Ohio History Journal
OHIO VALLEY
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
NINTH ANNUAL
MEETING.
The ninth annual meeting of the Ohio
Valley Historical
Association was held in Columbus, Ohio,
Oct. 21
and 22, 1915,
in the beautiful new building of the
Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society.
The general topic for papers and
discussions was the "Early
Religious Development in the Ohio
Valley."
The first meeting was a joint session of
the Historical Asso-
ciation and the Ohio History Teachers'
Association, Thursday
afternoon.
In the absence of Gov. F. B. Willis, the
first speaker was
Dr. W. O. Thompson, President of Ohio
State University, who
welcomed the Associations to this city
and university.
Dr. Thompson spoke of the interest
developed in Ohio his-
tory in other parts of the State and
expressed the hope that a
greater interest in that subject might
be aroused in Columbus by
the meetings of the Associations. He
outlined a plan for an his-
torical memorial in the State, whereby
in each county, a pamphlet
of local county history should be worked
out for use in the
public schools. These pamphlets to give
accounts of early social
customs, schools, and churches, also
sketches of travel and ad-
venture. No pioneer spirit is developed
by the life of today so
this interest in former times and in the
building up of the coun-
try must be awakened and developed.
In the absence of Prof. G. Frederick
Wright, President of
the Archaeological and Historical
Society, his welcome was read
by the Secretary, Mr. E. O. Randall.
ADDRESS OF G. FREDERICK WRIGHT,
PRESIDENT THE OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Members of the Ohio Valley Historical
Association and the Ohio
Teachers' Association, Ladies and
Gentlemen:-
In the name of the Ohio Archaological
and Historical Society
I bid you welcome to this center of the
archaeological and his-
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158
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
torical interests of the State. In this
noble building recently
erected with funds generously provided
by the legislature of
Ohio, and in the remarkable relics of
the Mound Builders ob-
tained by private contributions from
many loyal citizens, and
through painstaking explorations
conducted by our Curator with
funds provided by the State, and in the
rapidly growing his-
torical library housed in this building,
and in the unique and
most valuable library of Americana
belonging to the late Presi-
dent Rutherford B. Hayes now open to the
public in a beautiful
fireproof building erected by the State
as a branch of this Society
upon a portion of Spiegel Grove his
homestead in Fremont, you
will find evidence of the deep interest
which the citizens of Ohio
are taking in the preservation of their
abundant historical
records. In addition to these buildings
our Society is preserving
various local monuments of greatest
interest and keeping them
open for the inspection of present and
future generations. Among
these are Fort Ancient in Warren County,
the most elaborate
earthwork in the Ohio Valley; the
Serpent Mound in Adams
County, which has long attracted the
attention of archaeologists
the world over; the Logan elm near
Circleville, under which
Logan, the Indian Chief, made his famous
appeal. We have
also erected a monument commemorating
the Big Bottom mas-
sacre on the banks of the Muskingum in
Morgan County.
Your presence here encourages us because
it bears witness
to the renewed interest which is felt by
our citizens in historical
research. Your societies, like our own,
are young and are work-
ing in a field which, previous to our
organizations, had been
vigorously cultivated by those from outside
the Ohio Valley.
Three quarters of a century ago Squier
and Davis exploited the
mounds and earthworks of our valley and
published their results
in the monumental volume forming the
first of the series of
the publications of the Smithsonian
Institution. But so little
was the public interested in their work
that their collection of
relics received no adequate recognition
either in their own state
or the United States. It remained for
Mr. Blackmore of Salis-
bury, England, to see their value, to
purchase them, and trans-
fer them to his museum in Salisbury,
whither we have been com-
pelled to make pilgrimages to see and
study them. This was
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 159
the more exasperating because until the
present season this Black-
more Museum contained many objects of
great interest which
we had not been able to duplicate. I am
happy to be able to
say, however, that in the excavations
this year of a mound in
the Scioto Valley near Portsmouth our
Curator has been able
to more than duplicate the objects which
gave the greatest inter-
est to the Blackmore Museum. These are
already open for in-
spection in one of the conspicuous cases
of our Museum.
We are bound to confess, also, that
other agencies from out-
side our state and valley entered our
field before us and put us
to shame for our lack of local interest.
The Peabody Museum
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, under the
direction of the late
Professor F. W. Putnam has spent as much
as $60,000 in explor-
ing our mounds, removing many of our
precious relics to that
distant center of archaeological
investigation. The Field Museum
of Chicago has also worked with great
success in our field and
removed a most remarkable collection of
relics to adorn their
magnificent show cases. The Smithsonian
Institution of Wash-
ington has also entered our field and
secured a large collection
of precious relics. In the realm of
historical documents, too,
outside interests have been more active
than we have been at
home. The Wisconsin Historical Society
began the collection
of original manuscripts relating to the
early history of the State
long before any organization within our
bounds began to gather
them in. The very important diaries of
the Moravian Mission-
aries naturally gravitated to Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, the center
of Moravian activity. But Harvard
University was the first to
appreciate their historical value. Of
all this we have little rea-
son to complain since the records are
preserved, and are most
generously offered to our historians for
inspection and study.
The field, however, has been by no means
exhausted of its
treasures, as our growing collection
shows. Already we have
published some of the most important
Moravian records and
we rejoice in the fact that local
societies in our own state, with
which we are glad to co-operate are
accumulating rich stores
of historical material, and preserving
most interesting historical
monuments. The Western Reserve
Historical Society of Cleve-
land has been specially enterprising in
collecting files of the early
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
newspapers, and the manuscript letters
of prominent citizens in
the early days of the Commonwealth.
The Firelands Association of Norwalk has
done a similar
work for a portion of the Western
Reserve. Cincinnati also,
has important collections of historical
material, while Marietta
College is specially favored with a
large collection of similar
material. Marietta and Newark have also
preserved much of
the important and unique prehistoric
earthworks found within
their borders, while the state is
preserving as a public park the
historic Fort Meigs and various other
places connected with the
expeditions of St. Clair and Anthony
Wayne.
I am happy to announce that interest in
historical work has
recently been shown by a bequest of $25,000, for the Western
Reserve Historical Society in the will
of the late Dr. Dudley P.
Allen, a Trustee, while our own Society
has just received word
of an additional cash bequest by one of
our Trustees, Colonel
Webb C. Hayes of Fremont of $50,000 in
trust, the income from
which is to be used for the purchase of
books and papers neces-
sary to keep up perpetually those lines
for which President Hayes'
Library of Americana is noted.
Since his original gift of the Spiegel
Grove property and the
appropriation by the Legislature of
$50,000 towards the build-
ing of the fireproof Hayes Memorial
Library building, Colonel
Hayes has expended an equal amount in cash
on the memorial
and residence buildings, the gateways
and the care and improve-
ments of the Spiegel Grove property,
making a total cash expend-
iture of over one hundred thousand
dollars which with the
value of the personal and real estate,
either deeded or held in
trust, makes a total bequest of nearly
two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars by Colonel Hayes.
Ohio is the burial place of four
presidents of the United
States. At North Bend, twenty miles below
Cincinnati, is the
much neglected monument over the grave
of President William
Henry Harrison. Our own society has
initiated active efforts
to have the spot properly cared for and
a worthier monument
erected. Cleveland cares for the remains
of President Garfield
in a noble monument, while Canton pays
equal respect to the
remains of President McKinley. President
Hayes is properly
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 161
commemorated in our own beautiful
memorial building holding
his library and numerous family relics,
while his remains with
those of his wife, lie beneath the
family monument on the beau-
tiful knoll in Spiegel Grove which is
approached only by travers-
ing the original Harrison trail of the
war of 1812.
As coworkers in this field of historic
investigation we wel-
come you to our capital and lay open
freely before you for your
inspection and study the rich treasures
of our archaeology, our
historical documents, and our monuments
commemorating the
deeds of our great soldiers and
statesmen. Our common field
is one of surpassing interest and we
shall all rejoice in the con-
tributions which any are able to
accomplish in making our past
more real to the present generation. May
our younger scholars
be encouraged by what has already been
done to accomplish still
greater things in the future. Standing
on our shoulders they
may see farther than we have seen and be
able to combine facts
into a more consistent whole than we
have been able to do. To
such work we welcome you all and bid you
God speed.
RESPONSE AND PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.
H. W. ELSON, LITT. D.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In behalf of the Ohio Valley Historical
Association I beg
to express our extreme gratification at
the gracious words of
welcome accorded us by the executive of
the great institution
on whose grounds and by whose courtesy
we are privileged to
assemble, and also, to the
representative of the State Archaeo-
logical and Historical Society to whose
kindness and courtesy
we shall be deeply indebted ere we
separate. It was by a happy
arrangement that the meetings of the
kindred societies, the Ohio
Valley Historical Association, and the
Ohio State History Teach-
ers' Association be held at the same
time and place, for certainly
each will be inspired and benefited by
its contact with the other.
I make no pretense of speaking for the
latter; nor is there any
need. Prof. W. H. Siebert, president of
that association, who
refused to permit me to put his name on
the program in that
capacity, is hereby again urgently
requested to make some state-
Vol. XXV-11
162
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
ment at least of the past history, aims
and purposes of that asso-
ciation.
The Ohio Valley Historical Association,
which I have the
honor to represent had its birth eight
years ago in the University
of Cincinnati.
The annual meetings have proved to be of
great interest.
They have fostered the cultivating of
old friendships and the
making of new ones. But these are
by-products. The primary
purpose of the Association is to promote
and encourage historic.
study, especially that of the great
valley drained by the beauti-
ful, winding river whose name it bears;
and to prepare papers
from the original sources. These, being
published in our annual
reports, will prove a treasury of
information and historic lore
of priceless value to the future
historian.
History is the story of human
development, as Dr. Bury
defines it, or a biography of society,
in the language of Dr.
Arnold; or as Froude puts it, a voice
forever sounding across
the centuries, the laws of right and
wrong. Yes, it is all that
and more. History is the record of the
origin and growth of
the institutions we enjoy and it is a
study of humanity, the most
absorbing of all studies, that in which
we are all engaged, con-
sciously or unconsciously, every day as
long as we live.
The history of the past modifies our
views of the present
and aids us greatly in planning for the
future. It fosters patriot-
ism and makes for good citizenship. What
is this thing we call
patriotism and whence cometh it?
patriotism of the sort that
leads a man to give his life for his
country? Is it geographical
unity? If so, how can we explain the
indisputable oneness and
patriotism of the British Empire, which
exists in spots all over
the world? Is it language? Then why are
the Swiss character-
ized by an almost fierce devotion to
their country? Switzerland
is tri-lingual, 15 of the cantons being
of German speech, five
French and two Italian. Even our own
great land is without
a language of its own. We must seek
further for the fountain
of patriotic fervor.
Is it religion? Least of all is it
religion. In nearly all
modern countries the people are
hopelessly divided in their
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 163
religious dogma, and religion has, for
the most part, ceased to
be national and has become personal.
Is it then race that binds a people into
a unit? Where is
the modern Caucasian race of pure blood?
We speak of the
Teutonic peoples at war with the Allies.
Note a few facts: The
English people of today, as is well
known, are chiefly Teutonic
in their origin. The French are in a
great measure descended
from the immense body of the Franks, a
Germanic tribe that
crossed the lower Rhine during the dying
years of the Roman
Empire. Even the Italians are largely
the descendants of the
invading Ostrogoths and Lombards.
The old Romar race, if I may turn aside
for an instant,
largely died out because of the refusal
of the so-called better
classes to raise families. And France is
not the only modern
nation going in the same direction. In
our own America, if it
were not for the immigrants and the
larger families of the
farmers and laborers, our population
would decrease instead of
increase from decade to decade.
To return to our unanswered
question--whence cometh
patriotism? The agents I have named may
all make their con-
tribution, but none of them is
paramount. There is another
factor surpassing all these. It is the
common heritage of the
past. If our old friends seem dearer to
us than the new, it is
because of our common experiences. The
people of a nation
are welded together more by their common
memories and tradi-
tions, as a modern writer puts it, by
their common achievements
and failures, than by any other agent.
And this is history. It
is therefore the history of a people,
intelligently understood, that
unifies the spirit, that makes them a
nation and furnishes the
foundation of their hopes and
aspirations.
The Swiss people are without a separate
language or religion:
they are divided into a hundred
communities by almost impas-
sable mountains; but they have in common
the memory of Arnold
Winkleried and of William Tell, mythical
or true, and this
memory binds them together as nothing
else can do. The French
nation would hardly be today what it is
were it not for the
memory of that strange, frail girl of
dreams and visions who
164
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
came from among the vine-covered hills
of Domremy to lead
the royal armies to victory. For two
centuries Scotland has
been one in government with England; but
you can still fire the
heart of the Scots and make them feel a
people apart from all
the rest of the world with the magic
names of Wallace and Bruce
and Burns.
Few of us appreciate the potency of
history in shaping na-
tional character. Few realize what
history has done for us in
making us what we are. It is an
astonishing fact that until the
last few decades history was not a
required study in our public
schools.
But, it may be argued, we have no
history, we are but of
yesterday. What a brief span in the
world's life is the time
since the founding of Jamestown; and
even after that event the
Ohio Valley lay for nearly two centuries
unoccupied by civilized
man. But, perhaps it is true that to a
man of four score, youth
seems no farther away than events of
five or six years ago to
a child of ten. If this holds good with
respect to a nation, our
little span of national existence may be
quite as inspiring to us
as long vistas of past centuries would
be. But there is another
viewpoint from which every American has
reason to be proud
of his country.
Among the great governments of the world
ours is not the
youngest, but one of the oldest. The
German Empire is only a
third as old as our national government,
and the same is almost
true of Austria-Hungary and of Italy.
After we had long been
settled as a stable government the
states of Germany, of Austria,
and of Italy were still floundering in
the abyss of disunion and
only dimly dreamning of national unity.
And what of France?
Since the adoption of our Constitution
in 1789 France has under-
gone fourteen changes of government,
many of them very radical,
ranging from the absolute monarchy to
the wild, unrestrained
sans culotte democracy. Even old stable England underwent a
change in 1832 far more radical than any
recorded in our na-
tional history.
In short, the only great modern nation
west of Russia that
has held, during the past century and a
quarter, a steady, un-
swerving course without a single,
radical change in its form of
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 165
government is the United States of
America. Have we not much
in our history to be proud of?
In conclusion permit me to refer to the
one uppermost
thought in the world's mind -the
Great War; or rather to the
American attitude towards war, as
emphasized by this colossal
conflagration.
A noted writer of Europe said recently
that this war will
strengthen the heroic in man at the
expense of the esthetic, add-
ing that the change in his opinion will
not be for the worse. He
might have added that by the heroic he
means the bull-dog
nature -the very thing
that Civilization and Christianity have
been trying to train out of man for
thousands of years. In all
the zoological world the prince of
fighters is your bull dog. To
characterize him in a phrase, he fights
like a European.
America is devoted to peace as no other
great people in
the world's history has ever been. Why
is this so? There are
various contributing causes. First, we
desire no more territory,
while nearly every nation in Europe is
obsessed with the land-
grabbing fever. Second, we have a vast
safeguarding ocean to
the east of us and another to the west
of us. These facts may
have their weight and doubtless do
contribute much to the fixing
of our national character in this
respect. But we must search
deeper for the true cause of our
passionate devotion to peace.
Is it fear or a sense of weakness?
Hardly. No braver
soldiers live than our own, and our
resources far exceed those
of any other nation. Is it the
devastation of the land, the destruc-
tion of the cities and of works of art?
Is it the undeserved suf-
fering of the men in the trenches and on
the battle line, or
the greater suffering of the wives and
mothers at home? Is it
the stupendous national debts that will
wring the life-blood from
the toiling millions for generations to
come?
All these we deplore to the last degree,
but the most potent
cause of our hatred of warfare is yet to
be named. It may be
expressed in the single word -
Individualism. We have come
to regard the individual life as too
sacred to be sacrificed whole-
sale to the war-god without the gravest
of reasons. It is the
slaying of multitudes of young men that
we deplore above all
things. Why cut down a young man when he
is only beginning
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society
Publications.
to live, before he has had a chance for
self-realization? Why
cut off a man's opportunities in his
youth? Why rob him of
the holy right to live and to make the
best of himself? There
are doubtless moments of exhiliration
and glory in the dangers
of battle, but these are as nothing when
balanced against the
wholesale slaughter of men.
Herein then lies the secret of our
anti-war spirit. Not that
we would not fight if necessary. No
people is more jealous of
its rights and its honor. And in the
language of Dryden, "Be-
ware of the fury of the patient
man." But unless war is un-
avoidable, we are for peace at all
times. This intense devotion
to peace is, I believe, strengthening
with the years, is becoming
deep and ineradicable in the American
heart. The fact that at
this time there is a national impulse
for greater preparedness
does not change this basal truth in the
least, and when the his-
torian of the remote future sums up the
qualities and character-
istics of the nations of our age,
perhaps he will place this Devo-
tion to Peace as the most pronounced,
distinctive characteristic
of the American people.
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVEN-
TION OF OHIO.
BY D. C. SHILLING, MONMOUTH COLLEGE,
ILL.
The question of extending the franchise
to woman on an
equality with man is an outgrowth of
nineteenth century democ-
racy, and a tribute to the progress
woman has made in almost all
fields of human endeavor. It is no
longer a local issue, but has be-
come a national one and from a broader
point of view, an inter-
national one. It, therefore, may be
worth our while to analyze
the movement in Ohio as reflected in the
Constitutional Conven-
tions of 1851, 1873 and 1912, especially the
first two.
Ohio, like several of the states which
entered the union in
the early part of our national history,
has changed her organic
law by a subsequent constitution,
incorporating to be sure, many
principles of the older yet altering
what progress and experience
taught should be altered. This
constitution adopted in the middle
of the nineteenth century together with
several amendments con-
stitutes the organic law of the state.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 167
In Article XVI, section 3 of this
document provision is made
for the submission to the electors of
the state at the expiration
of each twenty year period the question
of calling a convention
"to revise, alter or amend the
constitution." In the case of a
favorable vote-the majority of all the
electors-the General
Assembly at its next session is required
"to provide by law for
the election of delegates, and the
assembling of such convention."
In accordance with this provision a
constitutional conven-
tion was called for by the electors in
1871. The convention sat
during the winter and spring of 1873-4,
but its work was rejected
at the polls by a majority of 147,284.
In 1891 by a vote of two
to one the people decided against
calling a convention; by 1911,
however, popular sentiment demanded a
change in the organic
law and by a vote of ten to one a
convention was ordered. This
Convention did not favor an entire
change but was content to
put new wine in old bottles and proposed
some forty-two amend-
ments, thirty-four of which were
ratified by the people at the
polls.
The report of the constitutional
convention of 1802 contains
no mention of an attempt to enfranchise
the women of Ohio.
It will be recalled however, that it did
debate the extension of
the franchise to the negroes of the
state. By 1851 there had
developed considerable sentiment in
favor of investing the women
of Ohio with the right to vote. While
the report of the proceed-
ings of this convention does not include
many of the debates,
from the petitions, memorials, and in a
few instances, the resolu-
tions, we can approximate the magnitude
of the movement two
generations ago. From an examination of
these petitions and
memorials we are forced to conclude that
the grandmothers or
many of us were ardent supporters of
"female suffrage" at a
time when woman's sphere was much
narrower than it is at
present; therefore if there is any
virtue in the movement today,
and if it is productive of any good, a
part of the praise must
be accorded to those sturdy pioneer
women of Ohio who three
score years ago asked as a matter of
simple justice that "the
word male be struck out" of the
clause granting the franchise.
Remembering that this convention sat a
decade prior to
the Civil War one is not surprised to
find many petitions asking
168 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
for equal suffrage "regardless of
color or sex." Such petitions
were presented from Stark, Portage,
Columbiana, Tuscarawas
and Shelby counties. Portage county was
especially anxious to
enfranchise the blacks. Petitions were presented from this
county bearing the signature of 426 of
her citizens asking that
the franchise be extended to both races
irrespective of sex.1
In addition to the above mentioned
counties which desired
the extension of the franchise to all
citizens, there were several
others which asked for "female
suffrage"-the term invariably
used by the official reporter in the
proceedings of the convention.
In this group are Cuyahoga, Ashtabula,
Muskingum, Clark,
Morgan, Medina and Warren counties.
There were therefore
twelve counties each represented by one
or more petitions pray-
ing that the women of Ohio be given the
right of suffrage. Peti-
tions bearing the signatures of more
than one thousand citizens
were presented to the convention.
While a study of sectionalism in Ohio is
not within the
province of this paper, one cannot fail
to note that of the twelve
counties asking for an extended
franchise - some petitions ask-
ing that the negro be included -but two
were from the south-
ern part of the state. The reasons for
the hostility of the river
counties to the enfranchising of the
negro are apparent. An
enfranchised negro on the north bank of
the Ohio would be a
constant menace to the owner of an
enslaved negro on the south
bank. There is ample evidence to prove
that the southern coun-
ties of Ohio contained many men who,
because of commercial,
social and political affiliations were
bitterly opposed to giving
any offense to their slave-holding
friends across the river. In-
deed during a part of the period from 1802 to 1860 the
National
Road was to Ohio politics what Mason and
Dixon's line was to
national politics - a line of cleavage.
Perhaps the conservation
and the political ideas held by the
states whose sons and daugh-
ters constituted a large proportion of
the population of south-
Debates in Ohio Constitutional
Convention; vol. 1, p. 107. (Since
all the data for this paper is taken
from the reports of the conventions.
the necessity for citations is somewhat
lessened.)
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 169
ern Ohio go to explain their diffidence
on the extension of the
suffrage to the women of the state.2
The character of the men and women who
signed the peti-
tions was often referred to by the
members of the convention
who presented the petitions. Invariably
they were mentioned as
persons of unimpeachable character. The
language of the peti-
tions was temperate, sane and
respectful. One signed by one
hundred and twenty ladies of Morgan
county prayed that "the
word male be left out of the
constitution and that such provision
shall be therein inserted as shall
restore to woman her rights
without impairing, or in any way
abridging those which belong
to man." 3 Mr. Hawkins while
presenting this petition stated
that the signers were highly endowed
with moral and mental
attainments of a very superior order.
Mr. Woodbury in present-
ing one from residents of Ashtabula
county said that the signa-
tures represented "the most
respectable and intelligent persons
in the country."
The petitions which asked that both
"white" and "male" be
stricken from the clause vesting the
franchise placed the age
requirement at twenty-one. Those which
did not include "color"
put the suffrage age at eighteen.
Frequently the petitioners
asked for "equal rights"
sometimes applicable to all regardless
of color or sex. A joint petition from
Stark and Portage coun-
ties asked for "equal rights
political and civil without regard, to
sex or color." 5 Portage county
presented at least five petitions
bearing the signatures of nearly three
hundred of her citizens
asking for equal rights without regard
to color or sex.6 Mus-
kingum county citizens were content to
ask for "the granting of
the right of suffrage and all the other
privileges and immunities
enjoyed by the opposite sex to all white
women in our state over
the age of eighteen years." 7
Medina county desired "equal rights
2For a study of sectionalism in Ohio see
the writer's article in
the Quar. Pub. of the Hist. and Philos.
Soc. of Ohio, vol. VIII, No.
1. (1913).
3Vol. I, p. 615.
Ibid, p. 327.
Debates, vol. I, p. 75.
6Ibid.,
pp. 236, 354, 726.
7Ibid., p. 59.
