Ohio History Journal

edited and translated by

PHILLIP J. WOLFE and WARREN J. WOLFE

Prospects for the Gallipolis Settlement:

French Diplomatic Dispatches

More than two centuries have passed since Gallipolis, Ohio ("City of the

Gauls"), was founded by French settlers. It was on October 17, 1790, that a

group of French immigrants first set foot on the banks of the Ohio and found

some eighty log huts awaiting them. As colonists of the Scioto Company,

they had arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, and in other ports during the course

of the year 1790. Their exact number is unknown, although they are often re-

ferred to as the "French Five Hundred."¹

Their story begins with the formation of the Ohio Company and the Scioto

Company, established by Congress in 1787 to purchase and settle lands along

the Ohio River. The Scioto Company, hoping to sell lands to Europeans, sent

Joel Barlow (1754-1812), a poet and Yale graduate, to Paris the following

year. He took with him a booklet by the Reverend Manasseh Cutler, of

Massachusetts, entitled A Prospectusfor the Establishment of the Rivers Ohio

and Scioto in America, published in Salem in 1787, which described in glow-

ing terms the lands which were for sale; Barlow had the work translated, and

the French version was published in Paris in 1789.

Since Barlow was not very successful in his recruitment efforts, he em-

ployed an Englishman, William Playfair, as his assistant, and together they

organized a company known as the "Societe du Scioto."² The titles to the

Phillip J. Wolfe is Associate Professor of Modern Languages at Allegheny College,

Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Warren J. Wolfe is Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages at

Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.

1. On the settlement of Gallipolis, one should consult the recent publication written for the bi-

centennial anniversary of that city: Gallipolis, Ohio: A Pictorial History, 1790-1990, by

Henrietta C. Evans, John E. Lester, and Mary P. Wood (Charleston, West Virginia, 1990), espe-

cially ix-xiv, 1-15. For a more vivid account of the lives of the Gallipolis settlers, one may read

The French Five Hundred, by William G. Sibley (Gallipolis, 1933; reprinted by The Ohio

Historical Society in 1968).

2. Details of the transactions of the Ohio and the Scioto Companies, as well as the French

Society of the Scioto, are to be found in an article by Daniel J. Ryan, "The Scioto Company and

its Purchase," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, III (1891), (2nd ed., 1895), 109-

39. This publication, featuring addresses and articles prepared at the time of the first centennial

celebrations, also contains an English translation of the French edition of Cutler's pamphlet (pp.

82-108).

42                                                  OHIO HISTORY

lands that they sold, at one French crown per acre, were, in fact, simply the

option to purchase, but the French believed them to be outright titles of

ownership. The titles were apparently accepted without question, and, given

the unsettled conditions in France, many emigrants prepared to leave.

The colonists did not learn of the fraudulent titles until they arrived in

Alexandria. Some, doubtless, became discouraged at that time and returned

to France; some moved on to other regions of the United States. The major-

ity, however, remained in Alexandria until the agents of the Scioto Company

arranged for their transportation to the settlement on the Ohio River.

It is obvious that the French colonists were hampered by not having clear

titles to their lands. Once at Gallipolis, however, they soon discovered that

there were more immediate matters of concern. There was the constant dan-

ger of Indian attacks on the settlement; it was not until after the Treaty of

Greenville in 1795 that the settlers could feel safe. Moreover, the winter of

1791 at Gallipolis was especially cold and must have convinced some that

they should move on to a warmer climate, such as that of New Orleans.

According to one of the French settlers, in 1792, there were only 200 French

immigrants remaining in Gallipolis.³

The primary purpose of this article is to suggest, by making use of French

diplomatic dispatches from January to November 1790, still other reasons for

the relative lack of success in the establishment of a permanent French set-

tlement. These dispatches, or letters, are part of the diplomatic correspon-

dence in the archives of the French foreign ministry in Paris (Correspondance

Politique, Etats-Unis, XXXV). The writer of these letters was Louis-

Guillaume Otto (1754-1817), who had first come to the United States in 1779

as secretary to Anne-Cesar, Chevalier de la Luzerne (1741-1791), French

ambassador to the United States from 1779 to 1783. Born in Kark, in the

duchy of Baden, Otto studied at the University of Strasbourg before entering

the French diplomatic service. He became secretary of the French legation in

1785; from October 1789 until August 1791 he served as charge d'affaires.

