Ohio History Journal

JAMES BACKUS: CITIZEN OF MARIETTA, 1788-1791

 

By JOSEPHINE E. PHILLIPS

 

 

There are about 150 Horses, Sixty Cows, & Seven Yoak of Oxen

here. . . . The Emigrants that pass down the river for Kentucky & other

parts of the Western Country are amazing. . . . We have a militia formed

who assemble every Sunday & are fined for not attending. We have preach-

ing or service read regularly once a week, likewise a school.

Thus wrote James Backus1 from Marietta to his parents in

Norwich, Connecticut, on the thirty-first day of December in 1788.

And a few days later, in a letter to his brother, Elijah, he wrote:

This settlement has progressed faster than could have been expected

under so many embarrassments as an undertaking of such magnitude might

be involved: there are thirty families & more than four hundred People

here at this time. The fire of emigration seems to rage with greater' fury

than ever on the other side of the mountains from the number of people

that pass here. There are a number of boats just arrived under the direc-

tion of Col. Morgan of N. Jersey bound to the Mississippi to make a settle-

ment in the Spanish dominions nearly opposite the mouth of the Ohio. A

passage down the river is pleasant & expeditious[.] boats frequently per-

form a journey of a hundred miles in 24 Hours with little more than the

force of the current, which when the Ohio is full runs nearly 4 miles an

hour. The rapid swells in this river subject people who live on its banks

to an inconvenience by taking off or sinking their boats, it frequently rises

6 Feet in a day & night. . . . Game has been very plenty about us till our

people & the Indians killed & drove most of it away. Turkeys however

are easily got at now & fine fatt ones may be bot for a shilling that will

weigh near 20 lb. The Indians are in to the treaty. I suppose about 300

of them, the chiefs of the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Mingows, the Munseys,

the Tuscarawas, the Delewares, Wyandots, Chippewas & Putawatimes are

present, there chiefs have many of them very great influence over their

Peopl_e & their Government extends further than I could suppose it possible

a persuasive one could extend, they appear friendlyly disposed & it is ex-

pected after some altercation about their boundary lines that the treaty will

be amicably closed.

Unlike so many of the writers of that period, Backus seems

to have anticipated just what details would be of interest to

readers nearly one hundred fifty years later. There is little,

 

1 Typescript copies have been made of the James Backus letters and documents,

and of many other items of the Woodbridge-Gallaher Collection, and are available for

examination at the Marietta College Library and the Marietta Public Library,

Marietta, Ohio. The originals are in the possession of the Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Society.

(161)

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162    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

if any, "dead timber" in the extensive writings of his that have

been preserved in the Woodbridge Collection, recently acquired

by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Besides

letters home, of which the above extracts are a sample, these

writings consist of a journal kept day by day, with few inter-

missions, from April 2, 1788 to May 23, 1791; itemized expense

accounts; lists of wearing apparel and other articles taken on his

various journeys; field-books of his surveys; warrants and other

official documents pertaining to his duties as deputy sheriff in

Marietta; a "Waist-Book" of the first store in Marietta, in which

he was a partner; and the correspondence and various accounts

concerning his dealings with the Scioto Company, as he carried

out his commission of providing for the French emigrants and

conducting them safely over the mountains from Alexandria

in 1790.

To the historical economist the expense accounts are intensely

interesting and valuable, not only for their information regard-

ing the current prices of the period, but for the details of ex-

change, "hard money," Pennsylvania currency, Virginia currency,

York money, and Continental currency, and even the remittances

that might be made by deerskins or bearskins! The loose and

trustful way in which many transactions or commissions of a

financial nature were executed is in itself a subject for a thesis.

Yet one gathers that young Backus himself was rather canny:

I shall be with you some time this fall or winter if it is possible for

me to get up [he writes to Mr. VanLear of Redstone of whom he has re-

ceived some provisions] & will adjust our Acct & pay you what ballance

there shall be due to you. I should send you some money by Mr. Tyler

but his attention being taken up with a good many other concerns I was

fearfull my friend VanLear would be deprived of the benefit of it by its

being disposed of through mistake some other way as Mr. Tr. might find a

ready market for cash at Redstone.

