WASHINGTON AND
OHIO.*
E. O. RANDALL, LL. M.
The many-sidedness of Washington
presents an unfailing
field of study in his character and
career. His varied accomplish-
ments, in each of which he was facile
princeps, again and
again
quicken our interest in and increase our
admiration for the fore-
most figure in American annals. So
glorious was he in the "pomp
and circumstance" of the War of
Independence, and so wise and
potent was he in the arena of our
national awakening, that we are
apt to think of him merely as a soldier
and a statesman.
He was far more. He was eminent as a
"man of affairs."
He was not a college-bred man, but he
was trained in the "school
of life" and in its broad
curriculum he came in contact with
many phases of effort calculated to
peculiarly prepare him for
the work of his manhood. The qualities
displayed in the spheres
of soldiery and statesmanship were
discovered and developed
in his early experiences in the frontier
wilderness. Washington
was a graduate of the forest. His first
tutors in the art of war-
fare were the tribesmen of the backwoods
of the Ohio Valley.
The school of his diplomacy was his
unique service, while yet
a lad, in the romantic and picturesque
plays made by England and
France for racial supremacy in the
Northwest. The loci of these
ambassadorial contests were chiefly on
the banks of the Ohio.
Thus Washington's introduction to events
military and political
was on the advance line of western
civilization.
Undoubtedly Washington received much of
the breadth of
his views and the keenness of his vision
from his life amid the
rugged mountains, the ample plains and
the sweeping rivers of
the primeval West. He was pre-eminently
an expansionist. As
a boy he looked down from the heights of
the Alleghany range
and beheld the empire of the Ohio Valley
and the glories thereof.
Long before the Revolution and years
after he looked to pos-
sibilities of the vast domain bounded by
the Great Lakes, "the
* The substance of this article appeared
in the Ohio Magazine for
February, 1907.
(477)
478 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
beautiful river" and the
"Father of Waters." He planned for
its development and assiduously strove
to create the channels
which should connect the commerce of the
East with the products
of the West. It was the prospective
future of the Ohio Valley
that made Washington a surveyor, an
engineer, a promoter of
western real estate and one of the
largest land holders of his day.
The events that unite Washington with
the Ohio country
were as romantic as they were resultful.
The Ohio country was
to be the arena for the bitter and
prolonged struggle of the Latin
and the Saxon competitors for the
acquisition of an American
empire.
The adventurous and chilvalrous Frenchman first
dominated the Ohio by the right of
discovery and exploration.
Under the patronage of the luxurious and
ambitious Francis I,
who, as the politicians phrase it,
"viewed with alarm" the lodg-
ments the English and Spanish were
making in the New World,
Jacques Cartier, in the beginning of the
Sixteenth Century,
navigated the hitherto unknown waters of
the broad St. Lawr-
ence. Others followed until Champlain,
"the father of New
France," planted the colony of
Quebec (1608) on that rocky
height which was to be the Gibraltar of
the kingdom of the
Gaul in the newly discovered world.
Champlain's associates
and successors pushed on across the
Great Lakes and down the
rivers of Indiana, Illinois and
Wisconsin, till their frail but plucky
canoes, carrying the fur trader and the
Jesuit priest, embarked
on the swift majestic current that
whirled them on to the mouth
of the Mississippi. From the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the Gulf of
Mexico the banners of the Bourbons
proclaimed the sovereignty
of France. All this while the
Anglo-Saxon, from time almost
immemorial the inveterate foe of the
Latin, was slowly but surely
securing a firm foothold on the rugged
coast of the Atlantic
and preparing to measure strength with
his old-time enemy for
the conquest of the West.
The Alleghany mountains were not to be
the barriers to
his onward march. The Anglo-Saxon has
always been a reacher-
out and taker-in. He has always been a
land-grabber and a
land owner, and in extenuation, be it
said, a land improver.
The discoveries of the dauntless Cabots
preceded the landing
of Cartier, and in 1607, just one year
before the foundation of
Washington and Ohio. 479
Quebec, the Jamestown (Va.) colony
became the first permanent
English settlement in America. It was
thus a neck and neck
race between the Gaul and Teuton for the
American stakes.
Under the charter of 1609 the Jamestown
company "became
possessed in absolute property of lands
extending along the sea
coast two hundred miles north and the
same distance south from
Old Point Comfort, and with the land
throughout from sea to
sea." It is familiar history how
other colonial settlements
followed under various forms of charter
and patent; how many of
these royal grants called for land from
the Atlantic to the un-
known limit on the West and how these
colonies' claims often
conflicted and overlapped. The English
settlers on the barren
Atlantic shores began to look with
longing eyes to the vast ex-
panse, the land of promise,
"flowing with milk and honey," beyond
the Alleghanies, the domain claimed by
France. Virginia was
the center that attracted the most
enterprising English colonists,
and she sent forth the most venturesome
settlers into the great
Northwest, the Virginia colonists being
advance skirmishers in
the westward pioneer emigration.
Virginia's claim of territory ex-
tended west to the Mississippi river and
north to a line covering
most of what is now Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois. The territory
between La Belle Riviere, as the French
poetically called the
Ohio River, and the waters of the placid
Erie, was to be the
storm center of the conflict that in its
finality was to determine
not merely the relative careers of these
two peoples, but the
destiny of the world.
FIRST OHIO COMPANY.
By the year of 1748 the plucky
Pennsylvanians and the
belligerent Virginians had worked their
way to the eastern foot-
hills of the last range of mountains
separating them, from the
coveted country. Many a bold straggler
had already scaled the
boundary heights and had ferried the
dividing river to seek his
luck in the fertile valleys of the
Tuscarawas, the Muskingum,
the Sandusky, the Scioto and the Miamis.
"Where's the coward that would not
dare
To fight for such a land?"
