Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 395
OHIO IN EARLY HISTORY AND DURING THE
REVOLUTION.
BY E. 0. RANDALL, PH. B.,
L. L. M.
Secretary Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society; President
Ohio Society Sons of the American
Revolution.
No territory, in the new world at least,
perhaps not in the
old, presents so much of interest, at
once to the archaeologist
and the historian, as the inland portion
of America now and for
a century, designated as the State of
Ohio. Ohio, or the land
thus labeled, has been the arena for the
activities more or less
pronounced of two prehistoric races. The
good book records
that the earth was created, lifted from
chaos into form,
when the morning and evening was the
third day. We there-
fore know that Ohio was born on
Wednesday, but we have no
calendar at hand to tell us the month or
even the year. Scientists
guardedly remark that the mundane origin
which includes
Ohio was simply "eons ago." At
subsequent periods there were
various "doings" of a geologic
character and then this fair state,
with other sections of the Northwest,
was submerged under
fields of congealed water and the
original "ice man" had a mo-
nopoly of surface affairs. Then nature
repented, grew sympathetic
and warmed up and there was a great
"melt" and the hills peeped
forth, the valleys grew green and the
streams rippled and ran
their courses through the glad earth. At
this point science,
ever nimble and wily, takes a sort of
hop, skip and jump, and
suggests the ice man may have been
succeeded by the "midden"
man or shell people; but he is merely a
"perhaps" in this locality;
if he did ply his game, he left no chips
and his entry and exit
are undefined though his pet animal, the
mastodon, is occa-
sionally discovered in skeleton form,
beneath the Buckeye soil.
Doubtless the next tenant, and possibly
the first one we really
feel sure about, was the mysterious
mound builder. Ohio must
have been his favorite field, for it is
dotted over, as is no other
396 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
state in the union, with thousands of
his relics, many massive
and magnificent, well preserved
monuments of his existence and
primitive life. He left no written
record, but he made his in-
delible mark in graves, village sites
and earthen structures of reli-
gious or military significance,
"silent witnesses of a busy but
unfathomable antiquity" that
unmistakably betoken an ambitious
and strenuous life.
As the mound builder seemed to recede from
the haunts
of life, the great savage, known as the
Indian, came into view.
Somewhere between these two peoples, the
moundmen and the
redmen, is to be located the line
between the prehistoric and the
historic. To this wild and picturesque
Indian Ohio was a chosen
hunting and camping ground; here were
his great rallying cen-
ters; many of his numerous nations and
tribes wandered over
its extent, or battled with each other
for tribal supremacy and in
concert or singly combated their common
enemy the pale face.
In Ohio the great Indian heroes,
Pontiac, Cornstalk, Little Tur-
tle, Logan and last and greatest of all,
Tecumseh, contended
for the rights and preservation of their
people. It was here, as
nowhere else, between the majestic Ohio
and the great lakes that
the terminal, tragic contest took place
between the retreating
savagery of the forest and the
advancing, invincible civilization
of Europe. Again the two great branches
of this European
transplantation, the Latin or French,
and the Anglo-Saxon or
British, transferred their interminable
antagonism of the early
and middle centuries for superiority on
the old continent to the
newly discovered world and the soil of
Ohio was the scene of the
last bitter encounter. Then came the
reckoning between the
divisions of the Anglo-Saxon, the
English and the American.
Ohio has thus been the greatest battle
ground of American his-
tory and one of the chief battle grounds
of all history. Her
inhabitants have listened in dire dismay
to the war whoop of
many different savage nations and have
been subservient to the
banners of France, England and the
United States. There is
no historical narrative comparable to
it.
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 397
UNDER THE FRENCH FLAG.
The adventurous and chivalrous French
first claimed Ohio.
Under the patronage of the elegant and
ambitious Francis I,
who, as the politicians phrase it,
"viewed with alarm" the dis-
coveries the English and Spanish were
making in the new world,
Jacques Cartier (in 1534) navigated the
unknown waters of the
broad St. Lawrence. Others followed till
Champlain (1603)
"the father of New France,"
was the first white man to look
across the waters of Lake Huron. He
planted the colony of
Quebec (1608), and in 1620 was appointed
by the King (Louis
XIII) Governor of Canada. Then followed
rapidly the western
water discoveries (1618-42), and the
navigations of Lakes On-
tario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and
Superior by Champlain's asso-
ciates or successors, as Brule, Nicolet
and Joliet. These were
the early days of the Jesuit Missions,
and the straggling and
struggling settlements of New France
along the great water
ways from the St. Lawrence to the
Straits of Mackinac and be-
yond. The Indian contested the
encroachment of the French,
but the intrepid fur trader and the
zealous missionary were not
to be dislodged, though the war of the
savage with the civilized
races was to continue for a century and
a half. The enterprising
French merchant like Radisson and the
dauntless missionary
like Marquette, moved on into the
trackless West while the
English colonies, content with religious
freedom were growing
apace along the Atlantic coast. New
France occupied the St.
Lawrence and the Great Lakes territory,
but farther west the
pious priest and the pushing peltry
trader ventured; across the
lakes and by portage to the head waters
of the Wisconsin river,
down which they floated "till
caught and whirled along by the
onrushing Mississippi," then
accomplishing a discovery that in
the words of Bancroft "changed the
destinies of the Nations."
Parkman graphically recounts how La
Salle in the Griffin
sailed (1679-81) the waters of Lake Erie
bearing "the royal
commission to establish a line of forts
along the great lakes
whereby to hold for France all that rich
far country," and pass-
ing on through Lakes Huron and Michigan,
descended the Illi-
nois river and the Mississippi to the
mouth, naming the great
398 Ohio
Arch. and His. Society Publications.
valley through which he passed
Louisiana, and claiming it for
his sovereign, Le Grand Monarque, Louis
XIV. East of the
Mississippi all the land included in the
triangle of territory from
Quebec west along the lakes to the head
waters of the Mississippi,
thence along its course south to the
Mexican Gulf, was claimed
by France, all except a strip of land
lying along the Atlantic
coast and extending scarcely a hundred
miles back into the wil-
derness, in which the claim of England
for its colonies was
allowed to remain undisputed.
Thus the territory we call Ohio by right
of discovery and
occupation was the property of that
nation whose banner bore
the Lillies of the Bourbons. Meanwhile
Spain had made land-
ings and settlements about the Gulf of
Mexico and along the
Florida coast. Spain set up feeble and
tentatious claims to
the territory between the Mississippi
and the Atlantic, extend-
ing indefinitely north into the province
of France. But no at-
tempt was made to make good this claim.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH COMPETITION.
All this while the Anglo-Saxon, the
inveterate foe of the
Latin, was slowly but surely getting a
firm foothold on the rug-
ged coast of the Atlantic and preparing
to cross swords with
his old time enemy for the conquest of
the West. The Alle-
ghany Mountains were not to be his
western limitation. The
Anglo-Saxon has always been for ample
expansion. The An-
glo-Saxon has always been a land grabber
and a land holder, and
in extenuation be it said, a land
improver. In the year 1498,
more than a third of a century before
Jacques Cartier's little
vessel plowed her way up the broad St.
Lawrence, and before
Columbus had made his last voyage, the
Cabots (John and Se-
bastian, under Henry VII) touched the
continent of North
America and sailed along the shores from
Labrador to the Ches-
apeake. In 1607 the Jamestown
(Va.) Colony became the first
permanent English settlement in America.
This was just one
year before (1608) the foundation of
Quebec as the capital of
the New French Empire. It was a neck and
neck race between
the Gaul and the Teuton for American
stakes. Under its char-
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 399
ter of 1609 the Jamestown company
"became possessed in abso-
lute property of lands extending along
the sea coast two hun-
dred miles north and the same distance
south from Old Point
Comfort, and into the land throughout
from sea to sea." In
1620
came the memorable Pilgrims under the
charter of the
Plymouth Company, by which had been
conveyed "all the lands
between the fortieth and forty-eighth
degrees of North Lati-
tude." It is familiar history how
other colonial settlements fol-
lowed under various forms of charter and
patent, how many of
these charters called for land from the
Atlantic to the unknown
limit on the West, how these colony
claims often conflicted and
overlapped. The English settlers in the
Atlantic colonies began
to look with longing eyes to the vast
expanse beyond the Alle-
ghenies, to that domain claimed by
France. The pilgrim had his
keen puritanic eye on the Frenchmen.
Virginia seemed to be the
center that attracted the most
enterprising English colonists and
she sent forth the most venturesome
settlers into the great north-
west, for Virginia settlements were on
the frontier lines of west-
ward pioneer emigration. Virginia's
claim of territory extended
west to the Mississippi, and north to a
line covering most of
what is now Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
The territory between
La Belle Riviere, as the French
poetically called the Ohio, and
the waters of the placid Erie, was to be
the storm center of the
conflict of the two great races over
their respective claims, a
vast conflict that was in its
consequences to determine, not merely
the career of these two peoples, but the
destiny of the world.
FIRST OHIO COMPANY.
By the year 1748 the plucky and sturdy
Pennsylvanians and
the belligerent and brave Virginians had
worked their way well
up to the eastern foot hills of the last
range of mountains sepa-
rating them from the promised land. The
time for the Eng-
lish colonists to scale the great
mountains and invade the coun-
try claimed by the enemy, had been slow
in coming, but it was
sure to come. This year (1748) the first
Ohio Company, con-
sisting of prominent Virginians and
Marylanders, was organized.
The avowed purpose of this company was a
real estate venture;
400 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
to speculate in western lands and carry
on trade with the Indians.