Another interesting topic that may be followed in the Backus

letters and throughout the Woodbridge Collection, in fact, is the

low esteem in which the post, as a means of communication,

was held.

I wish you would write me by the Post if you get no other convey-

ance, for I am anxious to hear what is doing amongst you. I shall write

to some of our family every safe opportunity.

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JAMES BACKUS                         163

 

I wish the person Opening this might not reveal the Contents.

Gen'l Putnam was anxious to have the enclosed Certificates sent on

Soon. I therefore have put you to the Expence of Postage which I pre-

sume will be agreeable . . . as I new of no private Conveyance. A

duplicate of this Certificate sent you a few days ago by the Gen'. I think

will not reach you.

For the student of early territorial legislation, the develop-

ment and execution of the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787,

there are many interesting legal documents. A bond for two

thousand dollars was given in December, 1788, that Backus would

faithfully discharge the duties of deputy sheriff in Washington

County. It was in that month that Governor Arthur St. Clair

was beginning to despair of bringing the pending Indian treaty

to a satisfactory conclusion. One of the disturbing factors was

the almost constant state of inebriation of the Indians themselves.

To put an end to the giving or selling of spirituous liquors to the

savages, St. Clair issued a warrant, whereby Backus, as deputy

sheriff, was ordered to seize all such liquor supplies from the set-

tlers and hold them until such time as they could be safely re-

turned to the owners. The receipts given for the whiskey and

wine thus taken into custody, are in the Woodbridge Collection.

Together with the governor's warrant they constitute the earliest

evidence of an attempt at prohibition in the Northwest Territory.

The emoluments of this business [of deputy sheriff] are trifling, yet

there is more law business here than might be expected from the newness

of the place, owing to the want of all kind of law administration in any

other part of the Country; it consists chiefly of suits commenced on old

debts against transient persons that resort here.

There were, also, numerous cases of assault and battery and

in Backus' Journal entry for April 30, 1789, is: "Served War-

rants on Mixer, granted out on the complaint of Wm. Collins for

beating & abusing his Wife. Summoned three witnesses, attended

the court until about one o'clock, adjourned till the 20th of May."

On May 20: "Attended on the Justices in the case of Mixer &

Collins. Mixer discharged without cost."

Much has been written about the celebration of the first an-

niversary of the landing of the original company of forty-eight

settlers at Marietta, April 7, 1789, on which occasion Dr. Solomon

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Drowne delivered a lengthy and inspired oration. Less publicity

was given to other events of the day. Backus writes: "Cold morn-

ing some snow wind S W first anniversary of our settlement.

Doct. Drown gave us an oration. A great bobbery kicked in the

evening by firing guns, overturning carts &c." And two days

later: "Served warrants on 8 persons for riot Tuesday night,

detained till 5 o'clock this evening." In Backus' account with the

"County of Washington for Services done for Sd County," are

the names of the culprits who overindulged in the anniversary

celebration: "Warrant to apprehend Asa Coburn, Phineas Coburn,

Israel Dunton, Gilbert Devoll, Allen Devoll, Gideon Devoll, Wil-

liam Gray & Elipt. Si[?]as, for a riot Committee on the seventh

Instant, granted on the complaint of Winthrop Sargent." The

charge for service and attendance in this case was "² Dollars and

5 Dimes." It will be seen that some of the more substantial citi-

zens of the settlement were among the guilty.

It was early found necessary to set up a local as well as

county and territorial system of government. A plan similar to

that of the New England Town Meeting, with which most of the

settlers were familiar, seems to have been worked out. On Wed-

nesday, February 4, 1789, there was a "meeting of the inhabitants

to devise a plan for regulating police of this settlement; a com-

mittee of five appointed to form a system, Col. Crary, Col. Oliver,

myself, Maj. Sargeant, Maj. White chosen with direction to form

an address to the Governor." On Thursday, March 19, 1789,

there was a "meeting of agents & proprietors . . . also, meeting

of Inhabitants established some regulations for the Government

of the Settlement."