480 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Surely the English cavalier, with his "swashing and a martial outside" and filled to the brim with fighting blood, would not hesitate to cross swords or exchange shots with the dashing and daring French courtiers; no, not even would he hesitate to chance it with the tomahawk and scalping knife of the stealthy and elusive red warrior of the forest. The Washington family, if one of its members did not really suggest, was the foremost among those to promote the orignal "Ohio Movement." The Anglo-Saxon, be it noted, never fails to put up plausible pretense of "law and order," even in his predatory exploitations. |
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quered by their forefathers. It mattered not that their treaty was repudiated by the tribes of Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Min- goes and others occupying the territory in question. The Iroquois title was good enough to "get in" on, and under cover of these charter and treaty "titles" a company of Virginians organized the Ohio Company. The initiators and charter members were John Hanbury, a Quaker merchant in London; Thomas Lee, "mem- ber of his Majesty's Council and one of the Judges of the Su- preme Court of Judicature in his Majesty's Colony of Virginia;" |
Washington and Ohio. 481
Colonel Thomas Cressap, Lawrence
Washington, Augustus
Washington, George Fairfax and others,
"all of his Majesty's
Colony of Virginia."
These enterprising gentlemen petitioned
the king "that his
Majesty will be graciously pleased to
encourage their under-
taking by giving instructions to the
Governor of Virginia to
grant to them and such others as they
shall admit as their as-
sociates a tract of 500,000 acres of
land betwext Romanettes and
Buffalo's Creek on the south side of the
River Aligane
(Allegheny), otherwise the Ohio, and
betwext the two Creeks
and the Yellow Creek on the north side
of the River or in such
other parts of the west of the said
mountains as shall be adjudged
most proper by the petitioners for that
purpose, etc." This land
lay, in modern geography, in the Ohio
Valley between the Monon--
gahela and Kanawha Rivers. The land
might be chosen on either
side of the Ohio. A portion the company
proposed to secure
was "in the present Jefferson and
Columbiana counties of Ohio
and Brooke county of West
Virginia." The conditions of the
grant were that two hundred thousand
acres were to be taken up
at once; one hundred families were to be
"seated" within seven
years and a fort was to be built by the
grantees as a protection
against hostile Indians.
The king readily assented to this
scheme, as it was represented
to him by the Lords of Trade "that
the settlement of the country
lying to the westward of the Great
Mountains in the Colony of
Virginia, which is the center of all his
Majesty's provinces, will
be for his Majesty's interests and
advantage, inasmuch as his
Majesty's subjects will be thereby
enabled to cultivate a friend-
ship and carry on a more extensive
commerce with the nations
of Indians inhabiting those parts, and
such settlement may like-
wise be a proper step towards
disappointing and checking the
encroachments of the French by
interrupting part of the com-
munication from their lodgements upon
the Great Lakes to the
River Mississippi, by means of which
communication his Majesty's
plantations there are exposed to their
incursions and those of the
Indian nations in their interest."
In plain terms this Ohio grant
severed the chain of the French claim
uniting the St. Lawrence
with the Mississippi. This location was
further selected, "that
Vol. XVI -
31.
482 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
water communications between the heads
of the Potomac and
the Ohio might be available for
transportation." Although the
grant was never issued as planned and
directed, the managers
of the Ohio Company proceeded in
anticipation of its realization
and established stores at Wills Creek
(Cumberland, Md.) and
opened thence a road across the
mountains to the Monongahela,
and they further prepared to erect a
fort at the confluence
(Pittsburgh) of this river and the
Allegheny. Two cargoes of
goods suitable for the Indian trade were
ordered from England
and an explorer was secured to prospect
the lands. As Thomas
Lee, who took the lead in the concerns
of the Ohio Company,
died almost at the outset, the chief
management fell upon Law-
rence Washington, elder half brother of
George.
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION.
At these activities of the Ohio Company,
the French author-
ities at Quebec began to take notice.
Evidently something must
be doing; As a prelude to more effective
measures, a sort of
curtain-raiser to the coming drama, the
Marquis de la Galisson-
iere, commander of all New France and
the country of Louis-
iana, directed that the Chevalier
Celoron de Bienville, with proper
escort, proceed to the Ohio country and
pre-empt the same in
the name of France. This expedition was
a characteristic spectac-
ular performance. In June, 1749,
Celoron, De Contrecoeur and
De Villiers being his chief
subordinates, embarked from Montreal
in a flotilla of twenty birch bark
canoes, conveying a detachment
of two hundred French officers and
Canadian soldiers and some
sixty Iroquois and Abenake Indians. This
picturesque outfit
pushed its way up the St. Lawrence,
across Ontario to Niagara,
around the roaring falls of which they
shouldered their canoes,
re-embarking on the waters of Lake Erie.
Thence they ascended
Chautauqua creek to the lake of that
name, over which they
paddled to the mouth of Conewango creek,
which skurried the
little fleet into the broader current of
the Allegheny. At this
point, now known as Warren (N. Y. ), a
halt was made and at
"the base of red oak on the south
bank of the river 'Oyo' " (Ohio),
as the Allegheny was then called, and of
the Chanongon (Co-
newango), the party buried a plate of
lead some eleven inches
Washington and Ohio. 483
long and seven wide, on which was
engraved in formal French
words, an inscription that Celoron, in
behalf of the King of
France, took renewed possession of the
Ohio River "and of all
those which fall into it and of all
territories on both sides as far
as the source of said rivers, as the
preceding kings of France
have possessed or should possess
them." As an additional clincher,
a tin sheet was tacked upon the tree
setting forth a "Process
Verbal," bearing the arms of France
and certifying that a plate
had been there buried, etc.