It does not appear to have contemplated
the settlement of a new
colony. The company obtained from the
English crown a con-
ditional grant of 500,000 acres of land
in the Ohio Valley, to
be located mainly between the
Monongahela and Kanawha rivers.
BIENVILLE'S (FRENCH) EXPEDITION.
The French proposed to head off this
invasion of their ter-
ritory by the Ohio Company. They decided
to occupy the Ohio
Valley in force. Preliminary to active
military operations, the
Chevalier Celoron De Bienville, at the
command of Gallissoniere,
then governor of Canada and
Commander-in-Chief of New
France, was sent to take formal
possession of the Ohio, concili-
ate the Indians and thwart the English.
Bienville, with a band
of more than two hundred French soldiers
and boatmen, pro-
ceeded to the Alleghany river and in
birch canoes floated down
the Ohio, stopping here and there to
treat with the Indians and
to tack upon some tree, or to bury at
the mouth of some tribu-
tary, a lead plate inscribed with the
flower-de-luce and bearing
a "nota bene" to the effect
that the French thus posted and filed
their title to the Ohio river and of all
those rivers that flow into
it, as far as their sources. In the
vernacular of the day, the
descendants of the ancient Gauls were
asserting a "tinplate"
monopoly of the country. Bienville
descended the Ohio as far
as the Miami then cut across the country
by the Miami and
Maumee, thence by Lake Erie back to
Montreal. His report to
the French governor was not assuring.
Bienville had found
English traders scattered over the Ohio
Valley and the Indians
generally well disposed to the English.
He found an English
trading stockade near the present site
of Piqua and another near
the mouth of the Scioto. Johnny Bull was
not so slow, he was
in very conspicuous evidence.
GIST'S (ENGLISH) EXPEDITION.
In order to checkmate this exploring and
"claiming with
confidence" expedition of
Bienville, the Ohio Company (1750)
sent Christopher Gist down the northern
side of the Ohio, with
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 401
instructions "to examine the
western country as far as the Falls
of the Ohio (Louisville), to look for a
large tract of good land;
to mark the passes in the mountains, to
trace the courses of the
rivers; to count the water falls; to
observe the strength of the
Indian nations." The Ohio Company
was the original western
real estate boomer. Gist made the first
English exploration of
Southern Ohio of which we have any
definite detailed report.
Gist and his companions, among whom was
the Irish Indian
agent, George Crogham, followed the old
Indian trail from Fort
Duquesne (Pittsburg) to the Shawanese
town of Old Chillicothe
on the Scioto. They camped at the
"great swamp," bed of the
reservoir, now Buckeye Lake, thence
proceeded to the town of
Tasightwi, (Piqua) on the Miami; then
the capital of the pow-
erful western Indian confederacy and
perhaps the strongest
Indian town on the continent. Gist
returned by the Miami to
the Ohio, thence home by way of
Kentucky. The exploring
tramps of Bienville and Gist were of
thrilling interest. They
met Scotch Irish Indian traders in the
deepest recesses of the
forest. Briton thrift knew no obstacle
or opposition. These
preliminary outpostings through the
primeval forest precluded the
racial encounter. The governor general of Canada ordered
Bienville, with sufficient soldiery to
proceed from Detroit into
the Ohio country and expell the English
traders. At the same
time General Duquesne was dispatched
from Montreal with a
force of French troops to establish
posts at Presque Isle (Erie)
on Lake Erie, Venango on the Allegheny
river and other points
necessary to cut off the approach of the
English from the East.
LOGSTOWN CONFERENCE.
Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, a member
of the Ohio
Company, saw the importance of counter
work. He resolved to
send a messenger to ascertain the
numbers and intentions of the
French and to deliver to their
commanding officer an imperative
remonstrance against the Gallic
occupation of the Ohio Valley.
George Washington, then but twenty-one,
but already familiar
with frontier life, was the envoy of
that message. Washington,
Vol. X- 26
402 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
escorted by Gist, proceeded to Logstown,
the Seneca Indian vil-
lage, eighteen miles below the present
site of Pittsburg, and there
met (1753) the Half King of the six
nations and the French
officer, St. Pierre, who represented
Duquesne. It was a curious
council. The Indian chiefs claimed the
country in question as
theirs; they had ordered the French
away; the English, they
protested, had no better right, and both
must cease "to poach on
their preserves;" "the land
belongs neither to the one nor the
other; but the Great Being allowed it to
be a place of residence
for us," was the plaintive and
pathetic plea of the intuitive In-
dian. The French reply to the Indian
was, that the Indians had
no right of possession to the Ohio
country, as the French had
taken possession of it before the
present Indian claimants had
moved in, and that the occupant Indian
tribes were often at
war with themselves over their
respective possessions. The
English reply to the Indian was, that
the Iroquois who had long
established rights by prowess, conquest
and occupation, had in
various treaties ceded control of this
land to the English. The
Iroquois had conquered the Eries
(Northern Ohio) as early as
1656. Particularly in 1744 had the
Iroquois deputies at Lan-
caster, Pa., confirmed to the English
the territory "beyond the
mountains" in the Ohio Valley.
Again at Albany in 1748, the
bonds binding the Six Nations and the
English together were
renewed and strengthened, and in this
the Miami Ohio Indians
had united. Well may we dwell upon this
singular and unique
historic episode. Three great and
powerful races as disputants
in a dramatic and eventful scene. The
savage of North America,
the child of the unbroken forest
"as free as nature first made
man," and the latter day Latin,
wishful of the revival of the
faded laurels of centuries of
conquest-the Latin whose glories
and triumphs reached back for two
thousand years into the days
when the gods sat on Olympus; and the
Anglo-Saxon scion of
the Teuton, that race that rose across
the Alps and from the frigid
fields of the North, like the thundering
Thor they worshipped,
poured forth with irresistable front,
rude warriors of bygone
ages, to trample beneath their feet
"the grandeur that was
Rome." And now these two races,
foes from days of fable, once
again in the Western wilds of the newly
discovered world, stand
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 403
face to face while the redman halts
trembling between. The
conference came to naught. There was no
alternative. Wash-
ington reported results to the Lords of
trade in London. They
addressed to the governors of the
colonies the advice to congre-
gate and consult upon united action
against the usurpation of
the French. The Colonist Convention for
the proposed purpose
was held at Albany, June, 1754. That
convention failed of its
object, but was of paramount
significance to the colonists be-
cause it was the occasion in which all
unwittingly the mother
country had given her American children
a suggestive lesson
in self government. Benjamin Franklin,
who was present, con-
tributed to the assembly a well devised
plan for definite union
of the colonies under a common governor
to be appointed by the
crown; a plan adopted by the convention
but rejected by both
the colonies and the crown; by the
American colonies because it
smacked too much of monarchal
prerogatives, and by the British
ministry because there was in it too
much of democracy.
UNDER THE ENGLISH FLAG.
The guage of war alone was to settle the
alleged rights of
the various claimants. The Indian was to
be ground between the
other two and a great historian says,
"the issue at the opening
of the struggle was, which of the two
languages should be the
mother tongue of the future millions of
the great West-
whether the Romanic or the Teutonic race
should form the seed
of its people." But the question
soon became wider than the
West. France at this critical moment
"had two heads-one
among the snows of Canada and one among
the cane-brakes of
Louisiana; one communicating with the
world through the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, and the other through
the Gulf of Mexico."
These vital points were connected by a
chain of military and
trading posts, feeble and few and far
between, reaching through
the wilderness nearly three thousand
miles. Midway between
Canada and Louisiana lay the Valley of
the Ohio. If the Eng-
lish could seize that Valley they would,
Napoleonic like, sever
the enemy and cut French America
asunder. The French
forces with the St. Lawrence as a base,
began moving southward
404 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
in the direction of the Ohio; the
English forces, with the seaboard
as a base, began moving northward toward
the same destination.
These two moving lines converged at the
Monongahela near the
forks of the Ohio, July 9, 1755. The
French contingent con-
sisted of a motley mixture of Canadians
and Indians, a thousand
strong under De Beaujeu. The blustering
Braddock led fifteen
hundred British regulars. The cautious
advice of Washington,
who was on Braddock's staff, was
unheeded - the English were
ambuscaded and Braddock met a brave
death amid a disgraceful
defeat. That battle was the initiative
of Washington's career
and fame. This was the overture to the
French and Indian War.
It threw Europe even in a turmoil, and
led there to the Seven
Years' War (1756-63), and was, as
Macauley notes, the first and
only European war that began on this
side of the ocean. We
cannot follow the fortunes of this
interesting war. On the con-
tinent of the old world the contest was
far-reaching. Mr. Green,
the historian, speaking of Pitt, at this
time the genius of the
English cabinet, says: "He felt the
stake he was playing for was
something vaster than Britain's standing
among the powers of
Europe. Even while he backed Frederick
the Great in Germany,
his eye was not on the Weser, but on the
Hudson and the St.
Lawrence." As to America, the
conflict terminated September
13, 1759, when the armies of Montcalm
and Wolfe engaged on
the Heights of Abraham. John Fiske wrote
of it: "The tri-
umph of Wolfe works the greatest turning
point as yet discov-
erable in modern history." The next
year witnessed the capit-
ulation of Canada. By the treaty of
Paris (1763), in which the
results of the seven years' war were
adjusted, France yielded
to England her American possessions east
of the Mississippi and
north of the Great Lakes and along the
St. Lawrence. Louisiana
west of the Mississippi went to Spain,
which sided with France.