170
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
political and social without regard to
sex." 8 It does not appear
that any careful distinction was made in
the use of such terms
as rights, privileges and duties. As if
to guarantee that all were
meant to be included thirty-three
citizens of Cleveland asked
that "the right to participate in
the government equally with men
be secured to the woman in the new
Constitution."9
While the movement had some ardent
friends among the
delegates, especially among those
representing the northern and
eastern counties of the state, there was
at no time a possibility
of breaking down the barriers and the
word "male" was written
in Article 5, section I which grants the
elective franchise.
That the movement for equal suffrage in
Ohio grew during
the two decades following 1851 can be
proven very conclusively.
As was pointed out above, there were
twelve counties represented
by petitions bearing the signatures of
more than one thousand
persons who asked for woman's suffrage.
In the convention
of 1873 thirty-three counties were
represented by petitions bear-
ing nearly eight thousand names.
Geographically considered, no one
section of the state was
more zealous than the others to secure suffrage
rights for the
women of Ohio. In other words the
movement had support and
opposition from all parts of the state.
From the report of the
convention one would conclude that the
most ardent supporter
of "female suffrage" was Mr.
Voris of Summit county. It was
he who moved that a special committee be
appointed to receive
the petitions asking for woman's
suffrage, because he considered
the regular committee on the franchise
were hostile to the move-
ment. This action was the occasion of
sharp debate but Mr.
Voris gained his point.
An Ashland county delegate, Mr. Hill,
thought that "a full
discussion of the question of woman's
suffrage would produce
no harm." "I have no
eulogy," he said, "to pronounce upon the
women of Ohio. It is sufficient for me
to know that they are
our mothers, sisters, wives and
daughters. That fact of itself,
should awaken a most chivalrous
consideration of their petitions
8Ibid., p. 191.
9Vol. II, p. 232.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 171
*
* * I have no
fear that if suffrage should be conferred
upon our mothers, wives, sisters and
daughters they will disgrace
it. It would be pleased to see a system
of education inaugurated
that would require parents to give their
daughters the same op-
portunities for mental training that are
now awarded their sons."
He said the problem was "whether
suffrage would add to their
happiness and progress and at the same
time result in additional
usefulness." He doubted if a
majority of the women really
desired the franchise and favored a
proposition to submit it to
the women to ascertain "their
wishes on the subject." 10
During the discussions several of the
delegates expressed
themselves in favor of submitting the
question to the women
alone. To provide a method for
ascertaining the position of the
women, "Proposition Number 222" was offered. It provided
that "the General Assembly at its
first session after the adoption
of this constitution, shall cause a
registration to be taken of all
the women in this state, 21 years of
age, who would, if males,
be legal voters in their respective
wards and townships; the
returns of which registration shall be
forwarded to, and filed
with, the Secretary of State, and shall
be also provided for the
submission at the next general election
for State officers, at
separate polls * * * the question of
woman suffrage to the
women of the state, * * * and if a
majority equal in num-
ber to a majority of all the women
registered" shall favor the
extension of the franchise to them, the
General Assembly was
directed to prepare an amendment which
would provide for equal
suffrage.11
The special committee on woman's
suffrage which was ap-
pointed, as was shown above, because of
the supposed prejudice
of the regular committee of the elective
franchise, made its report
in the form of a proposed amendment
under the caption, "A
Substitute for Section I of Article V of
the present Constitu-
tion." It provided that "Every
citizen of the United States of
the age of 21 years," a resident of the state for one year and
of county, township or ward such time as
required by law, "shall
10Report of Const. Conv., 1873, vol. II,
part III, p. 2747-48.
Vol. II, part II, p. 1922.
172
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
have the qualifications of an elector
and be entitled to vote at
all elections." 12
The question of submitting the
proposition to the electors
caused a very spirited two days' debate
but when the vote was
taken the convention stood, for
submission 49; against submission
41; but since it failed by 4 votes to
secure the majority of all the
delegates it was defeated.
During the debates on the above
considerable use was made
of the Bible to prove that man's position
was and should be su-
perior to that of woman. This drew some
clever remarks from
Mr. Voris who scoffed at the idea that
"the paternal advice of
a Roman citizen of Jewish birth and
education, in the days of
the Empire, to a barbarian people, who
had recently been con-
verted to Christianity, who had never
heard of such a thing as
American liberty, or even the ballot
box, should be construed
to prohibit our free citizens from
voting at the elections is too
absurd to be tolerated for a
moment." He thought that if politics
were too corrupt for women it augured
"badly for the future,
and is a withering commentary on man's
management of our
public affairs." He argued that the
franchise would give woman
"additional moral force, make her
influence greater and better
qualify her for her mission, * * * make
her a better wife
and mother and just as good a
Christian." 13
The opposition found a champion in Mr.
Powell of Delaware
county. He appears to have seen more
clearly than most of the
delegates the distinctions between such
terms as "rights" "privi-
leges" "duties" et
cetera. His speech covers ten pages of the
proceedings, and is worth perusal by
present day students of this
question.14
Despite every effort made by its friends
the case was hope-
less and the regular committee on the
elective franchise reported
in favor of limiting the franchise to
"male" citizens of the state
21 years
of age or over. This ended the struggle as far as the
convention of 1873 was concerned. That
the work of the con-
12Vol. II, part I, p. 567.
13Vol.
II, part III, p. 2800-2808.
14 Ibid., part II, pp. 1830-1839.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 173
vention did not meet with approval
everywhere is evidenced by
the action of the Woman's Suffrage
Association of Toledo.
In response to an invitation to
participate as an organiza-
tion in the celebration of the Fourth of
July, 1876 (centennial
year), the president of the Association
replied that while the
members were grateful for "the
implied recognition of their
citizenship, yet they manifestly have no
centennial to celebrate,
as the government still holds them in a
condition of political
serfdom. * * * In an equal degree we feel it inconsistent
as a disfranchised class to unite with
you in the celebration of
that liberty which is the heritage of
but half the people." 15
In response to a favorable vote in 1911,
a constitutional con-
vention assembled early the following
year. A prophetic vision
was not necessary to anticipate an
attempt to win the suffrage
for the women of Ohio. It will be
recalled that California had
enfranchised the women of that state at
this time. This gave
courage to the workers in Ohio and a
determined effort was made
to gain as many points of vantage as
possible. The women
proved to be good campaigners, and after
the election of delegates
announced that they had a safe majority
pledged for equal suf-
frage.
Viewed as an entity, the debates of the
convention on this
question give the writer four general
impressions. In the first
place, the terms "rights"
"privileges" and "duties" were used
with more discrimination than they were
in 1873.16 Second;
there was a current of feeling that the
liquor interests would be
adversely affected by the passage of
woman's suffrage. One
delegate asked if the women who had
petitioned for the franchise
were not opposed to submitting the
liquor license proposition to
the electors.17 The third
impression is that there was an unwill-
ingness on the part of several delegates
to allow a full discus-
sion of the subject. This is proven by
the passage of a three
minute limit for debates. Protests were
not wanting. One dele-
gate considered this the most unfair
consideration the women
15Hist. of Woman's Suffrage: Anthony,
Stanton and Gage, vol. III,
p. 507.
16 Proceedings, etc., vol. I, p. 612,
634, et al.
17Proceedings, vol. I, 613 and 618.
174
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
of Ohio had ever received. He pointed
out that the convention
allowed two weeks discussion on the
proposition of a bond issue
for good roads, and "permitted
without limitation a discussion
for nearly three weeks of the liquor
question." 18 In spite of this
appeal for fairness the convention gave
less than two days to the
question which most delegates considered
the most important
one before them.19 Lastly,
most of the delegates were of the
opinion that the great majority of women
were opposed to re-
ceiving the franchise.
An analysis of the debates would prolong
this paper beyond
the twenty minute limit, and add little
to its effectiveness.20 As
in 1873, several delegates favored a
referendum by the women
alone. Its impracticability and doubts
as to its legality caused
its defeat. The committee on the
Elective Franchise reported a
proposal which passed the convention by
a vote of 76 to 34. This
amendment was defeated at the polls by
nearly 100,000 votes,
and the women of Ohio were left to
exercise the limited fran-
chise granted at an earlier period.
EARLY RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN PITTSBURGH.
BY HOMER J. WEBSTER, PH. D., UNIVERSITY
OF PITTSBURGH.
Pittsburgh is distinguished today as a
city of wealth and
manufactures. It is equally true, though
not so well known, that
she is conspicuously a city of churches,
and of church going
people. Today she has several
denominational colleges, and three
Theological Seminaries, the latter
representing the different
branches of the Presbyterians. And
almost from the beginning
of her history, Presbyterianism has been
prominent.
The Roman Catholics, however, preceded
the Presbyterians,
since their chaplain, Friar Denys Baron,
a Recollect Priest, ac-
companied the French to Fort Duquesne,
conducted services there
in the newly erected chapel in 1754, and
ministered to them dur-
ing their occupation. From the French
evacuation of the fort in
18bid., p. 619 (Prof. Knight).
19 The debates cover pp. 600-639.
20 See
especially speeches of Marshall, Bowdle, Marriot and John-
son (Williams Co).
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 175
1758, until 1808, the Roman Catholics in
Pittsburgh were few
in number, and had no resident priest.
They were visited occa-
sionally by missionaries on their way
westward, services being
held in private houses.
No sooner were the English established
at Fort Pitt, in
1758, than Presbyterian ministrations
began. Rev. Chas. Beatty
preached a Thanksgiving sermon on the
Sunday following the
French evacuation. The Presbyterian
Synod of New York and
Philadelphia sent missionaries
repeatedly to the fort and western
settlements for brief labors there. Some
of these missionaries
also visited the Indians on the
Muskingum, and took back a stir-
ring report to the next Synod, to the
effect that the fields were
white and the laborers few. For over
twenty years, however,
progress was painfully slow, and nothing
of permanence or
stability was secured prior to the
establishment of a resident
minister. Rev. James Power was the first
ordained minister, who
settled with his family in western
Pennsylvania. He came in
1776 and for several years worked in the
vicinity of Pittsburgh.
In the same year, the Rev. John McMillan
founded the Log Col-
lege near Canonsburgh, Pennsylvania, the
forerunner of Jeffer-
son College, one of the two parent stems
of Washington and
Jefferson College.
The Redstone1 Presbytery was created by
the Synod of New
York and Philadelphia at its meeting in
Philadelphia, May, 1781.
This was the first Presbytery formed
west of the Allegheny
Mountains,2 and held its
first meeting at Pigeon Creek, in Sep-
tember, 1781. In the record of this
Presbytery no mention is
made of Pittsburgh until its fifth
meeting, held at Buffalo, Wash-
ington County, Pennsylvania, 1784, when
it received from Pitts-
burgh an application for supplies.
Accordingly the next day,
the Presbytery appointed the Rev. Joseph
Smith, a graduate of
Princeton, to preach at Pittsburgh the
fourth Sabbath of August.
This was the first appointment by the
Presbytery of a supply to
Pittsburgh.
1 Redstone Creek joined the Monongahela
River at Redstone Old
Fort, fifty-five miles above Pittsburgh,
but the term, Redstone, was ap-
plied to the whole region west of the
mountains.
2 In
1793 the Presbytery of Ohio was formed part from the old
Redstone Presbytery, and thus the latter
was divided.
176 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Some idea of conditions in Pittsburgh at
that time may be
gained from Arthur Lee, who visited it
in 1784, and who said:
"Pittsburgh is inhabited almost
entirely by Scots and Irish, who
live in paltry log houses. * * * There
are in the town four
attorneys, two doctors, and not a priest
of any persuasion, nor
church, nor chapel, so that they are
likely to be damned without
benefit of clergy." In the same
year, a clerical member of the
Mason and Dixon's Line Commission
brought one hundred sixty
Bibles to Pittsburgh for distribution.
Meanwhile Rev. Samuel Barr had visited
Pittsburgh, and
had preached a few times. In the fall of
1785 he began regular
pastoral work in what is now called the
First Presbyterian Con-
gregation of Pittsburgh, which was then
formed. In September,
1787, a bill was passed by the
legislature at Philadelphia, to in-
corporate a Presbyterian congregation in
Pittsburgh. In the
same month, through the efforts of the
Rev. Samuel Barr, the
Penn heirs had deeded to this church two
and one-half lots of
ground for five shillings. This deed was
executed on parchment
to eleven trustees and is still
possessed by the First Presbyterian
Church of the city. On this ground the
church erected their first
house of worship, - a structure of
"moderate dimensions and
squared timber." This was the first church building in Pitts-
burgh. Samuel Barr's pastorate closed in
1789, and for several
years thereafter, the church had no
regular minister, being at-
tended mostly by successive supplies.
There were hard and lean
years for the Presbyterian Church of
Pittsburgh. It had little
life in itself and was out of harmonious
relation with the Red-
stone Presbytery.
From 1794 to 1800, the history of the
First Church is almost
a blank. A call for supplies was made in
1795 and again in 1799.
No meetings of the Presbytery were held
in Pittsburgh dur-
ing this period. A fast day was
appointed by the Presbytery in
January, 1796, for "prevailing
infidelity, vice, immorality, and
spiritual sloth." The first Tuesday afternoon of each quarter
was set apart in October, 1797, as a
"time of prayer for a revival
of religion." Perhaps the greatest
enemy with which the pioneer
church had to deal in those days was
intemperance. A ray of
hope in this dark period of its history,
came with the sermon
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 177
of Dr. Francis Herron in the old log
church in 1799, which, in
his own words, was much to the
"annoyance of the swallows"
which inhabited the neglected building.
As early as 1782, the Rev. Johann
Wilhelm Weber first came
to Pittsburgh. The town then contained
about sixty houses and
huts, and about one hundred families. As
an outgrowth of
Weber's labors, a German Lutheran
congregation was organized
by 1783. This was the first religious
body to form an organiza-
tion in Pittsburgh. A little later, a
church was erected by them
on ground secured from the Penns. The
Rev. Mr. Weber served
as their pastor for twelve years, and
the church continued to
develop during the ensuing years, and
became a permanent factor
in the life of the place.
In 1787, when the Penns donated lands to
the Presbyterians
and Lutherans, they also deeded the same
amount, two and one-
half lots, to the trustees of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, who
were just then organizing in Pittsburgh.
This land was used
from the beginning as a burial place,
but not for thirty-seven
years as the site for a church. One of
the trustees of this church
was Col. John Gibson, who was commandant
for a time at Fort
Pitt, and later secretary to Gov.
Harrison in Indiana Territory.
In 1797, Rev. John Taylor was called to
act as pastor. The first
services were held in the court house,
and other places, public
and private. In 1805 a charter was
secured for the incorporation
of Trinity Church, and a new plot of
ground was bought, on
which was erected the First Trinity
Church. This was known
as the "Old Round Church,"
being octagonal in form, and was
the mother of all Episcopal Churches in
Western Pennsylvania.
For twenty years it was not prosperous,
and was supplied by
various rectors for short periods. In
1824, John Henry Hop-
kins became rector and greatly
strengthened the church, and a
new building was erected the following
year.
Early Methodism had a difficult field to
cultivate in Pitts-
burgh and vicinity. The soil was
preoccupied. The Presbyterians
came early, settled thickly, held on
tenaciously, and gained much
afterward from immigration, while
Methodism gained little from
this latter source. At the Methodist
Conference, held at Union-
town, Pennsylvania, July, 1788, the
Pittsburgh Circuit was
Vol. XXV-12
178 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
formed, partly from the Redstone Circuit
which lay south of
Pittsburgh, and Chas. Conway was
appointed preacher for the
new circuit. This was the first
appearance of the name of Pitts-
burgh in the annals of Methodism. The
Presbyterians, Lu-
therans, and Episcopalians were already
organizing in Pittsburgh,
when Conway arrived in 1788. Three years
earlier, Rev. Wilson
Lee, preaching on the Redstone Circuit,
had visited Pittsburgh,
and preached there the first Methodist
sermon. But there was
no organization and Conway came
"not to serve a church, but
to make one, not called by a church, but
to call a church," and
his field of labor extended to the
vicinity as well as to the town.
In 1789, Bishop Asbury made his first
visit to Pittsburgh. He
wrote in his journal that the people
were very attentive, but
that "alas they are far from God,
and too near the savages in
situation and manners." At the
close of the second year, 1790,
the minutes showed ninety-seven members
in the Pittsburgh Cir-
cuit, though few of these were in
Pittsburgh. In the next few
years, additional preachers were
appointed to assist Conway,
yet between Satan on the one hand and
the Calvinists on the
other, there was little chance for
Methodism in Pittsburgh in
these early years.
The first important accession came with
arrival of John
Wrenshall, merchant, in 1796. He was
also a minister of much
experience and ability, and to him
perhaps as much as to any
other one man, belongs the honor of
establishing Methodism in
Pittsburgh. Regular services were held
for a time in the old log
building, which had been deserted by the
Presbyterians, and
later in the old barracks of Fort Pitt.
But no permanent home
was secured for their services, until in
1810 a lot was purchased
and a plain brick church erected. The
membership increased
so rapidly from this time that by 1817,
the membership of the
Pittsburgh church alone, numbered two
hundred eighty, and a
site was purchased for the erection of a
new building. Thus
arose the Smithfield Street Church, the
mother Methodist Epis-
copal Church of Pittsburgh.
The church now known as the United
Presbyterian in Pitts-
burgh, formed in 1858, was an outgrowth
of the Associate, or
Associate Presbyterian Church. At
Philadelphia in 1800 was
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 179
organized the Associate Synod of North
America, consisting of
four Presbyteries, including that of
Chartiers. The Associate
Presbytery of Chartiers met and
organized at Canonsburgh,
Pennsylvania, in June, 1800.
Several congregations were under its
care. At a meeting
of this Presbytery at Buffalo,
Pennsylvania, in 1801, a petition
was presented from Pittsburgh and Turtle
Creek for preaching.
In response to this, elders were elected
at Pittsburgh, and they
called as their first minister, in
November of that year, the Rev.
Ebenezer Henderson. Thus the First United Presbyterian
Church of Pittsburgh was organized under
the name of the
Associate Congregation of Pittsburgh.
Henderson became dis-
couraged and was released in 1804.
During his pastorate, the
congregation had no church building, and
worshiped in the
court house. In 1808 Robert Bruce,
recently from Scotland, be-
came pastor, and the congregation
worshiped in the German
Church. Finally in April, 1810, a lot
for a church building was
purchased, but the building was not
ready for occupancy until
1813. This first church was a rude
building of brick, with un-
plastered walls, unpainted pews, and no
vestibule. But these
pioneer days passed by, and the
congregation grew in numbers
and strength until it is today one of
the strongest in Pittsburgh.
The Baptists were organized in
Pittsburgh, rather later than
the other denominations. The first
congregation, in 1812, con-
sisted of six families, with Rev. Edward
Jones as pastor. The
services were held in various places.
The congregation was
not chartered until 1822. It
belonged to the Redstone Baptist
Association, whose minutes are published
beginning with 1804.
In that year this Association included
twenty-five churches, with
a total membership of over one thousand.
It met annually, and
its records indicate the progress of the
Baptists in Western
Pennsylvania. In 1808, the number of
churches was thirty-five
with a membership of over fifteen
thousand. Then for a series
of years the number decreased, and in
1810, there were only
about twelve thousand. In 1823 this
Association convened at
Pittsburgh. Only twenty-one churches
were represented with
memberships ranging from nine to one
hundred twelve each.
In the minutes of this Association for
1805, there are two
180 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
interesting queries. One was: "Is
it consistent with gospel
order, or our Lord's rule of equity, to
hold any of our fellow
creatures in perpetual slavery?"
Answered unanimously, "No."
The other was: "Do we hold
fellowship with any church which
holds fellowship with any members, who
hold slaves in perpetual
servitude?" This query was referred
to the next annual Asso-
ciation for an answer. At that time it
was resolved that this
query "be struck out, leaving the
case of slavery wholly to the
prudence of the Legislature, praying
that the Lord would put
it into their hearts to liberate
them."
Though the Roman Catholics were the
first in this section,
not until 1808, did they have a resident
priest. In that year
Rev. Wm. O'Brien came from Baltimore to
Pittsburgh. He
promoted the erection of St. Patrick's
Church, which was begun
in the same year. This was a brick
building and its dedication
in August, 1811, was the occasion of the
first visit of a Roman
Catholic Bishop to this place. During
the building of this church,
Father O'Brien said mass in a stable
fitted up for a chapel. After
twelve years of service among the
missions of that region, in
which he ministered to perhaps not more
than three hundred
souls, Father O'Brien preached his
farewell sermon in the spring
of 1820. He was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Maguire, under whose
ministrations, a magnificent new church,
St. Paul's, was erected.
As the history of the Presbyterians has
been sketched here
only to 1800, a few further facts concerning
them should be
presented. Their history has been
divided into three periods.
First, the initial struggle for
existence, 1784-1800, which has
been outlined above. During the sixteen
years of this period,
the pastoral relation existed but about
one-fourth the time,
(1785-'89).
The second period, 1800-1811, was a
struggle for establish-
ment. In 1802 the Synod of Pittsburgh was
formed by Act of
the General Assembly, and held its first
meeting in October of
that year. This was the first great
representative meeting of
the men who made Western Pennsylvania
Presbyterianism.
Their missionary zeal was shown in their
first resolution, that
"the Synod of Pittsburgh shall be
styled the Western Missionary
Society." The effects of the
formation of the Synod and of this
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 181
first meeting were soon felt. The union
between the city and
the surrounding country, thus far
delayed, was now begun and
proved effective.
In 1801 a dissension arose within the
church at Pittsburgh,
and persisted until 1804, when upon
petition, a part of the con-
gregation was authorized to organize the
Second Presbyterian
Church of Pittsburgh. Supplies were
granted the new branch
until October, 1805, when a regular
minister accepted its call.
This division increased financial
difficulties, already great, on
account of the erection of a building.
Despairing of raising the
debt by subscription, a lottery was
resorted to in 1806, but was
not successful, and the debt continued.
During all this early
period the religious life was at a low
ebb, and progress was slow.
The First Presbyterian Church numbered
but forty-five mem-
bers in 1808, fifty-eight in 1809, and
sixty-five in 1810. Around
Pittsburgh, however, there had been
considerable growth. Cross
Creek Church numbered two hundred
fifty-five, Cross Roads and
Three Springs two hundred thirty-seven,
and many others about
two hundred each.
The early churches of Western
Pennsylvania were rural
and they developed later in the towns.
The country people were
the Christians, the townspeople, the
"pagans," says Smith, in
respect to their early destitution of
churches. Pittsburgh, Wash-
ington (Pennsylvania) and Wheeling were
all suppliants at the
door of the Redstone Presbytery, begging
for supplies. And
just as rural life develops sturdy
manhood, so it develops sturdy
churches, so that by 1833, Dr. Alexander
could write: "The
Pittsburgh Synod is the purest and
soundest limb of the Presby-
terian body. When we fall to pieces in
this quarter and in the
far West, that Synod will be like a
marble column, which remains
undisturbed in the ruins of a mighty
temple."
In 1811 the Presbyterian Church entered
upon the third and
successful period of its history, which
has continued to the
present time. In that year the Rev.
Francis Herron became the
pastor of the First Church, and so
continued for thirty-nine years.