Having thus literally "nailed
down" the title of France, the
band of medieval Gauls and western
savages, drawn up in military
array, shouted "vives" for
their king and then, re-entering their
canoes, resumed their journey and at the
forks of the Allegheny
and the Monongahela floated down the
majestic current of La
Belle Reviere, upon which its
discoverer, La Salle, had floated three
quarters of a century before. The leaden
plate burial ceremony
was encored at the mouth of French creek
(Pa.), Kanawha in
West Virginia, the Muskingum and Little
Miami rivers in Ohio.
At the mouth of the Great Miami, then
called the Riviere a la
Roche, the last metallic "nota
bene" was sunk and the little navy
of bark gondolas turned their prows
northward and ascended
the Miami, to the mouth of Loramie
creek, then the site of Pick-
awillany stockade and the village of the
Piankashaw band of In-
dians, whose chief, because of his gaudy
attire, was known to
the French as "La Demoiselle."
The English called him "Old
Britain," as he was friendly to
their interests. After extending
to Demoiselle much French palaver and
more substantial per-
suasion in the shape of fire water and
gun powder to wean him
from the British friendliness, Celoron
burned his battered canoes,
that had transported his command up the
Miami river, and thence
with Indian ponies he picked his way
across the divide and along
the River St. Mary to the mouth of the
Maumee, where was
located the French fort Miami. Here
pirogues were secured
and the journey continued down the river
to Lake Erie, Lake
Ontario and the place of their
departure, Montreal, which was
reached in the middle of October.
The expedition had occupied four months
and traversed "at
least twelve hundred leagues."
Celoron had faithfully discharged
484 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
his errand. The Ohio Valley had
certainly been placarded as
the property of France, and due warning
had been given all
British intruders to "keep
off" the domain of his Majesty King
Louis XV. But Celoron in his diary was
compelled to admit
"that the nations (Indians) of
these countries (traversed) are
very ill-disposed towards the French and
are devoted entirely
to the English." This circuit of
Celoron was little else than a
quixotic comedy, a passing show in the
trappings of mock war,
amid the wild scenery of savage
inhabited country. It was soon
evident that it would require lead in
some more potent form than
buried inscriptions to exclude the
undaunted Virginians.
THE ENGLISH EXPLORATION.
The Celoron "claiming with
confidence" expedition aroused
the attention of the Virginians and
Pennsylvanians. George
Croghan, one of the most conspicuous
figures in western annals
in connection with Indian affairs for
twenty-five years preceding
the American Revolution, had trading
posts at various Indian
towns on and west of the Ohio. He was
the agent of the Province
of Pennsylvania to distribute presents
to the Ohio Indians and
keep them friendly to the colonies. In
the fall of 1750 Croghan
and one Andrew Montour, another diplomat
for the Quaker
colony and familiar with the Indian
tongues, were dispatched
by Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania to
the Ohio country to
checkmate Celoron's expedition. At the
same time the Ohio
Company of Virginia summoned from his
home on the Yadkin
the intrepid backwoodsman and Indian
expert, Christopher Gist,
and employed him to proceed across the
Ohio country and ex-
amine the western country as far as the
Falls of the river
(Louisville); to look for tracts of good
land; to mark the passes
in the mountains, the courses of the
rivers and to observe the
numbers and strength of the Indians and
make full report to the
Company. It will be noted that this
expedition was no ceremonial
and fantastical claim for the king's
domain. On the contrary
it was a characteristic Anglo-Saxon
prospecting tour for land.
The Ohio Company, with Lawrence
Washington at its head, was
the first western real estate explorer
and boomer.
Gist and his companions set out from
Shannopin's Town
Washington and Ohio. 485
(site of Pittsburg) and struck west
across the Ohio country to
Beaver creek, Elks Eye creek and on to
the Indian town on the
Muskingum, where he fell in with the
party of Montour and
Croghan, who had preceded him and over
whose quarters floated
the British flag. Thence the explorers
continued west across the
center of the (Ohio) state to the
Shawnee town of old Chillicothe
on the Scioto. They later camped at
"Great Swamp," head of the
reservoir, now Buckeye Lake; thence
proceeded to the Twigtwee
town on the Big Miami, the Pickawillany
headquarters of the
Piankashaw King Demoiselle, or "Old
Britain." Gist's company,
with as much pomp as possible, entered
this Indian capital flying
the British colors, as Celoron had
entered a year and a half
before under the French flag. Imposing
councils were held in the
chief's wigwam; many speeches were
delivered and presents
distributed by the English agents to the
Redmen. In the midst
of these parleys a legation of French
Indians, bearing aloft the
French colors, arrived from Detroit. The
rival French and Eng-
lish embassies vied with each other to
impress and influence the
Indian chief and his people. The counter
ceremonies lasted
many days. "Old Britain" gave
the hand of friendship to the
English, from whom he received most
bountiful largess of purse
and promise. The French envoys, outdone
in diplomacy, struck
their colors and withdrew.
Croghan and companions returned overland
to Pennsylvania
and reported to the provincial assembly.
Gist returned by the
Miami to the Ohio and threaded his way
through the wild and
beautiful backwoods of Kentucky to his
home on the Yadkin,
which he reached in May, 1751. He made a
full report to the
Ohio Company, the first detailed account
of any white man's ex-
plorations across the present Buckeye
State.
And now the plot for the possession of
the Ohio country
begins to thicken. In June, 1752, the
Indians met Gist and the
Virginian agents at Logstown on the
Allegheny and in spite of
French intrigues and blandishments made
a treaty whereby the
Ohio Company was permitted to make
settlements on the Ohio
and build a fort at the forks of that
river, the strategetical entrance
to the Ohio Valley. Gist began the
survey of the Ohio Com-
pany's lands and removed from the Yadkin
to Shurtee's creek
486 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
on the Ohio just below the forks. The
plans of the Ohio Com-
pany were progressing swimmingly.
