OHJ Archive

THE MIAMI COUNTRY, 1750-1815

AS DESCRIBED IN JOURNALS AND LETTERS

by ELIZABETH FARIES

Senior Assistant, Reference and Catalog Department,

Dayton Public Library

During the late 1700's and the early 1800's the "Miami

Country" was a definite geographic area in the Northwest Territory.

This area has been defined as a region of approximately 5,000

square miles in southwestern Ohio, with a small adjoining "wedge

of southeastern Indiana." It was particularly the land that forms

the valleys of the Great Miami and the Little Miami rivers and

their tributaries, an area extending more than 100 miles inland

from a fifty-mile base along the Ohio River.1

In common with the Ohio Country, of which it was a part, it

is believed that the Miami Country was first visited by white men

when La Salle and his company made their trip down the Ohio

River in 1669-1670. Spurred on by a lucrative fur trade with the

Dutch, and later with the English, the Iroquois for many years con-

trolled the Ohio Country, using the Ohio River as a road to battle

in their war with the western tribes. During these years and, in

fact, until the end of the American Revolution, while the French

and the English contended for control of these western lands, the

area was visited only by fur traders, by soldiers on expeditions

against the Indians and the enemy nation, and by hunters who pre-

ferred lonely cabins in the great forests to the more settled areas

of the East.

As these visitors passed back and forth along the rivers and

over the Indian trails, their advance in knowledge of the country

is shown in the maps that were issued, first in France and then in

England. The first maps were crude and inaccurate on many points,

but in 1747 a map was sent out from London that "showed in

1 Pierce Beaver, "Miami Purchase of John Cleve Symmes," in Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XL (1931), 284; Frank P. Goodwin, "Building

a Commercial System," in ibid., XVI (1907), 316.

48

VIEW ON THE GREAT MIAMI

"The view is on the Great Miami from the resi-

dence of Captain Doyle, and lies two miles and

a half south of Dayton. Ohio." The picture was

painted by Godfrey N. Frankenstein. From a

print in the Ladies Repository (Cincinnati), VIII

(1848), obtained through the courtesy of the

Dayton Public Library.

MIAMI COUNTRY 49

fairly accurate location such important rivers as the Ohio, the

Wabash, the Miami, the Cumberland and the Tennessee."2

After the Revolution, when settlement in the West was stimu-

lated by grants of lands to soldiers, and shortly after the Ohio

Company had applied for its land in the Northwest Territory, John

Cleves Symmes made application for a grant of land in the Miami

Valley. In 1788, the same year that Rufus Putnam and the group

from New England settled Marietta, Benjamin Stites, with a small

group of relatives and friends from New Jersey, landed at the

mouth of the Little Miami River on land purchased from Symmes,

to establish Columbia, the first settlement in the Miami County.

In spite of the Indian wars, settlement went on slowly in the

Miami Valley, spreading out along the Ohio River and advancing

northward along the main streams. After the Treaty of Greene

Ville, the whole region of southern and central Ohio rapidly filled

with settlers. These settlements followed the rivers as they were

the roads of travel. The fertile valleys of the Miami rivers attracted

many settlers in spite of Symmes's badly managed land claims,

which added much to their troubles.

From the time of La Salle's first visit, journals, memoirs, and

letters have been written by the French, the British, and the Ameri-

cans who traveled west of Fort Pitt. Many of these writings relate

only the events of the mission or of the military expedition on

which the author was bound; others give interesting descriptions of

the Ohio Country or of the Northwest Territory in general terms;

but still others describe the country and the early settlements in

specific areas. This bibliographical study includes some of the

early British and American journals and letters that particularly

describe the Miami Country and its settlements in the period 1750

to 1815.3

Christopher Gist and George Croghan early traveled into the

western country on missions for the colonies and for private com-

panies interested both in the fur trade and in the land. In 1750

and 1751 Gist was sent out by the Ohio Company of Virginia to

explore the lands along the Ohio River as far down as the falls.

2 Beverley W. Bond, Jr., The Foundations of Ohio, Carl Wittke, ed., The History

of the State of Ohio (6 vols., Columbus, 1941-44), I (1941), 90.

3 A list of the writings discussed will be found at the end of this article with

bibliographical data. Footnote references in the text are by short title only.

50 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

This is the earliest known record of a person being commissioned

expressly for the purpose of examining these lands in the West.'