In 1787 Otto married Elizabeth Livingston, the daughter of Peter Van Brugh

Livingston, the distinguished New York merchant and politician.

Unfortunately, she died the following year; her funeral was attended by

members of the American government and of Congress. Otto was well re-

ceived in the United States; he was elected to the American Philosophical

Society in 1787. Esteemed by Thomas Jefferson, who was Secretary of State

from 1790 to 1793, and by other officers of the government in New York,

Otto was well able to obtain useful information, which he could forward to

3. "Memoir of Antoine Laforge," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, XXIV

(1917), 49.

Prospects for the Gallipolis Settlement                                        43

his superiors in Versailles. In later years, Otto served in posts in Berlin,

London, Munich, and was appointed French Ambassador in Vienna.⁴

The four letters which follow have not previously been published in their

entirety. We have chosen to translate them for American readers. They are

addressed to the Count de Montmorin (1745-1792), who was the French

Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1787 to 1791.

Letter 1

(no. 15, fol. 37r)

New York, January 21, 1790

received March 4

My Lord,

I have just seen a letter written from Paris by a Mr. Barlow, an American

who asserts that, as a result of the present upheavals, many Frenchmen are

about to leave the kingdom in order to settle in the United States and, among

other things, that almost one hundred families, led by the Chevalier

Duportail,⁵ are going to buy a district in the interior of Virginia and settle

there. Although this report seems to me exaggerated and related to an enthu-

siasm too common in America, which holds that all European revolutions

help populate and enrich the United States, I cannot help but believe this

news is well-founded up to a point. The new principles spread throughout

France will probably make it unnecessary to insist upon the application of

past ordinances against emigration, because the right to change residence and

4. For additional information concerning Otto, see the study by Margaret M. O'Dwyer, "A

French Diplomat's View of Congress, 1790," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., XXI (July,

1964), 408-12. This article includes translations of ten dispatches from Otto to Montmorin be-

tween January and August, 1790, but these dispatches contain little in reference to the Gallipolis

settlement. Jefferson's evaluation of Otto is to be found in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson,

XVIII, 528, Julian P. Boyd, ed. (Princeton, 1971). Concerning Otto's marriage to Elizabeth

Livingston, and his subsequent marriage to Fanny Crevecoeur, daughter of the French author and

diplomat, see St. John de Crevecoeur: The Life Of an American Farmer, by Gay Wilson Allen

and Roger Asselineau (New York, 1987), 159-61. For Otto's diplomatic career, see the

Dictionnaire des diplomates de Napoleon, by Henri-Robert Jacques (Paris, 1990), 280-83.

5. "Chevalier Duportail" would seem to be General Louis Lebegue de Presle Duportail (1743-

1802), one of the French officers who served in America from 1777 to 1781, helping to fortify

Valley Forge and to organize the American army engineers. Duportail returned to France in

1781, and was named War Minister in 1790. Having displeased both Royalists and

Revolutionaries, he resigned in 1791 and sought refuge in the United States. There is no evi-

dence that General Duportail brought any families to the United States, nor does he seem to have

arrived with the Scioto Company colonists; he is listed, however, as a member of the "Societe

des 24," which was associated with the Scioto Company. On January 16, 1790, Duportail pur-

chased from the Scioto Company 2,000 acres of land, for which he paid 12,000 livres (Archives

Nationales, Inventaire des papiers de Duportail, emigre, T749). He resided near Philadelphia

from 1794 until 1802. See Elizabeth S. Kite, Brigadier-General Louis Lebegue Duportail

(Baltimore, 1933), 7-9, and La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Journal de Voyage en Amerique et

d'un sejour a Philadelphie (Baltimore, 1940), 79.

Prospects for the Gallipolis Settlement                                    45

Several French immigrants have already arrived in Boston, Philadelphia

and Virginia. I have seen a few here, who have brought funds to set up es-

tablishments. They appear surprised not to find the great advantages they had

expected, and they are almost ready to go back. I have urged them to write

their friends to dissuade them from the extravagant project of following their

example. A few letters of this sort, strongly worded and published in our

newspapers, would have a greater effect than laws and pamphlets. England

used these kinds of publications with great effectiveness to limit emigrations.