And Spain in turn ceded to England her
Florida possessions.
The British flag floated over the Ohio
Valley and the "tin plate
titles" of France were no longer
valid.
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 405
RESULTS OF BRITISH RULE.
The treaty of Paris signed, the policy
of English suprem-
acy began to change. The dominating
spirit of John Bull quickly
asserted itself. Previous to the war England had virtually
affirmed the principle that the
discoverer and occupant of the
coast was entitled to all the country
back of it; she had carried
her colonial boundaries across the
continent from sea to sea,
and as against France, had maintained
the original chartered
broad limits of her coast settlements.
On that principle the col-
onies stood her in good stead--they
fought France for them-
selves, as well as for the mother
country. Moreover the grant
to the Ohio Company in 1748 proved that
England then had no
thought of preventing over-mountain
settlements or of limiting
the western expansion of the colonies.
But now that France was
vanquished and no longer to be reckoned
with, it was different.
The courage and endurance the colonies
showed in the war had
both pleased and disturbed the mother
country; pleased her, be-
cause they contributed materially to the
defeat of France, and
disturbed her because they portended a
still larger growth of that
spirit of independence which had already
become somewhat em-
barrassing. The eagerness with which the
Virginians and Penn-
sylvanians were preparing to enter the
Ohio Valley in the years
1748-1754, told England what might be
expected now that the
whole country lay open to the
Mississippi. The home govern-
ment undertook to meet the occasion with
the royal proclamation
of October 7, 1763. In this arbitrary
decree his Royal Highness,
King of England, declared in substance
that the territory claimed
by France and now ceded to England,
should still be kept apart
from the colonies and regarded as under
the immediate domin-
ation of the crown, like the Province of
Quebec. The coast col-
onies were not to profit by this
"expansion" west save at the
"King's pleasure" - "the
lands beyond the heads or sources of
any of the rivers which fall into the
Atlantic were especially re-
served to the Indian tribes for hunting
grounds." In short-
spite of the charter or patent to the
contrary - the Valley of the
Ohio and the country south of the great
lakes was not open to
settlement or purchase "without
special leave and license." All
406 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
settlers located there were notified to
"move off." Trade with
the Indians was largely prohibited by
required licenses and re-
strictive regulations. Thus the
Northwest was won, not for
the colonies, but exclusively for the
crown. Peaceful relations
with the Indians, the extension of the
fur trade, and the safety
of the colonies, were the reasons
assigned for this policy. This
"first charter of the
northwest" meant the raising of a despotic
and military rule by Great Britain over
the newly acquired ter-
ritory and an embargo on western
emigration and extension. The
government thought this would placate
the Indian, as it prac-
tically assured him unmolested
continuance in his possessions.
But the unerring instinct of the
untutored savage read the royal
decree between the lines to mean a new
and strong mastery,
blindly dictated by powers beyond the
great waters. The Indians
rebelled against the new masters of
these domains and rose in
open hostility, beginning with Pontiac's
brilliant but futile con-
spiracy, which was met in turn (1764) by
Bradstreet's expedition
against the Indians on the lakes and
Bouquet's expedition to the
Muskingum, and his encounter with the
Seneca, Delaware, Shaw-
nee, Ottawa, Chippewa and Wyandotte
Indians. The policy of
expansion-exclusion by England was
stolidly and stupidly en-
forced. Plans and applications for new
colonies and settlement
rights in the Ohio Valley were
obstinately turned down by the
English council. This continued for
eleven years, till 1774; that
year was memorable for several odious
and decisive occurrences;
it was the year of the Boston (closing)
port bill, and the Massa-
chusetts bay bill; but no one of these
measures was more obnox-
ious to the colonists than the Quebec
act. This act among many
impolitic and offensive features, gave
certain religious rights to
the French inhabitants, in order to
propitiate and attach them
by interest and sympathy to England and
so to prevent their
making common cause with the colonists
in case trouble should
arise with the latter. But what more
directly touched and aroused
the English colonists, especially in the
West, was the extension,
in the act, of the Province of Quebec on
the North to Hudson
Bay, and on the Southwest and West to
the Ohio and Missis-
sippi. The Northwest was sealed as
peculiarly a province of the
crown. The bars were raised and fastened
as never before.
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 407
To the colonies the fertile lands along
and north of the Ohio
were an irresistible temptation. The
Quebec act meant mischief
for all parties. It was inevitable that
the colonies could not be
confined east of the Alleghenies. "Westward the course of
empire takes it way" is not mere
poetry; it is a national impulse.
OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION
IN OHIO.
The year 1774 marked the real opening of
the Revolution
in the West as in the East. On September
5, the first Continental
Congress met in Carpenter's Hall,
Philadelphia, in the opening
of which Patrick Henry, of Virginia,
struck the "key-note" by
saying: "British oppression has
effaced the boundaries of the
several colonies; the distinction
between Virginians, Pennsyl-
vanians and New Englanders is no more. I
am not a Virginian
but an American." The colonies were
nerving themselves for
the first blow. It was the westerner,
the frontiersman who
struck it. Moreover that blow was a
double dealing one. It hit
the arbitrary power of the oppressor
while it staggered his chief
ally, the supporting Indian. The peace
provoking Quakers of
Pennsylvania, no less than the
contentious Cavaliers of Virginia,
invaded, in no small numbers, the Ohio
country. Under the
Quebec act, these westward movers and
settlers had trespassed
upon the British domain, the reserved
lands of the Indian. Both
sides courted trouble. It came without
delay. One of the prin-
cipal provocations was the atrocious
massacre of the family of
the Mingo chief, Logan, by the intruding
whites. The border
Indian war burst aflame. The Earl of
Dunmore, colonial governor
of Virginia was a descendant of the
Stuarts and a Tory to the
core.
But he was tenacious of Virginia's prerogatives and
claimed her jurisdiction according to
her chartered limits. Vir-
ginia "applauded Dunmore when he
set at naught the Quebec
act and kept possession of the
government and right to grant
lands on the Scioto, the Wabash and the
Illinois." Dunmore was
for "war." He decided to raise
an army of three thousand to
be in two equal divisions; one to
consist of the more experienced
militiamen under himself, and the other
of backwoods and fron-
tiersmen under General Andrew Lewis.
While Lewis was mus-
408 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
tering his host of rude riflemen,
Dunmore with fifteen hundred
soldiers proceeded to Fort Pitt, thence
by flotilla down the Ohio
to the mouth of the Hockhocking, where
he built a stockade
and named it Fort Gower. He then marched
to the Scioto and
entrenched himself on the Pickaway
Plains near the Indian town
of Old Chillicothe. He had with him as
scouts, George Rogers
Clark, Michael Cresap, Simon Kenton and
Simon Girty. Mean-
time the great Shawnee Chief, Cornstalk,
had summoned some
twelve hundred, or more, daring braves
and hastened with them
to the Ohio, which he crossed and met,
on the Virginia side at
the Great Kanawha (Point Pleasant), on
October 10, General
Lewis, who was advancing to join
Dunmore. General Lewis
had some twelve hundred Virginian
"soldiers." It might be
called a "pick up" army. The
uniform of officers and men was
the individual costume of the frontier
hunter. They wore fringed
shooting shirts, dyed red, yellow, brown
and white; quaintly
carved shot bags and powder horns hung
from their belts; they
had fur caps or soft hats and woolen
leggings that reached to
the thigh. Each carried his own
flintlock, tomahawk and scalp-
ing knife. They were "raw
recruits" so far as military discipline
was concerned, but they were
"fighters" from top to toe. They
knew every trick of the wily enemy. The
battle was one of the
most bitter and bloody in the early
history of the western coun-
try. It was hotly contested for several
hours. But the Indians
were forced to give way. It was the
first considerable battle in
which they fought without the aid of the
French. The loss to
the Americans was great but their
victory complete. It was a
purely American victory for it was
fought solely by backwoods-
men themselves. They were not the king's
"regulars" as at
Braddock's defeat. Has there ever been
better soldiers than the
American volunteer? The results of this
battle were of para-
mount importance. As Roosevelt says, it
kept the Northwestern
tribes quiet for the first two years of
the Revolutionary struggle,
and above all, rendered possible the
settlement of Kentucky and
the winning of the West. Lewis with his
victorious men crossed
the Ohio and pushed on to the quarters
of Dunmore. A peace
conference was held with the Indians
whose spirit had been
broken by their unexpected and decisive
defeat. The crestfallen
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 409
braves assented to all the terms the
"long knives," their con-
querors, proposed. They surrendered all
claim to the lands south
of the Ohio. All the big chiefs were
present at this conference,
save Logan, who refused to attend and
addressed to Gen. John
Gibson, for transmission to Dunmore,
that speech which ranks
with the first among savage outbursts of
oratory. The expedi-
tion having been eminently successful,
Dunmore's army took
up its march homeward. On nearing Fort
Gower a most inter-
esting and significant incident
occurred. The news for the
first time now reached them of the
convening and session of
the American Congress. The officers held
a notable meeting
and passed resolutions, which were
afterwards published; they
complimented their general Dunmore; they
professed allegiance
to their king and the British crown, but
added that this devo-
tion would only last while the king
deigned to rule over a
free people, for their love for the
liberty of America out-
weighed all other considerations and
they would exert every
power for its defence, not riotously,
but when regularly called
forth by the voice of their countrymen,
and they expressed
their warm sympathy with the new
Continental Congress.
