Ohio History Journal

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER OF THE NORTHWEST

TERRITORY.

THE EDITOR AND HIS WIFE.

C. B. GALBREATH.

The first newspaper published northwest of the Ohio River

was edited by William Maxwell, a Revolutionary soldier. After

the recognition of our national independence, he set out for

the great west to seek fortune in the new field that called many

worthy, brave and adventurous spirits. He crossed the Alle-

ghanies, proceeded to Pittsburg, came down the Ohio, and took

up his abode in the little village of Cincinnati, then numbering

about two hundred souls.

Having determined before starting west to enter upon a

journalistic career in the new country, he had his outfit trans-

ported over the mountains on pack horses and shipped down from

Pittsburg on a packet boat. It consisted of a Ramage press,

much like the one used by Dr. Franklin, and a few cases of type.

A man could have moved the materials at a single load in a

wheelbarrow.

Mr. Maxwell proceeded at once to set up his office in a

log cabin at the corner of Front and Sycamore streets. The

coming of the press had been announced and a list of subscribers

had been secured. Now the work of arranging copy, setting

type, and getting ready for the first issue became the soul-ab-

sorbing occupation of the editor and his faithful helpmate. It

is needless to say that the work in progress at the office of the

printer was of more than ordinary interest to the inhabitants

of the little community. After many delays the natal day arrives.

"The printer daubs his buck-skin roll in the ink and then daubs

it on the face of the type. The lever creaks, and lo, born to the

light of day" is The Sentinel of the North-Western Territory,

(332)

334       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

November 9, 1793. Momentous event! From this humble be-

ginning what an evolution the century has wrought!

While practically nothing has been written about the editor,

much has been printed in regard to The Sentinel of the North-

Western Territory. About the only good thing that has been

said of it is found in a favorable comment by a historian, on the

happy choice of name. As Cincinnati, then on the western fron-

tier of civilization, was the gateway to the rich territory beyond,

it was deemed especially appropriate that a "centinel" should stand

guard at this outpost. The same writer speaks of the early issues

as containing "few advertisements, no editorials, and no local

items." Another writer says that "it had no editorial articles,

no local news, reviews, or poetry," and even so careful a writer

as William T. Coggeshall, an Ohio man, a journalist by profes-

sion, and one of the best librarians that the state ever had, in

his "Origin and Progress of Printing, with Some Facts About

Newspapers in Europe and America," published in 1854, states

that the issues of The Centinel were "irregular," that they con-

tained nothing "but meager details of foreign news, not more

than half a dozen advertisements, no editorials, no local news,

no opinions on country, state, or national questions, no lessons

from history, no poetry, no wit, no sentiment." In commenting

on the mechanical make-up of this paper he says that there were

no rules between the columns. These statements are so sweep-

ing and have been so widely and frequently copied that some-

thing tangible must be offered to warrant a dissenting opinion.

We appeal to the paper itself-to The Centinel of the North-

Western Territory-a copy of which Mr. Coggeshall and those

who have quoted his statements certainly never saw.

To begin with, the paper was not issued irregularly. As

stated, the first number appeared Saturday, November 9, 1793,

and every subsequent Saturday, for a year at least, it was deliv-

ered to subscribers. A rapid but somewhat careful examination

of the files does not bring to light the omission of a single issue

within the entire period of its publication. A facsimile of part

of the first page of the first issue, herewith submitted, shows very

clearly that the paper had rules between the columns. And what

is true of this is also true of every subsequent issue.

The First Newspaper of the Northwest Territory.         335

The Centinel was indeed a "brief chronicler of the times."

It was a four page, three column sheet, in small quarto form, the

type of each page occupying a space eight and one-half by ten

and one-fourth inches. The columns were lengthened three and

one-half inches, July 12, 1794. The motto at the masthead,

"Open to all parties-but influenced by none," one generous

critic assures us has never been violated by its successors in

the states formed from    the Northwest Territory.      Whatever

may be true of the "successors," it is safe to say, after a thorough

examination of the files of The Centinel, that its editor, through

the three years of its life, did not deviate from the motto. Oppos-

ing interests were presented through their local champions, but

he maintained a sphinx-like silence. In the printing of communi-

cations he was discreet and just. At the head of the first page

of the first issue is the editor's salutatory. He says in part:

The Printer of the Centinel of the North-Western Territory, to the

Public :¹

"Having arrived at Cincinnati, he has applied himself to that which

has been the principal object of his removal to this country, the Publi-

cation of a News-Paper.

