Any settler complying with the above rules who kept on the land for five years a man able to bear arms was entitled to receive a deed from the directors. These donation lots were permitted to be issued until October 1, 1789, to any number of persons not exceeding two hundred, making in all 20,000 acres. The settlements were to be made by companies or associations of not less than twenty men to each settlement-this provision being a military precaution to guard against surprises from wandering Indians. being made and encouraged by the company's efforts, its own business was involved in well-nigh serious difficulties. Shortly after the formation of the Ohio Company another association, known as the Scioto Company had been organized. Dr. Cutler, while negotiating with Congress for lands for his company, had been entreated to use his influence to obtain a purchase for them. Through his efforts a refusal was secured for a large tract, and under the lead of the Scioto Company's agents a French settlement was made at Gallipolis in 1700. The af fairs of the company were badly managed and the settlers were unable to obtain titles to their land until Congress, in 1798, made a grant of the tract, since known as the French grant, situated on the Ohio above the mouth of the Scioto. In 1789 it became apparent that the Ohio Company could not pay for the land embraced in the original contract; only half the purchase money had been paid and no titles could be secured until the balance was paid; a number of shares had become forfeited through non-payment. Therefore, in 1790, the directors of the Ohio Company readily availed themselves of an offer made by the Scioto Company to purchase certain tracts of the Ohio Company's lands, including the forfeited shares and a tract on the Great Kanawha. The contract was closed and the Ohio Company. was cheered by the hope of adding to its finances by this means. The matter resulted in nothing but blank Meantime, while settlements were disappointment. "This mode of settling the new lands of the purchase," says Dr. Hildreth, "was one of the most admirable that could be devised, and showed that the men who planned it were familiar with the cultivation of the soil as well as military affairs. These donation settlements were generally located on the frontiers of the purchase, and served as outposts to guard the more central parts. They formed a military as well as an agricultural people, just such as the condition of the country needed. Their requirements as to the character of the improvements on the land were such as would be most beneficial to the settler and ultimately useful to the community. The regulation as to fruit trees made a permanent impression upon the people generally." By subsequent action of Congress the company was relieved from the necessity of making donations out of their own lands to promote settlements. In the spring of 1792 a panic in New York caused the failure of Richard Platt, who was then the Ohio Company's treasurer, and had nearly $50,000 of the funds of the association. At the same time financial disaster overtook the directors of the Scioto Company (by whom as yet no payments had been made to the Ohio Company), and their contract for the purchase of forfeited shares was forfeited and annulled. At this crisis three of the directors of the Ohio Company, Dr. Cutler, General Putnam and Colonel Robert Oliver petitioned Congress for relief, asking that the 1,500,000 acres be deeded to them for the $500,000 already paid, and that a grant of 100,000 acres in addition be made to compensate for the lands which the company had donated to settlers. The prayer of the petitioners was answered in part by a bill passed April 21, 1792, which provided that a deed be made to the Ohio Company for 750,000 acres for the $500,000 in securities already paid; another for 214,285 (about one seventh of the original purchase), to be paid for in land warrants, and a third for 100,000 acres, to be held in trust and given to actual settlers in lots of one hundred acres each. May 10, 1792 the President issued three patents to Rufus Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Robert Oliver and Griffin Greene in trust for the Ohio Company. With one exception these were the first land-patents is sued by the United States. By their provisions the total amount of land conveyed to the Ohio Company was 964,285 acres; or, including the donation tract, 1,064,285 acres. The boundaries of the tract, as finally fixed by the survey, were approximately as follows: 66 Beginning on the Ohio River upon the western boundary line of the fifteenth range of townships, thence running northerly to a point about one mile north of the south line of township number seven; thence west to the western boundary of the sixteenth range; thence north to the north line of township number sixteen; thence east to a point about one mile east of the western boundary of the eleventh range of township; thence north four miles; thence east to the western boundary of the seventh range; thence south to the Ohio, thence along the Ohio to the place of beginning." Included in the purchase were parts of the present counties of Morgan, Washington, Gallia, Vinton, Jackson, and Hocking, and all of Athens and Meigs. The donation tract iies in the northeastern part of the above-described territory, and is about twenty-one miles long, and nearly eight miles wide. Its boundaries are as follows: Beginning on the western boundary line of the seventh range of townships, at the northeast corner of the seven hundred and fifty thousand acre tract; thence running north to the line surveyed by Israel Ludlow at the northern boundary of the original purchase of 1,500,000 acres ; thence west along that line to the tract containing 214,285 acres ; thence south to the boundary of the tract of 750,000 acres; thence east to the number represents the whole number place of beginning. The directors of the Ohio Company, as trustees of the donation tract, were required to make, free of expense, deeds in fee simple of one hundred acres to each male person not less than eighteen years of age, who must be an actual settler or a resident within the purchase at the time the conveyance should be made. The donation, although it secured fewer permanent settlers than was expected, greatly aided the Ohio Company, and was the means of attracting many adventurers into the territory. The lands were speculated in to some extent, those who had secured lots before the Indian war selling them to others at its close without having made any actual settlement or improvement. Under the direction of the Ohio Company and the immediate superintendence of General Putnam the donation tract was surveyed in May, 1793, and by the middle of July 170 lots had been surveyed in nine allotments on the Muskingum and Wolf Creek. During the year a total of 186 lots was drawn; this of males able to bear