Noteworthy action on Ohio soil, the
valiant backwoodsman
and militiaman, from Virginia, the first
of the colonies, pro-
claim their sentiments of freedom and
independence. Not
only from the rock-bound coast and eastern
mountain side, but
alike from the banks of the far Ohio was
the call of freedom
heard and answered.
THE OHIO VALLEY DURING THE REVOLUTION.
How unfit England was in the days of
George III to be the
possessor of the Ohio Valley, was shown
by the course she pur-
sued from the close of the French war to
the beginning of the
Revolution. She was first anxious to
secure possession of the
Ohio and then reluctant to see it put to
any civilized use. Her
narrow and short-sighted conduct
concerning the great West
was one of the chief causes leading to
the war for independence.
The Revolution was inevitable. At
Lexington and Concord
(April 19, 1775) was fired the shot that
echoed around the world.
410 Ohio Arch. and His.
Society Publications.
The die was cast. That echo reverberated
across the Alle-
ghenies and adown the Ohio Valley.
"Although a solitude and
because a solitude, the over mountain
country had more at stake
in the Revolution than the Atlantic
slope." On the sea board,
whatever the issues of the war, an
Anglo-Saxon civilization,
though it might be greatly stunted and
impoverished, was as-
sured; but in the western valleys such
few seeds of civilization
as had been planted were Gallican and
not Saxon. Moreover,
there were great uncertainties and
perils growing out of the re-
lation of that country to the
Franco-Spanish civilization of
Louisiana, that vast territory
stretching from the Mississippi to
the Pacific. Between 1748 and 1783 the
western question pre-
sented three distinct phases. In
1748-1763 it was the suprem-
acy of England or France in the west; in
1763-1775 it was
whether the country should belong to the
redman or the white
man; and in 1775-1783 it was whether it
should form a part of
the United States or of some foreign
power.
Before the beginning of the French War
the western In-
dians had been disposed to listen to the
English envoys rather
than the French, but Braddock's blunder
and rout gave them
a contempt for the British braves, and
brought upon the Eng-
lish frontier settlements the brutal
fury of the Western redmen.
"The Indians were products of the
soil, like the trees and wild
game, but France could not transfer them
(in 1763) with the
same facility to their new masters, the
Saxon." The sagacious
savage understood perfectly well that
the English were far more
dangerous to them than the French had
been. The posting of
garrisons in the Western forts would
surely bring to their best
hunting grounds swarms of colonists
greedy for the lands and
proposing to be permanent occupants. The
American Revolu-
tion in the Ohio Valley was a
continuation of the French and
Indian War, the old conflict, renewed
with some change of
parties. The infant and independent
states find the savage power
of the Northwest arrayed against them as
before; France had
dropped out and England, the imperial
England, had taken her
place, succeeding to many French
methods, even that of employ-
ing the tomahawk of the savage against
her revolted colonies.
As England had employed the Hessians to
do her fighting at the
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 411
front she proposed to engage the Indians
to do her fighting in
the rear of the colonial territory. The fiendish proposition
of the British Ministry to secure the
scalping knife in aid
of the mother country called out from
Lord Chatham-
the great commoner--one of his immortal
bursts of elo-
quence.
It was also repugnant to the feelings of General
Howe, Commander-in-Chief of the English
forces, and Sir
Guy Carleton, British Governor of the
Province of Quebec, but
it was heartily approved by Henry
Hamilton, Lieutenant Gov-
ernor and Superintendent at Detroit. The
latter at once made
ready to use all the resources that his
position gave him, to bring
upon the rear and flank of the rebelling
states the only form of
warfare known in those regions. He
subsidized the Indians.
Time and again he sent the war belt to
the tribes, summoning
them to bloody forays that he himself
had planned. His inhuman
instigation led to a hundred attacks
upon outlying stations and
defenceless settlements. The situation
in the Ohio Valley at this
period may have been in a measure a
nondescript one. Between
the Ohio river, the Mississippi river
and the Great Lakes there
were not more than five thousand white
and Indian inhabitants
in all. It was a bizarre, guerrila
warfare scattered over a vast
territory--the French more or less
openly favored the colonists,
the Indians casting their lot with the
crown authority. France
declared war (1778) against England.
Spain also declared (1779)
war against England, and seized the
English ports of Mobile,
Natchez and Baton Rouge, which stations
together with St.
Louis, gave Spain practically the
control of the Mississippi Val-
ley. So the little "tempest in a
teapot," initiated in Boston,
December 16, 1773, had grown to
an international warfare, em-
bracing the three greatest nations and
disturbing the peace of two
continents. The events transpiring in
the Ohio Valley during
the Revolution present a history as rich
and romantic almost as
do the often rehearsed, and more
prominent deeds on the Atlan-
tic coast. The thrilling careers of the
Girtys, (Simon, James
and George), of McKee, Elliott and
scores of others, read like
the tale of a most imaginative novelist,
and include deeds of
adventure and daring equal to any annals
of history or biography.
412 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
The great history of the United States
has not yet been written.
When it is written, it will be by a
Western man, and it will be
written with the Valley of the Ohio as
the central basis and
proper point of view. The struggle for
independence was being
waged not merely in New England, but
also, and mercilessly,
in the Northwest and especially on the
soil that later was to
constitute the Buckeye state. This is a
striking and farreaching
fact, generally ignored, often from
prejudice or ignorance, by
the writers who, with the least labor,
confine their partial narra-
tives to the events more noticeable and
graphic but hardly less
potent that transpired in the eastern
and southern colonies. The
time will come when the warfare in the
Ohio Valley, which was
an inseparable part of the Revolution
will receive full justice at
the hands of the historian.* Theodore
Roosevelt in his admirable
and accurate western history has the
correct vision and justly
appreciates the richness and perspective
value of this field. Vir-
ginia, the state which took the leading
part in the Revolution,
occupied a two-fold position, she was
the border state; she
touched the contest on the East, even to
the sea board, and
reached well into the dense and
trackless west.
EXPEDITION OF CLARK.
Under her auspices and the leadership of
George Rogers
Clark, Virginia "broke the
back" of the British power on
the Western line of the Colonies. Clark saw that so long
as the British held the commanding
forts, Detroit, Kaskaskia,
Vincennes and the connecting stations,
so long would England
be able to keep up an effectual warfare
along the rear of the
colonies and render abortive any
victories the states might
achieve in New England. Clark presented
his plan of conquest
to Governor Patrick Henry, George Wythe,
George Mason and
* It is true that some recent works,
such as those by John Fiske,
William H. English, Charles Moore,
Justin Winsor, B. A. Hinsdale, and
others, give more or less detailed
accounts of the occurrences in the
northwest during the period in question,
but even these valuable works
fail to sufficiently emphasize the
relation of the events described to the
American Revolution.
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 413
Thomas Jefferson. He would win victories in the west that
should compare in importance with the
colonial triumphs in the
east. Under instructions from Patrick
Henry, Clark raised an
armament of two hundred volunteers and
woodsmen, companies
of veritable Rough Riders, and in May, 1778,
started on his
famous campaign. The history of Clark's
expedition for bravery,
hardships, hair breadth adventures and
escapes, for strategy
and warcraft, for generalship,
intrepidity, patience and patriotism,
is equal to that of any similar effort
in all the annals of mixed
savage and civilized warfare. Starting
at the Falls of the Ohio, he
left the river at Fort Massac forty
miles above the mouth, and
began the march into the interior. He
took from the English
Kaskaskia and Vincennes and relieved
Cahokia and invaded the
Indian inhabitated interior. It was the
conquest of the territory
of the Illinois and the Wabash; it was
to the Revolution what
Sherman's march to the sea was to the
Rebellion. Though Clark
did not secure Detroit, his capture of
Vincennes and the Illinois
posts paralyzed the English attempts to
carry on an offensive
campaign on the frontier of the United
States, and confined their
efforts to petty warfare in the shape of
Indian raids against
the Ohio and Kentucky settlements. To
Clark's wise valor
and military genius was due more than to
any other, the secur-
ing of the Northwest to the new
republic. He won and held
the Illinois and the Wabash in the name
of Virginia and of the
United States. Had the contest of the
western frontiersmen un-
der Clark and other leaders failed, it
is more than likely that,
though the New England colonies would
still have achieved their
independence, the territory of the Ohio
and Mississippi Valley
would have continued subject to British
rule, as Canada did
north of the Great Lakes. The result of
Clark's warfare was
of incalculable importance in the course
of the American
Revolution. Although Detroit remained in British hands the
flag of the Republic raised by Clark
over the interior of the
Northwest was never lowered. No officer
in the Revolution ac-
complished results that were so great or
far reaching with as
small a force, as did General George
Rogers Clark. Clark's
first and most famous campaign lasted
till August, 1779, when
he returned to the Falls of the Ohio.
Early in 1780, at the in-
414 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
stance of Thomas Jefferson, then
Governor of Virginia, Clark
built Fort Jefferson near the mouth of
the Ohio. From there
he made various invasions into the Ohio
interior against the
hostile and British paid Indians,
driving them from their chief
quarters at Old Chillicothe, Piqua and
elsewhere.
UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG.
The theatre of events now shifted to the
heart of Ohio.
While Clark was pushing toward Detroit,
with the intention of
eventually aiding him from the East or
at least destroying the
Indian stronghold at Sandusky (now Upper
Sandusky) Colonel
William Crawford, a personal friend of
Washington, and Gen-
eral Lachlin McIntosh, with the approval
of Washington, erected
in the fall of 1778 two forts, Fort
McIntosh, near the present
limits of Ohio at Beaver, Pa., and Fort
Laurens, on the west
bank of the Tuscarawas, in what is now
the county of that name.