An Irishman named Dobbyns has just sent Congress a report imploring it to

grant him a certain expanse of land to settle immigrants from his country,

whose passage he intends to pay. This project is perfect for Irish peasants,

exhausted by all sorts of taxes, speaking the same language as Americans,

and naturally inclined to roam the world and to clear frontiers. The French

peasant is not in the same situation.

I remain, Sir, with profound respect

Your very humble and obedient servant Otto

Letter 2

(no. 27, fol. 92r)

New York, May 11, 1790

received July 2

My Lord,

The rumor spread here about a society formed in France with the goal of

creating an establishment on the Scioto, about which I had the honor to in-

form you in my dispatch number 15, is only too true. Nearly 100 persons

who had embarked at Le Havre to come to this country, after having greatly

suffered aboard an English vessel chartered by the Society, and which was on

the point of sinking, were met by an American ship which brought them to

New York.⁷ Three hundred others have arrived in Virginia and it is rumored

their number will come to around 12,000. I have seen, Sir, the leaders of

those who have arrived here and particularly a Mr. Boulogne,⁸ a young

7. According to Edward Naret, an early Gallipolis settler, this ship, the "Recovery," was the

first to transport the French emigrants bound for the Ohio. "While at sea she sprung a leak, and

passengers and crew worked day and night at all the pumps that could be rigged. It was a most

valiant struggle for life, but all in vain. The last ray of hope faded from them and the angry bil-

lows seemed to mock their despair, when an English vessel hove in sight, came to, and took off

passengers and crew." Naret, History of the French Settlement at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1790, 6-7.

A letter, apparently written by one of the passengers, provides further details: the "Recovery,"

with 86 passengers, commanded by a Captain Gordon, left Le Havre February 10, 1790. The

English vessel that rescued passengers and crew was the "Elizabeth," commanded by Captain

Fordyce; it reached New York on May 2. See Lettre ecrite par un Francois emigrant sur les ter-

res de la compagnie de Scioto, a son ami a Paris (1790), 1-2.

8. Charles-Felix Boue Boulogne was an agent for the Scioto Company, chosen by Barlow to

accompany the first group of Scioto colonists, but he was also active in the organization of the

46                                                            OHIO HISTORY

Parisian, educated and able to serve usefully the Colony he is going to estab-

lish, but judging from the first operation of the Society, which paid 6 pounds

an acre for land which Congress sells for 20 sous, there must be a large num-

ber of dupes among the immigrants. Their ideas are so exalted that this dis-

honesty, which I pointed out to them, does not disturb them. They are

pleased in general with the accuracy of the Society's representatives in

America, but I greatly doubt whether they will say the same thing when they

arrive on the spot. Young Parisians, interesting and witty, are not well-suited

to undergo the deprivations of a virtual frontier life and to work at clearing

land. They bring with them all sorts of tradesmen, among whom a very good

discipline has been established. The Americans, who have never seen such

immigrants, are very pleased and welcome them heartily. I do not believe,

Sir, that this craze for emigrating to a country without resources can last un-

less a long series of unhappy events makes it necessary. In any case, the emi-

gration of a few thousand inhabitants cannot be considered a great loss for a

kingdom such as France. The most notable of these immigrants have brought

me letters of introduction and have asked me to present them to the President

of the United States.⁹ I have managed to evade this request. My behavior

towards them is all the more restrained as it appears to me that at a time such

as this a good citizen cannot leave his country and request in a foreign land

the assistance of people employed by his government. I limited myself to

calling on them and showing no worry about the emigration which they in-

tend to encourage and increase through their letters. While agreeing with the

principle that in a country as free as France, every citizen had the right to

change his place of residence, I observed only that it was astonishing that

they should seek, 1500 leagues from their homes, amidst many dangers and

inconveniences, a freedom found at their own doorstep. In reply, they

showed me high-sounding descriptions given them of the beautiful country

surrounding the Ohio; I know their accuracy and will abide by their own

judgment after they have spent a few months there. Our conversation had no

Greene Colony of New York in 1792 and of the Asylum Colony of Pennsylvania in 1793, ac-

cording to Frances Sergeant Childs, French Refugee Life in the United States 1790-1800: An

American Chapter of the French Revolution (Baltimore, 1940), 95-97, 99.