Christopher Gist was born about 1706 in Maryland. His father,

Richard Gist, was a surveyor and one of the commissioners who

laid out the city of Baltimore. Christopher Gist's journal and maps

of the areas he examined indicate that he had a good education. In

his time he was noted for his knowledge of the Indians and their

ways of living. This knowledge is displayed in the brief entries of

his journal, along with his accurate observations on the physical

features of this western territory. At the time he made this journey

he was a resident of North Carolina.

Setting out from Thomas Cresap's on the Potomac River on

Wednesday, October 31, 1750, Gist reached Muskingum, a town of

the Wyandots, on December 17, where he met George Croghan

and a party of men on a mission to the Miami Indians. He left

there January 15, 1751, in company with Croghan; after visiting

several Indian villages on the way, they arrived at the Twigtwee

town on the west bank of the "big Miamee River" on February 17.5

According to his instructions, Gist's journal is full of comments

about the land, the rivers, and the strength of the Indian tribes.

In crossing the Mad River on February 17, he noted:

Crossed the little Miamee River,⁶ and altering our Course We went S W 25

M, to the big Miamee River, opposite the Twigtwee Town. All the Way from

the Shannoah Town to this Place (except the first 20 M which is broken) is

fine, rich level Land, well timbered with large Walnut, Ash, Sugar Trees,

Cherry Trees, etc., it is well watered with a great Number of little Streams

or Rivulets, and full of beautiful natural Meadows, covered with wild Rye,

blue Grass and Clover, and abounds with Turkeys, Deer, Elks and most

Sorts of Game particularly Buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are frequently

seen feeding in one Meadow: In short it wants Nothing but Cultivation to

make it a most delightful Country.7

George Croghan came to America from Ireland in 1741 and

was first licensed as an Indian trader in Pennsylvania in 1744.

Shortly thereafter he went on several missions to the Indians in

the Pennsylvania area for the governor of that colony. In 1751 he

was sent to carry gifts to the Miami tribes and on this trip met

4 Darlington, ed., Christopher Gist's Journals, 30.

5 Ibid., 47.

6 Ibid., 123 (note). According to the route taken, Gist must have crossed the

Mad River, which he mistook for the Little Miami.

7 Ibid., 47.

MIAMI COUNTRY 51

Christopher Gist at Muskingum, who traveled with him to Picka-

willany. On this mission the Indians' acknowledgment of Croghan

as a leader was very noticeable in the manner in which they re-

ceived him in their villages and met with him in council.

From 1752 until 1772 he served under Sir William Johnson

as deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, and conducted many

important meetings with the Indians from the Miami Country along

with other western tribes. Some of these conferences were held

at his home, Croghan Hall, near Fort Pitt. In 1765 he was sent

by the government on one of his most important missions-his

trip to the Illinois Country.

He left Fort Pitt in May of 1765 and moved rapidly down the

Ohio River. On this journey, in spite of many difficulties, he kept

two journals-the official one recording the negotiations with the

Indians and his "private" journal in which he noted the topography,

the soil, the timber, and the game of the country through which

he passed.⁸ His route led him along the edge of the Miami Country.

He was captured by Indians below the falls of the Ohio and taken

a prisoner to one of the Miami towns in central Indiana. Later he

was released and carried on successful negotiations with Pontiac,

which meant much to the traders in the Miami Country, as well as

to those in the whole Northwest Territory. He then traveled on to

Detroit, crossed Lake Erie to Niagara, and so returned home.

Both Gist and Croghan served the colonies well on their

missions to the Indians. Gist was serving as Indian agent for eastern

Tennessee when he died of smallpox in 1759. Croghan, next to

Sir William Johnson, was the most prominent Indian agent of his

time. He was very much interested in organizing western land

companies, but lost all his holdings during the Revolution. He died

in poverty near Philadelphia in 1782.

Three interesting journals by soldiers who came to the Miami

Country to help in the defense of these western lands are those

of Major Ebenezer Denny, General Richard Butler, and Captain

Daniel Bradley.

Ebenezer Denny, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1761,

started his career as a bearer of dispatches to the command at Fort

8 Albert T. Volwiler, George Croghan and the Westward Movement 1741-1782

(Cleveland, 1926), 183-184 (note).

52 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Pitt at the age of thirteen. At that time, according to a soldier

who later served under him, he was a "slender, fair, blue-eyed,

red haired boy."⁹After service as a Revolutionary soldier, Major

Denny was sent out to Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great

Miami River, in 1781. His military journal relative to activities

in the Miami Country covers the period 1781 to May 1, 1792.