"This country is in its infancy, and the inhabitants are daily ex-

posed to an enemy who, not content with taking away the lives of men

in the field, have swept away whole families, and burnt their habitations.

We are well aware that the want of regular and certain trade down the

Mississippi, deprives this country in great measure, of money at the

present time. These are discouragements, nevertheless I am  led to

believe that the people of this country are disposed to promote science,

and have the fullest assurance that the Press, from its known utility,

will receive proper encouragement. And on my part am content with

small gains, at the present, flattering myself that from attention to busi-

ness, I shall preserve the good wishes of those who have already counte-

nanced me in this undertaking, and secure the friendship of subsequent

population.

"It is to be hoped that the CENTINEL will prove of great utility to

the people of this Country, not only to inform them of what is going on

on the east of the Atlantic in arms, and in arts of peace - but what more

particularly concerns us, the different transactions of the states in the

Union, and especially of our own Territory, at so great a distance from

the seat of the general government. It is a particular grievance, that the

people have not been acquainted with the proceedings of the legislature

Capitalization and punctuation of original are followed.

336        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

of the Union, in which they are as much interested, as any part of the

United States. It is expected that the CENTINEL will in a great measure

remedy this misfortune.

*      *     *      *     *

"The EDITOR therefore rests his success on the merits of the publica-

tion. * * * I hope therefore, all men of public spirit will consider the

undertaking as a proper object of attention, and not consult merely their

own personal interests, but the interest of the public and the coming time."

Following this is a short story from Sterne; news from

London, dated July 15th; from Portland, Maine, August 25th;

from New York, September 4th; from Philadelphia, September

4th; from Fredericksburg, Va., October 3d. There are also

items of local news under date of September 9th, 1793. They

read in part as follows:

"Many reports having been circulated with respect to the attack made

by the savages upon a convoy of provisions, some little time ago, between

Fort St. Clair and Fort Jefferson, the following is an authentic account

of that affair.

"Lieut. Lowrie, of the second, and Ensign Boyd, of the first sub-

legions, with a command of about ninety non-commissioned officers and

privates, having under their convoy twenty wagons loaded with grain

and commissary stores, were attacked between daylight and sunrise, seven

miles advanced of Fort St. Clair, on the morning of the 17th ult. These

two gallant young gentlemen, with thirteen non-commissioned officers

and privates, bravely fell in action. * * * The Indians killed or car-

ried off about seventy horses." * * *

"In the twilight of Saturday evening, the 19th ult., a party of about

forty or fifty Indians made an attack upon White's Station, ten miles

north of this place. * * * One of the men and two of the children

were killed. * * *

"The army are preparing to go into winter quarters on the south-west

branch of the Miami, six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson. The ground

of encampment is already laid off in the form of a rhombus, three hundred

yards long, on a commanding situation." * * *

Here is local matter, of interest not only at the time, but

for all time.   Of personal items, the visits of friends, social

events, and the like, there is a dearth, but these matters did not

figure prominently in the everyday life of a people engaged in

the work of subduing the wilderness.

In the early issues, as the critic states, there were few ad-

vertisements, but later they were comparatively numerous.        In

338        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

As a primitive educational "ad." it is not without interest. Here

it is:

"THE SUBSCRIBER

INTENDS to open School on Wednesday the 16th inst. in the house lately

in possession of John Paul nearly opposite to Dr. M'Clures, in Sycamore

sereet, where he proposes to educate youth in reading, writing, arithmetic,

book keeping, Geometry, trigonometry, mensuration of surfaces and sol-

ids, dialing, guaging, surveying, navigation and algebra. No more than

thirty scholars will be admitted, and the terms of admittance may be

known by applying to the Public's very humble Servt.