Need of a local highway department arose in the spring of

1789. The Ohio River seemed determined to show off her tricks

to the new settlers. As early as January 29, Backus reports in

his Journal: "River high." And the following day: "River very

high  still rising fast  by night water over each end of great

bridge & up over the second bridge by Mixer's a foot & a half

deep  surrounding Fuller & Lunts houses to considerable dis-

tance. The River upwards of thirty feet above low water mark."

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JAMES BACKUS                          165

 

On April 26 there was "Hail, Snow & Rain alternately exceed-

ingly cold and chilly. Water over the Big Bridge up to Lunts

House." But the climax came nearly a month later:

Saturday, May 16, Some rain Water rose 8 feet the last night

. . . Monday, 18th. Water the highest about 10 o'clock at night. ...

Tuesday 19th May. Water began to fall about 12 o'clock last night. The

Rivers higher by 3 feet perpendicular than they have been known since

the Garrison was established at Fort Harmer, coming over the bottom

lands on our side except a few feet on the shore of the Ohio from Corey's,

Bridge down, every house surrounded with water except Gen. Parsons &

mine & Mr. Dany's new house the water in Mixers about 20 inches deep.

[Two days later] River falls very fast, the bridges are very much wrecked.

So it was that on May 19 Backus received the following:

To THE SHERIFF OF THE COUNTY OF WASHINGTON GREETING.

You are hereby ordered to notify Benjamin Tupper, Archibald Crary,

Isaac Pierce, Thomas Lord, Robert Oliver, Griffin Greene & Return J.

Meigs, esquires, Justices of the Peace for the Said of Washington, to give

their attendance at a Special Court of General Quarter Sessions of the

Peace to be holden at Marietta at the House of Ebenezer Battelle on

Wednesday the 20th day of May Instant 6 o'clock P. M. by Order of the

Hon'ble Rufus Putnam Esquire.

RETURN J. MEIGS, Clerk

MARIETTA 19th May 1789.

The meeting was held and resulted in yet another notice, the

original of which still exists, carefully inscribed and with the nail

holes still in it, indicating that it had been properly posted as

decreed:

At a Special Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, holden

at Marietta within the County of Washington on Wednesday the 20th day

of May A D 1789. Present Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Isaac Pierce,

Thomas Lord, Griffin Greene & R. J. Meigs esquires, Justices of the Peace

for said County of Washington [?] Ordered that the Sheriff notify the

Inhabitants of Township No 2 in the 8th Range that, unless they take

effectual measures to repair the Bridges between the Point & Campus

Martius, Clear and repair the Highways within said Township in a proper

manner, they are liable to be indicted the next term & fined for such their

neglect. That the Sheriff give this notice by immediately posting a Coppy

of the Order by the Door of the N. W. Blockhouse in Campus Martius

At Colonel Battelles, and Isaac Mixers & by reading the same in the hear-

ing of the people on Sunday next immediately after Divine Service.

R. J. MEIGS Clerk

The next document dealing with this situation is:

CITY OF MARIETTA 28th May 1789

Application being made to me the Subscribing Authority to notify a

meeting of the Inhabitants of the Township No. 2 in the 8th Range to

meet for the purpose of Appointing Supervisors of the Public Highways

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166    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

within Said Township you are required to give notice the Inhabitants of

Said Township to meet at the N. W. Blockhouse in Campus Martius on

Monday the first of June next at 8 o'clock A. M. to appoint such persons

as shall be thought proper to execute the Said Office And you are directed

to post this Order on the Door of Col. Battelle's Tavern in Campus Martius

& Mr. Isaac Mixer's near the point & cause the same to be publickly read

immediately after divine Service on Sunday next.

SAM'L PARSONS

One of sd Judges of the Territory of the

U.S. NW of O.

To THE SHERIFF OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

Warrant of ye Sheriff of Washington County to call ye

Inhabitants together.