In 1778-9 General McIntosh made an
unsuccessful campaign
from Fort Pitt into the West and Fort
Laurens was abandoned.
Ohio was now the hot bed of Indian
movements and outbreaks.
Numerous invasions were made by the
Americans to dispel or
destroy them. These more or less illy
directed forays were made
from Fort Pitt (Pittsburg), the frontier
military station and
headquarters of the States. By March, 1782,
the Revolution
was virtually at an end; but the Indian
raids in the Ohio Valley
continued unabated, Detroit was still an
English stronghold, and
indeed, so continued till 1796; moreover
among the restless fron-
tiersmen at Fort Pitt there was talk and
even plottings, of an
irruption into Ohio and the formation of
an independent state.
To put a stop to both these
disturbances, an expedition against
Sandusky (Wyandot county), in May, 1782,
was inaugurated
under Colonel William Crawford. With a
force of some five
hundred men he started from the present
site of Steubenville.
It was but two months after the cold
blooded slaughter of the
Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten under
Colonel Williamson,
the great blot on American history. At
the approach of the
Crawford army the various Indian forces
were rallied by the
British commander at Detroit, the
distinguished De Peyster.
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 415
Wyandots, Hurons, Pottawotamies,
Chippewas, Ottawas, Shaw-
nees, Delawares and Mingoes, were
enlisted and united by Brit-
ish bribes and influence. Captain
William Caldwell led the
allied Indians and the British
contingent. That unfortunate ex-
pedition, its details and disastrous end
is a well known and oft
repeated story. Crawford's forces were
overcome by superior
numbers and obliged to flee. Colonel
Crawford himself was cap-
tured and brutally burned amid
indescribable tortures at the stake.
The Indians and their friends, the
British, seemed to possess
Ohio. Emboldened by their successes the
redmen made daring
and destructive invasions into Kentucky
and committed terrible
carnage at Blue Licks. General Clark
once more took the war-
path, and with a force of one thousand
riflemen in November,
1782,
struck into the center of Ohio, drove the Indians before
him, and destroyed their leading towns
on the Miami river, Old
Chillicothe, Piqua and other villages.
This incursion also played
havoc with the British trading
establishments, practically driving
the British out of the country. With
this final brilliant and rapid
dash of Clark the Revolution in Ohio
should have ended, for while
Clark was achieving the last victory,
indeed almost on the very
day when he struck his last blow against
the Indians, the prelim-
inaries of peace between England and
America, were being signed
at Paris, November 30, 1782.
The war between England and America was
indeed termin-
ated; but for the Northwest and
particularly Ohio, the peace
that had come to the New England States
was not to be enjoyed
for many long years. The Revolution had
but rolled up the cur-
tain on the tragedy that was not to
close permanently for Ohio
until the treaty of Ghent, December,
1814.
THE WAR CONTINUED IN OHIO.
Ohio had been the scene in turn of the
contests between the
Indian and French, the French and the
English, the English and
the American, and now it was to be the
arena for a third of a
century of the desperate and decisive
struggle between the red-
man and the white - on the frontier of
the advancing new Amer-
ican civilization and national life. On
the hills and in the val-
416 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
leys of the Buckeye state the noble
redman took his stand to
stay if possible his manifest destiny;
to the white man he said:
"Thus far shalt thou go and no
farther." The poor Indian at
every turn of events seemed to have
prophetic intimation of his
doom. First he opposed the French, the
first invaders of his
domain, then with the French he disputed
the ingress of the
English, and then with the English he
fought the colonists, and
at last, one ally after another having
been repelled and driven
from the field, the lone Indian must
unaided contend for his in-
vaded home.
The result of the American Revolution
gave the great North-
west to the United States, but at once
opened many conflicting
claims between the states as to
respective rights to the newly
acquired territory. For be it remembered
the original states
had charters for the land as far west as
it might go. The various
states were now asked to yield to the
new national government
these western claims; which the
government might sell for the
common good and out of which new states
might be created. This
cession on the part of the various
states followed, and the great
territory of the Northwest was
government domain subject to
government disposition.
THE (SECOND) OHIO COMPANY.
While the states were yielding up to the
federal government
their western claims, and Congress was
wrestling with the prob-
lems which this newly acquired and vast
territory created, im-
portant and interesting
"doings," as to Ohio, were transpiring
both East and Wrest. In the fall of 1785
a detachment of United
States troops, under the command of
Major John Doughty,
built a fort, on the right bank of the
Muskingum at its junction
with the Ohio. With the exception of
Fort Laurens, (1778)
it was the first military post erected
within the limits of Ohio
(to be). The Muskingum fort was called
Fort Harmar. The
first Ohio Company, consisting mainly of
Virginians, organized
in 1748, as we have seen, came to
naught. Its schemes and efforts
were engulfed in the current of events
with which it unsuccess-
fully struggled. But Ohio was to be the
Eldorado, the promised
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 417
land of the Revolutionary veteran and
his descendants. The
cause of liberty triumphant, the
Revolutionary officers returned
home to beat their swords into
plowshares and engage in the
pursuits of peace. The distinguished
engineer and manager,
Rufus Putnam, sought his humble Rutland
(Mass.) farm house
to plan the building, not of
fortifications, but of a state- "a new
state west of the Ohio." As early
as 1783 he and associate offi-
cers had applied to Congress for the
location and survey of
Western lands upon which the weary and
impoverished heroes
of the war might settle and build new
homes for their declining
days. The Ohio Company was the outgrowth
of this endeavor
to secure the bounty lands due and
guaranteed for military ser-
vice in behalf of their country. But
Congress needed time to
consider and properly act. On March 1,
1786, the Ohio Company
was formed at the "Bunch of
Grapes" tavern, Boston. Rufus
Putnam, Manassah Cutler and Samuel
Parsons were made direc-
tors. Subsequently Winthrop Sargent was
chosen secretary. The
purpose of the company was to raise
funds for buying lands be-
yond the Ohio, and locating thereon.
Many of the foremost
men of the nation became members, if not
to emigrate, at least
to hold stock and share in the success
of the undertaking. In one
sense it was the inception of a
patriotic and national enterprise.
in another aspect it was a real estate
syndicate. A fund of a
million dollars, mainly in continental
specie certificates was to be
raised for the purchase from the
government of lands in Ohio.
There were to be a thousand shares of
ten dollars each. A vast
tract thus secured was to be divided by
equitable methods among
the share holders. The winter of 1786-7
was spent in perfecting
the plans. The negotiations between the
company and Congress
were tedious and lengthy. Congress was
busy with the all im-
portant question of a form of government
for the Northwest
Territory.
ORDINANCE OF 1787.
On July 13, (1787), the great
"Ordinance of Freedom,"
as it is properly called, was passed by
the Continental Con-
gress in session in New York. Next to the Federal Con-
Vol. X -27.
418 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
stitution, which was adopted September
13, 1787, by the Con-
stitutional Convention assembled at
Philadelphia, the Ordinance
of 1787 is acknowledged as the greatest
of all American legis-
lative acts. Daniel Webster said no one
single law of any law-
giver, ancient or modern, had produced
effects of more distinct,
marked and lasting character than this
document.
Through the instrumentality of this
ordinance the Northwest
Territory was to be opened and
developed. But not without
great cost of effort and sacrifice,
indeed of bloodshed and life
itself. The magnificent and fertile Ohio
Valley that had been the
favorite haunt of the Indian, and which
for two hundred years
or more he had "put to uses but
little superior to those of the
buffalo, the bear and the wolf;"
that the French adventurer and
claimant had used for purposes but
little higher than those of the
Indian; and that the Englishmen had
refused to use at all, was
now, says a noted historian, to be
devoted to the greatest of
human purposes - was now to become the
home of a progress-
ive people, excelling in all the arts of
civilized life.
Ohio was the first and immediate product
of that illustrious
legislation. Almost simultaneously with
the passage of the ordi-
nance, Congress authorized (July 23) the
Board of Treasury to
sell the Ohio Company a tract of land
lying between the seven
ranges and the Scioto, and beginning on
the east five miles away
from the left bank of the Muskingum.
This tract was selected
by the advice of Thomas Hutchins, Esq.,
"geographer of the
United States." He considered it
"the best part of the whole
western country." Thus the
establishment of the great North-
west Territory and the settlement of
Ohio were events of
twin birth. Says Mr. Poole, "the Ordinance of 1787 and
the Ohio purchase were parts of one and
the same trans-
action. The purchase would not have been
made with-
out the ordinance, and the ordinance
could not have been en-
acted except as an essential condition
of the purchase." That
is the New England Revolutionary
survivors would not buy
the land unless a satisfactory
government - one that meant free-
dom, education and religion - was
secured, and Congress would
not have enacted the ordinance had it
not been for the immediate
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 419
opportunity of making a large sale of
the lands, at the same time
assuring their settlement by the
staunchest patriots of New
England."
OHIO MAYFLOWER.
It was October 27, 1787, however,
that the "bargain was
clinched" between the company and
the national treasury com-
missioners. The agreement called for one
and a half million
acres of land at sixty-six and
two-thirds cents per acre. The
company, however, only came into possession
of one million acres
or less, as some of the subscribers
failed to pay for their certifi-
cates, and thus a portion of the land
reverted to the government.