During this time he was stationed also at Fort Harmar and at Fort

Washington, which was built at the site of Cincinnati in 1789. He

took part in Harmar's expedition of 1790 and was with St. Clair's

troops at their disastrous defeat in 1791. His journal contains

descriptions of councils with the Indians, stories of life at the forts,

descriptions of the country as he traveled from one fort to another

or to a field of battle, and some stories related to him by settlers

who had been captured by the Indians.

Denny had served notably during the Revolution and, after

retiring from the army, took an active part in civil affairs. He was

elected first mayor of Pittsburgh when it was incorporated in 1816.

He died July 21, 1822.

General Richard Butler was sent to the Great Miami in 1785

as one of three Indian commissioners to negotiate a treaty with the

Indians. Born in Dublin in 1743, his family had come to America

when he was very young. With a background of service as an

Indian agent and as a soldier during the Revolutionary War, he

was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern

department and immediately made plans for a conference with the

Indians. The most outstanding event of his career was the negotia-

tion of the Treaty of Fort Finney, signed February 1, 1786.

His journal records the events of his trip down the Ohio River

and includes notes on several small streams which he stated

Hutchins overlooked in his survey of the river. The topography

of the land, details on the weather, various rocks and signs of

mineral deposits, and the beauty of the scenery all claimed his

attention. He also noted that a Mr. Zane, who had joined the group

at Fort Harmar, was an expert hunter, and several times he went

hunting with Zane.

The journal covers a period from 1781 to February 4, 1786, a

9 Denny, Military Journal, 209.

MIAMI COUNTRY 53

few days after the treaty was signed. The account of the council

meetings at Fort Finney includes a speech given by Butler and the

exact description of the action at the meeting where it was delivered.

This speech, plus the coolness and courage of these white men,

brought the Indians to terms when there was little hope of reach-

ing any agreement. Butler's speech on this occasion had been

attributed to General Clark at a council meeting supposedly held

at Fort Washington at this same time, but Fort Washington was

not erected until three years later.10

Butler was again in the Miami Country in 1791 as one of the

commanders under General St. Clair. He was killed at the scene

of St. Clair's defeat, November 4 of that year.

Captain Daniel Bradley served with the Connecticut troops

during the Revolution and was sent out to Fort Washington in 1791.

His journal starts, as did his journey, from Fort Pitt on August 22.

By September 9 he had arrived at Fort Washington and on the

14th set out to join St. Clair's army on the Great Miami. As he

journeyed up the valley, he was impressed with the good soil, the

lack of stones in the fields, the abundance of fish and of game.

Reaching the site where Fort Hamilton was being erected, his group

halted there from September 16 until October 4. They set out

again on that date, crossing the Great Miami River and following,

in a northerly direction, what is now known as Seven Mile Creek.

In spite of the difficulties of travel through the forests, Bradley

took time to notice the land and the timber. He wrote:

Oct. 11th. We are now about 62 miles from Fort Washington and a

better tract of land than we have passed through, take it generally, I never

saw-and the timber exceeds all I ever saw-White oaks from 4 to 6 feet

through and from 50 to 70 or 80 feet high without limbs and hold their

bigness better than any I ever saw before.... The best land I passed I think

is from 25 to 40 miles from Fort Washington.11

From October 14 until the 23d Bradley was stationed at the

newly built Fort Jefferson. From there he received the news of

St. Clair's defeat. In March of 1792 he was sent back to Fort

Washington and then north again to help build Fort St. Clair on

Seven Mile Creek between Fort Hamilton and Fort Jefferson. In

10 "Journal," 525.

11 Journal, 20-21.

54 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

1794 he traveled up to the Maumee with Wayne's troops and then

back to Fort Washington by way of Greene Ville. Late in 1794 he

set out from Fort Washington on a trip to the East, arriving at

his home in Connecticut in mid-January 1795.

During the years after the Revolution, while military missions

and expeditions were being sent to the western country in vain

attempts to subdue the Indians, settlements had begun to creep

westward along the Ohio River. John Cleves Symmes, sole pro-

prietor of the Miami Purchase, held land strategically placed in

this westward advance through the Ohio Country. Situated as it

was between the two Miami rivers, Symmes's grant controlled the

Miami-Maumee route to Lake Erie; and Fort Washington, built at

Cincinnati in 1789, became the military headquarters from which

Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne set out on their expeditions against

the Indians.12 The history of the settlement of this purchase is

graphically portrayed in Symmes's letters. These have been pub-

lished in the volume, Correspondence of John Cleves Symmes, edited

by Beverley W. Bond, Jr.