9. It is regrettable that Otto does not identify "the most notable of these immigrants." They

must have included Count Jean Joseph de Barth, who had reached Alexandria on May 3rd on the

ship the "Patriot," which carried 218 passengers (Naret, History, 7). Count de Barth (1726-1793)

was a deputy to the National Assembly from Alsace and an associate in the "Societe des 24."

After landing in Alexandria, he traveled to New York in order to consult with Colonel William

Duer, president of the Scioto Company. See the Gallipolis Papers, box 2, 169, in the Cincinnati

Historical Society. The immigrants called on President Washington, but he was ill and unable to

receive them. However, on June 30, 1790, Washington wrote a letter addressed to "Duchesne,

De Barth, Thiebaud, and their Associates in the Scioto Settlement" to welcome them upon their

arrival in the country, "and to assure you of all that countenance and protection from the general

government of the United States which the Constitution and Laws will enable the Executive to

afford under existing circumstances." Writings of Washington, vol. 31, 64-65.

Prospects for the Gallipolis Settlement                        47

further consequences, but since these immigrants may stay for some time, I

will be careful to avoid them, without however making it obvious.

You will allow me, Sir, to repeat here that, unless peoples' disposition has

completely changed since my departure from France, it seems impossible to

me that they can succeed in this new colony, which may have the attraction of

novelty for a short while, but which will soon fall into oblivion, either

through the dispersion or the return of the settlers.

We have reason to believe, Sir, that the ship which left Bordeaux in

December has sunk,¹⁰ because we have had no news. This accident, together

with the slowness of these ships, is responsible for the fact that for 4 months I

have had to entrust several dispatches to merchant vessels, which probably

reached you very irregularly. It is true that the affairs of this country are of so

little interest to European political matters that this inconvenience is very

slight.

I remain with profound respect, Sir,

Your very humble and obedient servant Otto

Letter 3

(no. 31, fol. 111)

New York, June 10, 1790

received September 25

Sir,

A group of Frenchmen deceived by lies they had been told about the Scioto

is encamped about 39 miles from this city. They had been promised that the

Indians would be 200 miles from their colony, and that during the first year

they could use the Company's ovens and houses. They are learning too late

that the Indians will be close by and the ovens and houses 200 miles away.

They are asking to return to France, but have no money to pay their passage.

They have sent a deputation to our vice-consul requesting to return at the

King's expense, but the former eluded their request, lacking authorization

from Court. It is clear, Sir, that for the modest sum of 8,000 pounds one

could have returned 250 honest citizens to their country, where they would

have gone throughout the kingdom discrediting the senseless plan to seek

fortune in the American wilderness. Frightened by the complaints of these

unhappy people, the Scioto Company is doing all it can to calm them by im-

proving their supplies and support. It has signed contracts to supply them

with bread during this year and part of the next, since corn, which is the stan-

dard food of frontier dwellers in America, would not be suitable for

Frenchmen. From New England it has sent at its own expense a large number

10. The ships carrying the French immigrants bound for the Scioto all seem to have departed

from Le Havre, so the vessel mentioned here is probably unrelated to the Scioto Company.

48                                                      OHIO HISTORY

of workers and carpenters skilled in clearing the land.¹¹ It has offered much

free land to poor Americans as incentive to settle there and to serve as models

for the French for whom everything is new in this wilderness. One of its

agents told me that the main aim of this measure was to save the Company's

honor and convince the world that if the French were not as successful as

Americans, it was their own fault. Finally, it is offering to make great sacri-

fices to satisfy the immigrants, who are constantly making efforts to leave. A

French captain who arrived yesterday from St. Valery told me that, before

leaving France, he was besieged by people who wanted to come to America

with him and that, scarcely arrived here, he is again besieged by those who

want to leave. The Scioto Company is right to fear losing its reputation in

France; it is consequently making all possible concessions to attract twice

again the number of settlers. But I have reason to believe, as I had the honor

of telling you before, Sir, that its hopes will be in vain, and that after having

disgusted and ruined 500 or 600 credulous immigrants it will fall into obliv-

ion and that this scheme will be a repetition on a small scale of the

Mississippi Company.¹² One of the Company's agents, a clever and specious

man, tried to add a new falsehood to the other boasts that are made for these

lands, that relations will soon be established between the Scioto Company

and the French in Louisiana which will allow them to shake off the Spanish

yoke and recognize their former homeland, so that the immigrants will soon

be again closely bound to their former country and enjoy all the advantages of

French citizenship. Some have embraced this extravagant idea without con-

sidering the huge distance which separates this new colony from Louisiana.

