times would be incomplete if it failed to men-

tion, with deepest respect and highest honor that glorious rear

guard which, through days of toil and nights of horror and

anxiety kept the home swept and garnished against the coming

of the highpriest; kept the little flock safe folded against the

coming of the shepherd; kept the gaunt wolf from the door.

The mother, the wife, the sister, the daughter, the sweet-

heart of that time, who

 

"With no one but her secret God

To know the pain that weighed upon her,

Shed holy blood as e'er the sod

Received upon the field of honor."

 

Let the memory of that grand army of noble women ever

be held in veneration wherever men assemble to commemorate

heroic deeds.

Monuments not only contribute to our civilization, they

mark its progress and degree. No nation can afford to lose

its monuments, and works of art. They keep green the memory

of patriotic services and of personal virtues. They have always

been potent factors in the darkest ages to prevent society from

lapsing into barbarism or falling into decay.

Were the monuments of Greece and Rome destroyed even

now the world would feel the loss, not only to learning and the

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16       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

arts, but to virtue and patriotism. It nearly concerns the honor

and the welfare of our people that this spot be marked by some

fitting structure which should recall the history and inspire all

who look upon it.

History informs us of no people who ever attained and con-

served permanent power, or achieved greatness who neglected

to reverence their ancestors and who did not demonstrate such

reverence by fitting testimonials.

Thus we have erected and this day dedicated this monument

that it may tell to those who come after us of our gratitude

to those who through hardship and sacrifice wrought out our

independence.

Those who have contributed to this work represent every

war in which our people have engaged, from King Philip to

the recent war with Spain, and every race from which this Nation

sprang. They are proud of their ancestry; of their deeds of

daring and of suffering; of their success at government build-

ing; of their virtues and their talents, and they have builded

that pride into this humble monument. Its construction has

been a labor of love, and it will stand as an evidence of the

lasting influence of those forces which wrought our mighty

success.

Long may our Nation stand the champion of human rights

the exemplar of human freedom, and the advocate and repre-

sentative of the brotherhood of man, the federation of the na-

tions and the peace of the world.

 

Hail Columbia -by the band of the 1st Reg. O. N. G.

 

Mr. Jenney said, prefatory to the unveiling:

In 1791 the Second Regiment, U. S. I., was stationed in

Fort Washington. It was with General St. Clair in his cam-

paign, and was a part of General Wayne's army in his expedition

against the Miamis. It participated in the War of 1812, in the

Mexican War, in the War of 1861-5, was in Cuba during the

war just closed, and then in the Philippines, where two of its

battalions are now; its other battalion recently returned from

he Philippines and is now stationed at Fort Thomas under the

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.       17

 

command of Maj. J. R. Clagett. We have with us to-day

troops from that regiment, and after 110 years have intervened,

representatives of that regiment are again standing within the

lines of Fort Washington. The Second has always done, and

always will do, its duty wherever it may be placed, and we most

heartily welcome those from that regiment, and from Fort

Thomas with us here to-day.

Those who have not attempted to locate historical places

cannot appreciate how difficult it is to accurately fix their sites

after the lapse of a few years. A number of persons have, at

different times, attempted to definitely fix the site of Fort Wash-

ington within the reservation. Mrs. Peirce J. Cadwalader, a

member of the committee from the Cincinnati Chapter of the

Daughters of the American Revolution, found a clue which,

investigated by Mr. Robert Ralston Jones, a member of the

committee from the Sons of the Revolution, with much original

investigation on his part, resulted in definitely settling the bound-

ary lines of the fort. In recognition of her discovering this

clue, Mrs. Cadwalader has been chosen to unveil the monument,

and she will be assisted by Maj. J. R. Clagett, of the Second

U. S. I., the regiment stationed in the fort in 1791.

 

Unveiling of the monument by Mrs. Pierce J. Cadwalader, assisted by

Maj. J. R. Claggett, 2nd U. S. I.

 

Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, by the band of 1st Reg. 0. N. G.

Mr. Jenney said, in presenting the monument to the City

of Cincinnati.

There are a few points in the neighborhood to which your

attention is especially called.

The angle in the house line on the other side of the street

s practically the center of the fort where stood the flag-staff.

After the fort was abandoned, the United States divided

and sold the land in the reservation to different persons, and

he jurisdiction over that land then passed to the City of Cin-

cinnati, and that is the second prominent jurisdictional period in

he history of the land upon which the fort was located. The

Vol. X--2

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18       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

house No. 429 was built and occupied by Dr. Daniel Drake,

the pioneer in medicine here, and the most prominent and dis-

tinguished man in his profession west of the Alleghenies during

his life. In the north wall of the parlor of this house, between

the windows and close to the ceiling, is a medallion portrait of

General Washington, embedded in the wall, modeled, it is said,

by a resident artist.