John Cleves Symmes was born in 1742 at Southold, Long

Island. In early manhood he moved to the frontier, as his fathers

had done before him, settling in New Jersey in 1770. It is said

that he taught school, learned surveying, and perhaps read law as

part of his education. In New Jersey he took an active part in

political and military affairs. His record of services in the Ameri-

can Revolution and, later, as a civil leader, repesenting New Jersey

in various conventions including the Continental Congress, is a

notable one.

Benjamin Stites, who had visited the Miami Country in 1786,

was eager for a settlement there and returned to New Jersey to find

some one to sponsor the project. He found such a man in John

Cleves Symmes.

In spite of Symmes's faults of impetuousness and carelessness

in regard to details, which finally resulted in his financial ruin, his

vision and optimism, his ability to hold a large personal following,

and his persistence in spite of great difficulties, did bring about the

establishment of permanent settlements in this fertile valley north

12 Symmes, Correspondence, 1.

MIAMI COUNTRY 55

of the Ohio River. His reputation as a leader was further enhanced

by the fact that he had been appointed one of the first judges of

the Northwest Territory and served under St. Clair in setting the

new government for the territory in operation.

Judge Symmes's letters indicate that he had a good education.

Some of his letters show his ability to accept trouble without being

completely overcome by it-an ability that made it possible for

him to persist in his efforts in spite of obstacles that seemed insur-

mountable. Other letters are tinged with bitterness as he contem-

plates the unfair treatment he feels he is receiving with settlers de-

manding clear titles to their land and congress debating over the

boundaries of his grant.

Many of the letters are witten to Jonathan Dayton in New

Jersey, who served him well as an agent in the East. Dayton's

letters to Symmes are included, giving a complete picture of the

transactions of the proprietor of the Miami Purchase. One of the

outstanding letters in the collection is a long one written by Symmes

to Jonathan Dayton from North Bend, May 18, 19, and 20, 1789.

Here Judge Symmes recounts his efforts to get military protection,

his dealings with the Indians, the establishment of North Bend,

his efforts to find a location for the principal city of the grant,

and the progress of the surveys in the interior. The letter is full

of descriptions of various sections of the valley and of the life of

the early settlers.

A circular, "To the Respectable Public," issued by Symmes at

Trenton, New Jersey, on November 26, 1787, optimistically sets

forth the plans for this new settlement in the West. The exact ar-

rangements for payment for the grant by the proprietor and for

the selection and payment of land by would-be subscribers is given

in detail. The circular ends with a description of the Miami Coun-

try, the price of land and clearness of title as compared to lands

in Kentucky, and the arrangements for military protection and good

government in the area. In view of later developments, the state-

ment that "the titles to the Miami lands will be clear and certain

and no possible doubt can arise,"13 seems ironic. It does signify

good intentions, although Symmes lacked the ability to manage

details so that this statement would be borne out. In other instances

13 The Trenton Circular, 91.

56 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

56 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

of promises made in the circular, but not fulfilled, circumstances

beyond Judge Symmes's control, entered into the picture. Never-

theless, the circular is a clear statement of how Symmes intended

to manage the Miami Purchase. This publication was first issued

in pamphlet form shortly after he had applied to congress for the

grant.

Full of bitterness after losing most of his property in settling

claims, Judge Symmes was reduced to poverty and died February

26, 1814, at Cincinnati. His grave is at North Bend where he had

hoped to found his "city."

Benjamin Van Cleve, writing in the year 1820, near the end

of a very busy life, introduced his memoirs in this manner:

Having been in the habit from my early youth of keeping memoranda

of the chief incedents and occurrences of my life, I have thrown them

together in the following pages, in the form of memoirs: occasionally noting

passing events connected with the different periods; for the benefit of

retrospection, & for the gratification & perhaps advantage of my children:

answering the double purpose of affording them a history of my life and a

cronological table to the history of the times; or to so much of them, at least,

as I have been a spectator to, or in which I have been an actor.14

Benjamin Van Cleve, born in Monmouth County, New Jersey,

February 24, 1773, started on his way westward as a boy of twelve.

In 1785 his family moved to western Pennsylvania, where they

resided for five years, and then proceeded by keelboat down the

Ohio River to Cincinnati. His father, John Van Cleve, had served

with the New Jersey militia in the Revolutionary War and had had

home and possessions destroyed in the Battle of Monmouth. He

was a blacksmith by trade and determined to set out for the West

to seek better opportunity to provide for his family.

