Territory of Ohio

EXTRACTS FROM THE History of Cincinnati AND THE TERRITORY OF OHIO, Showing the Trials and Hardships of the Pioneers in the Early Settlement of CINCINNATI AND THE WEST. BY A. E. JONES, A. M., M. D. CINCINNATI: COHEN & 'J 1888. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the Office of the Librarian ot Congress, Washington, D. C, 1879. PREFACE. "\ A /"HILE it is doubtless true that the story of the settlement of Cincin nati has been often told, yet it must be admitted that but compara tively few of our citizens have any definite knowledge of the events which first led to the exploration of the Ohio Valley, the causes which for so many years deferred its settlement, and the perils and hardships endured by the pioneers; while most of them are familiar with the more important histor ical epochs. The ancient landmarks are being swept away by the demands of an ever increasing population. The old pioneers are falling like ripe grain before the sickle. Events of purely local interest are rapidly passing from memory; and the fact that the settlement of Cincinnati marked an era in the history of our common country full of interest to aU, has been lost sight of or disregarded. To remedy this, to present a truthful, impartial, and readable account of the historical events which gave the first impetus to settling the great Northwest; the explorations of the Ohio Company; the border wars, which so long prevented its actual occupancy; its final settle ment ; the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne; the hardships, the trials, and struggles of the pioneers, and their mode of life; the names of the founders of the city; its rapid growth and brilliant future, the author has devoted much time during the past several years, and the result of his labors are soon to be published in two large volumes. From the collection of historical facts colated for that purpose, the narrative contained in the following pages has been extracted, condensed, and published in a cheap form, to place within the reach of all matters of peculiar and particular interest in this centennial year. A. E. J. EXTRACTS FROM THE HISTORY OF CINCINNATI CHAPTER I. RIVAL CLAIMS OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE TO THE TERRITORY NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO—INTERFERENCE OF INDIAN TRADERS WITH FRENCH INFLUENCE WITH THE INDIANS. TDRIOR to the treaty between England and France, in 1763, the title to the territory northwest of the Ohio River, between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River, was claimed by both the nations. England claimed it by virtue of a treaty said to have been made by the Commissioners of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland with the Iroquois, or Six Nations, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744. These Indians owned, or pretended to own, all the Northwest Territory as far west as the Mississippi River, and that southwest of the Ohio River as far south as the Carolinas and Georgia. According to their traditions, these lands came into their possession and were held by right of conquest, their fathers, many years before, having conquered all the tribes possessing them. The right of the Six Nations to dispose of this territory has been a subject of much discussion; but whether they had such rights is but of litde consequence now, either to its present inhabitants or to the purpose of this work, further than will assist in showing by whom, and under what circum stances the city of Cincinnati was first explored, and the difficulties that followed that exploration previous to its setdement. It is, however, certain that all the Indian tribes of the Northwest did not recognize as binding, the treaty of Lancaster, that of Logetown in 1752, that made at Winchester in 1753, nor yet that of Fort Stanwix in 1768. That such a treaty was entered into at Lancaster in 1744, by the parties already mentioned, there is no doubt, although it has been charged that it (5) 6 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. was signed by the Indians while under the influence of spirituous liquors, a bounteous supply of which was furnished at the time by the Commissioners. The English strenuously insisted that the treaty was deliberately and fairly made, and that the Commissioners of Maryland paid two hundred and twenty pounds in gold, and those of Virginia two hundred and twenty pounds in gold, and the same amount in goods for the territory ceded. The French, on the other hand, as stoutly maintained that the same ter ritory belonged to the Crown of France by right of discovery, claiming that La Salle, in 1682, and Padre Marquette and his colleague, JoUiete, subjects of France, had crossed from Canada to the Mississippi in 1683, and de scended that river as far south as the Arkansas River; and that this, according to an alleged maxim of international law, gave France a valid and indisputable title to all lands watered and drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries; and