In 1817 the church was enlarged and
regular weekly prayer meet-
ings were established. From 1817 to 1824, the
Pittsburgh Bible
Society, formed in 1814 in this church,
delivered 2,382 Bibles,
182 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
and 1,180 testaments. In 1817 the
Western Missionary Society
of Pittsburgh, that is, the Presbyterian
Synod of Pittsburgh,
assembled and appointed missionaries to
all the Indian districts
of the west.
In 1818 the Pittsburgh Union Society, or
Sunday School
Association, for promoting Sunday School
work, organized and
founded the Adephi Free School, a
combined Sunday and public
school for the benefit of poor children.
At the time of the first
annual report of the Sunday School
Association, February, 1819,
it comprised ten Sunday Schools in
Pittsburgh. During its first
year the Association gathered about five
hundred fifty children
into the Sunday Schools, maintained a
free colored school, and
embraced every church in Pittsburgh and
vicinity.
In May, 1820, the United Foreign Missionary Society, com-
posed of several denominations of the
city, requested from the
Western Missionary Society of
Pittsburgh, aid for missions to
the Osage Indians. This appeal was
responded to by raising
over $1,200
in cash, and a large supply of provisions
and build-
ing materials. The first faculty of the
Western University of
Pennsylvania, now the University of
Pittsburgh, was composed
of six of the most eminent clergymen in
the community.
These facts illustrate the activity of
the churches of Pitts-
burgh during the early years of the
nineteenth century, and ex-
plain in part their growth in power,
influence and Christian
service.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Files of the Pittsburgh Gazette,
(1786-).
Centenary Volume of the First
Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.
(1884.) Edited by Sylvester Scoville.
Minutes of the Redstone Presbytery.
(1781-1831.)
Minutes of the Redstone Baptist
Association. (1786-1836).
History of the First United Presbyterian
Church of Pittsburg. (1801-
1901). W. J. Reid.
Centenary Memorial Volume of the
Smithfield Street Methodist Epis-
copal Church Celebration. (1888).
"Pittsburgh as seen by Early
Travelers." (1783-1818). Compilation of
Extracts made by Carnegie Library,
Pittsburgh.
Volume on the Centennial of the
Incorporation of Pittsburgh. (1894).
Article by Dr. Wm. J. Holland.
Old Redstone, by Dr. Joseph Smith.
(1854.)
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 183
Records of the Synod of Pittsburgh.
(1802-1832).
Centenary Memorial Volume of
Presbyterianism in Western Pennsyl-
vania. (Papers by Darlington and Veech.)
History of Pittsburgh, by N. B. Craig.
(1851).
History of Pittsburgh, by Sarah H.
Killikelly. (1906).
History of Pittsburgh, by Erasmus
Wilson. (1898).
EARLY RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN THE
MUSKINGUM
VALLEY.
BY C. L. MARTZOLFF, OHIO UNIVERSITY.
The dominant note in the settlement of
the majority of the
colonies was, as we know, religious
freedom. The spirit of
modern history which has as its slogan, "All
men are free,"
found in those days expression in terms
of religion, with the
result that the most of men's acts were
determined by a religious
motive.
While the settlement of the Muskingum
Valley, which in-
cludes practically all of southeastern
and eastern Ohio, was
not prompted by the same reasons which
urged the fathers to
come across the Atlantic and establish
colonies in the name of
religious freedom, yet the fact that
these men were their fathers,
leads us confidently to expect that the
founding of the church
was contemporaneous with the founding of
a settlement.
"Like father, like
son." So, noble sons of noble sires had
learned the experiences of the elders
and had received a thor-
ough training in the traditions, growing
out of the acts which
had made history. We have only to
recall, therefore, that this
section of Ohio was settled in a great
measure by Puritans from
Massachusetts, Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania and New Jer-
sey, and Quakers and Germans, also from
our eastern neighbor,
to at once conclude that the statement
made in the previous
paragraph is a correct one.
While, figuratively speaking, the Lilies
of France once
floated over this section of Ohio, and
we might with some degree
of assurance look for the presence of
the Jesuit missionary in
these parts, yet we have no record of
any of these black cowled
messengers of the Cross ever being in
this region. Yet, we are
quite certain that their influence was
felt upon the Indians who
184
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
made these hills their hunting grounds
as a subsequent statement
will show.
To Christopher Gist, the Man with
Compass and Pen, be-
longs the recorded honor of being the
first to expound the Gospel
in the Muskingum Valley. On his
celebrated journey, to spy out
the land for the benefit of the First
Ohio Company in the win-
ter of 1751, he finds himself with a
motley company of trappers,
traders and Indians at the junction of
the Walhonding and the
Tuscarawas Rivers. It is Christmas Day,
and while he is not
an ordained minister and never studied
theology, he proceeds to
hold services in accordance with the
Episcopalian Book of Prayer,
which he had brought all the way from
the Yadkin in his knap-
sack. He also sought to explain,
according to his own words,
the "doctrine of salvation, faith
and good works," seemingly
much to the satisfaction if not to the
edification of his miscel-
laneous congregation. At least, we are
led to the belief that
Christopher Gist would have made quite
as much of a success
as a missionary as he did a traveler,
writer and diplomat. For
the Indians were immensely pleased. They
wanted Gist to live
with them and to baptize them. They
promised never again to
asten to the French priests, and the
lay-preacher had a hard
time explaining that he was not a
minister.
This same Tuscarawas branch of the
Muskingum Valley
likewise calls to mind the activities of
the noble and consecrated
Moravian Brethren. The events connected
with their attempts
here in Ohio are so well known that only
for the exalted type
of their labors and the intense devotion
to their cause, a passing
notice would be sufficient.
It is around the labors of David
Zeisberger, missionary,
preacher and teacher, that the Moravian
history of Ohio assem-
bles. At the age of fifty, in 1771, we
find him an invited guest
in the wigwam of the chief of the
Delaware Indians in Oxford
Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. The
next year, with the
assistance of John Heckewelder, he
establishes his community at
Schoen-Brunn near New Philadelphia. In
the course of a few
years this had grown into a cluster of
Christian communities.
Here dwelt in peace and prosperity many
scores of Indian
families under the leadership of the
devoted missionary and his
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 185
self-sacrificing assistants. The church
erected at Schoen-Brunn
held five hundred, and often its
capacity proved too small for the
congregation. Here on Easter Day 1774
the Easter morning
litany of the Moravian Church was
rendered in the Delaware
language. The Indian Brethren were
taught to work as well as
to worship; to love peace; to hate
fire-water.
Such success was not permitted to
continue. The Revolu-
tion brought on its troubles. Verily a
neutral hath a hard time
of it--loved by none and suspicioned by
all. The crisis was
reached in 1781, when by order of the
British commandant at
Detroit, Zeisberger and his co-workers
were arrested and carried
from the scenes of their labors. Then followed,
the next year,
the awful massacre of ninety of the
Brown Brethren at Gnadden-
hutten by an American militia and the
ship-wreck of his efforts
seemed complete. Then for nigh two-score
years, David Zeis-
berger was a veritable Moses, leading
the remnant of his de-
voted followers from place to place in
the American wilderness.
In 1798 he returned to the Tuscarawas
valley, now an old man,
and at Goshen helped to re-build out of
the ashes new "Tents
of Grace." Here, yet, in this vicinity in several
prosperous
church homes. Moravian Brethren gather
Sunday after Sunday
and worship as did Zeisberger and his
Brown Brethren more
than a century ago.
Of but one other movement belonging to
the period preced-
ing that of actual organized settlement
do we find any record.
In 1785 General Butler, who was sent to
drive the "squatters"
from the land in the Seven Ranges in
what is now on Short Creek
in Harrison county, notes in his Journal
"the people of this coun-
try appear to be much imposed upon by a
sect called Methodists
and are become great fanatics."
This means that the Methodist
circuit-rider had made his appearance
with the first sporadic set-
tlement. We have the record that two
years later (1787) Rev.
George Callahan, of the Virginia
District, preached to these same
people at Carpenter's Fort, on Short
Creek.
The reference to fanatical Methodists
leads us to remark
that the intolerance of the various
sects for each other was simply
appalling compared with our views on
such matters today.
Something similar to the above is found
in the records of a Lu-
186
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
theran missionary, who inquired once of
a Methodist brother if
there were any German Lutherans in the
vicinity. The reply was
that there were none, that all they had
was a "pack of corrupted
Baptists."
At this place it is quite appropriate to
parenthetically call
attention to the oft-repeated,
"education, religion, and morality"
clause of the famous Ordinance of 1787,
under whose organic
control the settlements of Ohio were now
to be established. This
is ever regarded as a fundamental
guarantee for the encourage-
ment and protection of religious
development in the Northwest
Territory.
In this connection, it is likewise well
to be reminded of the
bargain struck by Manasseh Cutler with
the dying Congress of
the Confederation, viz., the giving as a
perpetual endowment of
one thirty-sixth of all lands in the
Ohio Company's Purchase
for the support of the churches which
might be established. This
"section twenty-nine" is quite
interesting enough and there is suf-
ficient material connected with its
history alone to warrant the
consideration of a paper longer than
this is going to be. Suffice
it to say these expressions of interest
in religious matters mani-
festly indicated the character of the
men whom we regard as
the fathers of the Commonwealth. It is
therefore easy to see why
so many of the original settlements were
made in connection with
the church, the minister usually coming
with his people.
But it is not easy to explain why the
Marietta settlers, al-
though they held services from the
beginning, did not organize
a congregation for eight years after
their settlement was made.
The first sermon seems to have been
preached by the Rev.
Daniel Breck on Sunday, July 20, 1788. The
services were con-
ducted in the same bower where a few
weeks before they had
held their Fourth of July exercises.
There were about 300
present. The reverend gentleman remained
at Marietta about
a month and preached for them each
Sunday during his stay.
The day after he left, Dr. Manasseh
Cutler arrived and for three
successive Sundays he preached at the
block-house. From
now till a regular pastor, Daniel Story,
of Boston, arrived in
the spring of 1789, it seems that
different laymen acted in the
preacher's capacity. The Rev. Mr. Story's salary was the
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 187
equivalent of about five dollars a week
and his board, a part
of his salary being paid out of the
Treasury of the Ohio Com-
pany. Soon preaching stations were
established at Waterford
and Belpre, Mr. Story attending there
also.
In December, 1796, steps were taken for
the organization
of a congregation. A comprehensive
confession of faith and a
covenant was drawn which might be easily
subscribed to by both
Congregationalists and Presbyterians.
Rev. Mr. Story, who had
in the meantime returned to the East,
was called as the regular
pastor. His ordination occurred in
Massachusetts at the hands
of Dr. Cutler, and in 1799 he returned
to take charge of the
congregation, which he served till within
a few months of his
death in 1804. This congregation is
still in existence and wor-
ships in what is known as the
"Two-Horn Church" in Marietta.
In these days of wonderful Sunday School
activity, it is
interesting to be reminded of the first
one in Ohio. During the
Indian Wars, which lasted from 1791
till 1795, the officers at
Marietta ordered the families to retire
within the fortifications.
About thirty families took refuge within
the stockade at Campus
Martius. Among them was the wife of a
settler, Mrs. Mary
Bird Lake, a woman of philanthropic
spirit. She conceived the
idea of assembling the children, who
were wont to play, in the
stockade on Sunday afternoons and
teaching them Scripture les-
sons and portions of the Catechism. She
continued these services
till within a year of her death in 1796.
She is said to lie in an
unmarked grave at Rainbow, about eight
miles from Marietta.
In point of time the Presbyterians were
the next to leave
their impress on the Muskingum Valley,
although this denomina-
tion had succeeded in organizing
congregations at both Cincin-
nati and Chillicothe previously. These
first movements of Pres-
byterianism in the Muskingum country are
difficult to separate
from those across the ridge on the many
streams that flow into
the Ohio in the counties of Jefferson,
Harrison, Belmont and
Monroe. They all belong together. The
congregation organized
at Short Creek, Jefferson County, in
1797, embraced the region
on both sides of the divide. Soon it was
divided owing to in-
crease of population: then in a few
years it was again separated.
By this process of division as the
result of addition, the star of
188 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Presbyterianism moved westward. And it
was rapid. In 1803,
it had reached Newark, when the Rev.
John Wright, a mission-
ary, arrived in that city then
consisting of six log cabins and a
tavern. There was just one Presbyterian
family in town. The
town was full of people who had come to
attend a horse race
the next day, although it was Sunday.
Needless to say, the
people were mostly full, too. The
minister was importuned to
join in their hilarity and threatened a
ducking if he refused.
Upon learning that he was a member of
the cloth, they desisted
and offered to attend his services the
next day if he would post-
pone it till after the races. Not
complying with this generous
offer, he preached twice, the second
time on Sabbath desecration.
Whether the crowd was penitent or not,
we do not know, but
one of the horse racers acted as deacon
by taking up a collection.
He collected seven dollars. Three years
later a congregation
was established.
The first Presbyterian church in what is
now Guernsey
County was established at Cumberland in
1812. As intimated be-
fore, numerous Quakers from Pennsylvania
and North Carolina
were among the settlers of Eastern Ohio.
Like the Presbyterians,
they soon spilled across the ridge into
the Muskingum head-
waters. It was in 1800 that the first
Friends' meeting west of
the Ohio River was held. Unlike the
Presbyterians perhaps be-
cause they were fewer in number they did
not spread very far
westward into the Muskingum Valley. The
church on Stillwater
in the western part of Belmont county
was organized in 1804
and the first sermon preached was by a
woman named Ruth Bos-
well. The congregation is still in a
flourishing state.
The Lutheran movement was not so
extended, since the
German element was not so plentiful at
an early date. The
upper courses of the Tuscarawas,
however, saw quite a few of
this denomination seek the rich valleys.
As early as 1805, Rev.
William Foster was sent as a missionary
to Ohio, looking up the
scattered German settlements. At New
Reading in Perry
County, in 1805, he organized the first
congregation of the Lu-
theran faith. This congregation is still
active as is another one
organized the next year a few miles
away. Rev. Foster also
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 189
established the church at Somerset in
1812. The building boasted
of a genuine pipe organ, built by one of
the members. Here six
years later the Ohio Synod was
organized.
Mention has already been made of the
coming of the itiner-
ant Methodist preacher. In 1795-96 Revs.
Samuel Hill and John
Reynolds rode a circuit extending from
the Muskingum river
to Pittsburgh and Washington County,
Pennsylvania, on the east.
In the records of Bishop Asbury we find
that renowned
traveling preacher passing through the
Muskingum country on
various occasions. This can also be said
of the Reverend J. B.
Finley, surveyor, Indian scout, and
divine, one of the first travel-
ing evangelists in the state. He had
come from North Carolina
and he preached all over Ohio when it
was entirely a wilderness.
The Catholic church naturally did not
have many advocates
among the early Ohioans when we recall
their respective nation-
alities. So we can not look for much
activity except in isolated
cases. Such a one is the St. Michael
settlement on Duck Creek
in Noble county. Here in 1803, one James
Archer brought his
numerous family from Virginia and
originated what is still
known as the Archer settlement. Being a
devout Catholic, he
at once began religious services, which
have been maintained
ever since three church buildings have
been erected in the cen-
tury of its history and the congregation
is still a strong and pros-
perous one.
Only a few years subsequent, Bishop
Fenwick, the mission-
ary priest of Ohio, in traveling over
the famous Zane's Trace,
reached the tavern of John Fink at
Somerset. Upon discovering
that his host was a Catholic, he
celebrated mass within the rude
home of the pioneer. Bishop Fenwick was
a priest of the
Dominican Order which had established a
convent at St. Rose,
Kentucky.
The Ditto and Fink families had entered
at the land office
three hundred and twenty-nine acres
located two miles south
of Somerset. This they donated to Father
Fenwick for the pur-
pose of establishing a church and
convent of the Dominican
Order. At the beginning, the
congregation consisted of but six
families. The church and convent is
still in existence and from
190
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
the beginning to within a few years it
was the headquarters of
that Order in America. From its halls
its preachers went into
all parts of the country.
We now find our time gone and we are
only getting into
out subject. Other events are quite as
interesting and valuable
but we have restricted ourselves to the
very first as closely as
possible, and the half has not been
told.
Some one ought to write a history of the
first forty years
of religious development in Ohio. With
its account of God-
fearing men and women, who hungered for
the Manna of Life
in their wilderness home, with its story
of the splendid band of
consecrated men of God, who had but one
passion, namely, to
win souls, with its narrative of
struggle and sacrifice to build
these first temples. Nothing in our
state history has such ab-
sorbing interest, such vital realities
and such permanent results
in the establishment of our
Commonwealth.
EARLY NEWSPAPERS IN THE VIRGINIAS.
DR. HENRY S. GREEN.
Sir William Berkeley, twice governor of Virginia, made
answer to the inquiries of the Lords of
the Committee for the
Colonies in 1671, during his second term
of office, and one of
his replies to their questionings was as
follows:
"I thank God that we have not free
schools nor printing, and I
hope we shall not have these hundred
years; for learning has brought
disobedience and heresy and sects into
the world, and printing has
divulged them and libels against the
government. God keep us from
both."
This pious protest of Governor Berkeley
was uttered more
than thirty years after the importation
of a press into the colony
of Massachusetts and nearly forty years
after the founding of
Harvard, and it has been held to
indicate that the cavalier civil-
ization which grew up about the
Jamestown settlement was more
conservative in its attitude toward
learning and literature than
the puritan civilization of New England.
However, the printer's
devil began to get in his work in
Virginia long before the expira-
tion of the hundred years' respite for
which Governor Berkeley
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 191
had so fervently hoped. The prejudice
against printing appears,
indeed, to have been governmental and
gubernatorial rather than
popular, for the colony had made no law
on the subject, and the
inhibition against printing rested
solely on administrative orders.
When in 1681, an adventurous spirit,
John Buckner, imported
a printing press into Virginia, he was
promptly called before the
governor and council and ordered to
enter into bond "not to
print anything hereafter until His
Majesty's pleasure shall be
known."
Apparently it was not His Majesty's
pleasure that any such
Dangerous piece of political machinery
should be operated in
the colonies if His Majesty could
prevent it, so we find the gov-
ernor of Virginia in 1683 getting
express orders from British
headquarters not to allow any person to
use a printing press in
the colony on any occasion whatsoever.
The royal prohibition
and gubernatorial diligence were potent
enough to keep type
and presses out of the colony until the
power of example in
those colonies which afterward became
the New England and
the Middle states, caused the colonists
in Virginia also to recog-
nize the function of the printer -
though at first the recognition
was on an exterritorial basis. William
Parks was the first duly
appointed "printer" to the
colony of Virginia, and he received
a subsidy or salary of two hundred
pounds a year, his press being
located at Annapolis, Maryland, where he
published the Maryland
Gazette, established in 1727.
Soon after his appointment as printer to
the colony, Parks
was allowed to open a printing office at
Williamsburg and to
issue a newspaper. It was established in
1736 and was called
The Virginia Gazette. It was ordinarily
printed on a half sheet
of foolscap paper. This first
journalistic venture in the Virginias
seems to have followed quite closely the
Scriptural injunction
of obedience to the "powers that
be." On the death of Wm.
Parks in 1750 the paper suspended
publication for a few months,
but it was revived under the same name
by William Hunter in
1751 and appears to have survived until
the outbreak of the
Revolutionary War for in 1776 there
were two papers published
at Williamsburg -the only two then
existing in the Virginias-
and each of them was named the Virginia
Gazette.
192 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
The political storm which was to break
in the seventies began
to mutter in the years that followed the
revival of Parks' ven-
ture by Hunter, and the old Gazette was
so entirely subservient
in its editorial policy to the British
crown and the crown's guber-
natorial representative that it became
unpopular with many of
the colonists. It has been said that a
few years later the young
Thomas Jefferson and some of his friends
desired a more "inde-
pendent paper," and they induced
William Rind to embark upon
the publication of a new Gazette which
should be "open to all
parties, but subservient to none."
I have failed to find any in-
dications, either in the writings of
Jefferson or in the extant
copies of Rind's Gazette, that Jefferson
himself had anything
to do with the paper's establishment or
that he ever contributed
to its columns. The second Virginia
newspaper was launched
in May, 1766, "at the
beginning," as Jefferson says, "of the
Revolutionary disputes." And the
new paper became the medium
of publication for many articles which
were unfavorable to the
colonial government. During the first
year of its existence it
carried at its masthead the legend,
"Published by authority,"
but from the second year it omitted that
declaration. The sub-
scription price of the new Gazette was
12S 6d per year.
This new Gazette carried in its columns
much live matter
that bore on the colonists' grievances,
and it did to some extent
for public opinion in Virginia what the
spy of Worcester did for
public opinion in Massachusetts in the
decade that preceded the
outbreak of the Revolution. In all the
colonies at this time there
were published only a few over thirty
papers, and not more than
four or five of them gave much attention
to the discussion or
presentation of current public opinion.
The real medium through
which the printing press contributed to
the revolutionary cause
was the occasional political tract or
pamphlet.
Like all pre-revolutionary colonial
newspapers, the two early
Virginia specimens were printed on
half-sheets of paper of vary-
ing shapes and sizes. Seven by nine and
seven by thirteen inches
were very common sizes, and a half sheet
would contain from
3,000 to 7,000 ems of printed matter
according to size of type
used, the contents of about one or two
columns of the New York
Herald of today. Paper was very scarce
and very expensive, and
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 193
it was quite impossible to obtain any
considerable quantity of
uniform weight and character. The
composition, typography and
press work of the early colonial
newspapers compare favorably
with those of English papers of the same
period. As in those
same English papers, the colonial
compositors made a most reck-
less and prodigal use of capital
letters, capitalizing all nouns and
as many other words as their fancy
dictated.
The earliest paper published in the
territory now embraced
within the borders of West Virginia was
called the Potomac
Guardian and Berkeley Advertiser. It was
established at Mar-
tinsburg by Dr. Robert Henry. The
earliest copy extant, so far
as I have been able to ascertain, bears
date of April 3, 1792, and
is numbered 73 of Vol. II which
indicates that the paper was
founded in 1789. This copy of
the paper is in the Virginia state
library at Richmond. It is printed on a
sheet of paper nine by
fifteen inches and is a fair specimen of
the newspaper work of
its time. The second paper established
in West Virginia territory
was also published at Martinsburg in
1799 and was edited by
Nathaniel Willis, father of the poet,
Nathaniel Parker Willis.
It was called the Martinsburg Gazette.
One year later, in 1800,
also at Martinsburg, appeared the
Berkeley and Jefferson County
Intelligencer and Northern Neck
Advertiser, the publisher being
John Alburtis. Files of this
publication, extending from 1802
to 1808 are available and constitute a
most valuable source of his-
torical material.
Other early papers of the eastern
panhandle, copies of which
are still extant, are Farmer's
Repository (Charlestown) 1808,
1814-16, 1826, Martinsburg Gazette,
1818, American Eagle
(Shepherdstown) 1818, Virginia
Monitor (Shepherdstown)
1821, The Journal (Shepherdstown) 1828,
The Potomac Pioneer,
(Shepherdstown) 1830. Virginia Republican (Martinsburg)
1847-1853, Virginia Free Press
(Charlestown) 1831, 1836-37,
1858,
Shepherdstown Register 1849-50, 1853-57, and subsequent
periods.
In the Western Panhandle the earliest
paper was the
Repository, published in Wheeling, first
issued in 1807, and dur-
ing the first decade of the Nineteenth
Century the total number
of papers published in the state had
grown from the two of 1776
Vol. XXV- 13
194 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
to
26. Thomas' History of Printing, published in 1810, gives the
list
of papers then in being in the Virginias as follows:
Name
of Paper. Place of
Publication. Politics.