Pennsylvanian traders were
scattering themselves over the Ohio
country, planting posts and
cajoling the Indians. The sheets of tin
and plates of lead had
proven futile scarecrows against the
aggressive Saxon. It was
time to strike blows, and Celoron
Bienville, now commandant
at Detroit, sent the fearless Langlade,
with French officers and
one hundred and fifty Indian warrior
allies in a "fleet of swift
darting canoes," up the Maumee to
destroy the British Indian
quarters at Pickawillany. The attack was
made in June, 1752.
The stockade fort was plundered, many
Miami Indians killed,
the English traders taken captive and
poor "Old Britain" mur-
dered, boiled and eaten. It was the
first bloodshed, on Ohio soil,
in the racial contest for the Ohio
country.
Meanwhile Duquesne, Governor of New
France, hastened to
fortify the French settlements and cut
off the English on the
east. Under his directions, in the
spring of 1753, a force of
French troops and allied Indians
proceeded from Montreal,
reached the harbor of Presque Isle
(Erie) and there built a fort.
Advancing into the interior, a fort
called Le Boeuf was erected on
Le Boeuf creek, a branch of French
creek, and at the mouth of
the latter, as it empties into the
Allegheny, another fort was built,
called Venango. They purposed pushing on
to the forks of the
Ohio and there establish their main
fortification. Governor
Dinwiddie, now a member of the Ohio
Company, and therefore
zealous of English interests, not only
from patriotic motives
but also from pecuniary ones, accepted
the challenge of Duquesne.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
While the French and British powers were
"scoring" for
the opening struggle in the conquest of
the Ohio valley and the
great west, he who was to be the most
conspicuous figure in the
prelude and the unrivalled hero in the
subsequent drama, was a
mere boy tramping the almost untrodden
backwoods of Virginia
and Maryland, expanding his lungs with
the mountain air, tough-
ening his muscles with mountain
climbing, learning precious
lessons from the preceptor, Nature,
acquiring the physical
prowess, the powers of endurance and
self-restraint and the
Washington and Ohio. 487
mental alertness that so admirably
fitted him for the duties that
later crowded thick upon him. That boy
was George Washington.
He was a typical product of the rough
wilderness plus the innate
nobility of character and genius of mind
with which nature
endowed him.
A century before Celoron and Gist
traversed Ohio the Wash-
ingtons had left the mother country and
settled in Virginia;
and their immediate descendants, in the
male line, were men of
large and powerful physique, resolute
and persevering tem-
perament, dominant, if not violent,
disposition, not averse to war,
religious in the Church of England way,
thrifty and aristocratic.
Into this family came George in 1752, at
Wakefield, Westmore-
land County, Virginia, his mother, Mary
Ball, being the second
wife of his father, Augustine
Washington, who, at his death
in 1743, left large land estates. To
Lawrence, elder son by his
first wife, Jane Butler, the father
bequeathed Mt. Vernon and
two thousand five hundred acres, with
slaves, iron works, mills,
etc. In the event of Lawrence's death
without issue, this property
was to pass to George. It subsequently
so passed. To Augustine,
second son by the first wife, the father
left the Wakefield estates;
small allotments were made respectively
to Samuel, John and
Charles, younger full brothers of
George, and to Betty, his own
sister. To George was devised the farm
on the Rappahannock
and portions of land on Deep Run.
Thus George, at the age of eleven,
became a landed pro-
prietor with most flattering prospects.
Like many of his youthful
companions, he might have made a
profession of being a "gentle-
man," which meant going to Oxford
for an education, returning
to Virginia and spending life in
fox-hunting, cock fighting, slave
bossing and rum drinking. George was
better inclined and better
advised. He reserved himself for higher
pursuits. Dame For-
tune, ever looking for subjects worthy
her favoritism, supple-
mented his common-sense and
high-mindedness. His two half
brothers made excellent matrimonial
alliances. Lawrence mar-
ried Anne, daughter of William Fairfax,
proprietor of Belvoir,
a plantation in the neighborhood of Mt.
Vernon; Augustine won
for his bride Anne, daughter and
co-heiress of William Aylett,
Esq., of Westmoreland County. George,
for some years after
488 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
the death of his father, spent his time
alternately at Wakefield,
the home of Augustine, and at Mt.
Vernon, the home of Lawrence.
Both these elder brothers were refined
and dignified men; the re-
sidence of each was the abode of
colonial culture and the resort
of the best Virginia families. George
therefore had unusual
opportunities of acquiring the
sentiments and manners of "good
society," but he was early made to
understand that he was not to
grow up a genteel loafer. He must do
something in the aid of
his own support and that of his mother.
His brothers looked with disfavor upon
the luxurious and
loose life of the younger sons of the
Virginia planters. Yet to
engage in trade or work as a clerk was
not to be considered;
for the scion of a wealthy family that
would not be tolerated.
He would loose caste with his class. His
respectability must be
preserved, and so the choice of a
vocation was the perplexing
question. Inclination and opportunity
combined to open him the
avenue in accord with his aptitude and
one that would best
qualify him for the lofty stations
awaiting him. While abiding
with his brother Augustine at Wakefield,
he attended the nearby
school of Oak Grove, kept by a Mr.
Williams. George here
discovered little taste for Latin,
history or literature, but great
fondness for mathematics. With youthful
zest he accompanied
his teacher when the latter surveyed
some meadows on Bridge's
creek. It was the realization of his
predilection. Working out
a mathematical problem, staking off the
bounds of unmeasured
land, tramping the woods in all their
primeval splendor, offered
a mingling of labor and delight that
charmed the boy. He would
be a surveyor. Moreover it was a
gentleman's business, in great
demand and incidentally a lucrative one.
Mr. Williams arranged that George be
permitted to further
inform himself by attending upon Mr.