The memoirs begin with a short history of his family and his

memories of the Battle of Monmouth. They end with an account

of the political discussions in the Miami area in 1802, when the

question of statehood for Ohio was being debated. In the interval

Benjamin Van Cleve lived a varied and busy life. He arrived in

Cincinnati on January 3, 1790, and in May of that year saw his

father killed by the Indians. Taking over the job of providing for

his mother and the younger children, he was employed in various

¹⁴Memoirs, 7.

MIAMI COUNTRY 57

ways by the quartermaster general of the army in gathering and

distributing supplies to the troops stationed at forts north of

Cincinnati, and in carrying dispatches to Philadelphia. While in

the employ of the army, he took part in St. Clair's expedition; in

his memoirs he gave a graphic picture of the confusion in the

retreat.

In April 1796 he arrived as one of the first settlers at the

present site of Dayton, Ohio, accompanying his mother and step-

father, Samuel Thompson, and their family. In making this settle-

ment, some of the people came up the Great Miami River, while

the rest of the party came overland from Cincinnati. Van Cleve

was in the group that traveled up the river in a pirogue. Here he

took out land for himself and four years later settled down in his

own home. His memoirs are full of pictures of his in the frontier

settlements. His entry for the year 1800 began as follows:

1800 This year I raised a crop of corn & determined on settling myself

& having a home & accordingly on the 28th of August married Mary

Whitten, daughter of John Whitten near Dayton She was young lively in-

dustrious & ingenuous My property was a horse creature & a few farming

utensils & her father gave her a few household or kitchen utensils so that we

could make shift to cook our provision, a bed, a cow & heifer, a ewe & two

lambs, a sow and pigs & a saddle & spinning wheel I had corn & vegetables

growing. So that if we were not rich, we had sufficient for our immediate

wants & we were content & happy.15

During this period he was also actively engaged as surveyor

for Hamilton County and acted as assistant to John Reily, the clerk

of the house of representatives of the territorial legislature.

Benjamin Van Cleve became one of Dayton's leading citizens.

He was the community's first school teacher and first postmaster

and took a very active part in many civic affairs. He died at Dayton,

Ohio, in 1821. In a straightforward, sincere style he has preserved

a valuable picture of life in the Miami Country between 1790 and

1802.

This new country in the earliest years of its settlement had

many visitors. Some came from the eastern states and some from

Europe just to see for themselves the new sights. A few took back

exaggerated reports of life in the West and tales not based on any

15 Ibid., 65.

58 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

facts, that unfortunately some people believed. Others, misled by

enthusiastic reports of land speculators, made the long journey

with the expectation of settling, but soon returned to the East to

write disgruntled reports on the hardships endured when the ex-

pected Paradise failed to materialize.

A third group of travelers accepted conditions as they were

and found much to interest them in the country itself and in the

people they encountered along the way. Francis Baily was one of

these. Born in 1774, the son of a Newbury banker, he came from

England to travel in the United States during the years 1796 and

1797. He had received a good education and had served his term

as an apprentice in a mercantile business prior to these travels.

Whether there was an object in making this journey, or whether

it was just to satisfy a young man's desire to see some of the world,

has not been discovered, but during the years 1796 and 1797 this

young Englishman traveled over all of the United States and much

of the western lands beyond its border.

Baily started out on his tour of the western country on Septem-

ber 1, 1796, stopping on the way west to view the "new city of

Washington.^"16 He commenced his trip down the Ohio November

24, traveling with a Mr. Heighway who was going to establish a

settlement in the Miami Country. In spite of the difficulties of travel

over the mountains and down an ice-filled river, Francis Baily made

a very interesting record of each day's happenings, describing the

way they traveled, the hardships on the road, the taverns or homes

where they took lodging, the people they met and the country

through which they passed.

In February of 1797 they arrived at Columbia where Heighway

turned north to go about forty miles up the Little Miami River to

his new grant. Baily visited with Heighway for about a month and

records in his journal some very interesting ideas about new settle-

ments in general and about Heighway's in particular. This settle-

ment was named Waynesville in honor of General Wayne. Baily

was quite taken with this area and described the land in detail. He

was also quite pleased with the "settled country" he found and has

said of it:

16 Journal, 124.

MIAMI COUNTRY 59

It must be observed also, that this tract of country lying between the

two Miamis is the only properly settled country on the north side of the Ohio;

for though there are a few scattered plantations along the banks of the Ohio,

and on some of the rivers which run into it, yet they are too widely diffused

to assume any corporate form, or to vie with each other in a spirit of in-

dustry and civilization. This little Mesopotamia, then, may be said to be the

principal attracting point of the whole north-western territory; and it is a

place where, above all others, I should fix my residence, if I were at all

disposed to emigrate to this western country.17

After this visit, he proceeded on down the Ohio River to stop

at Cincinnati. In describing this town, he takes exception to the

American habit of laying streets in straight lines with cross streets

at right angles, preferring that the streets follow the irregularities

of the land. Cincinnati, it seems, is a very good example of streets

laid in straight lines regardless of embankments and the river.