Virginia Patriot ................ Richmond ............ Federalist
Enquirer........................ Richmond ............ Republican
Virginia
Argus .................. Richmond ............ Federalist
Norfolk Gazette ................. Norfolk .............. Federalist
Norfolk Herald ................. Norfolk .............. Neutral
Petersburg
Intelligencer ......... Petersburg ........... Republican
Republican ..................... Petersburg
........... Republican
Virginia
Herald ................. Fredericksburg ........ Federalist
Republican
Constitution .......... Winchester ........... Republican
Centinel
......................... Winchester ........... Federalist
W
inchester Gazette...............
Winchester............ Federalist
Democratic
Lamp ................ Winchester ............ Republican
Lynchburg
Star .................. Lynchburgh .......... Republican
Lynchburg
Press ................ Lynchburgh ........... Republican
Staunton Eagle.................. Staunton
............. Republican
Republican
Farmer.............. Staunton ............. Republican
W
ashingtonian ................. Leesburg ............. Federalist
Republican Press ................ Leesburg ............ Republican
Republican
Luminary ............ Wythe C. H........... Republican
Holstein
Intelligencer ............ Abingdon ............. Republican
Virginia Telegraph.............. Lexington
............ Federalist
Monongalia
Gazette ............. Morgantown .......... Republican
Farmer's
Register............... Charlestown
.......... Republican
As
only the last two papers on the list were located in West
Virginia
territory, it would seem that the other papers established
earlier
than 1810 in the Eastern and Western Panhandle had by
that
time succumbed to the vicissitudes that have ever beset the
business,
and this is not the only ground to be found in the his-
tory
of Virginian and West Virginian newspapers tending to
verify
Franklin's observation that "the business of a printer was
generally
regarded as a poor one."
One
of the two Virginia papers listed by Thomas as exist-
ing
in 1810 within the West Virginia limits is the Monongalia
Gazette,
and this paper had been established in 1803, previous
to
which time the Pittsburg Gazette had been the sole purveyor
of news and vehicle for advertising in the Monongahela
basin.
The Pittsburg paper had established a post route in 1793
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 195
from its base of publication to
Morgantown, distributing its
publication by private post riders.
Clarksburg's first paper ap-
peared in 1815, and Fairmont's
about 1840; Parkersburg's ear-
liest journalistic venture was in 1833,
and the first papers printed
in Charleston were the Spectator established in
1818 or 1819,
the Kanawha Patriot 1819, the Western
Courier in 1820, and
the Western Register in 1829.
During the colonial period, in the Virginias,
as elsewhere in
the country, most readers of books and
papers preferred the
imprints that came from across the water
to those produced in
the colonies. Such papers as were
circulated dealt almost en-
tirely with European news and politics.
With the most indif-
ferent postal facilities, the
circulation of each paper was limited
almost entirely to the immediate
community in which it was
published. It was not until the
controversy arose which led to
the Revolutionary struggle that the
press of the country began
to exercise to any considerable extent
the function of present-
ing and leading public opinion. The
publishers of the colonial
papers were in the first instance
printers, and the publication
of a "gazette" from their
printing offices was more or less an
incidental side issue. As the press in
all the colonies was under
strict censorship, the expression of
opinion was under irksome
restraint, and the anonymously
published, surreptitiously printed
tract or pamphlet was the only medium
whereby an article which
had failed to commend itself to
"His Majesty's pleasure" could
be given to the public.
With the declaration of independence and
the establishment
of the same by the events of the war,
all this was changed, and
the papers which were established in
rapidly increasing numbers
throughout the country began to be
edited and conducted by
men, not necessarily printers, who had a
message of some sort
to give the public as a part of the
service of the newspaper.
One of these papers of the new type was
the Richmond En-
quirer, established in 1804, by Ritchie
and Worsley and edited
for more than forty years by Thomas
Ritchie, who has some
title to be regarded as the father of
Virginia journalism.
The early newspapers had of course, none
of the organized
facilities for the collection and
distribution of news enjoyed by
196 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
modern journalism. The nearest approach
to a press service
came with the legislation in congress
authorizing free exchange
of papers through the post office among
all editors and publish-
ers. This policy was adopted in 1792,
and congress took action
from time to time to expedite and
facilitate those exchanges,
establishing an "express
service" between eastern cities and the
principal places in the west by act of
Congress July 2, 1836.
Clippings from the exchanges supplied
the material now fur-
nished by the modern press bureau or
news service.
Browsing among some of the old
newspapers of the early
days in the Virginias, copies of which
are preserved at the De-
partment of Archives and History at
Charleston, I have selected
a few items as illustrative of the kind
of material out of which
the publishers made up their papers in
the early days of the
republic, of the form in which they
presented this material, and
of their attitude toward the communities
served by their papers
and toward the questions of public
interest with which they dealt.
The Kanawha Spectator, No. 37, a
fugitive, mutilated copy
of which appears to have been published
in August, 1821, (the
date line is partly torn away) was
conducted by H. P. Gaines,
was also, as evidenced by an ad that
seems to have been running
since October 21, 1820, practiced law in
the local courts. In the
advertisement he says:
"The subscriber respectfully
informs the public that his duties as
an editor of a newspaper will not
prevent him from practicing law in
the county and superior courts of
Kenhawa; but he cannot attend any
other courts. He intends keeping on hand
at his printing office, blank
deeds and other instruments of writing;
and will at all times fill them
up for those who may apply."
The leading editorial of the issue is
given up to a discus-
sion of the thesis that "the trial
by jury is the great Palladium
of Liberty." Something must recently
have gone wrong with
one of the editor's jury cases, however,
for he says as to this
general observation that
Where we apply it to such juries as the
sheriffs sometimes pick
up about the tipling houses of our towns
and courthouse yards, it will
be mene, mene, tikel upharsin. I very
much fear that a spice of ambi-
tion or ill-will against one of the
parties, and an undue partiality in
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 197
favor of the other, gains such
ascendency over the minds of some of
our juries in Virginia and all other
places in which the sheriffs are
equally careless in selecting them, that
strict and impartial justice and
the voice of the law have no influence
on their determinations.
This lawyer-editor also has a criticism
for the law's delay,
complaining that "if all the
members composing this court had
done their duty as well as those
residing in Charleston and its
vicinity, they would probably have gone
through the docket, but
little was done besides trying the
commonwealth's cases."
The following ad is interesting as
showing the state of
trade the market for certain products
being apparently depend-
ent on opportunities for barter:
The subscriber will give a liberal price
in salt or good trade for
any quantity of flax seed, which may be
brought to him at Charleston
Kenhawa. ROBERT TITUS.
Another ad on the front page next to
reading matter appeals
to the "owner" of a property
right which has gone quite out
of fashion. It reads as follows:
A negro girl who is acquainted with house
work may be hired
upon good terms to a man in this town
with a small family, if immediate
application be made. She will be taken
by the month or year and pay-
ment made to suit the owner. Enquire at
this office.
The coal mining business of West
Virginia at this period,
as may be inferred from another ad, was
subsidiary almost en-
tirely to the demands of the great salt
industry. Under the head-
line "Collier Wanting" it is
set forth that
From 10 to 20 steady and industrious
men, who understand digging
coal, may obtain high wages in Kenhawa
for that business, if immediate
application is made to Dr. Putney, or any
other manufacturers of salt
who use coal at their furnaces.
The following reference to an
"elopement" of the day also
appears in the advertising columns of
the Spectator:
$10 REWARD.
Ran away from the boat of Mr. Emzy
Wilson while at or near
Johnson's shoals, Kenhawa county, a
negro woman named Judy, about
22 years old * * *her dress when she
eloped, a dark calico, her
198 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
other clothes not recollected. It is
supposed that she is skulking about
in the mountains on Kenhawa river.
The Kanawha Patriot of September 12,
1840, reprints from
the Madisonian a long dialogue reported
by Peter Ploughboy
who takes the Van Buren administration
severely to task on the
charge of extravagance. Tables of figures set forth that the
average expenditure per annum by Van
Buren had been $37,135,-
654.33, while under General Washington
it had cost the country
only $1,986,524.82
to run the government, making a difference of
$35,149,130.61.
By this it appears that the average
under Mr. Van Buren is very
nearly thirty-six times greater than it
was under Washington. Well, I
don't know what YOU think about it,
Squire Capias, but I should say
it was a pretty considerable specimen of
"tall walking" into the people's
pockets. It is doing business on a big
scale.
It is needless to state that the Patriot
was a vigorous sup-
porter of the Tippecanoe ticket and very
hostile to Locofocoism
in all its manifestations.
The Kanawha Register of March 5, 1830,
remarks editorially that
Rail Roads maintain the good opinion formed
of them in England; or,
rather, the calculations concerning them
are raised higher and higher.
One an hundred miles long is
constructing, from Paris to the Loire and
others are projected. That from the city
of Charleston, S. C., is pro-
ceeding with considerable activity. The
great work at Baltimore has
been checked by the severity of the
season, but all things are ready to
complete about twenty miles of the road
at an early day.
The same copy of the Register contains
long quotations
from the English papers detailing a
series of experiments in the
operation of railroad locomotives over
measured stretches of
track at London. It tells how a
locomotive of a new type,
The novelty, went off from the starting
post at 12 miles per hour
and her velocity increased during the
whole trip. The mile between the
quarter post and the judges' tents was
run in 2 minutes and 54 seconds,
at the rate of 21 1/6 miles per hour.
The same atricle relates that Mr.
Stephenson's Rocket
was stripped for the race, all load was
taken off from behind, in-
cluding even the tender carriage with
the water tank.
Annua1 Meeting
Ohio Valley Historical Association. 199
In this racing form the famous Rocket
was started off, and performed the 7
miles in the incredibly short
space of 14 minutes, being at the rate
of 30 miles an hour.
The Kanawha Jeffersonian edited by C. F.
Cake had its
troubles from time to time, as the
leading editorial of August
20, 1842, indicates.
In consequence of the river running
down, our paper running out,
and no boats running up, we are
compelled to issue rather a small sheet
this week, but we assure our readers it
is of the same family, only a
young'un. Our paper was ordered some
weeks ago, but unfortunately
the supply at the Point was out, and the
river so low that none could
be had from Wheeling. There has since
been a rise in the Ohio, and
next week we hope to spread before our
readers our usual sized sheet.
Mr. Cake had recently acquired control
of the Jeffersonian
from John J. Hickey, Esq., and the
Richmond Compiler makes
mention of the editorial change with the
friendly wish that
the efforts of Mr. Cake, like bread cast
upon the waters, will
return after many days.
The Compiler was a Whig organ, but the
editor of the Jef-
fersonian did not allow its friendly
good wishes to temper his
references to his political opponents in
general. Commenting
on the worthless character of the issues
of a certain bank in
Illinois, as to the reliability of which
an inquiry had been made,
the Jeffersonian promptly shunts the
blame for a disordered
finance on the other political party,
saying:
We shall be glad to learn where there is
a bank that can be relied
on now-a-days. Let the people stick to
their principles and firmness, and
not be led away by Federal Whig
Demagogues, and after a little we will
bring these Bank gentry, and all
aristocracies and monopolies to a proper
focus-no mistake in that.
That the people west of the mountains
were dissatisfied with
their representation in the old state
government appears here
and there in the columns of these early
newspapers of Western
Virginia. The Jeffersonian from which I
have been quoting con-
tains a resolution which had been
adopted by a Lewisburg con-
vention as follows:
200 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
"Resolved, That a committee of persons, be appointed and in-
structed to prepare a memorial to the
General Assembly, of the Common-
wealth previous to its next session,
praying that Honorable body, in
terms befitting freemen, to increase the
representation of this state ac-
cording to the provisions, of the fifth
section of article III of the
amended Constitution, and to assign the
increased number of Senators
and Delegates to the trans-Alleghany
section of this Commonwealth;
or if that be declined, to pass a law
for holding a convention, based on
the whole white population, to alter and
to amend the constitution as in
their inherent right to "alter
amend or to abolish their form of Govern-
ment, as may seem to them good."
There were numerous warnings even
earlier than the date of
the Lewisburg resolution tending to show
the imminence of a
division of the state, and many were the
speculations indulged
in by the early press as to the form the
ultimate and inevitable
division would take. The Kanawha Banner
of December 17,
1830, says editorially:
"The Virginia legislature will
convene on Monday. To the pro-
ceedings of this body we look with
intense interest. Matters of great
moment will come before this body, and
the discussions will be as in-
teresting as those of the late
convention. The preservation of the state,
we believe, will depend upon this
legislature. Disregard the claims of
the trans-Allegheny counties to what
they deem a proper share of the
fund of the internal improvement, and a
division of the state must fol-
low-not immediately perhaps, but the
signal will be given for the rising
of the clans, and they will rise. It is
not worth the while now to
speculate upon the mode or manner in
which the government will be
opposed. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. But a crisis is
approaching. The northwestern counties
demand to be separated from
the state with a view of attaching
themselves to Maryland or Pennsyl-
vania, the southwestern counties go for
a division of the state into two
commonwealths. Should the latter be
effected, what will be our con-
ditions in the valley? Infinitely worse
than the present, the mere
dependency of a government whose
interest and whose trade would all
go westward, we would be taxed without
receiving any equivalent; and
instead of being chastised with whips we
would be scourged with
scorpions. Of the two projects spoken
of, that which would be least
injurious to the valley and the state at
large, would be, to part with the
northwestern counties. Let them go. Let
us get clear of this disaffected
population. Then prosecute the
improvement called for in the south-
west, and that portion of our state,
deprived of its northern allies, would
give up their desire for a separation.
To cement the union still firmer,
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 201
open the road from Winchester to
Parkersburg, and we shall have a
commonwealth, one and indivisible, so
long as our republic endures."
On the whole the advertising matter of
the early newspapers
is quite as diverting reading as any of
the news stories or even
the efforts of the editorial writers to
guide and mold public
opinion, and much of the matter in the
advertising columns is
of first rate historical interest. The
patent medicine man was
abroad in the land, and his literature
was spread abroad in the
columns of the press of the early days.
The following delicious specimen of his
literary art is taken
from a paper which circulated freely in
Virginia in the early days,
though it was published in Maryland. In
the front page, top
of column, first column position of the
issue of July 4, 1780,
of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore
Advertiser, we read of
Dr. Ryan's incomparable worm-destroying
sugar plumbs, necessary
to be kept in all families; so
exceedingly valued by all people who have
had of them in Great Brittain and
Ireland, for their transcendant excel-
lency in the destroying worms of all
kinds, both in the bodies of men,
women, and children, * * *
Among other remarkable therapeutic
results to be expected
from these transcendant sugar-plumbs it
asserted that
Likewise settled, aches and pains in the
head, swellings, old sores,
scabs, tetters, or breaking-out will be
perfectly cured, and the blood
and skin restored to its original purity
and smoothness, * * * and
what makes them more commendable is,
they are full as agreeable to
both taste and sight, as loaf sugar; and
in their operations as innocent
as new milk.
Nearly the whole of the first column of
this newspaper is
given to the "Incomparable
sugar-plumbs" and to other remedies
for the ills of humanity sold by Hughes
& Williamson, Mer-
chants, while the last two columns of
the last page of the same
issue contains the very latest news from
the war zone, including
a letter from General Washington to
Congress dated at Whip-
pany, June 25, 1780, telling of the
operations of the army under
Gen. Greene and the commanding general
himself intended to
frustrate the enemy's designs against
West Point. An extract
from
another letter from General Washington dated two days
later reads as follows:
202 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
RAMAPAUGH, June 27, 1780.
I arrived, after a severe ride on the
evening of the 23rd. You will
see the official Report of that Day's
Transactions in the public Papers.
In this and the former Incursion of the
enemy, we calculate their loss
at not less than 500, and in both you
may be assured they have been
greatly disgraced. They lost some
valuable Officers. We have only to
lament that of Captain Thomson, of the
Artillery. They abandoned
some Stores in their precipitated
Retreat from the Point, which (al-
though well fortified) fell into our
Hands. Since this they have em-
ployed themselves in making
Demonstrations with their Shipping up
the North-River, and we have been marching
until to Day that we take
a Rest. Their Movements seem to look
towards West Point, but in
my Opinion they can have no other Object
in view, but to embarrass
our Measures. They have experienced that
we are not yet so weak
but that we have Spirit to fight them,
nor the Militia so disposed as to
lay down Their Arms. Both have, in a
signal Manner, added to their
Reputation -baffled the enemy, and
preserved our stores from Destruc-
tion, which was least seriously
intended.-West Point is now in a
Condition beyond their Experiments, our
Army in good Spirits, and
the French Assistance soon expected. But
with all this before us, every
State, every Individual should feel,
that to complete their Happiness,
or to avert their Ruin, something more
is necessary to be attended
to than Wishes for our Success,"
The early newspapers of the Virginias,
as was the case
throughout the states which had been the
thirteen colonies,
multiplied rapidly in numbers with the
transition from the
colonial to the national regime. They
extended their influence
with improving facilities for gathering
news and for reaching
their subscribers and readers. Their
horizon broadened with the
removal of the old restrictions of
colonial days, and the rising
tide of popular sovereignty in state and
nation swept away the
old barriers that had been maintained
against freedom of expres-
sion by way of the printed page. For
that reason their columns
furnish a rich mine of valuable
historical material, presenting
as they do a vivid and detailed picture
of those interesting forma-
tive decades of our national life.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 203
INFLUENCES OF EARLY RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
IN
THE OHIO VALLEY FROM 1815 TO 1850.
MRS. IRENE D. CORNWELL, CINCINNATI.
"A song for the Early Times out
West,
And our green old forest-home,
Whose pleasant memories freshly yet
Across the bosom come;
A song for the true and gladsome life
In those early days we led,
With a teeming soil beneath our feet,
And a smiling Heav'n o'erhead!
Oh, the waves of life were richly
blessed
And had a joyous flow,
In the days when we were pioneers long
ago."
-William Davis Gallagher.
Records of discovery, exploration,
adventure and early
religious teachings abound in the Ohio
Valley. The journals and
writings of those who tell of the Indian
Country before it was
reclaimed for the uses of civilization
"show, as it were, the dark
theatre of history, ere yet the curtain
had risen on the great play
of State-making. * * * "
When we read the interesting tales of
Spanish, French and
English travels in America in the years
of the rivalry of Europe's
leading nations for supremacy in the New
World, we seem to
realize the "beginning of the
beginning." In many volumes of old
bocks we learn what manner of men and
women were those who
first set foot in the western forests
and dared the savages in
their fierce struggle for life.
The beginnings of culture in the West
were dependent on
what was said about the country and the
settlers. Many of the
first books relating to the frontier
were written by outsiders, trav-
elers, whose aim was to tell the Old
World what the New was
like. There was much of this primitive
literature and as settle-
ment proceeded and society became
organized there arose a rude
literature to which the settlers
themselves contributed much in
the way of chronicle and description,
and religious instruction.
The Jesuits, those heroic priests of the
Christian religion,
tell the absorbing story of a half
century's endeavor to plant the
204 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
holy cross in the interior. As we read
the tale, stranger than
fiction, we float with them along
unknown waters and "see the
thronging savages in wigwam or woods,
and smoke with them
the pipe of peace; visit rude temples of
the Great Spirit, and
join with the gentle messengers of a new
religion as they erect
the cross in the shadow of the forest
and sing the holy mass" in
the dark wild woods.
The time was soon to come when,
ascending the Ohio and
every other stream that finds its way to
the Mississippi the
French would penetrate "the mystery
of the interior" and bring
back authentic information of that vast
region between the Ap-
palachians and the Mississippi.
We possess definite information
concerning the impressions
of many who explored the Ohio and its
basin. We may very
quickly give a long selected list of
authors identified with the
pioneer period of the Ohio Valley
history, many of whom were
preachers or religious instructors of
those intensely interesting
times. Some of the best literature in
the English language is
in the form of sermons and in them may
be found as many
strains of eloquence, as genuine
oratory, as ready wit, as strik-
ing sentiments and as rich a style as in
the finest efforts of a
Shakespeare or a Swinburne.
The Lord certainly used His church and
His preacher to
accomplish a work of transcendent
importance in the Ohio Val-
ley. Social and religious feelings
received intelligent guidance
and contributed to the social and
industrial progress of the region.
The silent forces of religion are
powerful and tell wonderfully
on human progress. They became the
precursor of a new life for
the people of the Ohio Valley.
Even a slight study of the leading books
of history of the
period under discussion reveals to us a
world of suggestive
knowledge in regard, not only to the
material features of the
region, but yet more concerning the
inhabitants, their origin,
character, ideas, achievements and
ambitions. We see the people
at work, conquering savage nature and
laying the foundations of
science, literature, religion and art.
Ohio is without the advantages of two
hundred years of
intellectual and religious development
which contribute to the
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 205
leadership of New York, Massachusetts
and Pennsylvania.
Nevertheless, she ranks among the first
of her sister states in
education, religion and literature.
Along all lines of professional,
business and religious op-
portunity there comes trooping before us
a princely host of
Ohio's efficient sons and daughters and
not among the least of
these do we find the representatives
from the Ohio Country.
How can we account for our goodly
heritage?
A Bryce would find ample reasons for the
view that the
material and political pre-eminence of
Ohio, as of the nation
at large, is chiefly due to the
spiritual and intellectual life of
the citizens. Dr. Bashford says that he
is convinced that Ohio's
character accounts for her conquest.
"As Europe was sifted to
produce the original colonists, so the
colonies were sifted to
produce the Buckeyes. Thus the citizens
of Ohio are Americans
of the Americans as Paul was a Hebrew of
the Hebrews."
Puritans, Quakers, Cavaliers and
Huguenots contributed
the spiritual and mental vigor which
accounts, in part at least,
for the social and material, religious
and moral advancement of
our commonwealth. Christian
missionaries;-Catholic, Quaker,
Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian,
and Methodist-accom-
panied and often preceded the pioneers
and thus the early set-
tlers of the Valley were molded by
religious influences and
literature.
The first quarter of the present century
in the Western
Country witnessed a general religious
activity and the establish-
ment of numerous sects. Jews, Catholics,
Protestants and Ag-
nostics all, sought freedom to worship
in the new country and
took passage on the river craft at
Pittsburgh for Kentucky, or
Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. Charges of
infidelity and heresy were
common. Thus religion was a subject ever
before the minds
of the people and having a most vital
part in shaping the lives
of the communities being formed.
The first printing done on the Western
continent was by
Spanish priests in Mexico. Stephen Daye
brought the first press
used in our country and set it up in
1638. The first printed work
of any kind done in what is now the
United States of America
was the "Freeman's Oath"
impressed on one side of a small
206 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
sheet of paper in 1639. The first book
printed was the "Bay
Psalm Book" dated 1640. Cornelius
Vanderbilt paid $1,200 for
a copy of this book. The first newspaper
established west of
the Allegheny mountains was the
Pittsburgh Gazette, July 29,
1786. Very quickly following in the wake
of this publication
came a long list of newspaper published
in the Ohio Valley.
In 1824 the Postmaster-general reported
that there were
then 598 newspapers published in the U.
S. Of these Ohio had
48; Kentucky, 18; Indiana, 12; Illinois, 5, and Tennessee, 15;
a total of 98. The number at that date
in New York was 137.