What seems more certain, Sir, is that the President of the United States favors

and secretly protects this new establishment which will be opposite vast lands

he owns on the other bank of the Ohio and whose value nearby settlements

will increase. He has ordered congressional troops stationed in the Ohio to

accompany our immigrants and to take up positions between them and the

Indians to guard them from any attack. By feigning interest in the colony's

success, I obtained these details from a man who enjoys the President's con-

fidence and who assured me that, after the colony's establishment, General

Washington's lands will at least double in value.

It is said here, Sir, that the National Assembly will seek means of prevent-

ing emigration to the Scioto. If my opinion were asked, I would say that the

11. Major John Burnham, an officer in the American Revolution, was employed by the Scioto

Associates in March, 1790, to lead New England woodsmen to build a settlement on the banks of

the Ohio. A group of thirty-six men reached Wellsburg on May 29, and soon thereafter were

clearing the land and building the log cabins which sheltered the first French immigrants on their

landing at Gallipolis on October 17, 1790. OAHP, III, 40-44.

12. The reference, of course, is to the 1717 financial scheme of John Law to colonize the

Mississippi through the sale of shares in the Compagnie d'Occident. Its failure caused consider-

able financial distress in France.

Prospects for the Gallipolis Settlement                                   49

present illusions will destroy themselves and the best way to restrain them is

to allow them free rein. Some malcontents are leaving, others are writing to

their friends to complain about their lot. These reports will be more effective

than any ban on emigration.

I am with profound respect, Sir

Your very humble and obedient servant Otto

Letter 4

(no. 43, fol. 194r)

New York, November 12, 1790

received March 18, 1791

My Lord,

M. de Malartic¹³ gave me the letter of recommendation with which you

honored me on April 20 only on his return from Scioto. I used this occasion

to gather new information on the French colony's progress and to verify other

reports I had gathered. The clamor raised by the immigrants on their arrival

here was so loud that the Company, fearing the loss of its reputation in

Europe, made sacrifices which have been very effective. It not only provides

them the means of reaching the Scioto, but also furnishes them bread, meat

and brandy until they are able to have their own harvest. It has sent to the

area about a hundred Americans to do the first clearing and build houses. It

hires about fifty hunters to furnish game, which is very abundant, and finally

it lodges and feeds the entire company at its own expense, so that land bought

for 6 pounds an acre is really not too expensive considering the colony's inci-

dental expenses. This company's sacrifices are all the more surprising con-

sidering it has received from its agent in France, Mr. Barlow, only the modest

sum of 6000 pounds, although this agent has sold close to a million acres.

His slowness in sending money is beginning to be of some concern here and

it is probable that the new immigrants who may arrive will not be as well

treated as the others. Some people think the company will necessarily soon

be bankrupt.¹⁴

13. Louis Hippolyte Joseph de Mauris, Vicomte de Malartic (1769-1832). The Vicomte de

Malartic attended the Military School in Paris in 1783, and was appointed ensign in the regiment

of the French Guard. With the authorization of Versailles, he joined the Scioto immigrants

aboard the brig "Nautilus," which reached Alexandria on August 5, 1790. After the visit to New

York mentioned in Otto's dispatch, Malartic must have returned to the Ohio, for, according to

Naret, "he distinguished himself as volunteer aid of General St. Clair." He eventually returned to

France and joined the army of the French emigres in Germany.

14. William Duer, president of the Scioto Company, went bankrupt and was sentenced to

debtor's prison, where he died in 1799. As for the sums sent from France by Joel Barlow, see the

letter from William Playfair to Duer, dated November 20, 1790, read and approved by Barlow,

published in Sibley, The French Five Hundred, 39-48.