It was the spring of 1788, when the band
of western pilgrims
had worked their way across the country
from New Eng-
land homes and had assembled at
Sumrill's Ferry, on the
Youghiogheny river, some thirty miles
above Pittsburgh. At
last all was ready, and the quaint
little fleet floated down
the Ohio. It consisted of the forty-five ton galley, Ad-
venture, afterwards re-christened the Mayflower, the three ton
ferry called the Adelphia and
three log canoes. After a five days'
voyage this famous flotilla, that was to
figure so largely in west-
ern history, arrived, April 6, 1788, at
the mouth of the Mus-
kingum. "No colony in
America," said Washington, "was ever
settled under such favorable auspices as
that which has just com-
menced at the Muskingum. Information,
property, and strength
will be its characteristics. I know many
of the settlers person-
ally, and there were never men better
calculated to promote the
welfare of such a community." There
were forty-eight men in
the Ohio Mayflower; they were made of
similar stuff, if not the
same stock as the forty-one men who
plowed the deep in the
original Mayflower and landed on the
bleak New England shore
(1620). Both were Pilgrim stock "pithed with
hardihood."
The voyagers of the latter pilgrimage
founded the first colony
in Ohio, and called it Marietta. Their
new home was pictur-
esquely pitched at the confluence of the
Ohio and the Muskingum.
Oddly enough in the precincts of their
classically laid out town
was an imposing mound, the silent and
mysterious monument
of that elder prehistoric race that roamed the forests or the fields
420 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
ere man's records began. Strange contact
on this spot, of the
people buried in oblivion and the
representatives of the New
American civilization-the race that is
to be. Marietta was at
once the seat of government of the newly
made Northwest Ter-
ritory. The first Fourth of July (1788)
on Ohio soil, indeed in
the Northwest, was celebrated in genuine
New England style.
Thirteen guns from Fort Harmar ushered
in the Republic's
natal day, and the same rang through the
hills at eventide. A
banquet was served in the
"bowery" on the banks of the Mus-
kingum and toasts were drank. The menu
on that memorable
occasion embraced almost exclusively
buffalo and bear meat, ven-
ison steak and the wild game of the
season. Delmonico never
did better. Several invited Indians were
present, and wonder-
ingly enjoyed the festivities, all, it
is said, except the cannon-
ading. The fort guns were unpleasantly
suggestive. At dark
the fort was illumined, not with
electric lights, but tallow dips
and bark fires. It was midnight ere the
patriotism was extin-
guished.
ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR.
On the 9th of July the newly appointed
territorial governor,
Arthur St. Clair, arrived at Fort
Harmar. St. Clair was a vet-
eran soldier of both the French and
Revolutionary Wars, a
trained officer and an accomplished
gentleman, a stirling patriot,
a personal friend of Washington, and
president of Congress when
the Ordinance of the Northwest was
passed. He was received
with all the ceremony and pageantry the
infant colony could
supply. He was welcomed in the
"bowery" by General Putnam,
the judges and secretary of the
territory, and "prominent citi-
zens"-many had arrived since the
first comers. And so the
governmental machinery of the great West
was officially set in
motion. One of the first acts of the
governor was to establish
Washington county, which was made to
include nearly half of the
present Ohio. And now the tide of
emigration set in. Another
land purchase, second only to that of
the Ohio Company, was made
in 1787- the Miami purchase of Symmes'
tract of one million
acres, lying on the north bank of the
Ohio between the two
Miami rivers. Three colonies were
planted in this tract in the
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 421
year 1788; Columbia, at the mouth of the
Little Miami; Losanti-
ville, opposite the mouth of the Licking
river; and North Bend,
at the farthest northern sweep of the
Ohio west of the Kanawha.
For a time each one of these settlements
aspired to the leader-
ship but the second, Losantiville,
founded December 24, 1788,
having been chosen as the seat of a
military post, and also as the
county seat of Hamilton county, soon
outstripped both its com-
petitors. It was renamed by St. Clair,
Cincinnati, a name bor-
rowed from the celebrated society of
Revolutionary officers of
which he was a prominent member. Here
lived the Governor,
and here sat the first Territorial
Legislature.
SCIOTO COMPANY.
A neighboring settlement that deserves
more notice than
we can give it was the peculiar and
rather picturesque
colony of Gallipolis. This colony was an
unfortunate out-
come of the Scioto Company, a sort of
side issue of the Ohio
Company. This enterprise was instigated
by William Duer, sec-
retary of the Government Board of
Treasury. He was a schemer
that would do credit in his methods to
the most advanced "pro-
motor" of to-day's western city
"booms." Duer attached his
project in a way to the negotiations of
the Ohio Company. Be-
sides the actual purchase made by the
Ohio Company, Manassah
Cutler and Winthrop Sargent personally
got from the govern-
ment "for themselves and
associates" an option to further pur-
chase some three million acres adjoining
the lands of the Ohio
Company. An interest in this
"option" was granted to Duer, Tup-
per, Putnam and others. Joel Barlow was
made agent for the
enterprise, and sent to Paris to seek
customers. As the Scioto
Company really had no title, Barlow
could only sell the "right
of pre-emption." Barlow arrived
(June, 1788) in Paris amid
the ominous rumblings of the approaching
French Revolution.
His American lands were exploited and
advertised as havens of
profit and peace for the distracted and
Bourbon burdened French-
men. For a year Barlow pushed his
project. It was the popular
topic of the voluble French capital.
Volney, the celebrated
French writer of that period, said
"Nothing was talked of in every
422 Ohio Arch. and His.
Society Publications.
circle but the paradise that was opened
for Frenchmen in the
Western wilderness, the free and happy
life to be led on the blissful
banks of the Scioto." Curious
coincidence of history, the denizens
of storm-ridden Paris looking to the
forest fastnesses of Ohio as a
refuge from the horrors in store for
them at home. While the
infuriated mob was leveling the Bastile,
Barlow was disposing of
his option titles to deluded patrons and
publishing pamphlets in
aid of the French Revolution. A French
company for American
emigration was formed, called "the
Company of the Scioto."
Some hundreds invested and sailed for
their American possessions.
They were not constructed for pioneer
pursuits. They were
artists and artisans, tailors, barbers
and laundrymen, indeed,
many were "gentlemen of
quality," some with titles and the others
were skilled in only those occupations
that polish the frequenter of
the drawing room. Life in a Parisian
parlor was different from
life in the Ohio woods. The first
invoice of these infatuated
Gallicans arrived at the site they
called Gallipolis Oct. 20, 1790.
They were not the Frenchmen of the days
of La Salle and Cham-
plain. Their rosy dreams were soon
dispelled. They were not
the possessors of an Eldorado but the
purchasers of a "gold
brick." The Ohio Company, or
leading members thereof, did the
best they could to help the strangers
from France who found, in-
stead of a home, a titleless, howling
wilderness, made more than
desolate by the prowling Indian. The
lurid endurances of the
Reign of Terror would have been tame
compared to their exper-
iences in unbroken forest with wild
beasts and savage men.
They drifted on west to the French
settlements, Kaskaskia, Vin-
cennes, Detroit and elsewhere. Some cast
their lot with the Ohio
Company. Congress, in 1795, granted
these defrauded emigrants
twenty-four thousand acres in Scioto
county.
DIVERSE SETTLEMENTS IN OHIO.
Of the various phases and conditions of
the eastern emigra-
tion Ohiowards, it is not here pertinent
to speak at any length.
The Virgina Military District, embracing
six thousand five hun-
dred and seventy square miles of the
fairest part of Ohio, be-
came the seat of a group of settlements,
the families of which
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 423 were the Virginia veterans, entitled by service in the Revo- lution to the homes in this land, for that purpose set aside by the government. General Nathaniel Massie and Governor Dun- can McArthur laid out the town of Chillicothe in this district. These Virginia colonies drew to themselves numbers of able |
|
and accomplished men who exercised a marked influence upon the nascent society of Ohio. The Western Reserve was regarded as the next center of early colonization within the limits of Ohio; when with the other states, Connecticut (1786) ceded to the United States her claim to the Western lands, she "reserved" a strip along Lake Erie in the northeastern part of Ohio. It was called New Connecticut or the Western Reserve and included |
424 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
some four million acres. In 1796
Connecticut sold the Western
Reserve (exclusive of the Firelands) to
the Connecticut Land
Company. General Moses Cleveland was the
advance agent of
that company. He and his associates
landed from New Eng-
land at the mouth of the Conneaut Creek,
July 4, 1796. It was
the opening of emigration for New
England and the Middle
States to northern Ohio. As General R.
B. Cowen has concisely
noted in a recent address, "In Ohio
we had some five centers of
original settlement by people of
different origin. At one point
known as the 'Symmes Purchase,' lying
between the Great and
the Little Miami Rivers, the pioneers
were chiefly from New
Jersey, with a dash of Huguenot,
Swedish, Holland and English
blood. East of it the Virginia Military
District, with its center
at Chillicothe, the first settlers came
principally from Virginia
and were of English lineage, with a
tincture of Norman and
Cavalier. At 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 mi-
gration 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 settlers
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 Con-
necticut, with center at Cleveland. West
of the "Seven Ranges"
to the Scioto River and south to the
Greenville Treaty line was the
United States Military Reservation,
where the first settlers were
holders of the bounty land warrants for
military service and they
came from all the states and from beyond
the sea."
These series of settlements are barely
mentioned to exhibit the
diverse but admirable character of
Ohio's first citizens in point of
time. They were mainly of the "best
blood" of the early colonies.