The obstacle to the introduction of
printed books was not
the want of a printing art but the
difficulty and expense of ob-
taining paper. This was at first a great
drawback to the progress
of religious publication in the Ohio
Valley. But the supply
finally came, for the first of numerous
paper mills on the Miami
River was erected in the year 1814. The
first type foundry on
the Ohio was established in 1820 in Cincinnati.
The newspaper
offices were the first book publishing
places in pioneer days and
it was not uncommon for the backwoods
editor and publisher
to sell his publications at retail.
The first book published in the Ohio
Valley appeared at
Lexington in 1798. It was entitled,
"A Process in the Transyl-
vania Presbytery, etc." It grew out
of a quarrel in the church
as to whether the psalms of David or the
hymns of Watts should
be sung. It consisted of 98 pages in the
old-fashioned nonpareil
type of the last century and was bound
in leather.
Carpenter and Findley, proprietors of
the "Western Spy
and Hamilton Gazette," published in
that paper, under the date
of August 19, 1801, the following:
"Now in press and for sale
at this office to-morrow, price 25
cents. A Book entitled, 'The
Arcanum Opened, containing the
fundamentals of a pure and
most ancient theology:-containing the
platform of the spiritual
tabernacle rebuilt, composed of one
grand substantive and seven
excellent Topics, in opposition to
spurious Christianity.' A lib-
eral deduction will be made to those who
take a quantity. No
Trust." In 1823, Thos. T. Skillman
of Lexington started the
"Western Luminary," a
religious periodical intended to counter-
act the influences of infidelity.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 207
In 1824 the "Pandect," a
religious periodical published by
Rev. Joshua Wilson of Cincinnati,
charged Rev. Timothy Flint
with skepticism. Flint, in his reply,
with dry sarcasm, questions
the sincerity of some who profess
extreme orthodoxy. Both
men were able writers and contributors
to these early magazines.
The periodical was a literary feature of
the period and many
religious articles and discussions
appeared in it. Writing for
the Western Literary Journal and Monthly
Review for Novem-
ber, 1840-(published at
Cincinnati)-William Davis Gallagher
says, "Here in the West our
choicest thoughts flow through the
dingy channel of a newspaper column and
the aspiring among
us seldom look higher than the elaborate
essay for the monthly
magazine."
The world has seldom witnessed a more
extraordinary series
of religious events than transpired in
the Ohio Valley in the
first half of the nineteenth century but
notwithstanding the dis-
sensions within old denominations and
unprecedented splits and
conflicts among new sects and the utter
repudiation of religion
by some, the churches grew and
flourished. "The freedom to
worship God, which the Pilgrims 'sought
afar,' was found in
the 'New England of the West' as Ohio
was called." Religious
liberty ran riot, and was not
distinguished, in some cases, from
license.
The "clash of creeds" gave
origin to much discourse, oral
and printed. Sermons and religious debates were heard by
multitudes of listeners and read by
other multitudes.
Every leading sect had its
"organ" or periodical. Propa-
gandists of new systems made extensive
use of the press. Secu-
lar newspapers and magazines devoted
many columns to news
and discussions bearing on religious
matters. In a word, "religi-
ous worship, Scripture reading, hymn
singing, sermon hearing,
and the perusal of controversial
periodicals and tracts, attendance
at camp-meetings, revivals, theological
discussions and the univer-
sal custom of reading, thinking and
talking on religious subjects
had an immense influence in shaping the
literature of the Ohio
Valley in its beginning.
All social progress had an historical
preparation. The early
pioneers started out with strong
physical energies. They were
208
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society
Publications.
of a noble ancestry and, generally
speaking, men of sterling char-
acter. They possessed strong moral and
religious ideas. They
believed in the co-operative forces of
religious principles to
build up a national life. They believed
that religion had an im-
portant relation to the welfare of the
people and introduced its
teachings. Conspicuous among their laws
was that of civil and
religious liberty. Religious literature
has been one of the great-
est moral forces in the conserving and
promoting the funda-
mental principles of a Christian
civilization and in contributing
to the illustrious triumphs of the state
and particularly in the
Valley, where among the host of
well-known names, we find
that of the renowned Peter Cartwright,
the presiding elder of
Illinois-the type of Methodist pioneer
minister, who had the
power to create his own language. He is
said to have had the
best lexicon of western words, phrases,
idioms and proverbs of
any man in the West. His descriptive
powers were wonderful.
Rev. Edward Thomson, D. D., LL. D.,
first president of
Ohio Wesleyan University, possessed
remarkable ability as an
educator, writer and preacher. Four
years editor of the Chris-
tian Advocate, his high scholarship,
broad sympathy, eloquence
and devotion were everywhere recognized.
His published lec-
tures are faultless in style and models
of strong clear thought
and beauty of expression. That
interesting character, Jonathan
Chapman, was not only a preacher but as
he said, a "messenger
sent into the wilderness to prepare the
way for the people." He
always carried tracts and books, being
zealous to plant ideas as
well as apple seeds. Dr. Peck deserves
more than a passing
notice in the annals of western
intellectual labor. He ranks as
one of the ablest and most worthy of the
religious pioneer writ-
ers. The eccentric evangelist, Lorenzo
Dow, a sort of American
Bunyan, was one of the most striking
figures in religious annals.
His sermons and writings were like
himself, most unique. Add
to these names the beloved Wm. H. Raper;
that noted Presby-
terian, Dr. Lyman Beecher; Rev. Timothy
Flint, preacher and
historian; Finney, Mcllvaine, Gunsaulus,
Alexander Campbell-
and yet the list has not reached an end.
With Ruskin we would
say, "Everywhere noble life leaves
the fiber of it interwoven in
the work of the world."
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 209
Each religious sect has had a goodly
contribution to make
to our early religious history. Jew and
Gentile, Catholic and
Protestant have vied with each other in
extending throughout
the Western Country the uplifting
influence of religion.
As the pageant of sects passes before us
religious freedom
is emblazoned on every banner. The
Church of Wesley, nur-
tured in a college, has, from the first
given attention to educa-
tion and the dissemination of religious
literature. Through all
the ages the complaint of God against
his ancient Church has
proved true: "My people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge."
Realizing that knowledge and piety are
necessary adjuncts, the
Methodists established in Cincinnati the
Book Concern which
has grown to such colossal proportions.
The species of literature which is most
in demand and which
is and was most widely read is that
which issues from the
periodical press. In 1826 the Christian
Advocate-one of the
mostly widely read religious magazines
in the world was published
in New York. In 1834, the demand having
become so great in
the South and West, the Western
Christian Advocate of Cin-
cinnati was commenced with equal
success.
Dr. Martin Ruter, the first agent of the
Book Concern, was
an authority on Greek and Hebrew and one
of the most cultured
scholars of his time. In the beginning
all books needed by him
for the supply of the Western market
were packed in New York
and sent by wagons to Pittsburgh and
from that point floated
down the Ohio on steamboats or barges to
Cincinnati. But the
growing importance of the West, the
rapid increase of its popula-
tion, and the lack of means for easy
transportation led to the
printing of religious books and
publications in Cincinnati in 1821
but the retail trade in the same did not
begin until 1834, in which
year the Western Christian Advocate was
first issued. The
growth of this periodical has been as
wonderful as that of the
Book Concern and it has been widely read
by Ohio Valley Chris-
tians of all denominations.
But the Church of Wesley is only a type
of religious influ-
ence on early literature in Cincinnati.
St. Xavier's College on
old Sycamore Street, the Hebrew Union
College on Clifton
Heights, and staunch old Lane Seminary
that stronghold of
Vol. XXV-14
210 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
Presbyterianism on Walnut Hills, have
all aided to make the
Church History of the Ohio Valley the
record of its civilization
and progress. And not alone in
Cincinnati but throughout the
Western Country this influence was felt.
"Upon the Bible's sacred page,
The gathered beams of ages shine;
And, as it hastens, every age
But makes its brightness more divine.
More glorious still as ages roll,
New regions blessed, new powers
unfurled,
Expanding with th' expanding soul,
Its radiance shall o'erflow the
world."
LOCATION OF SITE OF OHIO CAPITAL.
BY E. O. RANDALL.
[Prepared for and read by title at the
Annual Meeting of the Ohio
Valley Historical Association, Columbus,
October 21, 1915.]
On the 13th of July, 1787,
Congress, then assembled in New
York, by a unanimous vote of the eight
states present and the
entire vote of the individual members,
except Yates of New
York, who opposed the measure, adopted
the famous "Ordinance
of 1787" establishing a government for the Northwest Territory.
On July 27, 1787,- two
weeks later - Congress passed the
ordinance of purchase - authorizing the
Federal Government to
sell to the Ohio Company a tract of land
in the Northwest Terri-
tory by which, as Dr. Manasseh Cutler
put it in his diary for
that day, "We obtained the grant of
near five millions of land,
amounting to three millions and a half
of dollars, one million
and a half acres for the Ohio Company
and the remainder for a
private speculation, in which many of
the prominent characters
of America are concerned; without
connecting this speculation,
similar terms and advantages could not
have been obtained for
the Ohio Company."
The designation of the boundaries of
this purchase is not
pertinent to our purpose.
Pursuant to the above purchase by the
Ohio Company, on
April 7th, (1788) the forty-seven -
(usually stated forty-eight)
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 211
but Col. J. R. Meigs did not arrive
until the 12th (April) -
male
members of the band of plucky pioneers
from New England,
directed by General Rufus Putnam,
embarked from the Ohio
Mayflower and landed at the mouth of the
Muskingum river and
on the banks, opposite the site of Ft.
Harmar, erected by the
Federal Government in November, 1785,
were greeted by the
friendly band of Wyandot Indians under
Captain Pipe. Here
the sturdy adventurers established the
first settlement in the
Northwest Territory. They called the
town "Marietta."
On the 5th of October, 1787, before a
single emigrant had
set out from the East for the Ohio
country, Arthur St. Clair
was chosen by the Continental Congress
as Governor of the new
territory. He arrived at Ft. Harmar July
9, 1788, remaining at
the Fort until the 15th, when he was
formally received at Marietta
and delivered an address to which
response was made in behalf
of the colony by General Rufus Putnam.
This was the initial
scene of the establishment of civil
government in Ohio.
By provision of the Ordinance of 1787
no legislature for
the new territory could be chosen until
the territory should con-
tain five thousand male inhabitants.
Meanwhile it was the duty
of the Governor (St. Clair) and the
three appointed judges,-
James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and
John Cleves Symmes,
who was appointed in place of James
Armstrong, first chosen
but declining to serve, with their
secretary, Winthrop Sargent, -
to provide such laws as might be
required.
These officials created a militia, the
needed courts and
decreed laws for the punishment of
crimes.
On July 27th (1788) the Governor
established by proclama-
tion the county of Washington, bounded
south by the Ohio river,
east by Virginia and Pennsylvania, north
by Lake Erie, west by
the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers as
far south as Ft. Laurens,
-built in the late fall of 1778 on the
Tuscarawas near the mouth
of Sandy Creek, a short distance from
the present site of Bolivar,
-thence west to the headwaters of the
Scioto river, which from
that point to its mouth was the western
line of the new county.
The boundaries of this initial county
included the territory
now constituting the entire eastern half
of Ohio and the eastern
half of what was later Franklin county.
The seat of govern-
212 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
ment for this, Washington county, as
well as for the whole
Northwest Territory, was at Marietta,
and here the Governor
and Judges officially resided and here
on September 2, 1788, with
fitting ceremonies the first Court in
the territory was opened by
the newly appointed common pleas judges,
Rufus Putnam, Ben-
jamin Tupper and Archibald Crory.
Thus the first settlement and the first
territorial capital in
the Ohio country.
In October, 1787, John Cleves Symmes,
formerly member
of Congress (1785-6) from New Jersey and
one of the terri-
torial judges, having become familiar
with the opportunities of
Western realty investments, secured from
the Continental Con-
gress a contract of purchase for a
million acres, fronting on the
Ohio river, between the Little and Big
Miami rivers.
Pursuant to this purchase Major Benjamin
Stites, the fore-
runner and advance agent of Symmes, with
an adventurous troop
of twenty-six colonists from the East,
landed on November 18,
1788, just (one-half mile) below the
little Miami, "on a low line
plain exceedingly fertile, a portion of
which was known as Tur-
key Bottom." In a few days Stites
erected thereon some huts
and a blockhouse and gave this second
settlement in the North-
west Territory the name of
"Columbia",-- it is now within the
present corporate limits of Cincinnati.
This second attempt at settlement in the
Ohio country was
directly followed by a third some four
miles further down the
river on the Ohio side immediately
opposite the mouth of the
Licking river. Its protagonists were
Matthias Denman, Robert
Patterson, and John Filson. The location
was upon land pur-
chased from Symmes and the landing and
initial platting of the
town was on December 28, 1780, some five
weeks subsequent to
the Columbia layout. Filson, a poet and
classic scholar, dubbed
the place "Losantiville", -
meaning opposite the Licking River.
Ten months later a detachment of troops
from Ft. Harmar un-
der Major John Doughty built within the
precincts of Losan-
tiville a formidable blockhouse, to
which was given the name
Fort Washington. It was visited in
January, 1790, by the terri-
torial governor, St. Clair, who, on
approaching the settlement-
so the story runs - stood on the
roof of his boat and looking at
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 213
the cluster of cabins on the river bank,
asked: "What in hell is
the name of this town anyhow?" On
being told it was "Losan-
tiville" he promptly rechristened
the baby burg "Cincinnati",
which ever since it has been.
St. Clair at the same time (January 2, 1790) proclaimed the
Symmes purchase, namely, the district
between the two Miamis
from the Ohio to the headwaters of the
Little Miami, Hamilton
County, and made Cincinnati the county
seat. The site of Col-
umbia was fated as a settlement, and was
later incorporated into
the precincts of the "Queen
City" as Cincinnati was later
regarded.
The first settlement in the Virginia
Military District - the
section lying between the Little Miami
and the Scioto from the
sources of these two rivers to the
Ohio-was established at
Manchester, on the Ohio, in 1791 by Col.
Nathaniel Massie, one
of the influential leaders of the
Virginia and Kentucky migration
to the country north of the Ohio. In the
prosecution of his
work as surveyor and land-acquirer,
Colonel Massie explored the
Scioto and in the spring of 1796 laid
out the town of Chillicothe.
Two years later, in August, 1798, St.
Clair issued a proclamation
creating Ross County, of which
Chillicothe was made the seat
of government.
The collateral chain of events
transpiring meanwhile in the
Northwest Territory needs no recital
here. We refer to the Ohio
Indian War; the futile expedition
against the hostile Indians by
General Josiah Harmar in September,
1790; the disastrous ex-
pedition of General St. Clair a year
later in September, 1791,
and the victorious campaign of General
Anthony Wayne, begin-
ning in October, 1793, and closing in
the resultful battle of
Fallen Timbers in August, 1794. This
brilliant campaign of
Wayne tranquilized the entire frontier
from the Lakes to Flor-
ida, and culminated in the famous treaty
of Greenville, August,
1795. It was this same month that Jay's
treaty, calling among
other articles for the evacuation of the
border American Forts,
still occupied by the British, was made
public by Washington.
The following year was a memorable one
in the annals of the
Northwest. It saw the fulfillment of the
provisions of the Jay
treaty and the tide of emigration from
the east and south to the
214 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
trans-Alleghany, and trans-Ohio
territory, set in with renewed
energy.
Some six or seven counties had been
established. The ac-
quisition of the Western Reserve from
Connecticut had been
inaugurated and a settlement established
by Moses Cleveland at
the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, and
other settlements rapidly
followed along the valleys of the Miami,
the Scioto, the Mus-
kingum and the Mahoning.
In 1790 the white population of the
territory within the
present area of Ohio had reached about
three thousand; by 1798
it fulfilled the prerequisite of five
thousand free male inhabitants
of full age fixed by the Ordinance of 1787
for the choice of a
territorial general assembly.
There were now the counties of
Washington, Hamilton, St.
Clair, Knox, Randolph, Wayne, Adams,
Jefferson and Ross. Governor
St. Clair ordered an election of
territorial representatives to take place
on the third Monday of December, 1798.
The representatives must be
free-holders, owning not less than two
hundred acres each, and should be
chosen by free-holders, owning not less
than fifty acres each. The elected
representatives, chosen from the nine counties convened at Cincinnati,
February 4, 1799. It was their first
duty to nominate ten residents of
the territory, each possessing a
free-hold of not less than five hundred
acres, from whom a legislative council
of five members-corresponding
to the state senate-could be chosen by
Congress. These appointments
being made-by President Adams as
Congress was not then in session-
the first session-of the House of
Representatives only-adjourned,
without other transactions of
importance, until September 16, 1798. The
members of the First Council selected by
President Adams from the
legislative nominations were, Robert
Oliver, of Washington County;
Jacob Burnett and James Findlay, of
Hamilton; David Vance, of Jeffer-
son; and Henry Vandenburg, of Knox.
The Representatives in the general
assembly were: Joseph Darling-
ton, Nathaniel Massie, Adams county;
William Goforth, William Mc-
Millan, John Smith, John Ludlow, Robert
Benham, Aaron Caldwell,
Isaac Martin, Hamilton county; James
Pritchard, Jefferson county; John
Small, Knox county; John Edgar, Randolph
county; Thomas Worthing-
ton, Elias Langham, Samuel Findlay,
Edward Tiffin, Ross county; Shad-
rack Bond, St. Clair county; Return
Jonathan Meigs, Paul Fearing,
Washington county; Solomon Sibley, Jacob
Visgar, Charles F. Chabart
de Joncaire, Wayne county.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 215
The first general assembly - as such
completely organized
-of the Northwest Territory, comprising
the Governor, the
Council of Five, and twenty
representatives, convened at Cincin-
nati September 16, 1799, and adjourned
from day to day for lack
of a quorum until September 23d,
when Henry Vandenburg of
Knox was elected President of the
Council and Edward Tiffin,
of Ross, Speaker of the House. On
October 3d, the two Houses
met in joint session and elected William
Henry Harrison to
represent the territory as delegate in
Congress. This general
assembly passed some thirty public acts,
eleven of which Gov-
ernor St. Clair vetoed. He by authority
vested in him on De-
cember 19, 1799, prorogued the assembly to
the first Monday
of January, 1800.
Agitation for a division of the
territory and admission of
the eastern portion as a state had
already begun and Harrison,
delegate to Congress, urged the matter
in that body. Congress
finally determined the issue by an act
passed May 7, 1800, mak-
ing a division upon a line drawn from
the mouth of the Ken-
tucky river to Ft. Recovery and thence
northwestward to the
Canadian boundary. From the region west
of that line the
territory of Indiana was created and
William Henry Harrison
appointed Governor. The so-called
Northwest Territory was
now limited to the area east of the
dividing line just noted and
its seat of government was fixed at
Chillicothe. The county of
Knox falling wholly within the new
territory of Indiana, Henry
Vandenburg, who resided in that county,
ceased to be a member
of the legislative council for the
Northwest Territory and was
succeeded by Solomon Sibley of Detroit,
Wayne County.
The first Territorial General Assembly
held its second ses-
sion at Chillicothe, beginning November
3d and ending Decem-
ber 9, 1800. It elected William McMillan
of Cincinnati Terri-
torial Delegate to Congress, in lieu of
Mr. Harrison. The ses-
sion was prorogued by Governor St.
Clair. At the third and
last session, which began November 24,
1801, which was a long
and stormy session, acts were passed to
incorporate the towns
of Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Detroit,
and to remove the seat of
government from Chillicothe to
Cincinnati. The removal of the
216 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
capital aroused so much feeling in
Chillicothe that for a time the
members who voted for it were threatened
with mob violence.
On January 23, 1802, the
territorial general assembly ad-
journed to meet on the fourth Monday in
November, 1802, but it
never reassembled.
The acrimonious agitation for the
establishment of the state
was now on in full force. This
proposition of statehood was
favored and opposed by the respective
prevailing parties. State-
hood, according to the boundaries of the
territory already es-
tablished, was favored by the
Republicans (Democrats) led by
Thomas Worthington, Nathaniel Massie and
Edward Tiffin.
They were opposed by the Federalists
(Republicans) led by St.
Clair, Jacob Burnett, Rufus Putnam and
Benjamin Stites. The
Republicans were successful.
The Ordinance of 1787
required as a condition to the ad-
mission of the territory as a state that
it should contain sixty
thousand free inhabitants. According to
the census of 1800, it
actually contained 45,365. This
difficulty was removed by Con-
gress which passed an act April 30,
1802, enabling the people
of the eastern district of the aforesaid
Northwest Territory to
frame a constitution and organize a
state government. This it
was hoped would add another state to the
Republican phalanx.
In furtherance of this enabling act a
constitutional conven-
tion assembled at Chillicothe, November 1, 1802. It accom-
plished its work in twenty-five days. A
speech of Governor
St. Clair early in the proceedings of
the convention created a
political storm. It was in opposition to
the formation of the new
state and St. Clair criticised the
administration of Thomas Jef-
ferson. The Governor's removal from
office by the President
followed immediately. It took effect
November 22, 1802, and
Charles W. Byrd, then secretary of the
territory, was appointed
Governor to serve until the proposed
state could be created.
The Constitution of 1802 defined the
boundaries of the state,
provisionally, and established the seat
of government at Chilli-
cothe until 1808. (Article VII, Section
4.) This Constitution
was never submitted for popular
acceptance or rejection at the
polls. Congress affirmed it by act of
February 19, 1803.
But the territorial government continued
to and including
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 217
February 28th, as determined by act of
Congress (Laws of U.
S. Vol. 4, pg 4). On March 1, 1803, the
Legislature assembled
at Chillicothe and Ohio on that day
became a member of the
sisterhood of states.
Now we retrace our steps to catch the
thread of our narra-
tive.
Virginia authorized her soldiers of the
Revolution to ap-
point a surveyor of the lands known as
the "Ohio-Virginia Mili-
tary District", which she had
reserved from her Northwest ces-
sions to the national government. They
chose as such surveyor
Col. Robert C. Anderson, a distinguished
veteran officer of the
Revolution, father of Major Robert
Anderson, defender of Fort
Sumter, and of Charles Anderson,
Governor of Ohio. On July
20, 1784, Anderson opened an office for
the survey of the Vir-
ginia bounty-land, on the present site
of Louisville, Ky. Among
the deputy surveyors whom he named were
Nathaniel Massie,
Duncan McArthur, John O'Bannon, Arthur
Fox, John Beasley,
and Lucas Sullivant.
Lucas Sullivant, a native of Virginia,
an emigrant to Ken-
tucky, was assigned to the northern
portion of the Virginia Mili-
tary District as the field of his
surveying services. He began
his operations in the spring of 1795.
His experiences, as related
in the Sullivant family memoirs, form
one of the most romantic
and thrilling stories of western pioneer
adventure and achieve-
ment. In the course of his exploring
meanderings and surveying
expeditions Sullivant came upon what was
then known to sur-
veyors and map makers as the "Forks
of the Scioto", the juncture
of the Scioto and Whetstone, as it was
then known, now the
Olentangy. It was in the midst of the
Ohio wilderness, and for
decades a favorite locality for Indian
villages, especially of the
Mingo and Wyandot tribes - the great
Mingo orator, Logan,
had here at times resided among his
Cayuga warriors.
While engaged in his surveying tours
Sullivant, with the
Anglo-Saxon landgrabbing instinct,
selected choice tracts of
land and located them in his own right.
Indeed, so extensive
became his real estate acquisitions that
he was often spoken of
as "Monarch of all he
surveyed." His trained eye and prophetic
vision particularly drew him to the
region of the Scioto forks.
