THE ANCESTRY OF THE
OHIOAN.
A. M. COURTENAY, D. D.
[The following is a portion of an
address delivered in Zanesville by
Rev. Courtenay, who for many years has
been an enthusiastic student of
Ohio history, upon which subject he has
delivered many admirable ad-
dresses. He has written frequently in
prose and in verse for current re-
views, magazines and journals. He wrote
for and read at the Ohio Cen-
tennial Celebration the poem entitled
"The Ohio Century."-EDITOR.]
At a recent notable assembly in one of
Ohio's universities, a
revered bishop paid tribute to the
greatness of the state, which
he ascribed to its New England origin.
This he did without
qualification, as a compliment, in a
confidence as naive and un-
doubting as emphatic. No axiom could be
carved in harder o-
line. He evidently believed that the
Northwest Territory was
peopled from Connecticut's "Western
Reserve;" or if there were
among its settlers a few stragglers from
less favored regions, they
were obscure, insignificant, and soon
dominated by the persua-
sive Yankee notions
It was not strange speech. Indeed, its
tone was familiar to
those who have long been accustomed to
hear and read asser-
tions from our Down-East
brethren-persistent as the "flood
of years from an exhaustless urn" -
to the effect that everything
good and great in our civilization is,
like the "pants" advertised
by an enterprising Boston firm, stamped
"Plymouth Rock."
None will question the potency of
Puritan ideas, or the vigor
and moral value of the Pilgrims. The
contribution by New Eng-
land of genius, of virtue, to the growth
of the Republic in let-
ters, state-craft, commerce, invention,
reform, religion, is a fact
so far beyond dispute that her sons
supererogate in constant af-
firmation. We all cheerfully admit that
our Yankee brother has
enriched the national life with every
good element - except mod-
esty. Yet he had no option on all the
virtues and valors. It
would be well to consider a few things,
such as the first settle-
ment was in Virginia; the first
legislative assembly of white men
(73)
74
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
on this continent was at Jamestown 1619; the first
ordinance of
religious liberty was in Maryland ;the
first Declaration of Inde-
pendence was made at Mecklenburg, in the
Carolinas; the first tea
thrown overboard was from the Peggy
Stewart, in Annapolis
harbor; the first steamboat floated on
the Potomac; the first rail-
road was at Baltimore. Of course, this
only means that each
section may play an Oliver to the
other's Roland.
In the case of Ohio, one may enter a
bill of exceptions, to
wit, that the marvelous development of
this most typical of Amer-
ican states is due, not alone, nor even
chiefly, to its New England
blood, but to that mingling of vital
currents which has made
strong the heart of the Commonwealth.
This will be obvious to a slight
scrutiny of the colonization of
the Territory. The whole Western country
passed by cession of
conquest to Great Britain in 1763, and
thence to the United States
in 1783. But while the paper title was
thus wrested from the
French by the English and in turn by the
Americans from the
British, the original occupants, the
Indians, who were not party
to these compacts, held the land by the
"nine points of law" until
dispossessed by the steady pressure of
the frontiersmen from be-
yond the Alleghenies. The final writ of
ejectment was served by
a posse under General Anthony Wayne,
consisting of two thou-
sand United States regulars, and fifteen
hundred Kentucky
mounted volunteers, at the battle of
Fallen Timbers, in 1794, when
the savages suffered a defeat from which
they never rallied.
Thus the new Canaan had long allured the
tribes of our Israel;
eager with desires awakened by those
spies, the hunters and trad-
ers, who brought back reports of an
"exceeding good land;" yet
they were withheld their forty years
from entering and possess-
ing it by fear of the "sons of
Anak." When, however, the sword
of the Lord and of Wayne hewed the way,
population poured into
the land like floods, gathering to and
radiating from five centers
of settlement on the Ohio, the Lake, or
the border of Pennsyl-
vania, whence the natives were already
expelled.