Here, too, he met a Mr. Burnett who invited him on a trip to

Niagara. However, as Baily had his plans made, he continued his

trip down the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers and back overland

to the eastern coast on a southern route.

After his return to England, Francis Baily earned an enviable

reputation as a business man and, upon retiring from business at

the age of fifty, earned fame as a scientist, especially in the field

of astronomy. He was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society,

serving as its president for eight years. In a memoir given before

the society in 1844, tribute was paid to him for his natural tact, his

readiness to help anyone who wanted to do something useful, his

remarkable memory, his good humor, hospitality, and common

sense. These traits must have been very much a part of the younger

Francis Baily, for although the journal tells of hours of coldness,

of hunger, of struggling through tangled forests, and of unpleasant

lodgings, yet the record as a whole leaves the impression that the

traveler had a very interesting time and met very interesting people.

The Reverend James Smith, of Powhatan County, Virginia, has

left three journals describing trips he took into Kentucky and the

Northwest Territory. In searching for source material for his

history of the West, Theodore Roosevelt found the manuscript of

these journals in Colonel Durrett's famous historical library in

17 Ibid., 210.

60 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Louisville, Kentucky. He makes reference to them in the work,

Winning of the West.

James Smith was born in Virginia in 1757 and died near Co-

lumbia in the Miami Country in 1800. His mother, who was of

Huguenot descent, was the third wife of Thomas Smith, owner of

a large estate near Richmond. Three sons in this family became

ministers, two of them belonging to the Baptist denomination, and

James, like his father, being a member of the Methodist Church.

James Smith was what was then known as a "Republican

Methodist."

Being a man of means with a large plantation to manage, he

had no regular charge or circuit, but preached as he had oppor-

tunity. In his journals he often recorded the fact that he held

services at different places in the frontier settlements, sometimes

filling in at the last minute when the expected minister did not

arrive.

His first journal, written in 1783, concerns a trip he made to

Kentucky, accompanied by a half brother, George R. Smith, to visit

their half brother, George S. Smith.

The second and third journals are records of trips to the

Miami Country, made in 1795 and 1797. Although James Smith

owned many slaves, he hated slavery. Upon crossing the Ohio

River on November 15, 1795, and stepping for the first time on

free soil, he recorded in his journal his thoughts about slavery

and his joy that the Northwest Territory was free from that evil.

On this trip he proceeded north to Hamilton and returned down

the Great Miami River to its mouth. The land pleased him very

much, and he wrote: "From Hamilton down the Miami River to

the Ohio, the lands exceed description. Indeed this country of all

others that I ever saw, seems best calculated for earthly happiness."18

He was quite interested in some mounds along the Miami River and

in his journal gave a full description of them. He had hoped to see

John Cleves Symmes before returning home, but was disappointed

in this. His journey ended December 23, 1795. Near the end of

the second journal are two discourses, one entitled "Observations

on the Territory Northwest of the Ohio," and the other, "Liberty

and Slavery."

18 "Tours," 380.

MIAMI COUNTRY 61

In 1797 James Smith again journeyed to the Miami Country.

This time he crossed the Ohio River, October 3, 1797, at Augusta,

and traveled north up Bullskin Creek to Plainfield. From there he

went northwest to the Little Miami River and then down the river

to find out about the location of his land. As he had obtained land

in that area and had considered settling there, he stayed for a while,

looking over the land and visiting various places of interest. He

made a trip to Columbia and another one to the new community of

Waynesville, where he met Francis Baily's friend, Heighway. In

his journal he commented on the hardships this man and his com-

panions had endured on their trip from England. He held several

preaching services and made trips to Old Chillicothe, to Deerfield

(now South Lebanon), and to the Scioto River. He visited several

mounds in the area, going again to see the one on the Great Miami

River described in his journal of 1795. In this third journal he

set down a diagram of a mound near the East Fork of the Little

Miami. As he traveled he filled this record of his journey with

comments on the fertility of the soil, the beauty of the scenery, and

the blessing this area enjoyed in its freedom from slavery. In this

journal, as in the second, his impressions are summed up near the

end of the account in an article, "Description of the Country North-

west of the Ohio."