The Vanguard of Ohio's pioneers were the
heroes who had fought
for independence at a sacrifice of
property and all worldly pros-
pects, and now sought to found a state
worthy their last efforts
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 425
and fitting to be the home of their
children. Ohio in its found-
ers is peculiarly, almost exclusively
the child of the American
Revolution. One difference between
French and American col-
onization in the Northwest is strikingly
shown by the fact that on
April 7, 1788, when Marietta was founded
the village of Sault
St. Marie was 120 years old. The
Latin was a failure as a col-
onizer. He was not progressive. He was
not a seizer of oppor-
tunity.
THE ENGLISH AND INDIAN WAR.
These scarred veterans of Bunker Hill,
Trenton, Monmouth,
Stony Point, Saratoga and a hundred
battles of the Revolution,
were not yet to enjoy the peace merited
by their past honors and
patriotic labors. The Northwest Territory,
the Ohio Valley, had
passed to the United States and had been
opened to their people.
But the Indians were still in a large
measure its occupants and
in some degree its possessors. Nor was
the last enemy of the
American, the British, entirely expelled
or even suppressed. The
Revolution, though some years since a
"closed incident" to the
New England states, still dragged its
weary length along the
frontiers of the great west. It will be
recalled that according
to some of the articles (IV, V and VI)
of the Paris Treaty
(1783) it was agreed that the creditors
on either side should meet
with no lawful impediment to the
recovery of the full value in
sterling money of all bona fide debts
heretofore contracted; Con-
gress was to recommend to the state
legislatures provision for
the restitution of all estates, rights
and properties which had been
confiscated from the British subjects,
etc.; and there was to be no
future (after the peace) confiscations
of property because of any
part individuals had taken in the War.
As an indemnity or
security on the American part to the
Brtish government for these
agreements, Great Britain for some
thirteen years (1783-1796)
retained possession of a large part of
our territory or at least
continued a dominion over certain
sections by uninterrupted oc-
cupancy of numerous posts of fortified
stations, and this in viola-
tion of England's promise "with all
convenient speed * * *
to withdraw all their armies, garrisons and fleets from the
United States and from every post, place
and harbor within the
426 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
same." These posts to which his
Majesty still clung, with British
bull dog tenacity, were Michillimakinak,
(Mackinac), Detroit,
Niagara, Oswego, Oswegatchie,
(Ogdenburg), Point au Fer
and Dutchman's Point, and Presque Isle,
(Erie), and at the mouth
of the Sandusky and Miami (Maumee)
Rivers. While the pre-
tense of England for holding these posts
was the fulfillment on
our side of the Treaty, the real causes
were desire to retain the
advantages these points afforded for
British agents to carry on
the fur trade and more especially for
the purposes of perpetuating
from these centers the Indian hostility
to the Americans. The
British government desired to keep
control and influence over
the Indians to the end that the trade
(fur) be secured and that
in case of war with America or Spain,
the tomahawk and the
scalping knife might once more be called
into requisition. Great
Britian hoped the league of states would
prove a "rope of sand"
and would soon dissolve and an
opportunity be afforded to bring
back the new republic to colonial
dependence. The Indians were
assured of the friendship and sympathy
of their former English
allies. They were given to understand
that they would be cared
for. The Indian with this
"moral" support at his back was not
long in renewing his protests at the
occupation by the American
of his beloved Ohio valley. In studying
the events of American
Western history from now (1783) to the
close of the War of
1812 this British background must not be
lost to sight. One of
the first duties with which Governor St.
Clair was charged was
the negotiation of a treaty of peace
with the Indians. In 1789
at Fort Harmar a treaty was concluded
with several tribes located
in that vicinity, whereby the Indians
relinquished their claims to
a large part of Ohio. But only certain
tribes entered into this
agreement. Many others refused to be
bound by it. They de-
manded that the whites should retire
beyond (south and east)
of the Ohio. The long Indian War ensued;
in which the Red-
men had the sympathy, and at times the
actual support of the
British. The Indians began to feel the
pressure of the white
settlements in Ohio and elsewhere. They
began, more or less at
the instigation of the British agents,
to commit depredations and
destroy property and even lives of the
settlers in Ohio.
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 427
HARMAR'S EXPEDITION.
General Josiah Harmar, a Revolutionary
veteran, was ap-
pointed Commander-in-Chief of the United
States army Septem-
ber 29, 1789, and was at once directed
to proceed against the
Indians. He centered a force of some
fifteen hundred men at
Fort Washington (Cincinnati). His army
consisted of some
three hundred regulars and eleven
hundred "militia," which
really meant indiscriminate volunteers
mostly from Kentucky,
aged men and inexperienced boys, many of
whom had never
fired a gun; "there were guns
without locks and barrels without
stocks, borne by men who did not know
how to oil a lock or fit
a flint." With this
"outfit" General Harmar proceeded (Sep-
tember 30, 1790), into the heart of the
Indian country, around
the head waters of the Maumee and the
Miami. The Indians,
less than two hundred, say the
historians, led by the Miami
warrior Chief Little Turtle, divided the
army, defeated and
routed them, Harmar, chagrined and
humiliated retreated to
Fort Washington after suffering great
loss of men. It was a
stunning blow for the New Republic, and
created dismay and
terror among the Ohio settlers. The
Indians were highly elated
and emboldened to further and more
aggressive attacks upon their
white enemies. It was now evident to the
government that large
measures must be taken to establish the
authority of the United
States among the Indians and protect
their Ohio settlements.
Washington called Governor St. Clair to
Philadelphia, and with
the approval of Congress placed him in
command of an army
to be organized for a new Indian
expedition.
ST. CLAIR'S EXPEDITION.
October 4, 1781, General St. Clair, at
the head of some three
thousand troops, hardly better in
quality than those under Har-
mar, set out from Fort Washington. The
plan was to proceed
northward along the present western line
of the state and estab-
lish a line of forts to be properly
maintained as permanent points
for military operation and protection.
Forts Hamilton, St. Clair
428 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
and Jefferson, the latter near
Greenville, were erected. But when
the expedition, now about twenty-five
hundred strong, had reached
a branch of the Wabash in what is now
Mercer county, some
thirty miles from Fort Jefferson, it was
attacked by an allied
force of Indians, fifteen hundred strong
under Little Turtle. It
was a desperate, irregular combat, the
troops were completely
demoralized and panic stricken, and
indulged in "a most igno-
minious flight," with the woeful
loss of over six hundred killed
and two hundred and fifty wounded, a
loss equal to that of
the American army at Germantown, when
General Washington
suffered one of the worst defeats and
greatest losses of the Rev-
olution. Great public odium rested on
St. Clair, and he asked
that a committee by Congress be
appointed to investigate his
conduct in the battle. It was done and
the report fully exoner-
ated him. In all the story of
Washington's life there is no more
human passage than that which narrates
how the news of this
calamity was received by him on a
December day while he was
at dinner. It is related that on this
occasion the dignified and
impassive president gave way to wrath
and profanity. The In-
dian question had now become more
serious than ever before,
and there was great danger of the
disaffection spreading among
the Six Nations. The retention of the
posts and the complicity
of the English agents and garrisons with
the Indians, was cause
for much parleying between the American
government and the
English cabinet. The people of New
England were becoming
restless and impatient over the
situation. An unsuccessful cam-
paign always brings trouble and
condemnation upon the govern-
ment. The condition of affairs tested
the sagacity and diplo-
macy of Washington, the wisdom of
Congress and the patience
and confidence of the people. It was
evident that the mutual
interests, and indeed, combined efforts
of the British and the
Indians in Ohio, must be overcome by no
indecisive measures,
before the Republic could achieve the
territorial independence
which was thought to be assured by the
Paris treaty of 1783.
Washington anxiously scanned the list of
officers for a reliable
successor to St. Clair. The choice
finally fell upon Anthony
Wayne, the dashing, intrepid hero of
Ticonderoga, Germantown,
Monmouth and the stormer of Stony Point.
The appointment
Ohio in Early History and During the Revolution. 429
caused the English some solicitude. They had heard of Wayne. Mr. George Hammond, the English Minister to the American government wrote home that Wayne was "the most active, vigi- lant and enterprising officer in the American army, but his tal- ents were purely military." But they were sufficient.
WAYNE'S EXPEDITION. Wayne arrived at Fort Washington April, 1793, and by October had recruited his army and was ready to move. He |
|
cautiously crept his way into the interior as far as Fort Green- ville, which he erected, and where he spent the winter, and from whence he forwarded a detachment of several hundred to build Fort Recovery, in commemoration of the defeat of St. Clair, at that point. This fortification was attacked by the advancing Indians, one thousand strong, under their puissant general Lit- tle Turtle, who made a desperate charge only to be repulsed and compelled to retreat. It was their first serious check. In Au- gust, 1794, Wayne with his "Legion," as his army was called, |
430 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
reached the confluence of the Auglaize
and Maumee. Here he
established another link in the chain of
forts, named Defiance.
The Indian allies had concentrated about
thirty miles down the
river at the rapids of the Maumee, near
the British fort, Miami,
one of the retained posts and recently
re-occupied by an English
garrison from Detroit, under the
direction of John G. Simcoe,
lieutenant governor of Canada. Wayne's
forces were three thou-
sand in number, by this time well
trained, hardened and trusty.
The Indians with some three hundred
Canadians and English
were as numerous. In the hope of
avoiding the impending bloody
encounter, Wayne offered the enemy
proposals of peace. Many
chiefs, the warriors and statesmen of
their people, were present.
Blue Jacket, the Shawnee chief, was for
war to the bitter end.
His people, he argued, had crushed
Braddock, Harmar and St.