218 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
The fertility of the soil, the
luxuriance of the forests, the cen-
trality of location as to the Ohio
rivers, the advantage of its
location on the waterway route from the
Sandusky and Scioto,
connecting by the short portage Lake
Erie on the north and the
Ohio on the south.
Here in the midsummer of 1797 Lucas
Sullivant laid out
the town of Franklinton on the west bank
of the Scioto, just
south of the mouth of the Whetstone. He
platted a considerable
sized town and the sale of lots was
announced for a certain day;
but before the appointed time an
inundation of all the low lands
took place, an overflow of such an
extent that it has since been
known as the "great flood of
1798."
The real estate speculator then wisely
extended his town
plat to the high ground, a little
farther west of the river and
there, on the site of the present state
hospital, Sullivant erected
the first brick dwelling in the county,
and established his perma-
nent home, in which he resided at the
time of his death.
Settlements rapidly followed, of
emigrants from Kentucky,
Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
In August, 1798, the territorial county
of Ross was pro-
claimed by Governor St. Clair. It
embraced the field of opera-
tion of Sullivant, as just noted. From
the northern part of this
Ross county, Franklin county was set off
by act of the first gen-
eral assembly of Ohio, passed March
20th, to take effect April
30, 1803.
Franklinton lay within the boundaries of
the new county
and was made the county seat, and a
county jail-usually the
first requisite of the initiative of a
Christian civilization-an
edifice of hewn logs - was erected by
Lucas Sullivant, at a cost
of $80. In 1808 a brick court house was
erected from the clay
of one of the ancient mounds in the
neighborhood.
We cannot follow the career, conspicuous
as it was, of
Franklinton, which during the war of
1812 was for some time
the headquarters of William Henry
Harrison, and was the scene
(June 21, 1813) of an important treaty between the general on
the part of the United States, and the
Wyandot Chief, Tarhe,
who pledged the loyalty of his tribe to
the American cause.
As we have already noted, the Ohio constitution
of 1802,
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley
Historical Association. 219
fixed the seat of government at
Chillicothe and decreed it should
there remain until 1808, and the same
document expressly for-
bade any expenditures for public
buildings for legislative pur-
poses until 1809.
The first general assembly, therefore,
met in the Ross county
court house, within which the
territorial legislature had held its
last session, and in which also the
constitutional convention of
the state had met. This building was a
two-story stone edifice,
the interior of which was inadequate for
the housing of the leg-
islature; it only accommodated the house
of representatives, and
the senate was provided for by a brick
annex connected with the
court house by a covered passage.
That the permanent seat of state
government should be lo-
cated at a point nearer the center of
the state than Chillicothe
was generally anticipated, and in that
expectation every settle-
ment in the state, even remotely
eligible to win the prize, took
timely steps to secure it. Franklinton,
Delaware, Worthington,
Zanesville, Lancaster, and Newark were
the earliest and most
insistent of these claimants. Other
towns, and even uninhabited
localities, later joined the list of
proposed sites.
Pressed for proper accommodations and
the importunities of
the advocates of competing localities,
the general assembly, at
Chillicothe, passed an act February 20, 1810,
providing for a
commission of five members, to be
selected by joint ballot of
both houses to hear arguments, inspect
localities and recommend
a site for the permanent seat of
government. The act read as
follows:
AN ACT to provide for the permanent seat
of government. Passed
February 20, 1810. Ohio Laws, Volume 8 *
* *
Sections 1 and 2 provide for the
appointment of five commission-
ers by joint ballot of both houses of
the general assembly, a majority of
the board to be necessary for the
recommendation of any particular site.
"SEC. 3. That after the
commissioners shall have taken an oath or
affirmation faithfully to discharge the
duties enjoined on them by this
act, they shall proceed to examine and
select the most eligible spot, which
in their opinion will be most central,
taking into view the natural ad-
vantages of the state; Provided: It
shall not be more than forty miles
from what may be deemed the common
centre of the state, to be ascer-
tained by Mansfield's map thereof.
220 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
"SEC. 4. That after the
commissioners shall have fixed on the most
eligible spot, they shall make up a
report of their proceedings and sign
the same, seal it up and direct it to
the speaker of the Senate, and forward
the same to the senate, within ten days
after the commencement of the
next session of the general assembly;
and if it shall appear to the satis-
faction of the next general assembly,
that the place fixed on is the most
eligible place, they shall confirm the
report of the commissioners, and
proceed to take such further order
thereon as to them shall appear most
advantageous and proper.
"SEC. 5. That the commissioners
shall meet at Franklinton on the
first day of September next, to proceed
to discharge the duties enjoined
to them by this act, and shall each
receive three dollars per day.
"This act to take effect from and
after the commencement passage
thereof.
EDWARD TIFFIN,
Speaker of the house of
representatives.
DUNCAN MCARTHUR,
Speaker of the senate."
In pursuance of this act, Senators James
Findlay, W. Silli-
man, Joseph Darlington, Resin Beall and
William McFarland
were appointed commissioners. They visited Franklinton, but
discarded its pretensions, condemning it
because of its low situa-
tion, its subjection to inundation, and
the unsuitableness of its
plan of streets.
The commissioners then inspected various
other localities
with like result, and finally agreed to
report: "That they have
diligently examined a number of
different places within the circle
prescribed (forty miles from the common centre) and a ma-
jority of said commissioners are of the
opinion that a tract of
land owned by John and Peter Sells,
situated on the west bank
of the Scioto river, four miles and
three-quarters west of the
town of Worthington, in the county of
Franklin, and on which
said Sells now resides, appears to them
most eligible." This was
the site of the subsequent and present
village of Dublin. This
report, dated at Newark, September 12,
(1810) and signed by
all the Commissioners, was delivered to
the general assembly on
December 11, 1810.
The general assembly at the time of the
reception of this
report was in session at Zanesville,
where a building for its es-
pecial accommodation had been provided.
Here the sessions of
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 221
1810-11 and 1811-12 were held, and
various additional proposals
for the location of the capital as well
as the report of the legis-
lative committee were received.
No definite action was taken by the
legislature in the session
of 1810-11. Meanwhile the rival
applicants pushed their re-
spective claims upon the members of the
general assembly, with
all the ardor and boldness of undaunted
lobbyists. Some of the
original contestants subsided or
withdrew from the field, while
new parties made their appearance.
The original joint commission of five
members having ceased
to exist with the expiration of the
session of the 9th General
Assembly, the succeeding (10th)
legislature, in its session of
1811-12, resumed the subject of a
permanent capital site. The
senate appointed a new committee of its
members, consisting of
Senators J. P. R. Bureau, J. Pritchard,
David Purviance, George
Tod and Samuel Evans.
On January 18, 1812, as the printed
proceedings testify,
Senator Evans in behalf of the committee
to whom were re-
ferred so much of the unfinished
business of the last (9th) ses-
sion, relating to the fixing of the
permanent seat of government,
and who were directed to receive
donations therefor, beg leave
to report that they had received
proposals for the following
places, viz.: "Delaware, Sells
Place [now Dublin], Thomas
Backus's land (four miles from
Franklinton, seven miles below
Sells Place), High Bank opposite
Franklinton, High Bank, Pick-
away Plains and Circleville, Pickaway
county." The prospective
advantages of location and details of
each proposed offer were
briefly recited by Mr. Evans, as
reported in the Senate Journal
for that day.
The locality known as the "High
Bank", nearly opposite to
Franklinton, was offered by Messrs. Lyne
Starling, John Kerr,
A. McLaughlin and James Johnston.
The elevation there was reasonably good,
and the opportu-
nity for platting a town without
hindrance from buildings, pre-
arranged streets, or even clearings, was
unlimited. The lands
on the plateau had been patented as
early as 1802 to John Hal-
stead, Martha Walker, Benjamin Thompson,
Seth Harding and
James Price, all refugees of the War of
Independence. The
222 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
original patentees had disposed of their
titles, and these, after
intermediate transmissions, had come
into the hands of Lyne
Starling, John Kerr, Alexander
McLaughlin and James John-
ston. Combining their interests, these
four proprietors laid off
a tract of about twelve hundred acres on
the plateau, platted it,
provisionally, into streets and squares,
and submitted proposals.
for the location of the seat of
government thereon to the Gen-
eral Assembly at Zanesville. A
copy of the plat accompanied
their propositions, the full text of
which was as follows:
ORIGINAL PROPOSALS OF THE PROPRIETORS OF
COLUMBUS.
To the Honorable the Legislature of the
State of Ohio:
We the subscribers do offer the
following as our proposals provided
the legislature at their present session
shall fix and establish the permanent
seat of Government for said State on the
East bank of the Scioto river
nearly opposite to the town of Franklinton
on half sections Nos. 9, 25
& 26, and parts of half sections
Nos. 10 & 11, all in Township 5 of Range
22 of the Refugee lands and commence
their session there on the first
Monday of December, 1817:
1st. To lay out a Town on the lands
aforesaid on or before the
first day of July next agreeably to the
plans presented by us to the
Legislature.
2d. To convey to the State, by general
warranty deed in fee simple
such square in said town of the contents
of ten acres or near it for the
public buildings and such lot of ten
acres for Penitentiary and depend-
encies, as a director of such person or
persons as the legislature will
appoint or may select.
3. To erect and complete a State House,
offices & Penitentiary &
such other buildings as shall be
directed by the Legislature, to be built
of stone and Brick or of either, the
work to be done in a workman like
manner and of such size and dimensions
as the Legislature shall think
fit, the Penitentiary & dependencies
to be complete on or before the
first day of January, 1815, the
Statehouse and offices on or before the
first Monday of December, 1817.
When the buildings shall be completed
the Legislature and the
subscribers reciprocally shall appoint
workmen to examine and value
the whole buildings, which valuation
shall be binding, and if it does
not amount to Fifty thousand dollars we
shall make up the deficiency in
such further buildings as shall be
directed by law, but if it exceeds the
sum of Fifty thousand dollars the
Legislature will by law remunerate
us in such way as they may think just
and equitable.
Annual Meeting
Ohio Valley Historical Association.
223
The legislature may
by themselves or agent alter the width of the
streets and alleys of
said Town previous to its being laid out by us if they
may think proper to
do so.
LYNE STARLING. (seal.)
JOHN KERR. (seal.)
A. MCLAUGHLIN. (seal.)
JAMES JOHNSTON. (seal.)
Attest:
WILSON ELLIoTT.
ISAAC HAZLETT.
These propositions
were accompanied by the following
bond:
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE
PRESENTS that we, James Johnson, of
Washington County,
Lyne Starling, of Franklin County, Alexander Mc-
Laughlin, of
Muskingum County, & John Kerr, of Ross County, all of
the State of Ohio,
our heirs, executors, administrators or assigns do
promise to pay to
William McFarland, treasurer of said State, or his suc-
cessors in office,
for the use of the State of Ohio, the sum of One Hun-
dred Thousand Dollars
for the payment of which we do bind ourselves
firmly by these
presents, which are sealed with our seals and dated the
10th day of February,
in the year of our Lord, 1812.
The condition of the
above obligation is such that if the above
bounden James
Johnston, Lyne Starling, Alexander McLaughlin, & John
Kerr, their heirs,
executors, administrators or assigns, shall truly and
faithfully comply
with their proposals to the State of Ohio by erecting
the public buildings
and conveying to the said State grounds for the State
House, offices and
penitentiary they have proposed to do, then this obliga-
tion to be null and
void, otherwise to be and continue in full force and
virtue. JAMES JOHNSTON. (seal.)
LYNE STARLING. (seal.)
A. MCLAUGHLIN. (seal.)
In presence of JOHN KERR. (seal.)
WILSON ELLIOTT.
ISAAC HAZLETT.
The absolute
permanence of location on which the foregoing
scheme was
conditioned appearing to jeopardize its acceptance,
the following
supplementary proposals were submitted:
To the Honorable
the Legislature of the State of Ohio:
We the subscribers do
agree to comply with the terms of our Bond
now in possession of
the Senate of the State aforesaid, in case they
will fix the seat of
government of this State on the lands designated in
their proposals now
with the Senate, on the east bank of the Scioto
224 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
River, nearly opposite
to Franklinton, and commence their sessions there
at or before the first
Monday of December, 1817, and continue the same
in the town to be laid
off by us until the year 1840.
The conditional
proposals are offered by us for the acceptance of
the Legislature of
Ohio provided they may be considered more eligible
than those previously
put in.
JOHN KERR. (seal.)
JAMES JOHNSTON. (seal.)
A. MCLAUGHLIN. (seal.)
Witness LYNE STARLING. (seal.)
WILSON ELLIOTT.
February 11, 1812.
Mr. Evans closed his
report by saying that "Your commit-
tee beg leave to
recommend to the consideration of the Senate
the following
resolution:
"Resolved, That a committee, to consist of * * *members, be
appointed to bring in
a bill for fixing the permanent seat of government,
on the lands of Moses
Bixby and Henry Baldwin, agreeable to the first
number of their
written proposals."-this was the Delaware site.
Mr. Evans himself
dissented from the choice of the com-
mittee, though not
otherwise expressing his preference.
The committee report
was committed to a committee of the
whole senate.
On January 20 the
matter was taken up by the senate as a
committee of the
whole. The parties submitting the
"High
Bank opposite
Franklinton" were permitted to withdraw their
proposals, evidently
merely for the purpose of some change in
the conditions of
their offer, for they were shortly thereafter be-
fore the Senate for
further consideration.
February 4th, Mr.
Evans made an additional report of some
alterations in the
Sells Brothers offer and also presented a re-
newal by James
Kilbourn of the site of the town of Worthing-
ton, and an amended
proposition from the Starling & Company
people, as follows:
"The committee to
whom were referred the proposals for
fixing the permanent
seat of government, begs leave to report.
They have examined the
proposals made since their first report,
and find them as
follows:
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 225
"Messrs. John and Peter Sells
offers to lay out a town on their
land, on such plan as the legislature
will point out, and out of the same
they will convey as much ground as may
be necessary for a state house,
offices & penitentiary, and moreover
to build a state house, and such other
houses as commissioners, to be appointed
by the legislature, shall direct,
provided that the same does not exceed
twenty thousand dollars; which
donation is to be made, if the
legislature establishes the permanent seat of
government on their lands, within three
years.
"Messrs. Starling, Kerr, M'Laughlin
and Johnston, offers to lay out
a town on the east bank of Scioto river,
nearly opposite the town of
Franklinton; out of said town they will
convey to the state, a square of
ten acres for public buildings. They
will, besides, build a good and
commodious brick-house, for the use of
the legislature, the same to be
seventy by fifty feet, two stories high,
with two wings, also two stories
high, twenty by thirty-two feet. Also
they will erect a penitentiary, equal
in extent and accommodations, as the one
in Frankfort, Kentucky; or
they will erect one, one hundred feet in
length, and twenty feet wide, two
stories high. From said buildings shall
extend walls twelve feet high at
right angles, one hundred and
sixty-feet, which shall be connected by a
wall parallel to the penitentiary-the
whole occupying a space of one
hundred, by one hundred and sixty feet.
To the penitentiary shall be
appropriated ten acres of ground, for
gardens.
All the buildings to be completed on or
before the first Monday of
December, eighteen hundred and eighteen.
All which donations shall be
given, on condition that the legislature
will commence their sessions in
said contemplated town, on the said
first Monday of December, eighteen
hundred and eighteen, and there
thenceforward do continue.
Or in lieu of the foregoing offers, they
the said Starling, Kerr,
M'Laughlin and Johnston, will (if the
legislature prefers it) erect in the
town mentioned in their first proposals,
such public buildings, not exceed-
ing fifty thousand dollars, as the legislature
will direct; they will have
the buildings completed on or before the
first Monday of December,
eighteen hundred and seventeen. They
will let the legislature choose the
ground for the public square and the
penitentiary, and direct the width of
the streets and alleys.
(Senate Journal, 1812-February 4-p. 102)
The Senate committee on the seat of
government asked for
further time.
February 5th. The Senate as a committee
of the whole con-
tinued its consideration of the site
question. Mr. Purviance re-
ported his committee had agreed to the
following resolution:
"Resolved, That a committee of three members (of the senate) be
appointed to prepare and bring in a bill
to fix and establish the permanent
Vol. XXV-15
226 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
seat of government, at * * *, agreeably
to the propositions of * * *;
and that from and after the 1st day of
May next, Lancaster shall be the
temporary seat of government until
otherwise directed by law."
Senator Joseph Foos, of Franklin, moved
to fill the first
blank-
(of the site) -with these words: "the High Bank on
the East side of the Scioto river,
opposite the town of Franklin-
ton."
Mr. Bureau moved that the blank
read: "The town of
Delaware."
Mr. Bigger moved it be filled with
"the farm of Peter and
John Sells."
Mr. Caldwell moved "the town of
Worthington."
Mr. Evans, representing Ross county, was
in favor of "The
High Bank in the Pickaway Plains."
Mr. Bureau was for "the land of
Moses Bixby and Henry
Baldwin."
Mr. Pritchard proposed "New
Lancaster."
The question was first put on filling
said blank with these
words: "The High Bank on the east
side of the Scioto river
opposite the town of Franklinton."
The vote was decided in
the affirmative;- fifteen yeas and nine
nays.
The said resolution was further amended
and then read as
follows:
Resolved by the Senate and House of
Representatives, That a com-
mittee of three members be appointed on
the part of the Senate to pre-
pare and bring in a bill, to fix and
establish the permanent seat of gov-
ernment, at the High Bank of the east
side of the Scioto River, opposite
the town of Franklinton, agreeably to
the proposition of Messrs. Starling,
Kerr, M'Laughlin and Johnston; and that
from and after the first day
of May next, Lancaster shall be the
temporary seat of government, until
otherwise directed by law. By vote the Senate
agreed to the resolution,
yeas
17, nays 7.
This action was on February 5th. The
resolution imme-
diately went to the house of
representatives, which on the same
day, proceeded, in a committee of the
whole, to consider the
same. The senate resolution was agreed
to with the exception
that the house, on motion of Mr.
Morris, by a vote of twenty-
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 227
five yeas to twenty nays substituted
"Chillicothe" in the place of
"Lancaster" as the temporary
seat of government.
The resolution thus amended was returned
next day (Feb-
ruary 6th) to the Senate, which on
motion to retain Lancaster
stood tie, twelve yeas to twelve nays.
On the following day an-
other attempt was made to restore
Lancaster, which was lost by
a vote of ten yeas to thirteen nays, so
"Chillicothe" stood undis-
turbed in the house bill. In pursuance
of said resolution a com-
mittee was accordingly appointed, of
Senators David Purviance,
J. P. R. Bureau and John Bigger, to act
in conference with a
similar committee to be appointed by the
house. On the 8th, the
house by resolution appointed as its
committee to act jointly
with the senate, Messrs. David Morris,
Samuel Huntington and
William Sterrett. On the same day an
attempt by the House to
substitute the Delaware site for the
Scioto High Bank was lost
by vote of twenty yeas to twenty-five
nays.
February 8th. Mr. Purviance, from the
Senate committee,
reported a bill, the matter having now
passed the resolution
stage, and taken the formal status of an
enactment, "Fixing and
establishing the permanent and temporary
seat of government",
which bill was received, read the first
time and ordered to pass
on to the second reading.
February 10th. The senate in committee
of the whole took
up the bill for further consideration,
receiving further changes
in the proposals of Messrs. Starling,
Kerr, McLaughlin and
Johnston.
February 12th. The bill was reported out of the committee
of the whole to the senate for action.
The bill as it now stood
was for the East Bank of the Scioto
opposite Franklinton for
the permanent capital and Chillicothe
for the temporary capital.
It was the final struggle for the
friends of the bill and the allies,
representing other sites, in opposition.
An attempt to substitute
Delaware for the "East High Bank on
Scioto" was defeated by
ten yeas to fourteen nays. The day was
mainly consumed by
the filibustering field; riders,
substitutes, strike outs, insertions,
amendments and postponements -indeed all
the arts of parlia-
mentary tactics and obstructions were
futile, and after the third
reading the bill passed by the vote of
thirteen yeas (including
228 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
the speaker) to eleven nays. It was not
a wide margin, but it
was enough.
The bill was messaged to the house the
same day, and
though not mentioned in that day's
journal, as in the original
publication of the proceedings, it must
have been read for the
first time, as on the following day the
house went into a com-
mittee of the whole, read for the second
time and debated the
bill. Efforts were made to insert
Franklinton for Chillicothe
as the temporary seat of government; but
without avail. The
foes to the site proposed and thus far
selected, rallied in full
force and the sparring was vigorous and
skilful. It was another
field day, as the House Journal amply
testifies, and the adherents
of the bill would neither yield nor
compromise and on the ques-
tion, "Shall the bill pass?"
which stood as it came from the senate
without alteration, the roll was called
and stood yeas twenty-
seven (including Speaker Corwin) - nays
nineteen. And so the
hill passed, and on February 14th, the
"East High Bank, opposite
the town of Franklinton," became
the legislative Valentine to the
state of Ohio. The bill as it became a
law was as follows:
SECT. 1. Be it enacted by the General
Assembly of the state of Ohio,
That the proposals made to this
legislature by Alexander Mc-
Laughlin, John Kerr, Lyne Starling and
James Johnston, (to lay out a
town on their lands, situate on the east
bank of the Scioto river, opposite
Franklinton, in the county of Franklin,
and pants of half sections number
nine, ten, eleven, twenty-five and
twenty-six, for the purpose of having
the permanent seat of government thereon
established; also, to convey
to this state a square of ten acres and
a lot of ten acres, and to erect a
state house, such offices, and a
penitentiary, as shall be directed by the
legislature,) are hereby accepted, and
the same and their penal bond
annexed thereto, dated the tenth of
February, one thousand eight hundred
and twelve, conditioned for their faithful
performances of said proposals,
shall be valid to all intents and
purposes, and shall remain in the office
of the treasurer of state, there to be
kept for the use of this state.
SECT. 2. Be it further enacted, That
the seat of government of
this state be, and the same is hereby
fixed and permanently established
on the land aforesaid, and the
legislature shall commence their sessions
thereat on the first Monday of December,
one thousand eight hundred
and seventeen, and there continue until
the first day of May, one thou-
sand eight hundred and forty, and from
thence until otherwise provided
by law.
SECT. 3. Be it further enacted, That
there shall be appointed by
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 229
a joint resolution of this general
assembly, a director, who shall, within
thirty days after his appointment, take
and subscribe an oath faithfully
and impartially to discharge the duties
enjoined on him by law, and shall
hold his office to the end of the
session of the next legislature: Pro-
vided, That in case the office of the director aforesaid shall
by death,
resignation, or in any other wise become
vacant during the recess of
the legislature, the governor shall fill
such vacancy.
SECT. 4. Be it further
enacted, That the aforesaid director
shall
view and examine the lands above
mentioned and superintend the survey-
ing and laying out of the town aforesaid
and direct the width of streets
and alleys therein; also, to select the
square for public buildings and
the lot for the penitentiary and
dependencies according to the proposals
aforesaid; and he shall make a report
thereof to the next legislature; he
shall moreover perform such other duties
as will be required of him
by law.
SECT. 5. Be it further
enacted, That said McLaughlin, Kerr,
Starling, and Johnston, shall, on or
before the first day of July next
ensuing, at their own expense, cause the
town aforesaid to be laid out,
and a plat of the same recorded in the
recorder's office of Franklin
county, distinguishing therein the
square and lot to be by them conveyed
to this state; and they shall moreover
transmit a certified copy thereof
to the next legislature for their
inspection.