50                                                   OHIO HISTORY

When M. De Malartic left, the colony numbered some seven hundred set-

tlers who, except for the rich, seemed happy enough with their lot. They got

along well with settlers at Muskingum,15 who are their closest neighbors and

specially with Mr. Sinclair [St. Clair], governor of the West. Several mar-

riages with women from Kentucky have increased ties with this colony, and

as for the Indians, they have done nothing worse than steal horses, which are

almost impossible to keep. For farming they will probably use oxen, which

are harder to steal and of no interest to the Indians. The descriptions of the

richness of the land were quite accurate. The Ohio, which the French

Canadians called La Belle Riviere, is entirely worthy of this name. Its shores

need only strong arms to become one of the richest areas in America. In ad-

dition to an infinity of resources which nature provides, sugar-maple trees,

which grow in abundance, supply a staple which colonists could import from

the Antilles only at great expense.  This tree is so common, and sugar

harvesting so easy, that our settlers, like the Pennsylvania Quakers, have

already taken steps to ship their excess production on the Mississippi. The

French capital is on the northern bank of the Ohio opposite the mouth of the

great Kankara [Kanawha], a river which facilitates communication with

Virginia. Although there are no judges established in the colony, there are

several people who have acquired enough influence to control their fellow

citizens and even punish them if need be, but it is neither the richest nor the

most distinguished who enjoy this prerogative; the nature of things and the

force of numbers seem to be drawing them rapidly towards a completely

democratic constitution. M. de Marnesia and others who had dreamed of

establishing a new Rome and obtaining for themselves and for their families

the honors of the patrician class were cruelly deceived.¹⁶ They are shunned

and avoided to the point that their houses are empty despite the elegance of

their table and of their furniture, which they are careful to show off. Two

arms and good health appear to be the chief titles in that region, and it is more

than probable that these distinguished persons, whom novelty or some other

reason drew to America, will soon become homesick for their country, which

they cannot help but hold dear. Furthermore, communications with this

colony are improving daily. It is only fifteen days from New York, which

will make it easier for the malcontents to return. It seems that emigration

from France has peaked; for several months only isolated families have

arrived in America; they used to come by the hundreds. This is not to say,

Sir, that poor and especially young people cannot do very well in the Scioto,

15. Muskingum was the first name of the village which was later called Marietta.

16. M. de Marnesia was among the leaders of the Scioto immigrants. Claude-Francois-Adrien,

marquis de Lezay-Marnesia (1735-1800), was elected from the Jura region as deputy to the

States-General; in the National Assembly he joined the Tiers-Etat (the Commons). However, he

soon became discouraged and decided to emigrate to America.

52                                                   OHIO HISTORY

in France and that it would be useful to forewarn the administration of the

danger involved in limiting emigration, which could only increase due to the

interest that a ban would cause. I am more and more certain that my fellow-

citizens' illusions will vanish of themselves and that the most unhappy of

them will be the first to return to their homes where they will rejoin their

friends and experience pleasures that they sought in vain in the New World.

Furthermore, it is improbable that the Company can survive much longer,

given the dishonesty of its agents in France.

I am with profound respect, sir,

Your very humble and obedient servant Otto

The above dispatches show clearly enough that Otto is convinced that the

French settlement at Gallipolis will ultimately fail. He feels that those who

are arriving are not prepared for frontier life: "young Parisians...are not well-

suited...to clearing land" (letter 2); the immigrants should be farmers by pro-

fession, whereas there are, among the settlers, "wigmakers, confectioners,

musicians, all ill-suited to the sort of life they must embrace"(letter 4). There

is the danger of Indian attacks: "they had been promised that the Indians

would be two hundred miles from their colony" (letter 3). Finally, the settlers

have been greatly deceived by the agents of the Scioto Company through the

"high-sounding descriptions...of the beautiful country surrounding the Ohio"

(letter 2) and the "dishonesty of its agents in France" (letter 4).

While all these reasons are certainly valid, it must be pointed out that other

settlements along the Ohio and elsewhere faced much the same difficulties.