Clair, and Wayne's turn was next. Little
Turtle, the Miami, was
for peace. True, he allowed, they had
defeated the other gen-
erals of the "long knives" and
turned back their expeditions,
but Wayne was different. He had recently
tasted of his valor.
Now they would meet foemen worthy their
steel. But the British
had rallied the Indian courage and
bravado; had urged them to
confederation and a renewal of their
claims for the Ohio coun-
try; and had nerved them to unrelenting
resistance against the
usurping Americans. The British
stockades of Fort Miami, like
a sheltering shadow, were close at hand,
and the Indian cause
could not fail. There was no alternative
but battle. The field
chosen was at the Falls of the Maumee on
the wind swept banks,
covered with fallen timber. The ground
gave the Indians every
advantage, as they secreted themselves
in the tall grass amid the
branches and roots of the upturned
trees. Wayne directed his
front line to advance and charge with
trailed arms, to arouse the
crouching Indians from their coverts at
the point of the bayonet,
and when they should arise to deliver a
close and well pointed
fire on their backs, followed by an
instant charge before they
might load again. The savages were
outwitted and overwhelmed.
They fled in wild dismay toward the
British fort. Wayne's
triumph (August 20, 1794,) was complete, the brilliant and dash-
ing victory of Stony Point was won
again. Wayne had become
the hero of the second Revolution in the
Western wilderness,
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 431
as he had been the victor of early years
in the historic fields of
New England. The name of Wayne was ever
after a terror to the
savages. They called him the
"Tornado" and the "Whirlwind."
He was mettlesome as the eagle, swift
and unerring as the arrow,
The Indian warfare was shattered.
Moreover, the Indians were
crushed and incensed at the perfidy of
the British, who not only
failed to come to their assistance with
troops from Detroit as they
had promised, but closed the gates of
Fort Miami to them
on their panic stricken retreat from
Fallen Timbers. At Green-
ville Wayne was visited by numerous
chiefs and warriors to
whom he explained that the United States
having conquered
Great Britain, were entitled to the
peaceful possession of the
lake posts, and that the new nation was
anxious to make terms
with the Indians to protect them in the
occupation of abundant
hunting grounds and to compensate them
for the lands needed
by the white settlers. The Indians were
prepared to negotiate
but the British agents, John Graves
Simcoe, Alexander McKee
and Joseph Brant, stimulated them to
continue hostilities; advised
the Indians to make pretense of peace so
as to throw the Amer-
icans off their guard and thus permit
another and more success-
ful attack. These Machiavelian British
miscreants even advised
the Indians to convey by deed their Ohio
land to the king of
England in trust so as to give the
British a pretext for assisting
them, and in case the Americans refused
to abandon their posts
and quit their alleged possessions and
go beyond the Ohio on the
West and South, the allied British and
Indians might make a
general attack and drive the Americans
across the river boundary.
It will thus be seen that England was
still (1794) fighting
the Revolution and endeavoring to regain
in Ohio what she had
lost a dozen years before on the New
England coast and the in-
land western frontier. It is not claimed
that the English minis-
try was a direct and intentional party
to these mischievous machin-
ations,but it is certain that Canadian
authorities and British agents
engaged in them and that the
principal-the home government in
London-could have known and should have
known and was thus
really responsible, if not immediately
guilty. Indeed the Lon-
don government did know for the American
government made
constant complaints. English history is
replete with the acts of
432 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
treaty violation on her part. The practice did not cease with the period we are dealing with. But the Indians began to realize their critical condition. They had learned at dear cost the power and skill of the Americans and the trickery and treachery of the Brit- ish. GREENVILLE TREATY. The famous Greenville Treaty was entered into in August, 1795, between General Wayne for the United States and the repre- sentatives, over eleven hundred in all, and some eleven leading In- |
|
dian tribes. The Indians for certain considerations, payments, annuities, etc., agreed "to cede and relinquish forever all their claims to the lands lying eastwardly and southwardly of a general boundary line" --all of the present Ohio, save the northwest cor- ner comprising about one-fourth of the state, which portion the Indians held as a Reservation till 1818, when the United States bought this land and the Indians then thereon moved westward. Almost contemporaneus with the Greenville Treaty the Jay Treaty between the United States and England was effected, which pro- vided for the evacuation of the British posts in the United States |
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 433
by June 1796. Thus the Revolution
beginning with Dunmore's
War in 1774, lasted in Ohio for
twenty-two years, till 1796. It
continued in Ohio for a period three
times as long as in New Eng-
land. But at last the American
Revolution even in Ohio was
ended, and a period of peace and
prosperous growth was per-
mitted. The settlements in the southern,
eastern and northern
parts of the state multiplied apace.
Rapid strides were made in
population and cultivation statewards.
From the achievement
of national independence by the Treaty
of Paris, 1783, to the pass-
age of the Ordinance of 1787 the great
west so far as it was gov-
erned at all was governed by the
Continental Congress. When
the new Federal government went into
operation, March 4, 1789,
it became necessary to make such changes
in the territorial stat-
utes as would conform them to the new
order of things. For the
most part these changes were that the
territorial officers should
hereafter be appointed by the President
instead of by Congress. By
1790 the thirteen original states had
each in turn ratified the new
constitution. Vermont joined the
sisterhood in the following
year. Kentucky was the first of the
western states to be received,
with Tennessee next.
OHIO ADMITTED TO THE
UNION.
By the Ordinance of 1787 whenever the
Northwest Territory
should contain five thousand free males,
of adult age, the people
should be allowed to elect a legislature
and enact all necessary
laws for the territorial government. The
required population
having been reached, in pursuance of a
call issued by Governor
St. Clair, a legislature was elected on
December 3, 1798. There
were twenty-two members representing the
nine counties into
which the territory had been divided,
viz: Hamilton, Ross, Wayne,
Adams, Washington, Jefferson, St. Clair,
Randolph and Knox.
The first legislative session convened
at Cincinnati, September
16, 1799 and elected William Henry
Harrison territorial delegate
to the National Congress. On account of
the wide expanse of
country embraced within the Northwest
Territory, it was found
difficult to administer the affairs of
government in its remote parts.
To obviate this difficulty the Territory
was divided by Congress
Vol. X - 28.
434 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
in 1800 into the territories of Ohio and
Indiana, the latter having
its capital at Vincennes. Early in 1802 a census was
taken in the
eastern (Ohio) division of the territory
and it was found to con-
tain forty-five thousand and
twenty-eight persons. The Ordi-
nance of 1787 required sixty thousand
inhabitants to entitle the
district to become a state and yet a
petition was made to Congress
for a law empowering the inhabitants of
that division to call a con-
vention and form a constitution
preparatory to the establishment
of a state government. On April 30, 1802 an Enabling
Act was
passed by Congress authorizing the call
of a convention to form
a state constitution. The election was
held, as provided in said
Enabling Act, to choose the members of
the constitutional conven-
tion to meet at Chillicothe on the first
Monday of November, 1802.
The convention assembled on that date.
It was in session until
November 29. It agreed upon the form of
a state constitution
and did not require its submission to
the people, as this was not
conditioned by the Enabling Act of
Congress. When the state
convention adopted the constitution for
the proposed new state, it
also passed a resolution accepting the
Enabling Act of April 30,
1802, by Congress with certain other
alterations and modifications
which it asked Congress to grant.
Congress formulated these
new concessions into a bill which it
passed March 3, 1803, and
Ohio became the seventeenth state in the
Union on March 1,
1803.
[The date when Ohio actually became a
state has been in great dispute,
but the better authorities agree upon
March 1, 1803. For a full and satis-
factory discussion of this question see
the article by Rush R. Sloane,
"When Did Ohio Become a
State," Vol. IX, page 278, Ohio Archaeological
and Historical Publications- E 0. R.]
Ohio in Early History and During the
Revolution. 395
OHIO IN EARLY HISTORY AND DURING THE
REVOLUTION.
BY E. 0. RANDALL, PH. B.,
L. L. M.
Secretary Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society; President
Ohio Society Sons of the American
Revolution.
No territory, in the new world at least,
perhaps not in the
old, presents so much of interest, at
once to the archaeologist
and the historian, as the inland portion
of America now and for
a century, designated as the State of
Ohio. Ohio, or the land
thus labeled, has been the arena for the
activities more or less
pronounced of two prehistoric races. The
good book records
that the earth was created, lifted from
chaos into form,
when the morning and evening was the
third day. We there-
fore know that Ohio was born on
Wednesday, but we have no
calendar at hand to tell us the month or
even the year. Scientists
guardedly remark that the mundane origin
which includes
Ohio was simply "eons ago." At
subsequent periods there were
various "doings" of a geologic
character and then this fair state,
with other sections of the Northwest,
was submerged under
fields of congealed water and the
original "ice man" had a mo-
nopoly of surface affairs. Then nature
repented, grew sympathetic
and warmed up and there was a great
"melt" and the hills peeped
forth, the valleys grew green and the
streams rippled and ran
their courses through the glad earth. At
this point science,
ever nimble and wily, takes a sort of
hop, skip and jump, and
suggests the ice man may have been
succeeded by the "midden"
man or shell people; but he is merely a
"perhaps" in this locality;
if he did ply his game, he left no chips
and his entry and exit
are undefined though his pet animal, the
mastodon, is occa-
sionally discovered in skeleton form,
beneath the Buckeye soil.
Doubtless the next tenant, and possibly
the first one we really
feel sure about, was the mysterious
mound builder. Ohio must
have been his favorite field, for it is
dotted over, as is no other