STUART RICKY.

CINCINNATI, Dec. 4, 1795.

N. B.-None need apply but such as allow of moderate correction

to be used in said school when necessity requires it."

Those were strenuous times. Ample proof of that fact is

found in the lengthy "Public Notice" to the effect that within

a certain specified time and designated territory, including Cin-

cinnati and vicinity, $168 would be paid for "every scalp, having

the right ear appendant, for the first ten Indians who shall be

killed within the time and limits aforesaid."

But we are told that there were "no opinions on country,

state or national questions."   If this refers to the editor, the

statement is true; but it was far from   being true of the paper.

The very first issue contains an article signed "Manlius" on the

subject of unequal taxation under the territorial government. It

includes a sharp criticism of the legislature, which then con-

sisted of Governor St. Clair and the judges of the territory.

In speaking of the law imposing special taxes on merchants

and tavern keepers, the writer says:

"It cannot be supposed that the legislature are disposed to make this

law perpetual, and yet no limitation is in the act; it appears to have been

calculated merely to save the landed interests from paying taxes; and

this is not astonishing, when one of the greatest land holders in the gov-

ernment was, and still is, one of the legislature. Human nature is the

same in all countries, and self interest is never taken away by any office;

man is man, and he will do what conduces to his private emoluments,

whether he be peasant, judge or king. If taxes are necessary under this

government * * * the people ought to be taxed in proportion to their

property."

The First Newspaper of the Northwest Territory.         339

In subsequent issues the territorial and national governments

were criticised and defended, and the opening up of the Missis-

sippi to free navigation was advocated with vigor. No favor

was shown and even the "Father of his country" did not escape

the pungent pens of some of the Jeffersonian correspondents.

This pioneer journal reflects the deep interest in matters political,

which has ever characterized the states carved out of the North-

west Territory.

But we are told that the editor gave no space to "poetry,

wit or sentiment."   This is a serious charge that is hardly sus-

tained by reference to the paper. The first issue contains the

following "anecdote":

"Milton was asked by a friend, whether he would instruct his daugh-

ters in the different languages. To which he replied, 'No, sir; one tongue

is sufficient for a woman.'"

This, of course, is a little ancient, but doubtless we all

should have enjoyed and appreciated it one hundred years ago.

No. 2 has the following in the anecdote column:

"Col. Bond, who had been one of King Charles the First's judges,

died a day or two before Cromwell, and it was strongly reported that

the protector was dead. 'No,' said a gentleman who knew better, 'he has

only given bond to the devil for his future appearance.' "

This may not be wit, but it prepared the way for some of

the "pungent paragraphs" of modern times.

In the first issue of The Centinel occurs the following:

"Why should our wishes miss their aim?

Why does our love of wealth and fame,

With jarring pursuits clash?

My friends, 'tis strange, self-love that rules

The bulk of men, should make them fools,

Their pockets drain of cash.

The mystic cause I did explore,

My neighbors' failings counted o'er.

And blamed their want of thought.

My occupation I despised,

New schemes and calling straight devised.

And found them all but naught.

340        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

To Cincinnati shaped my course,

With stick in hand, without a horse,

'Twas galling to my mind!

Till on the banks of Ohio's flood,

I near a chinky cabbin stood,

For selling grog designed.

Behind his bar the cheerful host,

Had sat him down, his books to post,

First took a morning dram;

Thrice the blotted leaf he turned,

The want of money still he mourned,

The license fees did damn.

The profits of a barrel told,

If paid for, but as soon as sold,

Would count him full ten pounds;

But swallowed by five hundred throats,

One-half not worth so many groats

'Twould scarcely be ten crowns.

Happy the grog man near the fort

When soldiers with their money sport,

And give it for a song.

But Oh, the cruel late campaign

Has called away this jolly train,

I hope they'll not stay long.

Thus sagely spoke the man of grog,

My rapturous soul was quite agog,

While he tipped off a glass;

Sure then I cried could I but know,

When times again would turn out so

Light should my hours pass.