James Genn, the official
surveyor of Westmoreland County. After
some years' residence
with Augustine at Wakefield, George took
final leave of school
and transferred his home to that of
Lawrence at Mt. Vernon,
when it was definitely to be decided
what he should do for a life
calling. He could easily have made his
own choice, but he was
only fifteen and the elder brother was
the arbiter. The father-
Washington and Ohio. 489
in-law of Lawrence, William Fairfax, was
cousin to and business
agent of Thomas, Lord Fairfax of Fairfax
County, and one
of the largest land proprietors in the
Virginia colony, his estates
numbering a million five hundred
thousand acres. His vast do-
main lay between the Rappahannock and
Potomac rivers and
extended over the Blue Ridge mountains,
comprising, among
other lands, a great portion of the
Shenandoah valley. At Mt.
Vernon Lord Fairfax was a frequent and
welcome guest, and
there he came in contact with George
Washington. A great
friendship sprang up between the
wealthy, scholarly, blase,
bachelor lord of sixty and the young
boy, just entering his
teens and wrestling in his earnest, frank,
enthusiastic way with
the problems that confronted him on the
threshold of life. Lord
Fairfax approved the boy's selection of
surveying as a profession.
It was honorable and profitable. He
could at once set up the
apprentice in business in the opening of
his lordship's vast lands.
So choice and chance made George
Washington a surveyor.
Through the influence of his benefactor,
Lord Fairfax, George
was made a Surveyor of the County of
Culpeper and a little later
William and Mary College gave him a
surveyor's commission.
It was in the spring of 1748 that the
young surveyor with George
Fairfax, James Genn, a pack horse and
servants, entered upon
his first important service. Through the
melting snows and the
swollen streams they wended their way
through the Ashby's Gap
in the Blue Ridge mountains into the
Shenandoah valley, near
where the river of that romantic and
historic name joins the
Potomac. What a magnificent scene met
the enchanted gaze
of the appreciative youthful surveyor -
a grand panorama of
delectable hills and expanding valley
cleft with the winding river,
and all clad in the white cloak of
winter and overhung with the
azure arch of heaven. It was
Washington's introduction to the
splendors of Nature. He describes in his
diary, of that trip,
the joy of outdoor life, the giant
trees, the sweeping streams,
camping in the wilds of the forest,
sleeping in the open air on the
ground with leaves for a bed and a bear
skin for wrappings;
shooting the wild game for food and his
"agreeable surprise at ye
sight of thirty Indians coming from war
with only one scalp."
490 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Small wonder the first and last love of Washington was the grandeur of Nature as portrayed in the rugged mountains and rushing streams of the untamed West. On this journey he learned how the French were looking with jealous eyes to the western world and how a struggle "was |
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rence to the Barbadoes whither the elder brother went in search of health. But the voyage was unavailing, and returning to Mt. Vernon, Lawrence there died in July, 1752. It was the same year that George was summoned to Williamsburg, the seat of the Virginia government, and by Governor Robert Dinwiddie ap- pointed Adjutant General of the Northern Division of the Vir- ginia Militia, with the rank of major, on pay of one hundred and fifty pounds a year. He was thus preferred over many older can- didates because of his sobriety, faithfulness and the proven evi- dence that he carried an old head on young shoulders. In ap- pearance he easily passed for thirty, though he was but nineteen. Governor Dinwiddie told the young major of his interest in the |
Washington and Ohio. 491
Ohio Company and the coming struggle
between France and
England for the Ohio valley. The chain
of forts established by
the French from Lake Erie to the Ohio
must be broken in twain.
Virginia must send an envoy to present
the claims of the Colonies
to the Ohio valley and to warn the
French that further advances
by them would be met by force of arms.
WASHINGTON A DIPLOMAT.
The youthful Major Washington was chosen
as that envoy
by Governor Dinwiddie on the advice of
Lord Fairfax, who said,
"Here is the very man for you;
young, daring and adventurous,
but yet sober-minded and responsible,
who only lacks opportunity
to show the stuff that is in
him." The first diplomatic errand
of Washington was to champion the cause
of England against
the pretensions of France. In October,
1753, accompanied by
Christopher Gist, as guide and Van Braam
as French interpreter
and one Davidson as Indian interpreter,
for the Indian was the
third and intervening party to be
reckoned with in this conflict,
Washington set forth from Wills creek
(Cumberland, Md.).
They passed the forks of the Ohio, where
Washington had ad-
vised the erection of a fort, and
arrived at Logstown, being there
received by Tanacharisson, the Indian
chief known as the Half
King, because of his semi-sway over
several tribes, and who was
predisposed toward the English. The Half
King, White Thunder,
Guyasutha and two or more other chiefs,
joined Washington's
party, and thence this singular embassy
of savages and Saxons
proceeded seventy miles north to Venango
on the Allegheny, where
Washington beheld "with anger and
shame" the flag of France
flying over the fort. Here the party met
Captain Joncaire, half
Indian and half French, bitter enemy of
the English, who dined
and wined the English embassy after the
frontier fashion, and
sent it on to Fort Boeuf on French
creek, where was stationed
Legardeur St. Pierre, the French
representative envoy in this
unique international negotation.
There was much diplomatic sparring,
lasting several days.
The clever, wily and talkative St.
Pierre persisted in the claims
of France; the temperate and cool-headed
Washington presented
the message of Dinwiddie, protesting
against the intrusion of
492
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
French forces into the Ohio valley,
"so notoriously known to be
the property of the crown of Great
Britain." St. Pierre was gen-
erous with French hospitality, and there
was unstinted "flow of
soul," while the Indian delegation
was purposely plied with "heap"
fire water to persuade them to France.
Strange and unique inci-
dent in the wild forest of America - the
dispute between the Ro-
mance race and the Saxon stock for the
title to a new and almost
unknown world, while the savage child of
the forest, the original
and only rightful possessor of the land
in controversy was buf-
feted to and fro as were he a mere
football in the game !