It is evident that the supervisors of the public highways

were duly elected and their tasks performed. The bridges, cer-

tainly, were very necessary for easy communication between

Campus Martius and the Picketed Point, for two good-sized

creeks lay in the way, but one wonders just how extensive a

system of "highways" prevailed in this little year-old settlement

in the forest, with its "seven Yoak of Oxen" and nothing elaborate

in the way of carts. Anyhow, enough attention was paid to the

work to make it possible to bring the shirkers to judgment. The

following warrant was prepared the next fall, for one of these:

To THE SHERIFF OF THE COUNTY OF WASHINGTON, HIS UNDER SHERIFF OR

DEPUTY, GREETING.

Whereas, on Complaint of Benjamin Tupper Esqr. one of the Super-

visors of Highways for the County aforesaid, Josiah White of Marietta

in the County aforesd was convicted this day of refusing to assist in re-

pairing highways in sd County after being duly warned thereto, before

us the Subscribers two of the Justices of the Peace for Said County, and

adjudged to pay a fine of six Dimes and Six Cents, and also Costs of

Suit tax'd at One Dollar seven Dimes and to stand committed until Judge-

ment be complied with as will appear of record.

You are therefore in the Name of the United States Commanded to

take into your Custody and Safely keep the said Josiah White untill he

pay and satisfy the aforesd fine & Costs, and also the Costs of this War-

rant, being Two dimes & five Cents, and you are authorized and Required

on Nonpayment of sd fine and costs to commit sd White to prison in sd

County and the Gaoler is commanded to Receive sd White within the

prison & him safe keep untill he pay the Sums aforesd and be delivered

in due course of Law. Given under our hands in Marietta aforesd this

first Day of October A. D. 1789.

I PIERCE  Justices

GRIFFIN GREENE } of Peace

For the student of early Indian affairs and the relation of

the natives to the white man's first permanent settlement in the

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JAMES BACKUS                         167

Territory North West of the Ohio, there is much to be gleaned

form a careful reading of Backus' letters and his Journal with his

various observations on their conduct. His first letter home after

his arrival in Marietta, dated at Muskingum, June 9, 1788, says:

"Numbers of Indians are frequently in & appear very friendly.

One family of them has settled among our people and planted

corn with them." On June 18 of that same year he states in

his Journal that

2 Indians of the Delawares came on our side to trade, being the first that

have ever come for that purpose. Brought with them about 50 Deerskins

& five Bearskins appear'd well dispos'd & unsuspicious but discovered a

good share of sagacity & knowledge in their manner of trading likewise a

great degree of duplicity which they must necessarily have acquired from

the manner in which they have been treated by the whites who have traded

with them. The one of them which appeared best acquainted with trade

drank very little for this day the other drank freely 2 interpreters over

from the Garrison Neither of them appeared friendly to our intentions

of trading, but I suppos'd them influenced by some straggling pedlers &

the traders of the garrison which in general together with them are an

ignorant trickish unprincipaled sett not acting from any method but de-

pending solely on the little bootys they get from the Indians. The amount

of the goods they have by them is from 100 to five, without any fixed price

at all. Rec'd as a present from Indians 1 quarter Venison & 7 Deers

Tongues.

On the first of May, 1789, Backus mentioned briefly but all

too vividly the finding of his friend Captain Zebulon King, scalped

by the savages. In a long letter of November 21, 1790, he de-

scribed what he had heard of the severe defeat of the army in

their expedition to the "Great Miamee Village" and beyond. And

in January of the year 1791 he was one to volunteer to go to Big

Bottom and see if anything could be done for the victims of the

massacre there.

For those who take pleasure in events of the early settlement

which have less historical significance, perhaps, but are neverthe-

less full of human interest, there are a number of items regard-

ing the celebration of the Fourth of July in that first summer of

1788. The pioneers began to plan for it some weeks ahead. There

is, in the Woodbridge Collection, the original agreement bearing

the signatures of thirty-nine men--names that are famous in the

development of the Old Northwest.

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168    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

June 18, 1788:

The subscribers agree to celebrate the anniversary of the independence

of the United States, upon the fourth day of July next. They will pro-

vide a public dinner for themselves, his Excellency the Governor, and suite,

the officers of the garrison, and such others as may be occasionally invited.

The expenses shall be equally borne and paid to Mr. James Backus, who is

desired to provide and superintend the entertainment.