Pray H    y K, pray tell me when

Those jovial souls will come again,

With three months' pay, or two;

Swift as the streams of Ohio glide

I'd roll a keg to the fort side

And keep a tavern too."

The feet here are somewhat lame. Imagery is lacking.

This is hardly poetry. With our modern vocabulary we should

call it "the army canteen." It shows that some things do not

The First Newspaper of the Northwest Territory.         341

change much, after all, with the flight of time. In close prox-

imity to this effusion is an appeal in rhyme to the local bards

to awake and "court the smiles of Apollo." And the bards in

time responded. When Col. Robert Elliot,¹ contractor for army

supplies, was killed by Indians near Fort Hamilton, October 6,

1794, a friend wrote a tribute of some length from which we

quote the following:²

"In star hung chambers of the empyreal sky,

The winged ghosts in vast assembly join;

O'er time involving shades with sun veils fly,

To illumine Elliot to his newborn clime.

Swift from his pictured hope of earthly bliss,

From golden store and honour's luring wreath;

Fate cast him o'er that silent dread abyss,

Which circles time and forms the vale of death.

The ambushed savage, stained with sacred blood,

And taught to murder by his ruthless sire;

With fell deceit beneath the shadowy wood,

Emblaz'd his path with death enkindled fire.

*      *     *     *      *

There on the hill where savage spectres throng,

He lay forlorn beneath the pall of night;

The moping owl performed his funeral song,

While pity sickened at the dismal sight.

'Til generous mourners by their tender aid,

'Mid hazy wilds where devious travelers roam,

Through midnight gloom the bleeding corpse conveyed,

With guardian pirty to its wonted dome.

*      *     *     *      *

Blest be thy fate, my dear departed friend,

May sweet repose her slumbers o'er thee spread;

May heavenly vigils o'er thy grave roof bend,

To guard thy peace within the clay-bound bed.

Cheerless the hall where once glad mirth inspired

Each welcome guest around the social board,

Where all that liberal honour e'er required,

Was seen approaching on thy cheery word.

* * * * *

1For brief biography and detailed account of Col. Robert Elliot's

death, see History of Butler County, Ohio.

2This poem is signed "by a friend."

342        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Envy ne'er breaks the folded gates of death,

Revenge is madness o'er a fallen foe,

But sorrowing love may pass that frozen heath,

Where time's encumbered stream must cease to flow.

The brightest star that's crossed death's sable field,

That ever blazed around his shadowy throne,

The noblest trophy that e'er man could wield,

Is honest virtue-an imperial sun.

Those who bewail thy sad untimely fall,

Must know that fortune, power and hopes are vain;

That they, like thee, must hear the lordly call,

And lie entombed among the legions slain.

The cot of penury, the golden court,

The humble statue and the pride deckt bust,

Will soon become death's ravaging resort,

Who chemic-like turns kingdoms into dust.

*      *     *     *      *

Death on his mighty, fleet-bound, bleachen steed!

Without an offspring or a guardian sire,

Pays court to all with unmolested speed,

To gather spoils for nature's funeral fire.

Heir to a crown, no monarch ever knew,

With coat of arms no herald ever caught,

No painter e'er his wondrous portrait drew,

Since he ne'er sat to have the picture wrought.

He is a traveler on life's slippery shore,

To meet the beings of a doubtful day,

He is the porter to unbar that door,

Which hides the grandeur of the immortal way.

His valley seems a solemn, nightly pass,

Which spreads its by-paths to this thicket world,

But when illumined by hope's colouring glass,

It shows a drawing room with scenery furled.

Cease, then, each mournful sigh, dispel the gloom,

Which hovers o'er the shadowy realms of death,

One mighty change will burst the slumbering tomb,

And crown the weeds of woe with joyful wreath.

Like Elliot dead! we pass this changed state,

Our power, our fortune and our hope must yield,

To death the victor of Almighy fate,

Who stalks forever on his spoil-deckt field."

The First Newspaper of the Northwest Territory.   343

This breathes the solemn grandeur of the new world.