Through the cold of the midwinter, beset
by frozen streams,
treacherous Indians and many perilous
dangers, Washington and
Gist returned to Williamsburg. The
answer of St. Pierre was
unyielding. But Washington had
courageously and sagaciously
performed his duty, and while "the
elder French officers were
rather amused that a boy should be sent
on an errand that might
bring about a war," his report was
printed and read not only
in the American colonies but throughout
England. He was the
hero of the hour. The unflinching old
Scotch Dinwiddie was
through with Indian sprees and French
speeches. The Virginia
House of Burgesses was summoned, a
militia force called for and
Washington made a lieutenant colonel,
with command of three
hundred men, with order to march to the
forks of the Ohio,
whither the fiery Governor, anticipating
the action of the colony,
had already sent Captain Trent to erect
a fort. While Washington
was getting his troops recruited and
started from Wills creek,
Trent's soldiers began their task of
building a fort, when suddenly
a large fleet of canoes and batteaus,
carrying several hundred
French and Indians under command of De
Contrecouer, swooped
down the Allegheny and appeared before
the astonished Vir-
ginian fort-builders. The English, a
mere handful in comparison
with the enemy, fled precipitously, and,
though they had been
first on the ground, the French seized
the coveted spot, en-
larged and completed the fort and called
it Duquesne.
Washington and Ohio. 493
WASHINGTON A SOLDIER.
It was in April, 1754. Trent's
retreating soldiers joined
Washington's force, "a half shod,
half dressed, vagabond crew,
but mostly hunters and good shots,"
which trudged over
the old Indian trail, Nemacolin's Path,
thereafter known as
Washington's Road, toward the juncture
of Redstone creek and
the Monongahela, where the Ohio Company
had built a store-
house. Washington had to make haste
slowly, as he must build
bridges, corduroy the swamps and cut
wider the narrow forest
thoroughfare. Nearing the Youghiogheny
River, he was in-
formed a French force was advancing to
meet him. Picking out
broad open space, free of large trees,
"a charming place for an
encounter," he erected a crude
stockade and called it Fort
Necessity. He pushed on with a half
hundred soldiers to meet
an almost similar number of French and
Indians under De
Jumonville. The encounter was a
backwoods, semi-savage skir-
mish, but notable because the first
bloody conflict between the
two hostile nations and the first battle
for Washington. It was
his "baptism of fire," in
which for the first time the future hero
of two long-drawn wars heard the enemy's
bullets whizz around
him and felt that strange exhilaration
of danger and excitement
engendered in the clash of arms and din
of battle. The surveyor
boy had been transformed into a soldier.
His little army won
the fight, De Jumonville was killed,
with ten others, and many
of his force were made prisoners.
Washington returned to Fort
Necessity, where a week later he was
attacked by De Villiers,
half brother of De Jumonville, with a
mixed band of French
and Indians from Fort Duquesne. The
assailants were too many
for the Virginia rangers, and at
midnight, amid a pouring rain
that put out all lights, save one candle
that flickered and sput-
tered as it tried to dispel the dark,
Washington signed terms of
capitulation and the next morning, July
4-memorable date in
later times-the victor of a few days
before marched out of the
little fort, with drums beating and
colors flying, an honor that
the doughty Washington had snatched from
the disgrace of de-
feat. It was his first and last
experience of the humiliation of a
capitulation, though he was soon again
to taste of defeat.
494 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
England now took the war in dead
earnest. No more back-
wood squabbles and Indian bushwhackings!
His Majesty King
George would send a few chosen
battalions to America and clean
up this affair without further
childsplay. And so General Ed-
ward Braddock arrived with two picked
regiments. He possessed
the experience and training of
forty-five years in the wars of
Europe. He was a jolly, roystering
vivant, noted as a soldier
for his courage and discipline. He was
egotistical and conceited
to the British limit and started with
his choice troops from
Alexandria for Fort Duquesne. He boasted
it would be an
amusing occupation for a few days to
dislodge the French from
the Forks and put an end to their absurd
claims. He scoffed
at proffered assistance from the
Virginia militia or its officers,
but condescendingly invited Washington
to accompany him, more
as a companion than otherwise, but with
the rank of captain and
nominal member of his staff. With his
thousand Irish veterans
and an equal number of colonial militia,
Braddock advanced
through the ravines and wooded hills
along the route of Wash-
ington's road toward Fort Duquesne. That
march and its ter-
rible sequel is more than a thrice told
tale. The confident, and
braggadocio Braddock, "a stranger
both to fear and common
sense," haughtily spurned all
advice from Washington-how
could an American backwoods boy instruct
a veteran of sixty,
with the experience of two score years
in the campaigns of
Europe? Braddock approached within a few
miles of the fort,
and then stupidly stalked into the
ambuscade too well laid by
the Indians and Canadians under the
French commander, De
Beanjeu. Suddenly yells and war-whoops
resounded on every
side, terrific sounds never before heard
by his majesty's soldiers,
while a deadly fire poured into the
British platoons, drawn up
"spic and span" as if in
holiday dress parade. They could not
return the attack, for the enemy were
partly secreted behind
trees and skulking amid the weeds and
brush. The British sol-
diers huddled together like frightened
sheep, were panic-stricken
and powerless and broke in wild rout.
They were mowed down
like grass before the scythe. Braddock
was mortally wounded,
and, dying in the precipitate retreat,
was buried by Washington
beneath the middle of the road, that the
trampling feet and roll-
Washington and Ohio. 495
ing wheels might conceal the grave of
the rash and disgraced
general. Washington had two horses shot
under him and four
bullets passed through his clothing. The
Indian chief, Guyasatha,
subsequently testified that with
deliberate aim he fired time and
again at the Virginia officer, but could
not hit him; he "bore a
charmed life."
