EDITORIALANA. |
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THE OHIO RIVER. It was one of Pascal's thoughts that "rivers are highways that move on, and bear us whither we wish to go." Surely it is, that primeval and pioneer man has followed the courses of great streams because along those channels have been found the lines of least resistance. On the rivers and their banks therefore has history found its favorite haunts. Dry up the currents of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Danube, the Tiber, the Rhine, the Seine, and the Thames, and you will have changed if not have wiped out the courses of civilization. In the stored records of our country the rivers have played their part, picturesque and potent. The St. Lawrence, the Hudson, the Con- necticut, the Colorado, the Illinois, the Wabash, the Wisconsin and the Father of Waters have had their historians. Nor has the Ohio escaped the pen of the chronicler. Mr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, the scholarly secre- tary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin was perhaps the first to produce a volume devoted to the waters of the La Belle Riviere, as the early French navigators styled the Ohio. His brochure issued first as "Afloat on the Ohio," and reissued as "The Storied Ohio," is a de- lightful account of a canoe voyage on this historic waterway from Red- stone creek to Cairo, with landings at and observation upon the points of interest along the route. Mr. Archer Butler Hulbert, secretary of the Ohio Valley Histori- cal Society and a Life Member of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, is the author of an extensive and elaborate work entitled "The Ohio River, a Course of Empire," recently put forth by G. P. Putnam's Sons. Mr. Hulbert had already made himself known to the reading public as the author of the unique and valuable contri- bution to American History, "The Historic Highways of America." Mr. Hulbert made his initial bow as the author on this subject, in which he has become the highest authority, in the pages of this QUARTERLY for January, 1900. "The Ohio River" is a masterly and entertaining presentation of the subject comprising some 350 octavo pages, with maps and copious illus- trations. Mr. Hulbert has the historic instinct and discrimination with rare powers of description. He carries the reader along through the 106 |
Editorialana. 107
scenes and events touched by his theme
as delightfully as the most
accomplished Cicerone guides the
traveler through the bewildering
wealth of a museum or picture gallery.
Mr. Hulbert is an enthusiast
in historic lore and his fervor is
contagious. History to the average
person suggests little more than a
series of dry dates of a funeral pro-
cession of lifeless figures and embalmed incidents. Mr.
Hulbert galvanizes
the past into a living present. His Ohio
River is a continuous panorama
and the reader moves from picture to
picture without wearying, indeed
with accelerating interest. The best
test of the book is that you close
it with the regret that the finis has
been reached. It is doubtful if any
other American waterway touches in its
course so much of historic
value and variety. It was first
discovered and navigated in 1670, so far
as records go, by the famous La Salle,
foremost in chivalry, romance
and adventure among the French
explorers. It was the logical and
natural highway and connecting link
between the French settlements on
the St. Lawrence and those on the
Mississippi. Its source at the Forks
of the Allegheny and Monongahela was the
great gateway to the bound-
less west and that stategic gateway was
the point of contest bitter and
bloody between the Gaul and the Saxon.
Its banks were the scene of
the initial struggles between the two
great white races. Later it was
decreed by the Redmen, the aborigine, as
the boundary line between
the advancing pale face and the
indigenous children of the forest. Again
and again did the savage strive to drive
back the English and the Ameri-
can across its majestic current. Its
meandering course through the
magnificent wilderness of the untrodden
west suggested its name:
"The first brave English
adventurers who looked with
eager eyes upon the great river of the
Middle West learned
that its Indian name was represented by
the letters Oyo, and
it has since been known as the Ohio
River. The French, who
came in advance of the English,
translated the Indian name,
we are told, and called the Ohio La
Belle Riviere, 'the beauti-
ful river.' We have, however, other
testimony concerning
the name that cannot well be overlooked.
It is that of the
two experienced and well-educated
Moravian missionaries,
Heckewelder and Zeisberger, who came
into the trans-Alle-
gheny country long before the end of the
eighteenth century.
Upon such a subject as the meaning of
Ohio, one might easily
hold these men to be final authorities.