arms then residents of the three settlements of Washington County at Marietta, Belpre and Waterford. We need not follow the history of the Ohio Company further, having seen it successful, against incalculable disadvantages, in the perfor mance of the mission to which its members voluntarily dedicated themselves. The last meeting of the directors and agents of the company held west of the Allegheny Mountains began at Marietta, November 22, 1795, and lasted till January 29, 1796. Then was made the final division or partition of lands, by which was set off to each share in the company the following lands: First division, one eight acre lot; second division, one three acre lot; third division, one city lot; fourth division, one one hundred and sixty acre lot; fifth division, one one hundred acre lot; sixth division, one six hundred and forty acre lot, and one two hundred and sixty-two acre lot; total, 1,173 acres total, 1,173 acres to each share. There were then 819 shares classified in sixteen agencies. CHAPTER V. IMPORTANT EVENTS IN TERRITORIAL HISTORY. THE PLANS AND PURPOSES OF THE OHIO COMPANY-EMIGRATION ENCOURAGED EXTRACT FROM A PAMPHLET PUBLISHED IN 1787-DR. CUTLER'S PREDICTION CONCERNING THE OHIO COUNTRY-A COLONY ORGANIZED PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS- THE JOURNEY ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS - DOWN THE YOUGHIOGHENY AND THE OHIO TO THE MUSKINGUM - ARRIVAL OF THE PARTY AT THE SITE OF MARIETTA, APRIL 7, 1788-NAMES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS IN OHIO-ERECTION OF CAMPUS MARTIUS-PROGRESS OF THE FIRST SEASON-GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR-ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY WASHINGTON COUNTY ESTABLISHED OTHER EARLY COUNTIES-TERRITORIAL COURTS - THE FIRST TOWNSHIPS IN THE TERRITORY - FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE, 1799-NAMES OF ITS MEMBERS - ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION-THE "ENABLING ACT"- THE CONVENTION OF 1802-THE STATE CONSTITUTION FORMED THE STATE ADMITTED INTO THE UNION-PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENTS IN WASHINGTON COUNTY - BELPRE AND WATERFORD- THE FIRST MILLS IN OHIO AT WOLF CREEK THE COLONY AT BIG BOTTOM. THE pioneer settlement at Mari. etta was an important event in the history of the West. Washington County was for several years the seat of the territorial government; it is the parent of all the neighboring counties, and its history is inseparably linked with theirs. It is appropriate, therefore, that some account of its origin and progress, and its part in the events which resulted in the formation of the state of Ohio, be included in this volume. The Ohio Company was the agency through which the first colony was planted northwest of the Ohio River. Among the most active and enthusiastic members of the company were Generals Putnam, Tupper and Parsons, Dr. Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, and it was largely through their influence that the plan of colonization was made successful. After the purchase was concluded Dr. Cutler anonymously published a pamphlet to advertise the advantages of the Ohio country, and particularly those of the Muskingum region. Some of the prophecies made in this publication were no doubt then received with ridicule, but nearly all of them have proved true. It was asserted that in fifty years the Northwestern Territory would have a greater population than all New England. Another paragraph read as follows: "The current down the Ohio and Mississippi, for heavy articles that suit the Florida and West India markets, such as Indian corn, flour, beef, lumber, etc., will be more loaded than any streams on earth. The distance from the Muskingum to the Mississippi is 1,000 miles; from thence to the sea is 900 miles. The whole course is run in eighteen days, and the passage up these rivers is not so difficult as has been represented. It is found by late experiments that sails are used to great advantage against the current of the Ohio; and it is worthy of observation that in all probability steamboats will be found to do infinite service in all our river navigation.” The foregoing was written in 1787 and doubtless contained the first published allusion to the subject of steam navigation upon the waters of western rivers. Its author was a man of ripe scholarship, extensive scientific information, and sound judgment. The proprietors of the Ohio Company succeeded, however, in getting together a sufficient number of adventurers to begin the proposed settlement in accordance with their resolutions of November 23, 1787, already given in the preceding chap. ter. The first party, consisting of, twenty-two men, and including the mechanics and boat builders, left Danvers, Mass., December 1, 1787, in command of Major Haffield White, and on the 23d of January, 1788, arrived at Sumrill's Ferry, on the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania, where they were expected to begin the construction of boats for completing the journey. The other party, consisting of the surveyors and their assistants and others, left Hartford, Conn., on the 1st of January, under the conduct of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat (they were joined by General Rufus Putnam, superintendent of the colony, at Lauterdale Creek, on the 24), and after a toilsome winter journey across the Alleghenies arrived at the Youghio gheny in the middle of February. Here they were disappointed to find that very little progress had been made by the advance party in their preparations, and a delay lasting until the first of April resulted. Then, with three canoes, a flat-boat of about three tons' burden (the Adelphia ") and a galley of about fifty tons' burden (the "Mayflower"), the party embarked upon the "Yough," and proceeded down that stream, the Monongahela and the Ohio to their destination. 66 About noon on Monday, April 7, 1788, the little party, consisting of forty-seven men (increased to fortyeight by the arrival of Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs on the 12th), landed on the site of Marietta, where about seventy Indians, warriors, women and children, of the Wyandot and Delaware tribes, received them with manifestations of friendliness. The famous chieftain, Captain Pipe, was among the Indians. The following are the names of the colonists: General Rufus Putnam, superintendent of the colony; Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, Major Anselm Tupper, and John Mathews, surveyors; Major Haffield White, steward and quartermaster; Captain Jonathan Devol, Captain Josiah Monroe, Captain Daniel Davis, Captain Peregrine Foster, Captain Jethro Putnam, Captain William Gray, Captain Ezekiel Cooper, Phineas Coburn, David Wallace, Gilbert Devol, Jr., Jonas Davis, Hezekiah Flint, Hezekiah Flint, Jr., Josiah Whitridge, Benjamin Griswold, Theophilus Leonard, William Miller, |