SECT. 6. And be it further enacted, That
from and after the
first day of May next, Chillicothe shall
be the temporary seat of govern-
ment until otherwise provided by law.
MATTHIAS CORWIN,
Speaker of the House of
Representatives.
THOS. KIRKER,
Speaker of the Senate.
February 14, 1812.
(Laws of Ohio, Vol. 10 (1812) p. 92.)
(Passed in the first session of the
Tenth general assembly.)
In the Senate on February 20,
(1812), the Journal states:
Mr. Evans submitted to the consideration
of the Senate the
following resolution:
Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that the
seat of government, in this state, shall
be known and distinguished by
the name of * * *
The same was ordered to lie for
consideration.
This resolution was at once sent to the
House, which on
the same day gave it consideration. The
name "Ohio City" was
230 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
proposed, but on vote was defeated by
yeas nineteen, nays
twenty-two, and the subject was left for
future action.
February 21st. The senate took up the
resolution, giving
name to the permanent seat of
government, which was offered
the day before by Mr. Evans. The said
resolution was amended
and agreed to as follows:
Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that the
town to be laid out at the High Bank, on
the east side of the Scioto
river, opposite the town of Franklinton,
for the permanent seat of
government of this state, shall be known
and distinguished by the
name of Columbus.
This name was proposed by Mr. Joseph
Foos, Senator from
Franklin county, the same Senator who
had so valiantly cham-
pioned the Scioto High Bank site. On the
passage of this reso-
lution by the senate, naming the site,
it was sent to the house
with a request for its concurrence. The
house on motion that it
do agree to the resolution, concurred by
a vote of 24 yeas to
10 nays. And so the seat of government
of the state of Ohio
found its local habitation and its name.
The General Assembly, (February 20) by
Joint Resolution
appointed Joel Wright, of Warren county,
as director, to "view
and examine" the lands proffered
and lay out and survey "the
town aforesaid." Joseph Vance, of
Franklin county, was selected
to assist him.
The refugee lands, upon which our state
capital was located,
comprised a narrow tract four miles and
a half wide, from
north to south, and extending
forty-eight miles eastwardly from
the Scioto river. It took its name from
the fact that it was
appropriated by Congress for the benefit
of persons from Canada
and Novia Scotia, who in our
Revolutionary War, espoused the
cause of the revolted colonies. The
lands in this tract were
originally surveyed in 1799, under the
authority of the general
government, and divided, as other public
lands, into sections of
six hundred and forty acres each. But in
1801 they were di-
vided into half-sections, and numbered
as such. Patents were
issued for half-sections, designating
them by their numbers.
On the recorded plat of the town, the
streets and alleys
crossed each other at right angles,
bearing twelve degrees west
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 231
of north, and twelve degrees north of
east. High street, run-
ning north and south, was one hundred
feet wide; and Broad, an
east and west street, was one hundred
and twenty feet in width.
The other streets were eighty-two and a
half feet wide, and
the alleys generally thirty-three feet.
The inlots were sixty-
two and a half feet front, and one
hundred and eighty-seven and
a half feet deep. The outlots east of
the town plat, each con-
tained about three acres.
On the 18th of June, 1812, the same day
on which the
United States declared war against Great
Britain, the first pub-
lic sale of lots took place. It had been
extensively advertised.
The terms of sale were extremely
liberal. Only one-fifth of the
purchase money was to be paid in hand;
the residue in four equal
annual installments, without interest,
unless default was made in
prompt payment. The lots sold were
principally on High and
Broad streets, and brought prices
varying from two hundred to
one thousand dollars each.
At the time of the public sale of lots,
the prospects of the
site of the proposed capital were by no
means enticing. The
streets and alleys marked on the plat
had to be traced through
a dense forest. In site and immediate
surroundings presented
but few evidences of the former presence
of civilized man. The
only cleared land then on or contiguous
to the town plat was a
small spot on Front, a little south of
State street; another small
field and a cabin on the bank of the
river at the western ter-
minus of Rich Street; and a cabin and
garden spot in front of
where the penitentiary now stands.
But as it was decreed that this was to
become the capital
city of the state, immigrants sought
homes within its borders
from all sections of the country.
Improvements and general
business went forward with the increase
of population.
In pursuance of their contract with the
state, the proprietors
of Columbus set to work with
characteristic energy, and in 1813
excavated the ground on the southwest
corner of the public
square for the foundation of the state
house. The building
was erected the following year. It was a
plain brick structure,
seventy-five by fifty feet, and two
stories high. It is interesting
to note, in this connection, that the
brick used in the construc-
232 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
tion of this state house were made
from the earth appropriated
from and by the demolition of a
beautiful prehistoric mound
that once stood at the corner of High
and Mound streets, and
from which mound, during its
destruction, many human bones
of a past race were taken. This incident
furnished the subject
of a poem by one of the settlers of
Columbus, shortly after the
construction of its first buildings.
"Oh Town! consecrated before
The white man's foot e'er trod our
shore,
To battle's strife and valour's grave,
Spare! oh spare the buried brave.
"A thousand winters passed away,
And yet demolished not the clay,
Which on yon hillock held in trust
The quiet of the warrior's dust.
"The Indian came and went again;
He hunted through the lengthened plain;
And from the Mound he oft beheld
The present silent battle field.
"But did the Indian e'er presume,
To violate that ancient tomb?
Ah, no! he had the soldier grace
Which spares the soldier's resting
place.
"It is alone for Christian hand
To sever that sepulchral band,
Which ever to the view is spread,
To bind the living to the dead."
While we are in a poetical mood, it is
worthy of note that
the original brick state house, the erection
of which has just
been recorded, had a stone above its
main entrance, upon which
was inscribed the following lines from
Barlow's Columbiad:
"The equality of right is nature's
plan,
And following nature is the march of
man;
Based on its rock of right your empire
lies,
On walls of wisdom let the fabric rise.
Preserve your principles, their force
unfold,
Let nations prove them, and let kings
behold,
Equality your first firm grounded stand,
Annual Meeting
Ohio Valley Historical Association. 233
Then free elections,
then your union band;
This holy triad
should forever shine,
The great conpendium
of all rights divine.
Creed of all schools,
whence youths by millions draw,
Their theme of right,
their decalogue of law,
Till man shall wonder
(in these schools inured)
How wars were made,
how tyrants were endured."
Following the
erection of the state house, there was built
in 1815, a two-story
brick building, one hundred and fifty feet
in length, by
twenty-five in width, fronting on High street, fifty
or sixty feet north
of the state house, for the purposes of state
offices.
The public square on
which these buildings stood, was, in
1815 or 1816, cleared
of the native timber and underbrush by
Jarvis Pike,
generally known as Judge Pike, who enclosed the lot
with a rough rail
fence, and farmed the ground three or four
years, raising upon
it wheat, corn, etc. The fence having got
out of order, and not
being repaired, was at length destroyed,
and the square lay in
common for a dozen or more years.
On the 10th of
February, 1816, the town was incorporated
as the "borough
of Columbus" and on the 1st Monday in May,
following, Robert W.
McCoy, John Cutler, Robert Armstrong,
Henry Brown, Caleb
Houston, Michael Patton, Jeremiah Arm-
strong, Jarvis Pike
(who was the first Mayor) and John Kerr
were elected the
first board of councilmen.
Another local poet at
that time, inspired by the incident of
the incorporation,
perpetrated the following doggerel verse, con-
cerning the
incorporators and their occupations.
I sell buckram and
tape, . . . ... .
McCoy.
I sell crocks and
leather, . . . ... .
Cutler.
I am the gentleman's
ape, . . . . . . J.
Armstrong.
I am all that
together, . . . . . . .Brown.
I build houses and
barns, . . . . . . . Houston.
I do the public
carving . . . . . . Patton.
I sell cakes and
beer, .... J.Armstrong
I am almost starving,
. . . .. . . Pike.
I sell lots and the
like,
And dabble in
speculation, . ... Kerr.
We and his Majesty
Pike
Make a splendid
corporation.
234 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
In the fall of 1816 the state offices
were removed from
Chillicothe to Columbus, and on the
first Monday of December,
of the same year, the legislature began
its first session in the
then new state house in Columbus. The proprietors having
finished the public buildings and deeded
the two ten acre lots
to the state, agreeably to their
proposals, at this session they
presented their account for the erection
of the public buildings:
and by an act passed January 29, 1817,
the Governor was au-
thorized to settle and adjust the
account, and the Auditor re-
quired to draw on the treasurer for the
balance found due after
deducting the $50,000 which the
proprietors were by their pro-
posal bound to give.
In the settlement, after deducting from
the charge for car-
penter work some six or seven per cent.,
and the $50,000, there
was found a balance due the proprietors
of about $33,000, which
was paid by the state, and thus was
closed the political and finan-
cial enterprise of fixing the permanent
capital for the state of
Ohio.
Concerning this matter of the location
of the capital, The
Supporter-a Chillicothe weekly of the date Saturday morning,
February 29, 1812-in its leading
editorial spoke as follows:
"The law fixing the permanent seat
of government will be seen
in this week's paper-a town to be laid
out on the east bank of the
Scioto river, opposite Franklinton, and
is, we understand, to be named
Columbus. We believe a more eligible
site for a town is not to be found
and it must afford considerable
gratification that this long contested sub-
ject has at last been settled. The
legislature has appointed Joel Wright,
of Warren county, director."
THE CENTENNIAL CHURCHES OF THE MIAMI
VALLEY.
J. E. BRADFORD, MIAMI UNIVERSITY,
OXFORD.
The aim of this study is to trace the
course and note some
of the main features of ecclesiastical
development in the Miami
Valley to the close of the year 1815. By
the Miami Valley we
mean the whole area drained by the two
Miamis including the
Whitewater which is one of its
tributaries entering the Great
Miami near its mouth. Let it be borne in
mind that what is
here offered is but a hasty preliminary
survey of a very inter-
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 235
esting field which would well justify a
much more careful in-
vestigation.
One hundred years ago the Miami country
had a popula-
tion of about ninety thousand. Dr.
Drake1 gives us a good sur-
vey of it in that year of which the
following is a summary: Cin-
cinnati had about one thousand houses, a
stone courthouse with
dome, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist,
and Friends' meeting-
houses, two banks, two newspapers, a
library, a two-story build-
ing in process of erection for the
accommodation of the newly
founded Lancastrian Seminary, and a
number of manufacturing
establishments, including one stone
mill.
Hamilton had seventy houses, chiefly
log, a postoffice and
printing office, but no public buildings
save a stone jail. Lebanon
was a considerable village with houses
of brick and wood, a
courthouse and a schoolhouse, Baptist
and Methodist churches,
a stone jail, a printing office, a
library, a bank, and several
manufactories.
Franklin had forty-five families, grist
and saw mills and a
postoffice. Dayton had one hundred
dwellings, principally wood,
a courthouse, a Methodist meeting-house,
a brick academy, a
library of two hundred and fifty books,
a bank, a postoffice, and
a printing office.
Xenia was a group of wooden houses with
a courthouse,
one church, a postoffice, and printing
office. Urbana, having been
the base of the recent military
operations, had developed into a
town of about one hundred houses, with a
newspaper and bank,
but without any public buildings. West
of the Miami River was
Greenville, a military post, and Eaton,
with thirty dwellings and
a postoffice, but with no public
buildings. Oxford he describes
as a sparsely populated village located
on the frontier of the
state, that had gained notoriety from
having been fixed on as the
seat of a university.
It was a full quarter century before Dr.
Drake penned his
description of the Miami country that
the first churches were
planted to the northward of the Ohio.
But little more than a
year after the coming of the first
settlers into the Miami coun-
try steps were taken to effect a
religious organization. The
initiative was taken by the Baptists
who, at Columbia, on Jan.
236
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society
Publications.
20, 1796, organized the first Protestant church in the Northwest
Territory. The officiating clergyman was
Rev. Stephen Gane,
and the number of charter members was
nine, though this was
shortly added to. The following May,
Elder John Smith, later
a member of the Constitutional
Convention, and United States
senator from Ohio, took charge of the congregation. This
church grew rapidly, but after Wayne's
Treaty in 1795 many of
its members moved into the interior,
and, in 1797, we have the
founding of Miami Island, Carpenter's
Run and Clear Creek
churches.2
In December of the same year, as the
founding of the Col-
umbia church, a Presbyterian
congregation was organized at
Cincinnati by the Rev. David Rice3 of
Danville, Kentucky. A
few months after James Kemper, a
licentiate, was sent to supply
this congregation, and to establish
preaching stations at Colum-
bia, North Bend and Round Bottom. He
arrived at his field of
labor a few days before St. Clair's
defeat, and proved a tower
of strength to the disheartened
settlement in those troublous days.
If the Baptists have the honor of
organizing the first congre-
gation, to the Presbyterians belong the
credit of erecting the
first house of worship in the Miami
country, and this by the
Cincinnati church. In January, 1792, subscriptions
were made
by one hundred and sixteen persons,
totaling $289 plus £3. 6d.
English money, one hundred and seventy
days work, seventy-one
days' work with team, twenty-three
pounds of nails, four hun-
dred and fifty feet of boards, and
sixty-five boat planks. The
church erected at this time is described
as a good frame house
thirty by forty feet, but "neither
lathed, plastered, nor ceiled".
The floor was of boat plank laid loosely
upon the joists. The
seats were of the same material
supported by blocks of wood.
There was a breastwork of unplaned
cherry boards called a pul-
pit, behind which the clergyman stood on
a piece of boat plank
resting on a block of wood. This church
somewhat improved
a few years later served the
congregation until 1812 when a more
commodious edifice was erected.4
Though there may have been some prior
sporadic preaching,
it was not until 1798 that a definite
effort was made to establish
Methodism in the Miami Valley. In that
year Rev. John Kobler,
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 237
acting under appointment of Bishop
Asbury, crossed the Ohio at
Columbia and made his way to the cabin
of Francis McCormick
near Milford. Here he organized a class
of twenty-one mem-
bers. A few days later, accompanied by
McCormick, he set out
on a tour of the settlements between the
Miamis, visiting among
other points Dayton, Franklin, Hamilton,
and Cincinnati. The
few score of Methodists whom he found he
organized into eight
or ten classes which he sought to visit
every two weeks. After
such a ministry of several months, he
retired from the circuit
reporting ninety-nine members.
It was not, however, until five years
after the close of his
ministry in the Miami Valley that
Methodism gained a foothold
in Cincinnati, as on his visit to the
place in 1798 he could find
no one interested in his ministry, and
so did not include it in his
list of appointments. It was in 1804
that John Collins, a local
preacher residing in Clermont County,
while on a business trip
to Cincinnati learned of the presence
there of a number of
Methodists. These he at once gathered
together, and after
preaching to them organized them into a
class, and a little later
secured their inclusion in the
appointments of the Miami Circuit.
There was, however, no regular place of
preaching until about
1807, when a stone meeting-house was
erected. By 1812 this
church had so grown that it had two
hundred and nine names
upon the roll of its members.5
So far as has been ascertained, the
following list comprises
the churches founded prior to 1816 that
have persisted to the
present time.
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Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association. 243
Of the churches listed above
twenty-seven are of the Presby-
terian group, twenty-three are Baptist,
twenty-two are Methodist,
sixteen are designated as Friends, five
are Lutheran, four are
Reformed, two are Christian, one is
United Brethren, one is
Congregational, one is known as Shaker.
The affiliation of two
is undetermined. It is noteworthy that
no Catholic or Episcopal
church or Jewish synagogue is included
in the list.
Judging by the churches founded, it
appears that until 1795
the religious frontier adhered closely
to the Ohio river. By 1797
it had reached the banks of Mad river
beyond which it does not
appear to have advanced until a decade
later. In 1805 it ex-
tended to the westward of the Great
Miami and a little later
crossed the boundary line into Indiana.
An examination of this list shows that
comparatively few
churches were founded between 1790 and 1800. This
evidences
lack of interest for the religious
welfare of the rapidly growing
community, and reflects the general
indifference of the West to
matters religious at the close of the
18th century. The great
mass of the people were out of sympathy
with the church. But
with the dawn of the new century a
change occurred, as is
shown from the churches founded after
1802.
THE NEW LIGHT REVIVAL.7
During the years 1801-1805 the Miami
Valley was affected
by certain remarkable religious
phenomena that were farreach-
ing in their results. These were first
manifest in the Cumber-
land settlements some time previous to
this. Due to denomina-
tional dissensions, the influence of
French infidel philosophy, and
the prevalence of wrong doing, interest
in religion at the close
of the eighteenth century was at a very
low ebb. Moved by the
low state of religion, the Rev. James
McCrady, a Presbyterian
clergyman, of southwest Kentucky,
prevailed upon certain ear-
nest Christian spirits to join him in a
covenant to observe the
third Sabbath of each month as a day of
fasting and prayer,
and to spend one-half hour each Saturday
evening and the same
time each Sabbath morning in praying to
God for a revival of
His work in their midst.
The results were first noted at a
sacramental service held
244 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
In 1798 which was pervaded by such
earnestness that little work
was done the following week, the time
being given over to prayer
and other religious exercises. At a
sacramental service held the
following year, while a Rev. Mr. Hodge
was preaching a woman
gave vent to her emotions with a scream.
This was followed
by other meetings frequently held in the
open air in which much
interest was shown. Soon Bishop
McKendree of the Methodist
church arrived on the scene and threw
himself into the work.
Various meetings were held which
attracted persons from far and
near, some of whom came prepared to camp
out during the meet-
ings. Thus originated the camp meetings which became a char-
acteristic feature of the religious life
of the West, and prepared
the way for the modern Chautauqua.
Hundreds were affected in various ways.
Some swooned
away and would lie for hours apparently
without breathing.
Others would roll over and over like a
log, or sometimes like a
wheel. Still others would have violent
twitching of the muscles.
If those of the neck were affected the
head would jerk from side
to side, or backwards and forwards, so
as to threaten the dis-
location of the neck. Some would move
about on hands and
feet barking like dogs. At the Cane
Ridge meeting where the
attendance was estimated at twenty
thousand, it is said that as
many as three thousand fell, jerking,
rolling, dancing and laugh-
ing. No class was exempt from the
affection, nor was it con-
fined to religious gatherings. Usually
the ones so affected were
brought under strong convictions of sin,
but not always.
By 1801 these phenomena began to be
manifest in the Miami
Valley as also in western Pennsylvania,
Virginia and Carolina.
By some they were regarded as operations
of the Divine Spirit
intended to humble the pride of the
human heart and bring con-
viction of sin. Such taught that
"the will of God was made
manifest to each individual who sought
after it by an inward
light which shone into the heart".
Hence these persons came
to be known as New Lights.
The effects of this movement on the
Miami Valley were
threefold:
1. The almost complete extinction of all
Presbyterian churches north
of Hamilton County.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 245
2. The development of the New Light
movement under the leadership
of Rev. Barton K. Stone.
3. The establishment of three Shaker
communities within the Miami
Valley.
In 1802, there came into the Miami Valley a Presbyterian
clergyman-the Rev. Richard McNemar who
had but lately
resigned his charge at Cabin Creek,
Kentucky, because of op-
position to his participation in the
revival movement in that
region. Though tall and gaunt he had a
commanding presence.
an expressive countenance, and was a
good scholar, reading with
ease Latin, Greek and Hebrew. His manner
was animated and
fervent. His services as pastor being
desired by Turtle Creek
Presbyterian church, a call was
presented to Presbytery at a meet-
ing at Springfield (now Glendale), in
April, 1803. This called
forth a proposal to examine McNemar and
John Thompson, the
pastor of the Springfield church,
"on the fundamental doctrines
of religion". This proposal was
sustained by Rev. James Kem-
per of Cincinnati, and Matthew Wallace
then located in Hamil-
ton. But as the brethren thus brought
under suspicion were
joined by Rev. John Dunlevy the motion
did not prevail. On
the matter being brought before the
Synod of Kentucky these
were joined by the Rev. Robert Marshall
and Barton K. Stone
in entering a protest disclaiming the
jurisdiction of Synod.
These protestants formed the
"Dissenting Presbytery of Spring-
field" which was later joined by
David Purviance. This body,
however, was of brief duration. On June
28, 1804, at a meeting
held at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, it drafted
a Last Will and Testa-
ment, dispensing with the title of
"Reverend", disrobing itself of
all governmental authority, and of its
power to license and ordain
ministers, instituting congregational
form of government and
declaring itself dissolved. Meanwhile
these brethren were inces-
sant in their religious ministrations.
The churches frequently
proved inadequate to accommodate those
who waited upon their
ministry, and services had to be held
out of doors. Numerous
largely attended camp meetings were
held. The strange phenom-
ena to which reference has already been
made were frequently
manifest. It is recorded that at a
communion held at Turtle
Creek in the spring of 1804, even
Thompson - more conserva-
246 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
tive than some others-after
administering the elements began
to dance around the communion table
repeating in a low voice:
"This is the Holy Ghost.
Glory." This exercise in which others
joined him continued for more than an
hour.
THE SHAKER MOVEMENT.8
While interest was at this height, there
arrived at the home
of one of the members of the Turtle
Creek congregation three
representatives of the Shaker community
at Lebanon, New York,
who had been attracted by the reports
that reached them of the
strange happenings in the Ohio Valley.
The next day these men
were introduced to McNemar to whom they
explained their mis-
sion. He was deeply impressed with their
words and consented
to their preaching to his people. To
them they unfolded their
doctrine of the Duality of God, spirit
communications, religious
asceticism, and community of life and
property. The message
found a response in the hearts of the
hearers. McNemar and
the greater part of his congregation
espoused the principles of
Shakerism, renounced the family relation
and transferred their
property to the community which they
founded. On a beautiful
elevation near the old church they
erected their community build-
ings some of which are more than a
hundred years old. Here,
in 1819, they erected their chapel which
is a fine example of
pioneer architecture, and is perhaps the
oldest building devoted
to religious services now standing in
the Miami Valley. Here
the Shakers led their life, introducing
new methods of agricul-
ture, developing new breeds of stock,
providing garden seeds
and remedial agents to the general
public, and engaging in certain
forms of manufacturing. For many years
the community flour-
ished until it numbered several hundred
people. North and
South villages were erected on the
Turtle Creek property, while
additional communities were established
on Whitewater and
near Dayton. In time, however, the
community declined, and as
numbers decreased they centralized at
Union Village. Finally
in 1912, recognizing that they must soon
become extinct, they
disposed of their buildings and farm
lands amounting to about
six thousand acres to the United
Brethren Church, reserving a
life interest in one of the buildings
and its grounds. Here, en-
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 247
joying the comforts of life, the remnant
of this interesting com-
munity calmly await ultimate extinction.
Dunlevy followed McNemar ino Shakerism,
but his other
associates failed to accompany him in
this course. Thompson
soon returned to the Presbyterian fold
and resumed the pastorate
of the Springfield (Glendale) church.
Stone and Purviance
held to their profession, and aided in
laying the foundation of
the Christian church with which they
ultimately merged. Stone,
in his biography, narrates an experience
of himself and a minister
named Dooley while on one of their
preaching tours. "We
preached and baptized daily in Eaton for
many days. No house
could contain the people that flocked to
hear. We left the place
and preached and baptized as many
others. We were poorly clad
and had no money to buy clothes. Going
on to a certain place
through the barrens, a limb tore Brother
Dooley's striped panta-
loons very much. He had no others and I
had none to lend
him. He tied his handkerchief over the
seat and went on and
preached to the people."