These five nerve centers of the nascent
state were in the order
of time as follows:
1. The "Ohio Company," formed in Connecticut, purchased
1,500,000
acres, and in April, 1788, settled their
colony about the
Indian Attack on Fort Dunlap. 75
mouth of the Muskingum, with Fort
Harmar, now Marietta, as
their citadel. It was a notable society.
Many of its people were
Revolutionary officers, and the most
possessed intelligence and
education. They and their descendants
have cut a broad, deep
mark in the history of the state.
2. The
"Symmes Purchase" of 311,622 acres was nego-
tiated by a New Jersey company of
twenty-four gentlemen, head-
ed by Judge John Cleves Symmes, a member
of Congress from
that state. In November, 1788, the first
settlement was made by
a party of twenty at a spot within the
present limits of Cincin-
nati. This was a brood of the "blue
hen's chickens"; but a con-
siderable contingent from Kentucky soon
moved into the region.
Thus the basis was formally New Jersian,
with its mixture of
Scotch-Irish and Hollanders, but
actually there was a vast major-
ity of Virginians.
3. The "Virginia Military
District" consisted of 3,000,000
acres, ranging north from the Ohio,
between the Scioto and
Miami Rivers, and was reserved by the
Old Dominion to satisfy
the land warrants issue to its soldiers
of the Revolution. Its first
settlements were at Manchester in 1791,
and at Chillicothe in
1796, which latter became not only the
center of this projection of
Virginia into Ohio, but to a good degree
of the political and so-
cial life of the whole Territory in the
earlier years. It was the
seat of the first legislatures, and of
the capital until 1813. In this
region the first tide of population was
partly Marylandic, but
mostly Virginian, in two streams; that
of the hardy backwoods-
men who had earlier crossed the
Alleghenies from the valleys of
the Upper Potomac and Shenandoah, and
built their cabins on the
Cheat and Monongahela as far as
Redstone, which was the head
of navigation to the "Western
waters," and that of the settlers
who had already entered Kentucky by way
of the southern passes
through the Blue Ridge. They were of the
usual pioneer type;
but with them came families of substance
and cultivation, who
moved direct from the Old Dominion, who
brought with them
their colonial furniture, silver
teapots, silks and laces with a touch
of old world dignity and courtesy. Such
were the Tiffins, Worth-
ingtons and Massies. They were largely
influenced by conscience
against slavery, for the Jeffersonian
idea of its evil was then prev-
76
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
alent in the South. Tiffin freed his
slaves, valued at $5,000 (a
full half of his wealth), and brought
them into that Northwest
Territory, which was "consecrated
to freedom."
4. The "Western Reserve" was a
strip of land equal to
1,800,000 acres, extending from the
border of Pennsylvania along
Lake Erie. Its colonists were mainly
from Connecticut, which
state had reserved this tract in making
over to the General Gov-
ernment its rights and claims in the
Western country. The first
settlement was made at Cleveland in
1796. Its foundations were
hewn from the granitic rock of New
England Calvinism.
5. The "Seven Ranges"
consisted of a tract extending from
the Pennsylvania line between the Ohio
Company on the south
and the Western Reserve on the north.
Its lands were the first
ever sold by the United States out of
the public domain, and the
purchasers were a few native-born
Quakers, some Germans of
the stock which has produced the variety
known as "Pennsylvania
Dutch," and many Scotch-Irish,
which body nearly pre-empted
and still largely controls Southwestern
Pennsylvania.
No mention need be made of two curious
and tragic attempts
at settlement; that of the French colony
at the site of Gallipolis,
because it was insignificant and
evanescent; and that of the Mo-
ravian missionaries, because there were
few white families, and all
were swept from the face of the earth in
a massacre, not by red
men but white, and not by British or
French, be it said to our
shame, but Americans.