It was a task requiring considerable foresight and executive

ability. On June 29 Backus went up to Carrs Island and "en-

gaged Niswonger to furnish venison for ₄th July."

June 30: "Went over Virginia side to purchase provisions

for dinner."

July 1: "Purchas'd hams for dinner."

Pleasant warm morning began to build bower with 12 men. Dined

off salt beef. Compleated bower & kitchins. Thursday, 3rd: Clear morn-

ing warm cross'd the Ohio to purchase materials for dinner. 3 cooks

came over from the Garrison went out this afternoon to procure pigs for

dinner. Dined on Venison & beef spent all the afternoon procuring pro-

visions for dinner.

After all this preparation and activity it is rather disconcert-

ing to find no description of the celebration itself in the Journal.

The entry for the Fourth has only: "Cloudy windy morning sun

shone out at nine o'clock. At 12 a shower clear again half

after 2 a heavy shower half after four heavy showers and all

the afternoon." It is known from other sources, however, that

the banquet was a happy affair, from the arrival of the officers

from Fort Harmar with their ladies, the speech-making that

preceded the dinner, the dinner itself interspersed with the "heavy

showers" which necessitated removing the food now and then to

dry spots under the sixty-foot-long table that had been built for

the event, through the lengthy and inspired toasts, to the blazing

of fireworks late in the evening.

It takes little imagination to read between the lines of the

slips of memoranda that Backus preserved to see what some of

his problems were in preparing for a meal for about one hundred

fifty persons. Besides the venison, pork, beef and bread, there

had to be utensils for cooking and serving, and utensils were at

a premium in the little settlement. Backus borrowed where he

could and kept a careful account of his borrowings. General

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JAMES BACKUS                        169

Samuel H. Parsons furnished "6 knives, 2 Plates, 2 Pewter dishes,

6 Pewter Porringers, several tin tumblers of various sizes, a

Large Kettle, 1 Pepper box, 6 spoons, 3 tin Juggs, and 1 Tin cup

for Gravy." Colonel May and Generals Rufus Putnam and

James M. Varnum were also generous with their "table furniture."

Frying pans and gridirons, bake pans and salad pans are recorded,

and there was even one glass tumbler used, the property of

"Messr. Coit & Lord."

Backus had an eye for business and was eager to see the

colony succeed for his own as well as for the colony's sake. Two

things he saw at once were going to be in demand and were worth

speculating in. He mentioned them in the first letter after his

arrival at the Muskingum:

If you have a convenient opportunity by the last of July to send me

on a cask of ten-penny nails I wish you to do it. I likewise wish you to

contract for 50 or 100 pair of shoes of different kinds well made of good

thick cowhide & Calfskin if you can do it conveniently & in your way it

will be of great advantage to me.

He explained in the next letter: "Those two articles in the

course of this fall will be undoubtedly in demand & command the

money."

He began at this time, also, to consider the gains that could

be realized from the purchase of shares in the Ohio Company

from persons in the East who were not interested in coming on

and settling their lands themselves. The tracing of the momentum

which this type of speculation gained during the next ten years,

as evidenced by the Backus and Woodbridge letters of the period,

would be a pleasant problem for a student interested in the de-

velopment of the Northwest. Powers of attorney were exchanged,

shares were bought and sold, confidential information was sent

to share-holders in the East, and information similarly confidential

was sent to agents on the ground. Money was made, and also lost.

Young Backus began early to look for other schemes for

economic development:

An Iron Works settled in a well chosen place in some part of the

Western Country would afford the owner an immense profit, there being

not one on this side the Mountain. Cast Iron Ware of every kind & Barr

Iron sells here at the same price, for half a pistareen a pound. At Lime-

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170    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

stone the place of landing for Kentucky People & other places down the

River it sells for a shilling per lb. Great plenty of ground Coal is found

in all this Western Country. Iron Ore likewise Appears to me to be plenty,

I have found it within two miles of this place, which was heavy and ap-

parently of a good quality the greatest difficulty in working of it in the

vicinity is the badness of the streams of Water, which have so little fall

in them that the freshe[t]s in the Ohio set a number of miles up them,

this however is not the case on the Hockhocken. It affords most excellent

seats for water works as I have been informed from the Best Authority.