SUGAR CREEK UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.9
The years that saw the foregoing
religious development were
marked by the founding of several
congregations that are worthy
of special mention. In 1804, the members
of the Kentucky con-
gregation ministered to by the Rev.
Robert Armstrong, being
dissatisfied with slavery, and having
sent a committee to examine
the country and to select a suitable
location, removed in a body
to the Miami country. These settled -part
of them on Massie's
Creek, an eastern tributary of the
Little Miami, and part on
Sugar Creek, a western branch of the
same stream. Two
churches were built-one on either
stream. The Massie's
Creek church in time was absorbed by
congregations of a kindred
faith organized at Xenia, Cedarville and
Jamestown. The other,
though its church stands at a cross road
in the open country,
has grown stronger with the years.
Originally it was composed
exclusively of Scotch Irish. It chanced
that in removing the site
of the church to a point more central
and accessible, land there-
for was secured from a member of the
German Reformed church.
Soon this man with his family and a
number of his relatives
248 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
asked to be received into membership,
and after some deliberation
they were accepted. They were soon
followed by some Lutherans
and later by some Methodists and others
of Baptist and Quaker
stock. Today this church is thoroughly
Americanized, is well
organized and highly efficient. Last
year it gave its pastor one
thousand dollars salary and a parsonage,
and presented him an
auto that he might more effectively do
his work, while its con-
tributions to benevolence amounted to
one thousand and ninety
dollars. It has given nine of its sons
to the ministry. One of
these is a distinguished college
president and another a university
professor, while one of its daughters
has for more than half a
century labored in the Egyptian mission
field. Two sons that
studied medicine achieved such
distinction that they were chosen
to chairs in medical colleges of
recognized standing, while an-
other son is a leading layman of the
denomination.
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF
WHITEWATER.10
As early as 1802 Mr. J. W.
Brown of Cincinnati preached
at various points in the region of
Paddy's Run, Butler County.
The Christians of the community were
from England, Wales,
Scotland, Ireland and New England; they
were of various de-
nominations, but in order to properly
maintain the ordinances
of the church decided to drop personal
predilections and organize
on the broad basis of Christian love. A
committee was appointed
to draft a constitution and rules of discipline.
The report of
the committee was, after due
deliberation, adopted, and the
church formally organized on September
3, 1803, at the home of
John Templeton, and given the name of
"The Congregational
Church of Whitewater" but is
commonly known as the "Paddy's
Run Church." The first members were
Benjamin McCarty, Asa
Mitchell, Joab Comstock, Andrew Scott,
Margaret Bebb, Ezekiel
Hughes, Wm. and Ann Gwilyne, David and
Mary Francis. In
1804 a committee of their own members
set apart the aforemen-
tioned John W. Brown to the office and
work of the ministry.
The relation thus established continued
until 1811 when Mr.
Brown was sent on a mission to the
eastern states by Miami
University. The church received large
accessions to its mem-
bership among whom were many Welsh.
These soon became
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 249
numerous and in 1817 a minister was
secured, Rev. Rees Lloyd,
who could hold services in both English
and Welsh,
which custom
was continued for many years.
The members of this congregation early
evinced an interest
in education, and in 1807 erected a
schoolhouse and started a
subscription school. In 1821 the
co-pastor, Rev. Thomas Thomas
of the congregation, opened a high
school with a boarding depart-
ment. This school soon acquired
considerable distinction. In
1821
a Union Library Association was formed and
chartered
which is still flourishing. In 1823-25 a
brick meeting-house
43 x 30 was erected. In 1856 a new
church was erected and the
old one given ever to community purpose.
This congregation
continues to flourish, and during the
present year has at very
considerable expense remodeled its
building in order to better
adapt it to its present needs.
It is but natural that a congregation
with such a spirit should
send forth a due complement of its sons
and daughters to achieve
distinction in the world's work. Among
them have been Gov.
William Bebb, Murat Halstead, Dr.
Griffen Shaw, Alfred
Thomas, legal advisor in the United
States Treasury Depart-
ment, Rev. Thomas E. Thomas, at one time
a professor in Lane
Theological Seminary, Rev. Mart Williams
of the China mission,
Prof. S. W. Williams of Miami University
and many others.
HOPEWELL UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.11
When, in 1801, the lands west of the
Miami River had been
open to settlement, a number of Scotch
Irish Presbyterians of
the South located in the southwest part
of Preble County. In
1808 Rev. David Risk of the Associate
Reformed Church organ-
ized these into a congregation which
took the name of Hopewell.
After the cessation of hostilities in
the West in 1813, a gen-
eral exodus from the South, due to the
opposition to slavery,
set in toward this region. This movement
climaxed with the
coming in 1815 of a number of families
from Georgia, led by
their pastor, Rev. Alexander Porter, a
graduate of Dickenson
College. This congregation so increased
that the old log church
thirty by thirty which had been built
prior to 1814 was enlarged
by a thirty foot addition. This building
gave place in 1823 to
250 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
the present commodious brick edifice. By
1835 this building was
so overcrowded that rather than enlarge
it a new church was
built in the northern part of the
congregation, and the members
living in that section were set off and
organized into the Fair-
haven congregation. In 1837 those
members living in and near
Oxford were organized as the Oxford
congregation, and in
connection with the Synod erected a
building that until 1856 was
used both as a theological seminary and
church. Upon the build-
ing of the railroad between Hamilton and
Indianapolis, and the
laying out of College Corner but three
miles to the southwest
of the parent church, another body of
members swarmed to
organize a church at that place. In 1875
almost half of the re-
maining members voted to unite with the
Beechwood Reformed
Presbyterian congregation and erect a
new building at Morning
Sun, midway between the two churches.
This union was effected
and a flourishing congregation is the
result. The other members
were loath to have the services
discontinued, and so have main-
tained a pastor and regular services
until the past year when it
was decided to disband and distribute
themselves among the other
congregations.
The members of this congregation early
showed an interest
in education by establishing a school,
and later founded an
academy which has since evolved into a
high school. This inter-
est is shown in the fact that upward of
forty of the sons of this
community have entered the Christian
ministry. Many of them
have achieved high distinction, two
becoming moderators of the
General Assembly, and two professors in
theological seminaries.
Each of the congregations of the group
has a well equipped
church with parsonage, pays an average
salary of one thousand
dollars to its pastor, and contributes
an equal amount to the mis-
sionary and benevolent agencies.
The community has long been noted for
the loyalty, probity,
as well as religious zeal of its members.
During the Civil War
this purely rural community sent more
than two hundred and
fifty of its men into the Union army,
one of whom became cap-
tain and another a colonel. During the
Civil War and after, the
party vote of the community was almost
unanimously republican.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 251
WEST ELKTON FRIENDS CHURCH.12
As early as 1804, Nathan Stubbs of
Georgia settled near the
southern boundary of Preble County. He
was shortly followed
by others of like faith from Georgia,
the Carolinas, Pennsylvania
and New Jersey. In 1805 a meeting-house
of round logs was
erected. This gave place in 1809 to one
of hewed logs, while
this was replaced in 1827 by a brick
meeting-house. This later
gave place to the one now standing. At
this time this congrega-
tion numbered about three hundred
members and was but one of
the numerous Quaker settlements made in
the Miami Valley prior
to 1815
the membership of which numbered upwards
of five
thousand. This congregation in common
with other churches
was sadly disturbed by the Hicksite
controversy, and a Hicksite
meeting-house was erected near by. For a
time the congregation
was in a state of decline. Some years
ago, however, a paid pas-
tor was secured, public services were
conformed to the customary
practice, a Bible school was organized,
evangelistic preaching
was introduced, and today the church is
grasping the community
problems in a very practical and
forceful way and gives promise
of long continued service. In this
respect she was more fortunate
than some of her sister churches which,
due to dissension, have
been forced to abandon their churches
and discontinue their
services.
THE GERMAN CHURCHES.13
Among the pioneers who came into the
Miami Valley during
the early years of the last century were
many Germans from
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the valley
of Virginia. Judging
by churches founded these settled almost
wholly within the val-
ley of the Great Miami, and for the most
part within the upper
half of the west slope of the valley.
One important center was
about Germantown, German township,
Montgomery County.
Here they organized a United Brethren
church in 1806, and
Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed
congregations in 1809.
These latter two, as they frequently did
throughout the valley,
united in erecting a house of worship
which they used alternately.
As the congregation grew in strength
each built its own house
of worship, and today both are
flourishing congregations with
252 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
well appointed buildings. To the west of
Germantown extend-
ing into the bounds of Preble County is
a community of German
Baptists or Dunkards. These began the
holding of services as
early as 1806 but it was not until 1845
that they erected a church.
They have now divided into three sects
which are distinguished
as the Old Order, the Conservatives, and
the Progressives.
Many of the German churches endeavored
to continue the
exclusive use of the German language in
their church services.
They found in time that they could not
do this and retain their
young people. Thus they were led to use
the English in part or
in whole in their services.
NEW JERSEY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.14
After 18OO a number of families settled
in the vicinity of
Franklin. On August 14, 1813, a number
of them met at the
home of William P. Barkalow and resolved
to form themselves
into a congregation, to apply to
Presbytery for one-half of the
ministerial services of Rev. Francis
Montfort, and to raise him
one hundred and fifty dollars in half
yearly payments. The fol-
lowing year ruling elders were chosen
and Mr. Montfort ordained
as their pastor. In 1815 steps were
taken to build a frame
church. This was used until 1867 when it
gave place to a hand-
some brick structure that cost $16,365
and which is well adapted
to religious services, Bible school work
and the social work of
the community. This congregation today
numbers more than
two hundred members who look well to the
comfort and support
of their pastor and are deeply
interested in all missionary ac-
tivities.
TAPSCOTT BAPTIST CHURCH.15
Within half a mile of this church stands
the Tapscott Bap-
tist church, founded in 1814 by people
of the same general stock
but with different religious ideals. A
little later a brick meeting-
house which still stands was erected and
for a time the church
prospered. But in 1835 dissension arose
in the Baptist churches
as to the propriety of undertaking
missionary work, establishing
Bible schools and joining in
evangelistic effort. In 1836 a majority
of this congregation decided in
opposition to those agencies.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 253
Those favoring withdrew and formed the
Franklin Baptist
church. Today the Tapscott church
numbers a scant dozen mem-
bers, holds an occasional service, and
is without any vital hold
on the community life. Of similar
history is the Clear Creek Bap-
tist founded in 1797, but which stands
today practically unused
and with woods growing about its doors.
CHURCH ARCHITECTURE ONE HUNDRED YEARS
AGO.
The most primitive type of pioneer
church was that built
of round logs. Such an one was that at
Massie's Creek, Greene
County, in 1808 which is thus described:
"The building was
thirty feet square and built of peeled
hickory logs, and had
neither loft nor floor save mother
earth. There was but one
door, and it was in the center of one
end of the house. From the
door there was an aisle which ran to the
foundation of the pul-
pit in the center of the other end of
the house. The pulpit was
constructed of clapboards on a wooden
foundation, and on each
side of the pulpit was a window of
twelve eight by ten lights.
It was seated with two rows of puncheons
from twelve to fifteen
inches broad and twelve feet long, split
out from poplar near by,
and from four to six inches thick,
hewed on the upper side and
smoothed with a jack plane. In each end
and center there were
uprights some three feet long mortised
in, and on these uprights
two or three slats were pinned which
formed quite a comfortable
back." To worship in these rude
houses men and women would
travel as many as fifteen miles and sit
without fire, even in the
winter, and hear two sermons. With the
growth of the congre-
gation the church was sometimes enlarged
by building thereto.
This was done at Hopewell when, ere the
first building was com-
pleted, it was found too small to
accommodate the influx of
population, so an addition of thirty
feet was built to the original
structure.16
With the development of society a hewed
log meeting house
would be erected. Immense logs would be
selected and so care-
fully hewed that no mark of the ax was
seen. For such a build-
ing at Massie's Creek the members
contributed material and
labor, while Parson Armstrong
contributed a gallon of whisky
for the raising, without which that
function would have been
254 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
incomplete. Sometimes the building was
made two stories with
a gallery, as was the first
church building in the Miami Valley
erected at Columbia, or the "Old
Dutch church" erected in 1823
which still stands a few miles west of
Germantown and in which
a pipe organ was installed in 1859. The
pulpit was small and
was built high up on the wall, and was
reached by a number of
steps and entered by a door. Such
without the pulpit was the
first Methodist meeting-house in the
Miami Valley, erected in
1804, at
"Old Hopewell, Clermont Co." It was a hewed log
building two stories high and a very
large building for its day.
Some congregations were more ambitious
and erected frame
structures. The New Jersey church at
Carlisle modeled its first
building after the Old Tenant church in
New Jersey from whence
they had come. For its construction
Tanes D. Vanderveer fur-
nished the frame work, George Lane the
weather boarding, Hen-
drix Lane the floor, Michael Van Tuyle
sawed the material, John
McKean built the pulpit, while each man
furnished his own
bench.
The Associate Presbyterian (now Second
United Presby-
terian) church of Xenia determined to
build somewhat more
durably, and in 1814 a stone building
fifty by thirty-five feet was
erected. But the masterpiece of church
architecture in the Miami
Valley one hundred years ago was that
erected by the Cincinnati
Presbyterians in 1814 and known as the
Two-horn church from
its two towers. However, the churches of
a hundred years ago
were for the most part of the most
primitive type, while many
congregations were worshipping from
place to place in the cabins
of its members.
EARLY PREACHERS.
It would be interesting to study the
lives of the men who
pioneered in the religious development
of the Miami Valley. We
can, however, but note, and that
briefly, a few of these.
Stephen Gard, 1776-1839, was born in
Essex County, N. J.,
and educated in a classical academy near
his home. He arrived
at Columbia in 1798 and located at
Trenton, where, in 1801, he
was married to Rachel Pierce. He founded
Baptist churches at
Trenton, Middletown, Carlisle, Dayton
and Hamilton.17
James Kemper (1755-1784) was born at
Warrentown,
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 255
Fauquier Co., Va. Though reared in the
Episcopal Church he
was led to espouse the Presbyterian
faith. In 1735, at the solicita-
tion of Rev. David Rice, he moved to
Kentucky to take a posi-
tion as teacher in the Transylvania
Seminary. In 1791 he was
licensed and appointed to supply in the
"churches of the Miami."
In 1791 he came to Cincinnati where,
after a year, he was
ordained and installed pastor of the
Presbyterian church at that
place. Later he ministered to the Turtle
Creek Presbyterian
church, but his work here was cut short
on account of the dis-
approval by the plain dressing pioneers
of his wife's elaborate
head-dress. Later he founded the Second
Presbyterian church
of Cincinnati. He was a man of ambitious
plans and promoted
the Kentucky Academy, the Walnut Hills
Academy, the Cincin-
nati College, and Lane Theological
Seminary.18
James Hughes was born of English
parentage in York
County, Pa. About 1780 he moved wtih
his parents to Washing-
ton County where he received his
classical and theological educa-
tion, in part at least, under the
tuition of Rev. John McMillan
in the "Log College" which he
erected near his house, and which
still stands on the campus of old
Jefferson College. He was
licensed in 1788, and two years later
was ordained and installed
as pastor of the Short Creek and Lower
Buffalo churches. He
was probably the first Presbyterian
clergyman ordained west of
the Alleghenies. In these fields he
labored until 1814. In 1815
he settled at Urbana, where he founded
the Presbyterian church
to which he ministered until 1818, when
he was elected Principal
of the Grammar School of Miami
University. On moving to
Oxford he organized the Presbyterian church
at that place. Here
he died in 1821.19
Robert H. Bishop (1777-1855) was born
near Edinburgh,
Scotland, graduating from the university
at that place in 1798,
and from the theological seminary at
Selkirk in 1802. In that
year he, with four others, was induced
to migrate to America
to minister to the Associate
Presbyterian churches there. He,
with another of these, was sent to the
Ohio Valley to labor.
After ministering for a time to churches
in southern Ohio, he
located at Lexington, Ky., where he
occupied a professorship in
Transylvania University, and the
pastorate of two congregations
256 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
near that place. In 1819 he connected with the Presbyterian
church, and became pastor of McChord
church, Lexington. In
1820
he was made first president of Miami
University. In this
connection he served for a time as
pastor of the Presbyterian
church at Oxford. In Kentucky he was
reckoned as one of
her best pulpit orators. In 1844 he
severed his connection with
Miami, and became president of Farmers'
College at College Hill,
where he served until his death.20
The pioneer Methodist preacher of the
Miami Valley was
Francis McCormick who was born in
Frederick County, Virginia,
June 4, 1764. In 1790 he became a
local preacher. In 1795 he
moved to Kentucky and two years later
crossed the river into
Ohio, locating at Milford in Clermont
County. At his suggestion,
Bishop Asbury sent Rev. John Kobler to
Ohio, and it was at
his cabin that the first class was
organized. He acted as guide
to Kobler on his first tour of the Miami
country. He was in-
strumental in organizing a class near
Lockland and another near
Columbia, where he located in 1807.21
Rev. John Kobler was born in Virginia in
1768. At twenty-
one he entered the ministry, and in 1798
he was appointed to the
work in Ohio where he formed the Miami
Circuit, being the first
regularly appointed Methodist preacher
in the Northwest Ter-
ritory. He is described as tall and well
proportioned, with long
black hair, and unusual intellectual
powers. The arduous work
of the frontier undermined his health
and he died after render-
ing eighteen years of ministerial
service.22
Rev. John Collins was born of Quaker
parentage in New
Jersey in 1789. At an early age he was
licensed as a local
preacher. In 1803 he moved to
Ohio and settled on the East
Fork of the Little Miami where he
purchased a tract of land.
In 1807 he became an itinerant and
attached to the Miami cir-
cuit. He was a man of prepossessing
appearance, gentle spirit
and great eloquence. He was the founder
of the churches at
Cincinnati, Columbia, Dayton, Hillsboro,
and other places. He
died in 1845.23
Does this survey reveal any general
principles that deter-
mine the growth or decadence, the life
or death of a congrega-
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 257
tion ? I would not be over positive on
this point but would pro-
pose the following tentatively:
To live and grow a congregation must
1. Become Americanized.
2. It must keep itself free from serious distractions.
3. It must have some aim in existing
other than itself.
4. It must understand the application of
the Divine prin-
ciples of life and action in their
relation to its own community
and age.
REFERENCES.
1. Drake, Natural and Statistical View
or Picture of the Miami Coun-
try, 36-50.
2. Dunlevy, History of the Miami Baptist
Association, 16-54.
3. Bishop, Memoirs of Rev. David Rice,
13-116.
4. Montfort, History of the First
Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati,
(Mss.).
5. Williams, Pictures of Early Methodism
in Ohio, 38-49.
Barker, History of Ohio Methodism,
81-10, 338-346, 361-364, 421-
424,
436-438.
6. The list of churches here given has
been compiled for the most part
from the following histories:
History of Hamilton County, Ohio.
Greve, Centennial History of Cincinnati.
A History and Biographical Cyclopedia of
Butler County, Ohio.
Steele, History of Dayton, Ohio.
History of Montgomery County, Ohio.
History of Preble County, Ohio.
History of Clinton County, Ohio.
Williams, History of Clermont and Brown
Counties, Ohio.
History of Greene County, Ohio.
History of Clark County, Ohio.
Antrim, The History of Champaign and
Logan Counties, Ohio.
Harbaugh, Centennial History of Troy,
Piqua, and Miami County,
Ohio.
Young, History of Wayne County, Indiana.
History of Union County, Indiana.
History of Fayette County, Indiana.
Morrow, History of Warren County, Ohio.
8. McNemar, The Kentucky Revival with a
Brief Sketch of Sha-
kerism, (1808), 19-72.
Vol. XXV-17.
258 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
Bishop, Memoirs of Rev. David Rice and
History of the Church in
Kentucky, 118-140.
Hoffman, The Story of a Country Church,
36-59.
8. McNemar, The Kentucky Revival with a
Brief Sketch of Sha-
kerism, (1808), 73-105.
Morrow, History of Warren County, Ohio,
267-274.
Otterbein Home Annual.
9. Centennial History of the Sugar Creek
United Presbyterian Church.
History of Greene County, Ohio.
10. The Articles of Faith, Constitution
and History of the Congrega-
tional Church of Whitewater, Morgan
Township, Butler
County, Ohio.
Chidlaw, An Historical Sketch of Paddy's
Run, Butler County, Ohio.
11. Records of Hopewell United
Presbyterian Church (Mss.).
12. Records of the West Elkton Friends
Church (Mss.).
13. History of Montgomery County, Ohio.
14. Morrow, History of Warren County,
Ohio.
15. Morrow, History of Warren County,
Ohio.
16. History of Greene County, Ohio, 272.
17. Dunlevy, History of the Miami
Baptist Association, 165.
18. Kemper, A Memorial of James Kemper.
19. Smith, Old Redstone Presbytery,
344-347.
Porter, The Presbyterian Church of
Oxford, 8, 9.
20. Mills, Life and Services of Rev. R.
H. Bishop, D. D.
The Diamond Jubilee Volume of Miami
University, 86-90.
21. Barker, History of Ohio Methodism,
83-87.
22. Barker, History of Ohio Methodism,
87-90.
23. Barker, History of Ohio Methodism,
137-140.
BUSINESS MEETING OF THE OHIO VALLEY
HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION.
A business meeting was held at the close
of the Friday after-
noon session. Prof. H. W. Elson called
for the report of the
committees on nominations and
resolutions. The following of-
ficers were nominated and elected.
President: Prof. Harlow Lindley of Earlham College, Richmond,
Indiana.
Vice Presidents: Prof. J. R. Robertson of Berea College, Berea,
Ky.; Mr. B. S. Patterson, Pittsburgh,
Pa.; Prof. W. H. Siebert, Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio; Prof.
C. L. Martzolff, Ohio University,
Athens, Ohio.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 259
Corr. Sec. and Treas.: Prof. D. C. Shilling, Monmouth College,
Monmouth, Illinois.
Rec. Sec. and Curator: Prof. Elizabeth Crowther, Western College
for Women, Oxford, Ohio.
RESOLUTIONS.
The members of the Ohio Valley
Historical Association in
their annual meeting at Columbus, Ohio,
desire to express their
appreciation:
1. To the Local Reception and
Arrangements Committee for the
cordial reception given the Association
and the efficient arrangements
made in all details.
2. To Prof. Siebert for his untiring
efforts both before and
during the meeting to make it a success.
3. To Pres. and Mrs. Thompson for the
welcome extended and
the reception tendered the Association
at their home Thursday afternoon.
4. To Prof. and Mrs. Siebert for the
privilege of meeting in their
home for the noonday lunch on Friday.
5. To the State University and its
officers for the hospitality of
grounds and buildings.
6. To the State Archaeological and
Historical Society for the use
of its building and the opportunity to
examine its collections. Also for
the reception Friday afternoon and the
banquet Friday evening.
7. To the Chamber of Commerce for the
delightful automobile ride
to points of interest in and about
Columbus.
8. To the Department of Archives and
History of West Virginia
for the publication of proceedings and
papers of the 1914 meeting in its
annual report. H. S. GREEN,
J. R. ROBERTSON.
The question of the place for the
holding of the next annual
meeting was discussed but referred for
settlement to the execu-
tive committee. The Association voted to
pay the traveling ex-
penses of the Treasurer to the Columbus
meeting.