Now these five centers of life were long
isolated by vast for-
ests before the era of roads, and
engrossed by the severe labor of
subduing the wilderness, with little
need or chance for travel, or
any form of commercial and literary
intercourse. They differed
widely in custom, training, prevailing
idea, and religious cultus.
And it was long before social fusion
began. Ultimately all were
subdued to a predominant type, while
there are still marked char-
acteristics in the various sections,
traceable rather in the domestic-
ities than the publicities.
Despite, however, minor differences, the
state has attained
social solidarity, and uniformity of
educational system, of legal
procedure, of political aspiration,
through the weaving process
of ceaseless interchange of business,
literary and religious inter-
The Ancestry of the Ohioan. 77
ests. This has tended to the
obliteration of individuality in the
sections, but marks of the original
variation nevertheless distin-
guish each; for example, Southern Ohio
from Northern, as clear-
ly as the New England of today from
those commonwealths
known - in a phrase now happily historic
only - as the "Border
States."
It is the mingling of these diverse
elements into a new com-
pound which has enriched Ohio. And it is
to be noted that here
first occurred the blend of native
bloods, which has since con-
tinued on so vast a scale throughout the
West. Up to the close of
the eighteenth century the colonies on
the Atlantic coast were sep-
arate. Their people mingled little. They
were as diverse as the
English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish. But
from them all poured
streams of people into that fair land
which lies between the Lake
and the "beautiful river" - the
gateway of the West-and the
children of Puritan and Cavalier,
Hollander and Huguenot, Teu-
ton and Scotch-Irish, married and begot
a new race. Moreover,
just as the early migrants from Europe
were a picked people, so
their descendants who crossed the
Alleghanies were especially
brave, hardy, and enterprising. The
seed-plot was fertile, and
the shoots choice, which by
cross-fertilization have produced the
Ohio stock.
No one section can claim a monopoly, or
even a controlling
interest, in Ohio's greatness. This is
the more apparent when
we examine the scroll of her famous men.
It will be found that
they have arisen with an astonishing
impartiality from all quan-
ters and conditions. Thus of the
thirty-three governors, up to
1890, twelve came from the South, twelve
from New England,
three from Pennsylvania and six were
born in Ohio of Scotch-
Irish, Welsh, or Irish ancestry.
Again, consider the following last of
fifty-two other distin-
guished children of the state, viz:
Tiffin, Worthington, Symmes,
Corwin, Ewing, Lytle, Piatt, the Cary
sisters, Coates Kinney,
Howells, Whitelaw Reid, S. S. Cox,
Powers and Ward, the sculp-
tors; the Coxes, Tourgee, George Kennan,
McGahan, Giddings,
Wade, Chase, Stanton, Waite, Ormsby,
Mitchel, Edison, Brush,
the Shermans, the Ammens, Rosecrans,
Sheridan, McDowell, Cus-
ter, McPherson, the Presidents Harrison,
Grant, Hayes, Garfield,
78 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
McKinley, and the Churchmen Durbin,
Simpson, Foster, Harris,
Merrill, Walden, Joyce, McCabe,
Cranston, Thoburn. Of these
the tally runs, New England eleven,
Virginia and Kentucky
eleven, Scotch-Irish eight, Dutch two,
New Jersey three, New
York two, Irish three, French one,
Canadian one, and unknown
ten. If to these we add the fifteen
"fighting McCooks," then the
tale of this strenuous Scotch-Irish race
must be advanced to twen-
ty-three in the foremost rank, from
which have sprung most of
the war leaders.
Further, it can not be established that
any section produced
the great men of any particular
profession or pursuit. In fact,
this survey disproves Howell's
generalization that "the South
gave Ohio perhaps her foremost place in
war and politics; but
her enlightenment in other things was
from the North." More-
over, in the two things whereof this
claim has been urged - viz.,
the contest against slavery and for
equal rights for all races, and
the effort to establish public schools -
it will be found from an
examination of the records of the
legislature that the pioneers of
civilization were from all quarters.