as Ohio was one of these, therefore all the territory drained by the Ohio and its tributaries belonged of right to the Crown of France; and furthermore, that the discovery of Marquette was nearly a century before the treaty with the Iroquois at Lancaster. To this claim of the French, England answered that John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, explored the Adantic coast, in North America, from Labra dor to Chesapeake Bay, in 1497, and had taken possession thereof in the name of the Crown of Great Britain; and that by reason of this discovery all the lands from the" Atlantic west to the Pacific Ocean belonged to Great Britain, and that in 1684 Lord Howe made a treaty with the Five Nations, when they placed themselves under the protection of the British Government, and at the same time executed a deed of sale to the British Government of a vast tract of land south and east of the Illinois River, extending north across Lake Huron into Canada; and that another deed was made by the Chiefs of the Indian Confederacy in 1726, by which these same lands were conveyed in trust to England, to be protected and defended by his Majesty for the use of the grantors and their heirs; and that France at the treaty of Utrecht, had agreed not to invade the lands of the allies of Great Britain. The dispute, however, finally resolved itself into the questions: whether the tribes forming the Indian Confederacy were the allies of England, and whether they had conquered the tribes owning the territory in dispute At the date of the treaty of Utrecht they were, unquestionably, allies of HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. y Great Britain; and the French, by invading these lands, violated one of the stipulations of that treaty, if the territory rightfully belonged to them. The evidence of their title, even by conquest, however, rested only on tradition, as they did not occupy the lands in dispute. Their claim may or may not have been just, and is one of those questions in history which can never be satisfactorily solved. Such were the flimsy foundations upon which England and France de termined to maintain their respective claims, and which led to a long and bloody war. The most valuable part of the territory in dispute was between the great Lakes of the North and the Ohio River, inhabited by mixed tribes of savages, consisting of Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas, Mingoes, Iroquois and Miamies, over whom the French also pretended to hold a protectorate. French influence had, however, been seriously interfered with among them by traders from Pennsylvania, who had penetrated far into the western wilds, and becoming thoroughly acquainted with the Indian character, had established a lucrative traffic with them, carrying blankets, bright colored cloths, trinkets and ammunition (not forgetting whisky and rum) to the Indian towns, exchanging them for valuable furs, deer and buffalo skins. The traders, as a rule, were rough, lawless men, dressed in semi-Indian costume, and little better in their manners and habits than the Indians them selves, and were exceedingly jealous of the interference of tjie French with what they claimed as their rights, acquired by the treaty of Lancaster be tween the Iroquois and the Commissioners of Maryland, Virginia and Penn sylvania. HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATION OF THE OLD OHIO COMPANY—LAWRENCE AND AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON, BROTHERS OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON, MEMBERS OF THE COMPANY—LAWRENCE WASHINGTON'S LIBERAL POLICY. "PEARLY in 1749, a grand scheme to colonize the western country was conceived by some of the most prominent men of Virginia,' among whom were Thomas Lee, President of the Council of Virginia; Augustine and Lawrence Washington, elder brothers of George Washington; and John Hanbury, a wealthy merchant of-London. An association was organized by these gendemen under the name of the Ohio Company, now known as the Old Ohio Company, in contradistinction to another which adopted the same title, organized in Boston in 1786, com posed principally of ex-revolutionary soldiers. The mother country encouraged this enterprise as one which would, if successful, enable it to possess itself of the coveted prize, and thereby more firmly establish the claims of England, by actual occupancy. A charter was issued to the company, and a grant made of six hundred thousand acres of land on the southeast side of the Ohio River, between the Monongahela and Kanawha Rivers, with the privilege, however, of taking a part of it on the northwest side of the Ohio. The conditions upon which the charter was issued, were that the company should settle one hundred families on the grant within seven years from the date of the charter, build a fort and maintain a sufficient force to protect the settlers, who were to pay no quit rent for ten years.

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