After his second trip to the Little Miami Valley, James Smith

decided to make this area his home. His land was located on

Caesar's Creek on the east side of the river in Warren County.

Before he left Virginia he freed all his slaves, but two of them

accompanied the family to Ohio. One of these former slaves, "Uncle

Ned," later owned a 200-acre farm in Warren County. While the

Smith family was living temporarily near Columbia, Smith con-

tracted fever and died in the summer of 1800. His widow and

children, however, resided for many years on the land he had

selected for their home.

In 1810 there was published in Cincinnati a little book that

attracted much attention. In fact, the author, who had intended

publishing it for his friends, found he had written a book that

strangers, especially travelers and scientists, wanted. People who

were thinking of settling in the West were eager to obtain it as a

guide to this new western country. This little book was Notices

62 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Concerning Cincinnati written by Dr. Daniel Drake. Dr. Drake had

planned to issue a flora calendar, but finding that the physical

sciences so overlapped, he prepared a handbook on soil, climate,

and diseases of Cincinnati and the surrounding area. Temperature

tables, on which the degrees recorded are those actually reported

from various sections on the different dates, are included. The book

contains an article on a new disease that first appeared near Staun-

ton on the Great Miami River in 1809. It also contains a section

on the conditions of Cincinnati, in which the social as well as the

physical structure of the town is discussed.

As a boy of fifteen Daniel Drake came to Cincinnati in 1800

to serve as an apprentice to Dr. William Goforth. He was a son

of the frontier, for his family had moved from Plainfield, New

Jersey, to Mays Lick, Kentucky, when he was about two years old.

After serving his apprenticeship, he built up a large practice,

but found time to carry on research studies in the geology, the

meteorology, the history, the antiquities, and the diseases of the

Miami Valley. He was also active in civic affairs in his early life,

being the chief leader of the community in literary events.

Urged to enlarge the publication of 1810, which received such

a surprising reception, he set to work and in 1815 published a much

larger work, Natural and Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati.

This contains the following divisions: geological and historical

introductions; physical topography, an interesting account of physi-

cal characteristics of the valley; civil topography, a detailed de-

scription of the buildings, institutions, and societies of Cincinnati;

political topography, the political and judicial organization of the

Miami Country; medical topography, a discussion of the diseases

prevalent in the area; antiquities; conclusions; and an appendix

containing records of the earthquake that had shaken the area a

short time before, the aurora borealis, and the southwest wind.

The concluding section contains "Advantages of Cincinnati vs.

Louisville as 'Future Metropolis of the Ohio.' " Here Dr. Drake

discussed the advantages of a canal system and suggested the Miami-

Erie route that was later adopted:

In this parallelogram of 5503 square miles, there is no spot which is not

susceptible to cultivation; and by far the greater part is equal to any land

in the United States. It only, therefore, required facilities for the exportation

MIAMI COUNTRY 63

of its surplus produce, and the importation of foreign articles, to insure for it

a very dense population; and such facilities would be afforded by the canal.

In addition to this, should the difficulties connected with the navigation of

the Maumee and its branches be removed at the same time, the skins and

peltry, the fish and perhaps the copper of the north, would reach the Ohio;

and the cotton, sugar, tobacco and other productions of the South, would pass

into the Lakes through the same channel.¹⁹

While the idea may not have been original with Dr. Drake, for it

was a much discussed topic at that period, his biographer, Edward

D. Mansfield, was unable to find in print any earlier mention of

this plan for a canal.20

Dr. Drake was a slow, very accurate worker, and doing the

research required for such a publication while carrying on a large

medical practice, meant snatching time when and where he could.

Since he had started his studies in 1807 he had felt particularly

handicapped by a lack of education, and he determined to obtain

his medical degree. He attended the University of Pennsylvania,

where he was graduated in 1816.

Upon his return from Philadelphia, he taught at Transylvania

University, then returned to Cincinnati and helped establish the

Ohio Medical College and the Commercial Hospital. Due to a

medical controversy he returned to Transylvania University, but

after a few years came back to Cincinnati, where he spent most of

his life. During the remainder of his career he was very busy

writing, studying, lecturing, and teaching. He was very much

interested in medical education and in temperance and wrote and

lectured on those subjects.