In an interesting study published in Ohio History a few years ago, two other

plausible reasons for the settlement's failure to thrive were proposed.¹⁸

Writing from the point of view of an economist, the authors note that "the ra-

tio of females to males in the settlement's population probably was quite low

... did a shortage of women contribute to the demise of the settlement?" Or,

perhaps, the lack of fertile lands at Gallipolis made it necessary to move on

further, to the "north or west of Gallipolis to obtain more valuable land."

We would like to propose two additional possibilities, based upon Otto's

dispatches. It is obvious that Otto did not favor the establishment of this

French settlement. He evaded their request for a meeting with the President

of the United States (letter 2), and urged some of the immigrants to write to

their friends to dissuade them from following their example: "a few letters of

18. Lee and Margaret Soltow, "A Settlement that Failed: The French in Early Gallipolis, an

Enlightening Letter, and an Explanation," Ohio History, 94 (Winter-Spring, 1985), 46-67.

Quotations are on 59 and 64.

Prospects for the Gallipolis Settlement                         53

this sort, strongly worded, and published in our newspapers, would have a

greater effect than laws and publications" (letter 1). Is it not possible that the

various publications that criticized the emigration to the Scioto lands had the

effect, as Otto hoped, of dissuading many potential settlers from crossing the

Atlantic? What happened to the 12,000 who, according to rumor (letter 2),

would soon be on their way?

It is certain that there were many such letters and pamphlets, most of them

published anonymously in 1790. Bernard Fay, in L'Esprit revolutionnaire en

France et aux Etats-Unis a la fin du XVIII siecle (Paris, 1925), provides an

incomplete list (p. 233); Henri Carre in a lengthy article, "Les Emigres

francais en Amerique: 1789-1793," La Revue de Paris, V (1898), 311-340,

summarizes additional satires. A good example of one such letter has been

edited by Henry J. Yeager, "Nouvelles du Scioto: The Story of a Fraud,"

Ohio History, 78(Autumn, 1969), 261-272. While these letters and

pamphlets do not explain why many of the Gallipolis settlers moved away

from the Ohio Valley, their publication must surely have discouraged those

who might otherwise have helped the colony to grow.

Another phrase used by Otto is quite significant: "the colony numbered

some seven hundred settlers who, except for the rich, seemed happy enough

with their lot" (letter 4). Who were the rich? Otto mentions M. de Marnesia

and others who "are shunned and avoided to the point that their houses are

empty despite the elegance of their table and of their furniture, which they are

careful to show off' (letter 4). Here lies, in part, the explanation for the pam-

phlets written against emigration to the Scioto lands: they were, frequently,

criticisms of the aristocrats seeking to leave France.

In the accounts of the Gallipolis settlement, one rarely finds a reference to

the "Societe des 24" (Company of Twenty-Four), yet that organization must

have played an important role in recruiting the settlers of Gallipolis.

Composed of twenty-four individuals, nobles for the most part, each of whom

was to buy 1,000 acres of Scioto lands, they are little known to American his-

torians, since most of them declined, or were unable, to join the colonists for

the Ohio. Their plans were quite distinct from those of the Gallipolis settlers.

The Company of Twenty-Four planned to establish a city at the confluence of

the Ohio and Scioto rivers, roughly at the location of present-day Portsmouth;

the city would be called, according to Marnesia, Aiglelis (aigle = eagle, lis =

lily, a nice blending of two national symbols). It would include a Catholic

church, a college, and a number of industries.

That the Company of Twenty-Four was interested more in expansion than

in settlements is evident from a letter of May 19, 1790, from Alexander

Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, to Arthur St. Clair, governor of the

Northwest Territory. It reads in part:

54                                                            OHIO HISTORY

This [letter] will be delivered to you by Mr. De Bart who is at the head of a French

Colony going to make a settlement on the Scioto ..... There is another colony under

