GEORGE WASHINGTON'S INTEREST IN THE
OHIO COUNTRY
BY C. B. GALBREATH
February 22nd will be the bicentennial
anniversary
of the birth of George Washington. We
are apt to
think of him as a stately, heroic
figure, far remote from
us in time and space. Two hundred years
is a com-
paratively brief period in the life of
a nation. Only
four generations have passed away since
the death of
Washington. Many are now living who
read in the
newspapers at the time the announcement
of the death
of the last soldier of the Revolution.
Washington was born in Virginia, the
"Old Do-
minion," which, prior to the Civil
War, bordered on our
own State, and he was so interested in
the region where
we now dwell that he made a journey
thither years be-
fore the minute men at Concord Bridge
"Fired the shot heard round the
world,"
and the bell on Independence Hall
"proclaimed liberty
throughout all the land, unto all the
inhabitants thereof."
Washington's interest in the vast
primeval wilder-
ness that covered the Alleghany
Mountains and the
regions beyond is traced by one
historian to the counsel
of his mother in 1747, given to
dissuade him from a life
at sea where his brother had found a
romantic career
She directed his thought "to those
darkling forests that
stretched illimitably away to the
westward of their
Virginia home."1
1 Hulbert, Archer Butler,
"Washington's Tour of Ohio," Publications
of the Ohio Historical and
Archeological and Historical Society, Vol.
XVII, p. 432.
(20)
George Washington's Interest in the Ohio Country 21 A year later he was surveying lands on the upper Potomac and developing a strong attachment for the |
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somber forests on the eastern slope of the mountains and the rivers that flowed through their shadowy soli- tudes. At the age of nineteen years, on the death of his |
22
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
brother Lawrence, he succeeded to his
office as adjutant
general of a military district in
Virginia with the title
of major. He entered upon the study of
tactics to fit
himself for service against the French
and Indians who
were threatening the western border of
the Common-
wealth.
He early became a thrifty lad and
manifested a de-
sire to become a landed
proprietor. At the age of
sixteen years he acquired five hundred
and fifty acres of
"wild land" in Frederick
County, Virginia, and paid
for it with money earned as surveyor.
Two years later
he bought a farm of four hundred and
fifty-six acres,
and in 1752 purchased another tract of
five hundred and
fifty-two acres. Before he was
twenty-one years of age,
he had through his own efforts become
the owner of
1,558 acres. Here is conclusive
evidence of his early
ambition to become an extensive land
owner.2
In 1753 Washington was chosen by
Governor Din-
widdie of Virginia to carry an
important message to
the French commander at Fort LeBoeuf,
twelve miles
south of Lake Erie in Pennsylvania
where Waterford
now stands. Another man had been sent
on this mis-
sion and had failed. The appointment appealed to
young Washington's pride. With his
party on horse-
back, including French and Indian
interpreters and
Christopher Gist, the famous explorer
and backwoods-
man, he set out on the last day of
October in that year
on the long journey through Western
Pennsylvania.
The mission was successfully
accomplished. On the re-
turn journey the party was overtaken by
the bitter cold
and drifting snows of winter. It was
impractical for
2 Woodward, W. E., George Washington,
the Image and the Man,
pp. 82-93.
George Washington's Interest in the
Ohio Country 23
the entire party to proceed. Washington
and Gist faced
the rigorous weather, the dangers of
the primeval forest,
the skulking savages, and returned on
foot to deliver
the message of the French commander to
Governor Din-
widdie. The promptness and intrepidity
with which the
mission was accomplished favorably
impressed the
Governor. This exploit has at times
been likened to
"carrying a message to
Garcia."
In the French and Indian War, which
promptly fol-
lowed, Washington's first important
military services
were in the Upper Ohio Valley at the
Great Meadows;
in the disastrous campaign of General
Braddock; and
the expedition against Fort Duquesne,
changed in name
to Fort Pitt after its capture by the
British.
It is a significant fact that
Washington's entire mili-
tary experience, prior to the
Revolution, was in the
Upper Ohio Valley.
He was early attracted to western lands
as a profit-
able investment. After the close of the
French and
Indian War the lands east of the
Mississippi and south
of the Great Lakes were transferred to
the British and
Washington at this time was a royal
British subject.
He was interested in the Ohio Company;
he was one of
the organizers of the Mississippi
Company which sought
to obtain from the Crown of Great
Britain a grant of
2,500,000 acres of land "on the
Mississippi and its
waters." Four months after the
organization of this
company the British Ministry issued a
proclamation
that put an end to grants of western
lands for purposes
of settlement. This annoyed but did not
discourage
Washington. He continued to seek
information in re-
24
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
gard to lands already granted and to
acquire them as
he was able.
John J. Ingalls in his colorful and
somewhat ironic
oratory once said that George
Washington was a pa-
triot; that there could be no doubt in
regard to that.
"This did not prevent him,"
said Ingalls, "from seeing
a good thing far off." "The
location of the National
Capital near his patrimonial estates
did not diminish
their value." The inference here
is that he used his
great influence to have the Nation's
Capital located near
his plantations. Over against this
suggestion we may
place the historic fact that he served
eight years as
Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary
Army with-
out salary and that he renounced his
claim for Virginia
bounty lands amounting to 23,333 acres.
He gave to
the American cause in salary and lands
the equivalent,
at the lowest estimate, of $150,000.
Truly it may be
said that his was a patriotic and
unselfish service.