On December 26, 1838, Cincinnati celebrated the fiftieth anni-

versary of her first permanent settlement. An elaborate program

was planned with a final meeting at the First Presbyterian Church.

This was to be a literary exercise, with Dr. Drake as the main

speaker. On this occasion he gave a three-hour address on the

history of the Miami Country. His rough notes for this address

have been found with the Draper Collection at the library of the

State Historical Society of Wisconsin. They were edited and pub-

lished as Dr. Daniel Drake's Memoir of the Miami Country,

19 Natural and Statistical View, 231.

20 Edward D. Mansfield, Memoir of the Life and Services of Daniel Drake (Cin-

cinnati, 1855), 250.

64 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

64 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

1779-1794. Certainly no one was better fitted to make such an

address. With the same painstaking care that he collected scientific

information, he set about preparing this speech.

Included in the Memoir is the complete diary of Israel Lud-

low's voyage to the Miami. Ludlow, who surveyed much of the

Miami Country and helped to start a number of its settlements,

wrote on his first trip to the land:

The fertility of the country is such as will afford an easy and wholesome

sustenance to the inhabitants and the prospects of future opulence, perhaps as

great as in any country in the world that depends upon the cultivation of land

for its source of wealth. We cannot expect at present, that agreeable enter-

tainment that invites the ladies of high rank, or gratifications for the lively

fancies of youth, but those who are disposed to turn their views forward, and

are wishing to step out of a competency into imaginary wealth, can without

doubt find a scene answerable to their most flattering wishes.21

This is the Miami Country as it appeared to some of the

travelers and early settlers who came to its fertile valleys in the

last half of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth

centuries.

WRITINGS DISCUSSED IN THE ARTICLE

Baily, Francis, Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North

America in 1796 & 1797 . . . with a Memoir of the Author.

London, Baily Brothers, 1856. ⁴³⁹p.

Bradley, Daniel, Journal of Capt. Daniel Bradley; an Epic of the

Ohio Frontier; with Copious Comment by Frazer E. Wilson.

Greenville, Ohio, Frank H. Jobes & Son, 1935. 76p.

Butler, Richard, "Journal of General Richard Butler," in Olden

Time, II (1847), 433-464, 481-528, 529-532.

Croghan, George, Journal of Col. George Croghan, Who Was Sent,

after the Peace of 1763, by the Government, to Explore the

Country Adjacent to the Ohio River, and to Conciliate the

Indian Nations Who Had Hitherto Acted with the French.

Burlington, N. J., New Jersey Enterprise Book & Job Printing

Establishment, n. d. 38p. Reprinted from American Monthly

Journal of Geology, December 1831.

21 Drake, Memoir, 56.

MIAMI COUNTRY 65

Darlington, William, ed., Christopher Gist's Journals with Histori-

cal, Geographical and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of

His Contemporaries. Pittsburgh, J. R. Weldin & Co., 1893.

Drake, Daniel, Dr. Daniel Drake's Memoir of the Miami Country,

1779-1794 (an unfinished manuscript), edited by Beverley W.

Bond, Jr., in Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio,

Quarterly Publications, XVIII (1923), 39-117.

Drake, Daniel, Natural and Statistical View, or Picture of Cincin-

nati and the Miami Country. Illustrated by Maps. With an

Appendix Containing Observations on the Late Earthquakes,

the Aurora Borealis, and South-West Wind. Cincinnati, Looker

& Wallace, 1815. ²⁵⁶p.

Drake, Daniel, Notices Concerning Cincinnati .... Cincinnati, John

W. Brown & Co., 1810. ⁶0p.

Smith, James, "Tours into Kentucky and the Northwest Territory.

Three Journals by the Rev. James Smith of Powhatan County,

Va. 1783-1795-1797," in Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Quarterly, XVI (1907), 348-401.

Symmes, John Cleves, The Correspondence of John Cleves Symmes,

Founder of the Miami Purchase, edited by Beverley W. Bond,

Jr. Published for the Historical and Philosophical Society of

Ohio. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1926. ³12p.

Symmes, John Cleves, The Trenton Circular "To the Respectable

Public" of November 26, 1787, in Historical and Philosophi-

cal Society of Ohio, Quarterly Publications, V (1910), 82-92.

Van Cleve, Benjamin, Memoirs of Benjamin Van Cleve, edited by

Beverley W. Bond, Jr., in Historical and Philosophical Society

of Ohio, Quarterly Publications, XVII (1922), 1-71.

Ohio History Journal