Mr. De Boullogne, [sic] who have the same destination. The particulars of their situa-

tion and the circumstances which distinguish them will I presume be detailed to you

from some other quarter. I write this letter at the request of the parties merely to mani-

fest to them a friendly disposition. I am sure it cannot add to that which you will feel

of your own accord towards them. ¹⁹

The Company of Twenty-Four included several persons already mentioned

by Otto: The Marquis de Lezay-Marnesia, the Count de Barth, Duportail, de

Malartic, and Barlow, but also Du Val d'Epremesnil (1745-1794), counselor

to the Parliament of Paris, deputy to the National Assembly, and perhaps the

principal member of the Company. In spite of urgings from Marnesia,

d'Epremesnil delayed his departure for America until it was too late; he was

executed in 1794.20

The importance of the Company of Twenty-Four lies in the fact that these

noblemen brought with them a number of settlers. Marnesia, we are told,

brought sixty persons with him.²¹ Since Marnesia is the only one of the

Twenty-Four who was an author, and who wrote about his plans for the

colony, it is helpful to know more about him. Accompanied by his son

Albert, Lezay-Marnesia left Le Havre on May 26, 1790, on the "Nautilus,"

and reached Alexandria on August 5. After deliberating, on August 10 and

12, with those members of the Company of Twenty-Four who had arrived

earlier (De Barth and De Malartic, among others), Marnesia and his son trav-

eled to New York, where they spoke with Duer and, perhaps, with

Washington.²² From New York they went to Fort Pitt and from there, by

boat, to Marietta. Rather than continue on to Gallipolis, Marnesia and his son

chose to remain in Marietta for the winter, apparently sending one of the set-

tlers ahead to the site of their future city.²³

19. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, VI, 421, Harold C. Syrett, ed. (New York, 1962).

20. Fortunately, there are numerous documents and letters concerning d'Epremesnil's projects

for America in the Archives Nationales in Paris (Papiers d'Epremesnil 158AP). These served as

the sources for the article by Henri Carre previously mentioned.

21. Papiers d'Epremesnil cote 158AP, carton 12, dossier 2, item 35; letter to M. Guerin,

October 4, 1790. Another letter, item 46, states that six hundred colonists were in Gallipolis as

of October 19, 1790, as well as two hundred in Marietta.

22. Albert-Magdelaine-Claude de Lezay-Marnesia (1772-1857), who was only 18 when he ac-

companied his father to America, wrote his recollections late in his life (Mes Souvenirs, 1851).

According to Albert, his father brought nearly one hundred colonists with him. He states that he

and his father were introduced to Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison. That

portion of Mes Souvenirs which relates to Albert's stay in the United States was translated and

published by Sylvia Harris, "Search for Eden: An Eighteenth-Century Disaster-Memoires of

Count de Lezay-Marnesia," The Franco-American Review, II (1937), 50-60. The minutes of the

meetings of the Company of Twenty-Four that were held in Alexandria are in the Gallipolis

Papers, box 3, vol. 1, 253-55.

23. Papiers d'Epremesnil dossier 2, item 46, dated Marietta, December 7, 1790.

56                                                              OHIO HISTORY

Marnesia concluded by asking Didier to choose either to remain with him or

to join with De Barth and his friends.

This letter suggests a second reason for the failure of the Gallipolis settle-

ment to thrive: misunderstandings among the members of the Company of

Twenty-Four. If each member had between ten and fifty farmers, who were

committed to follow them, this would seriously diminish the population of

Gallipolis. We know that Marnesia took some farmers with him when he re-

turned to Fort Pitt in 1791,25 and De Barth seems to have served as an agent

for d'Epremesnil for a settlement in the state of Maine.

In November, 1795, Congress did try to rectify the errors of the Scioto

Company by approving the French Grant, which gave the Gallipolis settlers

other lands, 40 miles to the west of the village. But, by that time, many of the

colonists of October, 1790, had moved farther west, gone back to the larger

cities of the Eastern states, or had returned to their native France.

See "A Vanished Bishopric of Ohio," Catholic Historical Journal, II (April 1916-January 1917),

195-204.

25. After returning to France in 1792, Lezay-Marnesia attempted to publish three lengthy let-

ters concerning his American experience. The publication was stopped by the censors, and the

letters were published only in 1801: Lettres ecrites des rives de l'Ohio. The first of these three

letters has been translated and published by Virginius C. Hall, "A Rare Book," Bulletin,

Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, IV (December, 1946), 9-16. Details of Lezay-

Marnesia's life and career are available in a recent study by Elizabeth Bourget-Besnier, Une

Famillefrancaise sous la revolution et l'empire. La Famille de Lezay-Marnesia (1985).