Ohio History Journal

  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  •  
  • 3
  •  
  • 4
  •  
  • 5
  •  
  • 6
  •  
  • 7
  •  
  • 8
  •  
  • 9
  •  
  • 10
  •  
  • 11
  •  
  • 12
  •  
  • 13
  •  
  • 14
  •  
  • 15
  •  
  • 16
  •  
  • 17
  •  
  • 18
  •  
  • 19
  •  
  • 20
  •  
  • 21
  •  
  • 22
  •  
  • 23
  •  
  • 24
  •  
  • 25
  •  
  • 26
  •  
  • 27
  •  
  • 28
  •  
  • 29
  •  
  • 30
  •  
  • 31
  •  
  • 32
  •  
  • 33
  •  
  • 34
  •  
  • 35
  •  
  • 36
  •  
  • 37
  •  

The French Settlement and Settlers of Gallipolis

The French Settlement and Settlers of Gallipolis.  45

 

 

THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT AND SETTLERS OF GALLIPOLIS.

Preceding addresses and other papers have given the story

of the Scioto Company, under whose auspices the French set-

tlers came to America. I shall not attempt to repeat any part

of this history, but begin my narrative with the sailing of the

first party of emigrants to their new homes in the unknown

West, which had been described to them in such glowing terms

by those who had induced them to come. In February, 1790,

six hundred emigrants set sail from Havre de Grace. Five

ships had been chartered to take them to Alexandria, Va., prob-

ably the nearest port to their new homes. Their experiences

then were inauspicious as an omen in regard to the future. In

these days of rapid transit, when a voyage across the ocean rep-

resents a not unpleasant journey of a few days' duration, we

cannot imagine what it must have been when, on account of

stormyseas and contrary winds, the traveler was compelled to

spend weeks, and even months, on the great deep. Yet such

experiences as the latter were common once, and they were felt

by the Franch emigrants. A desolate feeling must have been

theirs then. Behind them was stormy France, its peace that

was, having been swept from it, with little hope of its return in

the near future; about them the stormy waves of old ocean

threatening to engulf them, and thus violently end their new-

born hopes. Before them-what? A fair land they believed,

but an uncertainty; they had only man's representation upon

which to base their hopes, and man is more than liable to mis-

represent facts when he has a purpose to gain thereby. The

future only could reveal that which they so ardently desired to

know, and they awaited its developments, which, with their

characteristic, sunny disposition, we believe they did as content-

edly as was possible with men. At length, after a voyage of

about three months' duration, they arrived at the town of Alex-

andria, about seventy-five miles up the river Potomac. Here

they encountered circumstances which both cheered and de-

pressed them. They were gladdened by a cordial reception on

the part of the people to whom a Frenchman was a welcome

visitor in view of the recent benefits conferred upon the country