John Heckewelder af-
firms that Oyo never could have
been correctly translated
'beautiful'; Zeisberger adds that in the
Onondago dialect of
the Iroquois tongue there was a word oyoneri
which meant
'beautiful' but only in the adverbial
sense--something that
was done 'beautifully', or, as we say,
done 'well'. Mr. Hecke-
welder, knowing that it was commonly
understood that the
108 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
French had translated Oyo when
they gave the name of La
Belle Riviere to the Ohio, took occasion
to study the matter
carefully. He found that in the Miami
language O hui or
.Ohi, as prefixes, meant 'very'; for instance, Ohiopeck meant
'very
white'; Ohiopeekhanne meant 'the white foaming
river.' The Ohio River [he writes],
being in many places
wide and deep and so gentle that for
many miles, in some
places, no current is perceivable, the
least wind blowing up
the river covers the surface with what
the people of that coun-
try call 'white caps'; and I have myself
witnessed that for
days together, this has been the case,
caused by southwesterly
winds (which, by the way, are the prevailing
winds in that
country), so that we, navigating the
canoes, durst not venture
to proceed, as these white caps would
have filled and sunk our
canoes in an instant. Now, in such
cases, when the river
could not be navigated with canoes, nor
even crossed with
this kind of craft--when the whole
surface of the water
presented white foaming swells, the
Indians would, as the
case was at times, say, 'juh
Ohiopiechan, Ohio peek, Ohio
peekhanne'; and when they supposed the
water very deep they
would say 'Kitschi, Ohiopeekhanne,'
which means, 'verily this
is a deep white river.'
"For one, I like the interpretation
of 'Ohio' as given by
those old missionaries--the 'River of
Many White Caps.'
True, there is a splendid, sweeping
beauty in the Ohio, but
throughout a large portion of its course
the land lies low on
either bank, and those who have feasted
their eyes on the
picturesque Hudson, or on the dashing
beauty of the Sagueny,
have been heard to call in question the
judgment of the French
who named the Ohio Belle Riviere. But it
must be remem-
bered that the French first saw the
upper waters of the Ohio,
which we now know as the glittering
Allegheny. La Belle
Riviere included the Ohio and the
Allegheny; its was not
until the English had reached the Ohio,
about the middle of
the eighteenth century, that it came to
be said that the Alle-
gheny and Monongahela formed the Ohio,
at Pittsburgh. To
one acquainted with the roaring
Allegheny, dancing down
through the New York and Pennsylvania
hills, and who can
see how clear the waters ran in the
dense green of the an-
cient forest-to such a one it is not
difficult to see why the
French called it La Belle Rivier."
Mr. Hulbert then unfolds the history of
the river from its earliest
discovery to the present time; the more
memorable voyages on its
waters; the spectacular expedition of
Celoron de Bienville (1749) in
Editorialana. 109
which that romantic chevalier with his
detachment of two hundred
French officers and Canadian soldiers,
sixty Iroquois and Abenake In-
dians in a flotilla of twenty birchbark
canoes embarked from Montreal
and pushing up the St. Lawrence to the
waters of Lake Erie, ascended
the Chautauqua creek, crossed the lake
and swung into the Allegheny
and finally into the Ohio. It reads like
a fairy tale, this voyage down
the Ohio, the ceremonious burying at the
mouth of debouching rivers
of leaden plates, claiming the territory
for France; the ascent of the
Great Miami and the return by the Maumee
and the Great Lakes to
Montreal.
In 1770 came the journey down the Ohio
of George Washington
prospecting for land pre-emptions and
who "has left the clearest picture
of the Ohio of pre-Revolutionary day, as
the result of his trip." It
was on this trip that Washington at
least twice stood upon the terri-
tory now included in the boundaries of
the Buckeye State.