Through it the spirit of the wilderness speaks of the mysterious

trinity-life, death, eternity. True, it reveals a writer under

the spell of Gray's Elegy, but there are stanzas that have dis-

tinctive merit and reflect credit upon this unknown bard. The

effusion has a genuine western flavor and stands as our first

published "view of death," with occasional lines foreshadowing

the Thanatopsis.

In the summer of 1796, William Maxwell, who had been

appointed post-master of Cincinnati, sold The Centinel of the

North-Western Territory, to Edmund Freeman, who changed the

name to Freeman's Journal. It was issued here till about 1800.

when it suspended publication and followed the Territorial

Government to Chillicothe, where Mr. Coggeshall tells us that

Mr. Freeman purchased the Gazette. Here Mr. Coggeshall is

again in error. Freeman's Journal was published for a time in

Chillicothe, where the editor died.  In The Scioto Gazette of Oc-

tober 19th, 1801, appears a notice of S. Freeman, administrator,

relative to the death of Edmund Freeman, late of Chillicothe,

printer, deceased. Nathaniel Willis, editor of The Scioto Ga-

zette, purchased the outfit of Freeman's Journal in October,

1801. It was therefore merged into The Scioto Gazette, which

continues under that name to the present day.

Having described somewhat at length this early newspaper,

it is fitting that more be said of the editor and his wife. Of

the latter we shall speak first, because our information in re-

gard to her remarkable career is more complete and definite.

Nancy Robins was a typical pioneer heroine. She was born

in Virginia, August 6th, 1760. Her parents settled at Grave's

Creek, about twelve miles from the present site of Wheeling, W.

Va., where she grew up to young womanhood. Here her father

was killed and scalped by the Indians. With her mother and a

few neighbors she made an almost miraculous escape1 to Ft.

Henry, where the whites were closely besieged by the savages.²

1An Indian caught her dress and was about to strike her down

when hunters came to her rescue.

2September 1, 1777. See Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the Rev-

olution, Vol. II, 291-283; Hildreth's Early Settlers of Ohio; Otis's De-

fense of Fort Henry; Hunter's Pathfinders of Jefferson County, in Ohio

Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, Vol. VI, 131-133.

The First Newspaper of the Northwest Territory.    345

out till reinforcements arrived and compelled the savages to

raise the siege.

Afterward Miss Robins and her mother lived with the

Zane family.¹ Miss Nancy went to Cincinnati and there met

William Maxwell, whom she subsequently married. She aided

him in all his work, helped to print the newspaper, and with

her own hands, in 1796, bound the Maxwell Code,² the first

book printed within the limits of the Northwest Territory. In

1799, she accompanied her husband to Dayton, Ohio, which was

then a military post. Here she remained until Mr. Maxwell,

assisted by some discharged soldiers employed for that purpose,

cut a road through to Upper Alpha. This road afterwards be-

came a part of the Dayton and Xenia Pike. Mrs. Maxwell was

the first white woman to travel over it.

To the new log cabin in the wilderness she came with her

husband and two children, William and Eliza. Here the little

family grew until there were eight children. After the death of

her husband she married John White, whom she survived many

years. Of the second union six children were born, one of

whom, Mrs. Elizabeth Webster, of Dayton, Ohio, is still living

at the age of eighty-three years.

In her old age, Mrs. (Maxwell) White moved with relatives

and friends to Sidell, Illinois, where she died November ₉th,

1868,3 at the age of one hundred and eight years, three months

and six days. Amiability and cheerfulness were native to her.

Through life she was blessed with good health. To its last

hour she retained full possession of her faculties. She was the

mother of fourteen children, whose descendants are now living

in many states. A modest monument, fittingly inscribed, marks

her last resting place.

1Later Mrs. Robins became the second wife of Ebenezer Zane.

2The "Code," bound in pioneer style, was sewed with wax ends,

tipped with bristles.

3Just seventy-five years after the publication of the first issue of

The Centinel of the North-Western Territory.

4Of the first union were born William, Elias, Rachel, John, Ludlow,

Nancy, George, Eliza; of the second, Margaret, Lemuel, Catherine, Eva-

line, Elizabeth, Anne.