Under date of September 2, 1789, Backus and Enoch Shepard

signed an agreement respecting the erecting of mills on the waters

of Duck Creek; Backus to have one-eighth part of the mills if

he pay one-eighth toward their erection and procure all the

grist-mill and sawmill irons necessary for the two mills. Later

in the fall, Backus set out for Norwich, Connecticut, to get the

irons from his father's iron works there, to procure a yoke of

oxen and bring on a load of articles necessary to the western

settlers.

He was returning, in March of 1790, when Putnam met

him near Pittsburgh and hired him to make provision for the

coming of the French emigrants who had already set sail and

would be arriving soon at Alexandria. This was a commission

of considerably greater magnitude than the preparation of a

Fourth of July banquet. How Backus handled it may be learned

from his Journal and correspondence.

Builder of the first dwelling house in Marietta; surveyor of

the streets and lots of that city; ensign under commission from

St. Clair in a company "of the first Regiment of Militia in the

County of Washington" (dated August 3, 1788); partner in the

first store; deputy sheriff; mill-owner; speculator in lands; con-

ductor of the "French Five Hundred" for the Scioto Company

--Backus has surely many claims for fame. Yet it is as a man,

in the simple human relationships with other men and women,

that one finds him most interesting and most admirable. His

character is constantly being revealed in his own letters and Jour-

nal, and in the esteem and love in which he was held by his family

and associates, as their words attest.

Backus at the age of twenty-four was one of the youngest

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JAMES BACKUS                      171

shareholders in the Ohio Company. Of the five sons and daugh-

ters of Elijah Backus, iron-manufacturer of Norwich, Connecticut,

he was the first to come to the Northwest. It was through his

influence that the others came; his elder sister Lucy, with her

husband Dudley Woodbridge, to establish their store and their

family there; his brother, Elijah, who purchased the island op-

posite Belpre--part of which was later sold to Harman Blenner-

hassett, thus becoming the site of the famous Blennerhassett

Mansion and some of the Aaron Burr intrigues, so-called--who

was also owner of the first printing-press west of the Alleghanies,

it is said; the brother Matthew, who was a lawyer and established

himself first in the Carolinas, then in Pennsylvania, then in

Marietta, and finally went farther to the westward; and the

younger sister Clarina, in chronic ill health, who made numerous

and lengthy visits to her kinspeople in the wild western country.

The earliest letter of James Backus was written to his parents

from school in Plainfield when he was seventeen years of age,

and the same filial devotion and respect runs through all the sub-

sequent letters to them. Similarly, there is brotherly affection

and loyalty in his attitude toward each of the others of the family.

That he loved fun and entertainment, both formal and informal,

cannot be doubted. He recorded attending some of the balls and

early social events in Marietta. In the city he purchased tickets

for "the playhouse," for the "wax works" exhibit, and for "Peal's

Museum." He may have been something of a dandy, in society,

for he invested in new hair ribbands and in much barbering as

he neared the cities on his various journeys, and he took silver

knee and shoe buckles with him on such occasions. He was a

lover of the horses he owned. His humaneness is shown in his

interest in the welfare of the men who worked for and with him,

and his care for the boy who seems to have been his ward. He

expected to see justice done to others as well as intended that it

should be shown toward himself. There is courtesy and restraint

in all his writing, even when it concerns the delicate situations

that arose from his transactions for the Scioto Company. He

had no part in their trickery and plans for self-gain; on the con-

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172   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

trary, he showed considerable sympathy for the helpless and con-

fused French emigrants in a strange country.

It is easy to become sentimental over the word "pioneer,"

yet the facts, for the most part, disclose that the pioneers of the

Old Northwest were shrewd and calculating, as well as visionary;

highly practical, rather than sentimental men. Their habits of

living and of thought might well be considered today as crude.

Among them James Backus stands out with a fineness of spirit

and a strength and generosity of character that makes one proud

to have made his acquaintance, if only through a reading of the

words he wrote some century and a half ago.

• 12