No. 423 was built and occupied by General Jared Mansfield,

the First Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, and

afterwards owned and occupied by the Hon. Rufus King, who

died a few years ago.

The Lorraine building covers the site of Mrs. Trollope's Ba-

zaar, spoken of in Anthony Trollope's North America, and it

covers the southwest angle of the fort.

When Maj. John Doughty, in 1789, selected the site of

Fort Washington the surrounding territory was really a wilder-

ness. A few persons had settled in the neighborhood upon the

"Symmes Purchase," and the principal object in establishing

the fort was to protect them. The number of settlers rapidly

increased in this and other eastern parts of the territory, and

thirteen years after the establishing of the fort the State of Ohio

was carved out of the Northwest Territory and admitted into

the Union. When Fort Washington was established it was a

frontier post, but since its establishment the western boundary

of the United States has been extended to the Pacific Ocean

and the jurisdiction of this government has been extended across

the Pacific and over Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines.

The monument before you the patriotic societies of Ohio

now present to the City of Cincinnati as locating the site of Fort

Washington, which was built when this section of the country

was a wilderness, to protect those who had crossed the moun-

tains and floated down the Ohio River to settle here. May it

be a reminder to us, and to those who come after us, of our

indebtedness to the brave pioneers who opened this section of

the country to civilization; and may it increase our love for this,

our country, which extends its protection over its citizens where-

ever they may be.

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Monument on the Site of Fort Washington.       19

 

We had expected that our Mayor, Mr. Fleischmann, would

be with us to-day, but he is unavoidably absent, and is repre-

sented by the Hon. Charles J. Hunt, the Solicitor of this city.

Will you now, Mr. Hunt, as the representative of the City of

Cincinnati and on its behalf, accept this monument from the

patriotic societies of Ohio which have erected it?

Hon. Charles J. Hunt, in accepting the monument on be-

half of the City of Cincinnati, said:

Mr. Chairman:-The efforts of your committee deserve not

only appreciation and grateful acceptance, but also emulation

by the authorities and citizens of the City of Cincinnati. This

monument, marking a place of central interest in our local his-

tory, will teach us to look upon our city not only as a structure

of brick, stone and iron, as a convenient place of abode and

of business, but also a city with a local history, full of event-

ful and even romantic interest.

As we love our friends, not only for what they are, but for

what they have been and have done, so we will love our city,

not only for what it is, but for its past. Its present ministers

to our physical and intellectual necessities, but its past appeals

to our sentiments, without which, in their various forms, home

is but a habitation, family but kinship, and country but a locality.

In the older states and countries, places of historical interest

are to the student of history replete with the life and action

of long ago. So this spot, marked by this miniature block

house in stone, suggestive in its very form of the perils of the

frontiersman, will present to our mental visions scenes of the

life which centered here more than one hundred years ago.

Protected from the savage foe by a few widely separated forts

such as Fort Washington, the frontiersmen, in less than a life-

time, dotted a continent with thriving settlements, now mighty

cities.

It is natural that this monument should be erected by the

societies represented by your committee. Your societies repre-

sent every important epoch and crisis in American history.

They are representative of the men and women who stamped

their characteristics upon the age in which they lived, and to

whom we owe the origin of almost all distinctive American

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20        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

thought, as well as that fostering influence and patriotism which

molded and preserved our institutions through the stress of

partisan and sectional strife. No sacrifice of time, labor, even of

life itself, was too great for them to make in behalf of their faith,

their principles and their country. To such men and women

we owe to-day all that makes glorious the name "America."

Of such men and women were the leading pioneers who wrested

this locality from the Red men's dominion, and as from a society

such as those your committee represents, Cincinnati received

its very name, it is eminently proper that from you to-day Cin-

cinnati should receive this monument, which, as often as we

pass this way, will compel us to pay tribute to the American pio-

neer.

In the absence of Mayor Fleischmann, and on behalf of

the City of Cincinnati, I accept this monument, and I can assure

you that the gratitude of our citizens will be expressed in its

future care and preservation, and in the increased love for our

city which will result from this constant reminder of our city's

interesting past.

 

America, by the band of the 1st Reg. 0. N. G.

Bugle Call, "Retreat," by the buglers of 2nd U. S. L

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