Such was the result of that hot July
day, 1755. England
was astounded, the colonies were
paralyzed. It was not till
three years later, in the fall of 1758,
that Fort Duquesne was cap-
tured by the expedition, several
thousand strong, under General
John Forbes, "an able man, honest,
brave, and without ostenta-
tion," and so inflexible in purpose
that he was nicknamed the
"Head of Iron." One division
of his army was under the com-
mand of Colonel Washington, who was
foremost in the advance
upon the French stronghold and who, in
the dusk of a November
evening, amid a sweeping snow storm,
marched into the blackened
debris of Fort Duquesne, which had been
blown up, burned and
deserted the day before. The commanding
gateway to the Ohio
valley was at last the trophy of the
triumphant British regulars
and colonial militia. The French chain
of forts had been severed
forever. From the ashes of the French a
new British citadel
arose, to be know thereafter as Fort
Pitt. It was the closing
scene, on the western frontier, of the
French and Indian War,
which terminated a year later (1759) on
the memorable heights
of Abraham, before the battle-battered
walls of Quebec, in the
tragic and dramatic defeat of the
intrepid Montcalm by the in-
vincible Wolfe, who, as he entered the
siege, presaged his vic-
torious death upon the field by
repeating the lines of Gray,
"The paths of glory lead but to the
grave."
Canada, the Ohio valley, the Mississippi
basin, the American
empire, passed forever to the possession
and domination of the
Saxon.
WASHINGTON ON THE OHIO.
Washington had passed his apprenticeship
in the art of war-
fare, and he had learned his lessons, it
is to be noted, west of the
Alleghanies. And, now that "grim
visaged war had smoothed
496 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
his wrinkled front," our hero,
emerging from the strife renowned
and honored, hastened from the smoking
ruins of Fort Duquesne
to yield to the smouldering flames of
love. He was married to
Mrs. Martha Custis, a youthful widow, "rich, fair and
debonnair," and for many years
quietly followed the pursuits of
peace in his happy Mt. Vernon home,
cultivating his ample acres
and keenly watching the fates as they
spun the threads that led
to the great war that should exalt him
to the heights of earthly
fame. To the bitter disappointment of
the colonists, whose sac-
rificing and loyal aid had enabled
England to become the undis-
puted master of the unopened West, the
stupid and selfish mother
country proclaimed that the Ohio valley
should be reserved for
the Indian occupants and be closed to
all colonial settlers. No
one so clearly perceived as did
Washington the folly of that pol-
icy and its inevitable fatal results. He
knew the West, its limit-
less and invaluable resources, its
requirement for the overflow
of colonial immigration and the
necessity of binding it by com-
mercial intercourse with the New England
settlements, lest, if
isolated therefrom, it might become
independent. His hopes
foreshadowed the solidarity of the
country into one indissoluble
union. In the very year of the Treaty of
Paris (1763), sealing
the settlement between France and
England, Washington or-
ganized the Mississippi Valley Company,
for the purpose of lo-
cating and securing western lands. The
articles of the associa-
tion in the handwriting of Washington
and signed by himself,
John Augustine Washington and others,
are now preserved in
the Congressional Library.
The Company dispatched an agent to
London to obtain the
concessions desired, but the excluding
policy of the mother
country as proclaimed in the Quebec Act
of that year (1763)
rendered the efforts of the Company
unavailing. Washington
steadfastly maintained that the Ohio
country was within the
charter limits of Virginia, and
therefore not within the effective
operation of the Quebec Act exclusion.
The position of Wash-
ington in this matter was both political
and personal-no less
public-spirited, we may be sure, because
also self-interested. He
was a western land-holder from the
start. The invested in-
terests of his brothers in the original
Ohio Company opened the
Washington and Ohio. 497
subject to his study. In 1754, when
Dinwiddie instigated the
expedition for the seizure of the Forks
of the Ohio, he offered
as an inducement to volunteers bounty
lands beyond the moun-
tains. Washington, as chief officer of
that campaign, became
entitled to the largest allotment of
such land claims, and in addi-
tion he purchased other claims assigned
to officers and soldiers
under him. He had the prophetic eye and
the thrifty hand in
business, as in politics. He foresaw the
future development and
rising value of the western domain no
less than the portend of
events toward dire differences with the
mother government.
It was in the fall of 1770 that
Washington made his mem-
orable prospecting journey down the
Ohio, an event slightly no-
ticed, if not entirely ignored, by the
chief historians, as it pre-
sents little relationship to his
subsequent political or military
career. That trip was significant as
evidencing Washington's
deep and continuing interest in the West
and his realization that
the lands on and beyond the Ohio were to
be the Eldorado of the
colonial emigration. The lands south of
the Ohio were to be
apportioned in satisfaction of the
Virginia soldiers' claims issued
by Dinwiddie. Land offices would soon be
opened and locations
selected. Moreover, just previous to
this year (1770) a com-
pany formed in London and headed by
Thomas Walpole, with
associates both English and American,
Benjamin Franklin and
John Sargent being among the latter,
petitioned the crown for
a grant of a large portion of the vast
country on the Ohio which
had been ceded to the king by the Indian
nations at the Treaty
of Fort Stanwix (1768). It was proposed
to create out of this
grant a new province or government west
of Virginia.
The extent of the territory asked for,
included southern
Ohio as far west as the Scioto. This
Walpole grant was con-
ceded in 1772 and included and absorbed
the grant previously
made to the Ohio Company. The new
province was to be called
Vandalia, with the capital at the mouth
of the Kanawha river.
Before the scheme was perfected all
proceedings were annulled
by the American Revolution. Washington
keenly watched the
progress of this project, and it was in
his mind when he under-
took his observation tour on the Ohio.
With a companion and
two or three servants he reached Fort
Pitt by horseback, stopping
Vol. XVI.- 32.
498 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
on the way to view some six thousand
acres located for him
"near the Youghiogheny." After
being entertained several days
by Colonel George Croghan, then resident
near Fort Pitt, the
party embarked in a large canoe and were
afloat upon the "Ohio,
pearl of the Western forest sea."
WASHINGTON IN OHIO.
