The Beginnings of Ohio Cities 15 Museum of Zoolozy
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The HiJtorical Society THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTHWESTERN OHIO OFFICERS Prt.ridtnt ................................ WAI.T>:R J. SH>:RMAN Secretary-Treasurer .............. WILLIAM H. BLACK I t Vict·President ............ \VAI.T>:R A. Ev>:RSMAN Librarian .................................... N>:vIN 0. WtNTitR A DIRECTORY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUMS td Vice-President ................ MORRISON W. YouNG Assistant Librarian ................................ CARI. V1TZ Id Vice-Prtsident ...................... RuFus H. BAK>:R has recently been published by the Michigan Historical Commission with the Term expiring 1932- Term expiring 1933- Term expiring 1934- following contents, viz.: N>:VIN o. WINT>:R RuPus H. BAK>:R MoaRISON W. YouNG Page TRUSTEES WILLIAM A. GoSLIN>: G>:ORG!I H. B!ICKWITH THOMAS H. w AI.BRIDG!I Mas. ]AM>:s B>:NTI.>:Y WILLIAM F. BROF;R WALT>:R A. Ev>:RSMAN Foreword, by Dr. Alexander G. Ruthven ..................... ··.············ 5 { BLAK>:·MOR>: GODWIN SILAS E. HURIN RICHARD D. LoGAN G>:ORG>: D. W>:r.L>:S WAI.UR J. SH>:RMAN JULIAN H. TYL£R Alma, Hood Museum of Natural History ............................. ······.· Ann Arbor BULLETIN No.1 -VOL. 5 JANUARY, 1933 University Museums ~~f~:~t~f :-e~t~r~~~o~~:::: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : ~~ Museum of Paleontology ................................. · · ... · · · · · · · · · · 14 The Beginnings of Ohio Cities 15 Museum of Zoolozy ................................... · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · By Harvey Wilson Compton Art Museum .................................. · · · · · · ... · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Ii Medical Museums ............. ·········· ·········· ························ 19 Superintendent of Toledo Public Schools 1886-1897-Died 1916 Mineralogy Museum ........................................ · .... · · · · · · · · · 19 Copyrl~ht 1933-Mrs. Nettle Compton Chemistry Museums ............................................... · · · · · · · · 19 Pharmaceutical Museums ........ .... ... ............ ................ · · · · · · · 19 FIRST PRINTING Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments ........... ................ ····.· 20 Museum of Classical Archaeology .................................... · . · · . · 20 Soon after the foundi·ng of Marietta, three other important settlements were Battle Creek, Museum of Natural History ................................... 21 be~n farther down the Ohio. These settlements were known as Losantiville, Bloomfield Hills, Cranbrook Museums ................................ · · · · ·.. 24 Columbia and North Be,nd. They were located in what is known as "The Symmes Purchase" and marked the beginning of the great commercial metropolis of Detroit Ohio. the city of Cincinnati. The large tract of land bordering on the Ohio, Children's Museum .................................................... · · · · 26 lying between the two Miamis, and extendi,ng north to the line forming the Detroit Historical Museum .... ... ................................. · · · · · ·.. 26 western extension of the north boundary of the Marietta purchase, constitutes Institute of Arts . .. ..... .......................... ...... ........ ... · · · ·. · 29 the original Symmes purchase. Parke, Davis & Company Herbarium ............................... · · ·.. 29 Grand Rapids MAJOR BENJAMIN STITES VISITS THE MIAMI VALLEY Grand Rapids Art Gallery ............................................. · . 32 In the spring of 1786, Major Benjamin Stites, a,n old soldier of the Revolu Kent Scientific Museum ......................... .. .................. · · · · · · 32 tion, who had become a trader to the west, was near Limestone, Kentucky, (now ~laysville) with a cargo of whiskey and flour. He joined an expedition of Hillsdale College Muse\li!l1J ............................................... ·.. 37 Kentuckians who we.rut in pursuit of some Indian horse thieves. 'Dhey followed Houghton, Michigan College of Mining and Technology, Geological Museum.. 39 the fleeing savages as far as the Little Miami and then gave up the chase. They Irish Hills, Historic Walker Tavern ......................................... 42 then crossed over to the Big Miami and Stites thus got a view of the amazing Kalamazoo Museum ........................................ ················ 45 beauty and fertility of the Miami valley. Stites at once hastened to New Jersey and impressed upon John Cleves Symmes, an influential member of Congress, his Lansing story of the wonderful lands and magnificent forests of the Miami valley. State Pioneer Museum . 4i War Relics Museum ............................................... ·····.