But he knew a good thing when he saw it
and he
saw it afar off. He saw it over the
Appalachian Moun-
tains in our wonderful Ohio country. In
his early
military service he had traversed the
Monongahela and
the Allegheny valleys. He had seen these
two rivers
unite to form the beautiful Ohio. But
he had not ex-
plored its valley to the westward.
On October 5, 1770, Washington
set out on his
journey to this valley. At this time
the territory north-
west of the Ohio River was an unsettled
and unorgan-
ized wilderness. This journey was
commenced almost
four years and seven months before the
opening battles
of the Revolution and five years and
nine months before
the Declaration of Independence. British authority
George Washington's Interest in the
Ohio Country 25
was then supreme in the Colonies and
George Wash-
ington was a British subject. His
purpose in this west-
ern journey was to get first-hand
information in regard
to lands along the Ohio, which he was
to view for the
first time, although he had heard and
read of them.
He reached Fort Pitt October 17.
His journey down the Ohio and return is
described
in the preceding contribution by Dr.
Guy-Harold Smith
with special reference to encampment
sites. Dr. Smith,
Department of Geography in the Ohio
State University,
has devoted time and scholarly care to
the map and the
text. Every known source of information
has been con-
sulted. The result is highly satisfactory and strictly
reliable. The suggestion of Dr. Smith
that the camp
sites should be marked is commendable.
Where the side
of the river is not definitely known,
markers appropri-
ately inscribed should be placed on both
sides.
This journey left a lasting impression
on the mind of
Washington. The exigencies of the
Revolution, its
trials and its triumphs, did not change
his high estimate
of the Ohio country. In 1784, one year
after the sign-
ing of the Definitive Treaty of Peace
with Great Britain,
he made the following entry in his
diary:
Into this river (Ohio) * * * Big Beaver
Creek, Muskin-
gum, Hockhocking, Scioto and the two
Miamis, in its upper
region and many others in the lower pour
themselves from the
westward through one of the most fertile
countries of the globe.3
The region here described, in this
bicentennial year,
is our own Ohio, and this tribute was
paid by George
Washington after he had led the
Revolution to triumph,
bade farewell to his fellow officers
and retired for a brief
3 Hulbert, A. B., Washington and the
West, pp. 87-88.
26 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
period to Mt. Vernon and private life.
He had not yet
been called to the Presidency of the
young Republic.
In this same year, 1784, he wrote to
Governor Ben-
jamin Harrison of Virginia a letter in
which he pro-
posed a system of water transportation
for the Ohio
country, which should join the Ohio
River and Lake
Erie. Forty-one years afterwards the
first shovelful of
earth was raised in the construction of
the canals which
meant so much in the early development
and progress
in Ohio.
Washington was not a dreamer but he had
a vision.
He had faith that the Ohio Valley would
in time call
to it a large population. When the
proper preliminary
steps were taken by Congress he felt
assured that this
favored region would, in his own
language, "be settled
faster than any other ever was,"
that imagination could
not measure the development of this
inland empire.
After the organization of the Northwest
Territory,
the establishment of the first
permanent settlement at
Marietta and the election of Washington
as President
of the United States, he found frequent
occasion to ex-
press his abiding faith in the future
of the region that
he explored in his earlier years. Of
the settlement at
Marietta, he said:
No colony in America was ever settled
under such favorable
auspices as that which has just
commenced at the Muskingum.
Information, property, and strength will
be its characteristics.
I know many of the settlers personally,
and there were never men
better calculated to promote the welfare
of such a community.
To the end of his days he watched with
sympathetic
interest the development of the
Northwest Territory
and especially that portion which has
become our home
state.
George Washington's Interest in the Ohio Country 27 George Washington's life is a part of the history of Ohio. The journey which has been recounted and il- lustrated by the excellent map was the most extensive that he made into the western country. It is proposed to present as a pageant, a replica of that journey as one of the culminating events of this bicentennial year. Our entire State should enter with enthusiasm into the spirit of this celebration in honor of the man whose faith and courage did so much to found a government that has stood the test of time and today leads the world in wealth and prestige and power. In no state should that spirit be more manifest than in our own Ohio; Ohio, the heart of our peerless and invincible Republic. |
|
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S INTEREST IN THE
OHIO COUNTRY
BY C. B. GALBREATH
February 22nd will be the bicentennial
anniversary
of the birth of George Washington. We
are apt to
think of him as a stately, heroic
figure, far remote from
us in time and space. Two hundred years
is a com-
paratively brief period in the life of
a nation. Only
four generations have passed away since
the death of
Washington. Many are now living who
read in the
newspapers at the time the announcement
of the death
of the last soldier of the Revolution.
Washington was born in Virginia, the
"Old Do-
minion," which, prior to the Civil
War, bordered on our
own State, and he was so interested in
the region where
we now dwell that he made a journey
thither years be-
fore the minute men at Concord Bridge
"Fired the shot heard round the
world,"
and the bell on Independence Hall
"proclaimed liberty
throughout all the land, unto all the
inhabitants thereof."
Washington's interest in the vast
primeval wilder-
ness that covered the Alleghany
Mountains and the
regions beyond is traced by one
historian to the counsel
of his mother in 1747, given to
dissuade him from a life
at sea where his brother had found a
romantic career
She directed his thought "to those
darkling forests that
stretched illimitably away to the
westward of their
Virginia home."1
1 Hulbert, Archer Butler,
"Washington's Tour of Ohio," Publications
of the Ohio Historical and
Archeological and Historical Society, Vol.
XVII, p. 432.
(20)