The Fall of 1774 was memorable on the
Ohio because of Dunmore's
War. The Earl of Dunmore, royal governor
of Virginia took up arms
against the Indians of the trans-Ohio
country. His army numbered
three thousand, divided into two
divisions of fifteen hundred each; one
division under General Andrew Lewis
proceeded down the Great Ka-
nawha to its mouth (Point Pleasant)
where it encountered the crafty
and brilliant Shawnee leader Cornstalk
at the head of fifteen hundred
chosen Ohio braves. The Virginia
backwoodsmen were victorious and
following their defeated foe crossed the
Ohio and proceeded to the site
of Chillicothe where they met the
division under Dunmore, which in
a hundred canoes, rafts and pirogues had
embarked on the upper Ohio
and "landed in what is now the
state of Ohio at the mouth of the Hock-
hocking, where a stockade was
erected." Even the worthy Homer
sometimes nods and at this point Mr.
Hulbert, omits to our mind, one
of the most interesting and noteworthy
events that ever transpired on
the Ohio. As the army of Dunmore
returned from the interior it en-
camped at Fort Gower, mouth of the
Hockhocking. There on November
5, 1774, was held an historic meeting of
the Virginia officers. The wel-
come message was brought them of the
patriotic action taken by the
Continental Congress then in session at
Philadelphia and these Vir-
ginia officers resolved "That we
will bear the most faithful allegiance
to his Majesty, King George, the Third,
whilst His Majesty delights to
reign over a brave and free people; that
we will at the expense of life,
and everything dear and valuable, exert
ourselves in support of his
crown and the dignity of the British
Empire. But as the love of liberty
and attachment of the real interests and
just rights of America out-
weigh every other consideration, we
resolve that we will exert every
power within us for the defense of
American liberty, and for the sup-
port of her just rights and privileges;
not in any precipitate, riotous
and tumultuous manner, but when
regularly called for by the unanimous
110 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
voice of our countrymen." That was a public, formal, spontaneous
declaration of American freedom
announced by Virginia colonists on
the banks of the Hockhocking and the
Ohio in the future Buckeye State,
six months before the shot was fired at
Lexington that echoed around
the world and more than a year and a
half before the Liberty Bell,
in the Quaker City, rang forth the glad
tidings of national independence,
Surely The Ohio River deserves
all credit accruing from that historic
fact. The Ohio bore its patriotic part
in the Revolution and to that
Mr. Hulbert does justice. In the summer
of 1778, the period of the
deepest decline of the American cause,
occurred the beginning of the
brilliant successful campaign of the
Revolution in the West, the con-
quest of Illinois by that daring
"Washington of the West" the intrepid
Virginian youth, George Rogers Clark. He
raised a motley contingent
of some two hundred Virginia and
Pennsylvania volunteer backwoods-
men and at Fort Pitt embarked for the
lower Ohio, the Falls at Louis-
ville, whence he invaded the Illinois
country and performed that perilous
and almost unparalleled feat of
capturing the same and holding the
Northwest to the American cause. The
Revolution was followed by that
most potent of all Ohio river
expeditions-that is potent to Ohio State
-the trip of the Adventure Galley or
the Mayflower.
"The New Englanders at once began
preparations to emi-
grate to the shore of the 'River of Many
White Caps.' The
vanguard of about fifty officers and
workmen left for the West
in the winter of 1787-88, and after a
tedious journey over
Forbe's Road through Pennsylvania
reached the Youghioheny
in the early spring. Here at what is now
West Newton, Pa.,
boats were constructed for the river
trip, the flagship of the
tiny squadron being the Adventure
Galley, afterwards called
the Mayflower in memory of the historic
ship of the Pilgrim
fathers. Descending the Youghioheny,
Monongahela, and the
Ohio the veteran hero General Putnam,
landed at Fort Harmar
at the mouth of the Muskingum, April 7,
1788. On the oppo-
site shore of the Muskingum the pioneer
town in the North-
west Territory was founded by these
forty-eight founders of
Ohio. Fort Harmar, erected partly to
prevent the Virginian
and Pennsylvanian squatters from
crossing the Ohio, received
with equanimity the legal purchasers of
the Ohio company's
domain. At once a blockhouse was erected
by the New Eng-
landers and named the 'Campus Martius';
about it the little
town began to grow up. In the fall
preceding, Congress had
elected General Arthur St. Clair
governor of the territory
northwest of the river Ohio. In July,
1788, he arrived, and
on the fifteenth of that month the
inauguration ceremony was
duly celebrated. The veterans of the
Revolution on the Ohio
Editorialana. 111
gave the name of Marietta to the new
town in honor of Mary
Antoinette and France. Generals St.