Washington's diary of the trip is
fraught with interesting
comment and description concerning the
scenery, character of
land, fertility of soil, Indian
habitations and their disposition
towards the whites. Frequent stops and encampments were
made on both sides of the river, those
on the Ohio side especially
eliciting our attention. "We came
to the Mingo Town, situated
on the west side of the river, a little
above the cross creeks. This
place contains about twenty cabins and
seventy inhabitants of the
Six Nations." Was it the first time
Washington stood upon the
soil of the Buckeye State-
Ohio, first born of the great Northwest,
Nursed to thy statehood at the nation's
breast.
the state that later was to give the
Nation by birth or residence
six successors to the office he was
first to fill? Captina Creek.
memorable later in the annals of Chief
Logan, he describes as "a
pretty large creek on the west side,
called by Nicholson (his
guide and interpreter) Fox-Grape-Vine,
by others Captina creek,
on which, eight miles up, is the town
called Grape-Vine Town."
On the opposite side, in Virginia,
Washington, ten years later,
owned "a small tract called Round
Bottom, containing about six
hundred acres." Other Ohio landings
were made, notably at the
mouth of the Muskingum, which river, he
says, "is about one
hundred and fifty yards wide at the
mouth; it runs out in a
gentle current and clear streams and is
navigable a great way
into the country for canoes."
Again, "We came to a small creek on
the west side, which
the Indians called Little Hocking."
The terminus of the trip was
the juncture of the Great Kanawha, about
the mouth of which
Washington became possessed of a ten
thousand acre tract and
Washington and Ohio. 499
which in 1773 he advertised for sale or
lease, suggesting among
other advantages of its location,
"the scheme for establishing a
new government on the Ohio" and
contiguity of these lands "to
the seat of government, which, it is
more than probable, will be
fixed at the mouth of the Great
Kanawha." On the return up
the river when the party reached the
Ohio Bend, Washington
sent the canoe and baggage around by
water, while he and
Captain Crawford, as Washington says in
his diary, "walked
across the neck on foot, the distance,
according to our walking,
about eight miles." This walk was
across Letart township,
Meigs county. They entered the canoe
again and continued on
to Mingo Bottom, now in Jefferson
county, two and a half miles
below Steubenville, where they remained
three days.
Washington advocated a plan to connect
by canal the James
and Great Kanawha rivers, separated at
their sources by a port-
age of but a few miles, as he also urged
the connection by arti-
ficial watercourses of the Potomac and
Monongahela.
This Ohio voyage occupied some two
months, giving the
prospector a thorough and practical
knowledge of the Ohio river
and adjacent lands. Eventually
Washington became the possessor
of some thirty thousand acres on or
closely contiguous to the
Ohio, three thousand of which were on
the Little Miami within
the present bounds of Ohio. This holding
he describes in an ad-
vertisement to sell, published in the Columbian
Mirror and Alex-
andria Gazette, February 20, 1796, viz., "On the Little Miami,
upper side, within a mile of the Ohio,
830 acres; about seven
miles up to said Miami, 977 acres, and
ten miles from the mouth
thereof, 1,235 acres. Total on the Little
Miami, 3,042 acres."
These lots he further states "are
near to if not adjoining (the
river only separating them) the grant
made to Judge Syms
(Symmes) and others, between the two
Miamis; and being in
the neighborhood of Cincinnati and Fort
Washington, cannot,
from their situation (if the quality of
the soil is correctly stated)
be otherwise than valuable." The
Miami property is enumerated
in his will, which designates some fifty
thousand acres in the
western country, aggregating a
valuation, at that time, of nearly
half a million dollars.
Washington's knowledge of and interest
in the Ohio country
500
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
was surpassed by no contemporary. His
real estate possessions
presented a water front of sixteen miles
on the Ohio river. It
was from their commander that the
veteran Revolutionists learned
definite knowledge of the beauty and
richness of the west, and
through his "booming" of that
section, was it, that thousands
sought homes in the new empire beyond
the Alleghanies; and at
times he seriously contemplated removing
his home to his lands
washed by the waters of the beautiful
river. In the dark hours
during the "storm and stress"
of the struggle for independence,
the daunless General kept in mind the
vast domain of the West
and looked to it as a safe refuge for
the colonists, to which they
might retreat and where, protected by
the natural barriers of
lake, river and mountain, they could set
up their republic, if the
armies if the king should drive the
American rebels beyond
the Alleghanies.
But the rebels drove the enemy into the
sea, and hardly had
the terms of peace been heralded before
the victorious leader
brought before the authorities of
Virginia, Maryland and Penn-
sylvania the schemes of interior
navigation and his life-long
projects of uniting the James and
Kanawha rivers and the Po-
tomac and Monongahela and the southern
and northern rivers
of Ohio, by which artificial arteries of
commerce and transporta-
tion the lakes and the Ohio and the
latter and the Atlantic would
be indissolubly welded.
In 1784, Washington again traversed the
land between the
proposed canals, and the year following
the legislatures of Vir-
ginia and Maryland authorized the
formation of a company for
the consummation of these practical and
patriotic plans. The
organization was called the Potomac
Company and Washington
was made its president. It began work,
when it was overshad-
owed by the national enactments of the
Ordinance of 1787, cre-
ating the Northwest Territory, the
formation of the new con-
federated government and the Ohio
Company settled at Marietta.
Washington's knowledge, at first hand,
of the Ohio country
served him and his infant republic
beyond estimation. No one
could have more intelligently or
sympathetically directed the ex-
peditions of Scott, Wilkinson, Harmar,
St. Clair and Wayne.
The boundary lines of Ohio, first carved
from the Northwest, as
Washington and Ohio. 501 finally determined, were practically in accord with the ideas of the first president, who was the Father of his Country, but in no less sense the prophet of the coming kingdom of the West and the forerunner of the settlement and development of the Ohio Valley. |
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