··· .50 JOHN CLEVES SYMMES PETITIONS CONGRESS FOR A LAND GRANT Manistique, High School Library Museum Collection ......................... 51 In order to confirm Stites' account, Symmes made a journey himself to the Marquette, Northern State Teacher's College Museum ................... ·.... 53 .Miami country and in August of 1787, with twenty-three associates, petitioned Congress for a grant of the lands, lying between the two Miamis as above de Olivet College Museum ............................... ... ....... ... · · · · · · · · · scribed. Symmes assumed that Congress and the Treasury Board would grant Port Huron, Public Library Museum ............... ... .. ............. ······· him the same tenms as had been given the Ohio Company in the Muskingum Saginaw, Butman-Fish Library Museum .................................... 61 purchase, and without waiting to 1have his grant confirmed, at once entered into Three Oaks, Chamberlain Memorial Museum ................................. 63 a covenant with Stites to convey to him ten thousand acres of the best lands Ypsilanti, Michigan State Normal College Museum Collections............... 66 in the valley fronting on the Ohio and lying near the mouth of the little Miami. These lands were sold at sixty-six and two thirds ce;nts an acre, to be paid for in certificates of the public debt. Symmes also issued a pros,pectus stating that a contract had been made between himself and Congress for two million acres and inviting settlers to enter upon the la,nds at two thirds of a dollar per acre. THE HISTOR[CAL SOCIETY OF NORTHWESTERN OHIO After .May first, 1788, the price was to be one dollar per acre. Purchasers were not wanting. Mathias Denman of New Jersey took the whole section lying op is now unable to fill orders for Numbers 2 and 3, Volume 1; also Number posite the mouth of the Licking river, a tract destined to be the site of Ci,ncin Volume 2. Subscribers who do not care to preserve these numbers, will confer ~ati. But while eager settlers were hastening to the lands of the Miami country. a great favor by returning them to the office at 305 Produce Exchange. 1t suddenly developed that the Treasury Board had made no contract at all with The Historical Societ:y of Northwestern Ohio Symmes, and that he had been proceeding upon what he credulously supposed MATHIAS DENMAN, ROBERT PATTERSON AND JOHN FILSON, would be done. JOINT OWNERS OF LOSANTiVILLE SYMMES SECURES 250,000 ACRES BETWEEN THE TWO MIAMIS In the winter of 1787-8, Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, purchased of Judge At length, by the intercession of Symmes' friends in Congress, it was ar· vmmes seven hundred and forty acres on the north bank of the Ohio, opposite ranged with the Board that he should have twenty lmliles front on the Ohio, the mouth of the Licking river. He bough-q this land for five ~illings an acre, measured "along the several courses thereof" from the mouth of the Big Miami, the whole tract costing less than nine hundred dollars. and bounded by a north line which would limit the purchase to about one mil· Denmani's purpose was to lay out a town and establish a ferry. He doubtless lion acres. This left out the lands of Stites and many others. little dreamed that within a sing-le century, a mighty city of a half million For a long time Congress and the courts were vexed with complaints and people would stretch twelve miles along the valley aind crown the surrounding litigation growing out of the disappointments and violated contracts caused by terraces and hills. He afterwards formed a partnership with Col. Robert Patter- Symmes' lack of business method and judgment in disposing of lands in the n of Kentucky and John Filson, a sohool-master from Pennsylvania, who had Miami purchase. The whole trouble was finally adjusted in May, 1792, by an act turned surveyor. Denman, Patterson alnd Filson bound themselves by a written of Congress which extended the purchase along the Ohio the entire distance be· agreement, each having a one-third interest in the projected village. tween the two Miamis, but bounded by a line on the north which limited the whole purchase to about 250,000 acres, this being the quantity of land for which Patterson was a man of character and ability. He had been a gallant fighter Symmes and his associates had actually paid the stipulated price. m the Indian Wars and was the founder of Lexington. Kentucky. Filson is a somewhat obscure and mysterious figure whose fame as an ex NEW JERSEY COLONISTS FOUND A SETTLEMENT ON LITTLE plorer and writer has arisen mostly in recent years through the !historical re- MIAMI CALLED COLUMBIA arches of the Filson Club of Louisville. Filson appears to have been a tireless In the latter part of September, 1788, a party of 'Colonists were assembled at \\anclerer along the streams and through the forests of the Southwest for the Limestone. These pioneers !had been gathered