Indeed, it is more than prob-
able, though not capable of
demonstration in the absence of com-
plete biographies, that Ohio's greatest
men, the finest products of
her powers, came from mingled strains.
Rawlinson has said that "it is
admitted by ethnologists that
the mixed races are superior to the pure
ones." It is true, with
the qualification that the law acts
within the limits of a similar
origin, as in the case of the Greeks,
the Romans, the British, and
above all, the Americans. Thus Tennyson
sings, "Saxon and
Norman and Dane are we," and he
might have added, if the exi-
gencies of verse had permitted: Celt and
Gaul, French Hugue-
not, and German Palatine.
And one of our own poets recited, on the
Nation's century,
these elements of our new type: Scottish
thrift, Irish humor, Ger-
man steadfastness, French vivacity,
Scandinavian patience and
English moral worth; declaring of the
genius of America:
"In his form and features still
The unblenching Puritan will,
Cavalier honor, Huguenot grace,
The Quaker truth and sweetness,
The Ancestry of the Ohioan. 79
And the strength of the danger-girdled race Of Holland, blend in a proud completeness. * * * * * * * * And broad-based under all Is England's oaken-hearted mood, So rich is fortitude." This lyric of our race is true in its highest terms of the Ohioan, the first product of the new type, whose vital currents have been mixtured and enriched of so many noble elements. Mr. Thomas E. Watson, who has achieved more fame and success as an author than a Presidential candidate, having written admirably on Napoleon and on Jefferson, says in the preface to his life of the latter: "Southern men of the old regime were not given to the writing of books, and when the man of N. E. [New England] strode forward, pen in hand, and nominated himself custodian of our national archives and began to compile the rec- ord, nobody seriously contested the office. Thus it happened in- evitably that N. E. [New England] got handsome treatment in our national histories. She deserved good treatment. Her rec- ord is one of glory. No patriotic American would detract from her merit, but her history is not the history of the whole Union," and it may be added, her point of view is not the only vision for estimate. |
|
THE ANCESTRY OF THE
OHIOAN.
A. M. COURTENAY, D. D.
[The following is a portion of an
address delivered in Zanesville by
Rev. Courtenay, who for many years has
been an enthusiastic student of
Ohio history, upon which subject he has
delivered many admirable ad-
dresses. He has written frequently in
prose and in verse for current re-
views, magazines and journals. He wrote
for and read at the Ohio Cen-
tennial Celebration the poem entitled
"The Ohio Century."-EDITOR.]
At a recent notable assembly in one of
Ohio's universities, a
revered bishop paid tribute to the
greatness of the state, which
he ascribed to its New England origin.
This he did without
qualification, as a compliment, in a
confidence as naive and un-
doubting as emphatic. No axiom could be
carved in harder o-
line. He evidently believed that the
Northwest Territory was
peopled from Connecticut's "Western
Reserve;" or if there were
among its settlers a few stragglers from
less favored regions, they
were obscure, insignificant, and soon
dominated by the persua-
sive Yankee notions
It was not strange speech. Indeed, its
tone was familiar to
those who have long been accustomed to
hear and read asser-
tions from our Down-East
brethren-persistent as the "flood
of years from an exhaustless urn" -
to the effect that everything
good and great in our civilization is,
like the "pants" advertised
by an enterprising Boston firm, stamped
"Plymouth Rock."
None will question the potency of
Puritan ideas, or the vigor
and moral value of the Pilgrims. The
contribution by New Eng-
land of genius, of virtue, to the growth
of the Republic in let-
ters, state-craft, commerce, invention,
reform, religion, is a fact
so far beyond dispute that her sons
supererogate in constant af-
firmation. We all cheerfully admit that
our Yankee brother has
enriched the national life with every
good element - except mod-
esty. Yet he had no option on all the
virtues and valors. It
would be well to consider a few things,
such as the first settle-
ment was in Virginia; the first
legislative assembly of white men
(73)