Ohio History Journal

ARNOLD HENRY DOHRMAN.

BY A. J. MORRISON, TOLEDO.

The following extracts1 will explain themselves and will serve

to throw light upon the circumstances of the grant, by the Old

Congress to Arnold Henry Dohrman, of a township in the south-

eastern part of Tuscarawas County.

1780.

I. Report of Committee of Foreign Affairs, June 21, 1780;

to whom was referred a letter of 23rd May from Mr. P. Henry,

late governor of Virginia, to-wit: [Arnold Henry Dohrman]

"hath expended large sums of money in carrying into practice

schemes projected by him for assisting the United States with

clothing and warlike stores, as well as in supplying great numbers

of American prisoners, carried into the ports of the Kingdom of

Portugal, with money and all other necessaries for their comfort-

able subsistence while there." On recommendation of Com-

mittee, Arnold Henry Dohrman appointed agent for the United

States, in the Kingdom of Portugal, without salary.

A letter to Mr. Dohrman from John Adams, dated May 16,

1780: "You will please to accept of my thanks as an individual

who feels himself obliged to every gentleman, of whatever

country, who is good enough to assist his fellow countrymen."

A letter from Thomas Jefferson, dated May 24, 1780: "The

* cf. Gouverneur Morris to John Parish (merchant in Hamburg),

Feb. 16, 1802-

"Poor Door-Mans! for so his name ought to be spelled, perhaps,

after the history you have given. He had from the beginning an un-

toward mission, and neither nature nor education had given him the art

of pleasing, so essential to that trade."

[Sparks, Life and Correspondence of Gouverneur Morris, III, 159.]

1Drawn from Vol. XIX (Claims), American State Papers, pp.

508-514.

(227)

228       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

many kindnesses which you have shown to our captive country-

men, whom the fortune of war has carried within the reach of

your inquiries, do great honor to your humanity, and must

forever interest us in your welfare."

A letter from Patrick Henry, late governor of Virginia, under

date December 12, 1780: "As an American, I thank you, sir;

and as a lover of those virtues that adorn our nature, I con-

gratulate myself to see it thus rescued from the general charge

of degeneracy  *   *  *  I took the liberty to mention you to

Congress."

1785-1787.

2. Address of Archibald Cary, "as speaker of the honorable

body, the Senate of my country," to Arnold Henry Dohrman,

appearing before the Senate of Virginia January 1, 1785: "Your

conduct in respect to our unhappy countrymen (as well as to

others of our sister states) carried prisoners into Lisbon."

A letter from General Washington:

MOUNT VERNON, July 9, 1785.

"To the Hon. Samuel Chase.

"I take the liberty of introducing Mr. Dohrman to your friendly

notice and civilities. He is represented to me as a gentleman of great

merit, and one who, at an early period of the war (when our affairs

were rather overshadowed) advanced his money very liberally to support

our suffering countrymen.

"He has some matter to submit to Congress, which he can explain

better than I. I am persuaded he will offer nothing which is inconsistent

with the strictest rules of propriety, and of course, that it will merit

your patronage."

Memorial of Arnold Henry Dohrman, presented to Congress

July 19, 1786: "That your memorialist (by birth a subject of

the Netherlands) was, at the commencement of the late war

between the United States and Great Britain, a resident of Lisbon,

in the Kingdom of Portugal, possessed of handsome property and

in full credit as a merchant * * * That having imbibed from

early life a strong attachment to the principles of liberty, he saw

with anxious and affectionate concern the first efforts of this

country to defend and secure the rights of human nature; and

carried along by a desire to espouse its cause unsolicited, and

Arnold Henry Dohrman.                 229

without hope or expectation of reward, at a period, too, when

European prejudices and opinions wished and predicted the ruin

of that cause, he resolved to devote himself to it by the best

services his situation would permit. *  *  *  [Such a course]

did not consist with the prosperity of his private affairs. The

diminution of his funds, the disgusts and fears of his friends on

account of the part he took, the critical position in which he for a

long time stood with the government [of Portugal] concurred in

the ruin of his mercantile credit and interest."

In Congress October 1, 1787: on a Report of the Board of

Treasury: to Arnold Henry Dohrman, a reimbursement of

$5,8o⁶⁷²/₉o, with interest from time of expenditure. Claim filed

for $20,207 above this amount, but of too general a nature to

warrant allowance; vouchers, in the circumstances, often impos-

sible. Hence, grant of salary, retroactive, of $1600 a year, as

agent of the United States at Lisbon, and a township [23,040

acres²] beyond the Ohio.

1813-1817.

3. Letter to a member of Congress from David Hoge, dated

Steubenville, January 8, 1817: "I have from time to time made

particular inquiries as to the value of the land which Mr. Dohr-

man received as a donation, and have no hesitation in saying

that I consider it as the worst township in the three western

ranges of this district³ out of which Mr. Dohrman has the right

of selection. He was undoubtedly imposed upon by his agent,

who most probably made the selection from a mere inspection of

the map, without an actual view of the land.

* * * By what scale can you measure the benevolence of

heart that prompted to such generous disinterested humanity as

Mr. Dohrman evinced towards our suffering countrymen! By

what rule can you estimate the wounded sensibilities of a gener-

ous and cultivated mind, reduced from affluence, from having the

2cf. Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio. 1st edition, p. 561.

3cf. Hunter, "Pathfinders of Jefferson County." Ohio Arch. and

Hist. Publications, VI, 211-"David Hoge, of Pennsylvania, was the

first Registrar of the Steubenville Land Office, holding the office for forty

years from 1800."

230       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

power of dispensing bounty and relieving distress, to a state of

dependence and want - to need, though he disdained to ask, that

charity which he had, in better days, been so prompt to bestow !"

Letter to Rufus King from James Ross,⁴ dated Pittsburg,

January 13, 1817: "Mr. Dohrman's meritorious claims were con-

sidered and settled by the Old Congress on the 1st of October,

1787, as appears by the journals of that date. You were then

a member, and may recollect Mr. Dohrman, who lived long in the

city of New York, where his dwelling was twice destroyed by

fire. Owing to these and other misfortunes, he was obliged to

abandon mercantile pursuits; and as a last resource he removed

to the western country, in the hope that he might derive subsistence

for his family from the township alloted to him in the seven

ranges. Antecedent to his removal hither, he was obliged to

mortgage his township to some of his creditors in New York, and

this disabled him from making the best of it by subdivision or

improvement.

"I had an intimate knowledge of all Mr. Dohrman's affairs

ever since he came to the western country. He was in deplorable

embarrassment when he reached this place, and, on examination

I found that he had undoubtedly selected one of the worst town-

ships in all the ranges. He removed from this place to Steuben-

ville, that he might live at less expense and be nearer to his lands.

"As he had numerous letters showing the high opinion enter-

tained of him by many in the old Government who are still living

and in public stations, he was advised to go in person to the City

of Washington, and make his condition known, in the hope that

as he, in the days of his prosperity and our distress, had never

permitted one of our captive seamen to suffer, but his house had

been their hospital and their home, we, in our turn, would extend

to him a helping hand, to redeem him from the calamities that had

overwhelmed him. He prepared to take this journey, and was

furnished with means for his expenses, but he sickened and died

[in 1813] before the season allotted for leaving home.

"Although he did not live to solicit relief, yet it is earnestly

hoped that his family may not be forgotten. Provision may be

4James Ross, one of the founders of Steubenville. cf. Hunter,

loc. cit., p. 210.