Clair of Pennsylvania,
and Putnam of Massachusetts, Samuel Holden Parsons of
Connecticut, and James M. Varnum of
Rhode Island were the
leaders in the work of establishing the
settlement, aided by
Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the
Territory, and by the
noble Manasseh Cutler, who was a
frequent visitor and a power-
ful advocate in the East. Parsons,
Varnum, and John Cleve
Symmes, Chief Justice of New Jersey,
were elected Judges
of the Territory."
Over against the safe and sane
settlement at Marietta, followed
in 1796 the erratic and almost
ridiculous settlement of the deluded
Parisians at Gallipolis. That incident
is the vaudeville act in the his-
tory of Ohio, it is the comedy amid many
tragic surroundings. Another
theatrical scene on the Ohio was the
journey of the conspirator Aaron
Burr from Pittsburgh to Blennerhassett
Island and his inveiglement of
the stupid but doubtless well-meaning
Herman Blennerhassett. That
was another tragico-comedy on the Ohio
which Mr. Hulbert gracefully
depicts. But we must refer the reader to
The Ohio River for a proper
appreciation of its extent and value. It
will be read with equal in-
terest by teacher and pupil, young and
old. Mr. Hulbert has a clear,
vigorous, easy-moving style. If anyone thinks history is stupid, let
him read this book and learn otherwise;
if one imagines the Ohio river
is a commonplace "shallow babbling
run" let him read this book and
learn of its mighty influence in the
western advance of civilization and
its fascinating career through the
history of American progress.
Mr. Hulbert's Ohio River is not only the
most complete and satis-
factory contribution to the literature
of the subject which it treats but we
know of no American waterway having so
accomplished and accurate a
chronicler.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXHIBIT.
In the early autumn of 1906 the New York
Academy of Science
through Dr. Wissler, Chairman of the
Committee on Archaeology and
Ethnology, invited the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society
to make an exhibit of the progress
accomplished by the Society in archae-
ological science in Ohio during the past
year. The Executive Committee
of the Society authorized Prof. W. C.
Mills, Curator, to make such ex-
hibit. Prof. Mills prepared a miniature
model, on the scale of one foot
to forty feet, in plaster and wood of
the Harness Mound, which was
exhumed by the professor in the summer
of 1906. The model represented
three fourths of the mound completed
with the exact position of the
burials and fire places. The burials
represented were two kinds, cre-
mated and uncremated. Of the latter but
few were found in the mound,
112 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
there being but five uncremated in a
total of 133 burials. The evidence
from the explorations revealed that the
process of cremation generally
took place at some spot more or less
distant from the grave, the
charred bones and ashes being gathered
up after the burning and placed
in the grave. All the graves showed
careful preparation and in each
instance a platform of clay was arranged
surrounded with logs. The
platform was usually oval in shape, the
center being raised above the
level of the sides.
In several cases the center of the grave
had been hollowed out,
thus forming a basin shaped receptacle.
In many instances the graves
were constructed in the form of a
parallelogram, being more than a
foot in depth, the cremated remains
having been placed in the bottom
of the grave. All these various forms
were developed in the model.
In addition to the model of the mound
two other models were prepared
exhibiting typical graves and made the
exact size of the original, show-
ing the oval basin shape and the
parallelogram form. Casts of the
various pieces of copper, stone and bone
implements were placed in
the model graves duplicating the
originals as found in the exhumation.
The exhibition of these models and other
constructions illustrative
of the advance of science was held in
the American Museum of Natural
History, New York City, during the
holiday week and some two weeks
following. The occasion was the annual
meeting of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of
Science. During the exercises of the
Association, Professor Mills read two
papers relating his experience in
the exploration of Ohio mounds and
describing the results of his obser-
vations. The models exhibited by the
professor were examined with
great interest by the distinguished
members of the Scientific Association.
Professor Mills is now engaged in the
construction of an exact miniature
reproduction of the Serpent Mound. These
models will be exhibited at
the forthcoming Jamestown Exposition.