CHAPTER XI.

Death of General Varnum. — Oration of Dr. Drowne on that occasion.Police laws passed at Marietta. --Address to Governor St. Clair. First marriage at Marietta. - Doings of the Ohio company.—The 7th of April ordered to be kept as a public festival. — Provision for building mills. — Hostility of the Indians.- Attack on John Mathews when surveying the sixteenth range. Seven men killed.-Mathews escapes to the river. - Colonel Meigs builds a block house. - Returns to Marietta. Arrival of Rev. D. Story. Early frost.-Destroys the corn.- Measles break out among the settlers. Numbers of new settlers. - Death of General Parsons.

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THE year of 1789 opened with the death of the Hon. James Mitchell Varnum, which took place the day after the completion of the treaty at Fort Harmer, on the 10th of January. He landed at the mouth of the Muskingum in June, 1788, and lived only seven months in the new purchase. His health was feeble for some time previous, his disease being consumption. He was a native of Rhode Island, and an active man in forming the Ohio company, of liberal education, refined manners, and superior abilities. In 1787, he was elected by Congress as one of the judges of the Northwest territory, and assisted Governor St. Clair in drafting the laws published in 1788. This code of early laws was in many respects fully equal or superior to those adopted since we became a state. They were formed at a time before political party spirit had biased the mind, and made for the sole good of the people they were to govern. Although the ordinance of Congress restricted them to the mere copying of those already in use in the states, yet the code adopted was chiefly original, and as they thought, better suited to the condition of a new settled country than those of the older settlements. He was also

one of the directors of the Ohio company. His untimely death was much regretted by the inhabitants of Marietta. The obsequies took place on the 13th, when an oration was pronounced by Doctor Drowne.

During the winter, several associations were formed for settlements on the donation lands, which had been surveyed, or were in progress of survey, at the forks of Duck creek, Wolf creek, Plainfield, and Belpre; notices of which will be given in the separate history of the three last of these places.

On the 4th of February, 1789, during the absence of Governor St. Clair, the inhabitants of Marietta held a town meeting to determine on the propriety of forming a system of police, and to adopt a code of laws, for the regulation of the inhabitants of the city. This was the first town meeting ever held in the territory. Colonel Archibald Crary was chosen chairman, and Colonel E. Battelle, clerk. It was voted that Colonel Crary, Colonel Robert Oliver, Mr. Backus, Major Sargent, and Major White, be a committee to form a system of police, and to draft an address to his excellency, Governor St. Clair, and to report at the adjourned meeting.

The address to the governor was accepted and forwarded, to him in a letter, as follows:

"To his excellency, Arthur St. Clair, Esq., governor and commander in chief of the territory of the United States north west of the river Ohio.

"We, the citizens of Marietta, assembled at Campus Martius, beg leave to address your excellency with the most cordial congratulations upon the happy issue of Indian affairs. For this event, so interesting to the United States at large, and to this settlement in particular, we hold ourselves indebted, under God, to your excellency's wisdom and unremitted exertions, displayed during the long and tedious negotiation of the treaty. It was with pain and very affectionate sympathy that we beheld this business spun out by the Indian nations through so many tedious

months, and to a season of the year which, from its inclemency,'must have endangered and perhaps impaired the health and constitution of a character, under whose auspices and wise administration of government, we hope to be a good and happy people. We must lament with all the feelings of men, anxious to live under the precepts of legal authority, the absence of your excellency, and the judges of the territory more particularly at this time, ere the system of laws has been completed. We feel most sensibly the want of them, and the privilege of establishing such city regulations as we are conscious should be derived alone from the sanction of your excellency's authority; and that nothing but the most absolute necessity can exculpate us in assuming even the private police of our settlement. But the necessity and propriety of some system, which may tend to health, the preservation of our fields and gardens, with other essential regulations, will, we flatter ourselves, apologize for our adopting it; and convince your excellency, that we could not ever be guilty of an interference with, or encroachment upon, any of the prerogatives of government.

"With the most sincere and affectionate respect for your excellency in the character of governor and parent of our settlement, wishing you a safe and pleasant passage, and anxiously anticipating your speedy return, we subscribe ourselves, in behalf of the citizens of Marietta, your most obedient and humble servants." (Signed by the committee.)

The system of police was not ready for report until the 17th March, when a code of by-laws for the government of the inhabitants was adopted, well suited to the condition and wants of the people. Men who had always been accustomed to law and good order were not content to live without any regulations, although they dwelt in the wilderness, and their city was yet covered with the trees of the forest. They were governed by this code, so far as related

to the police of a city until after the war. The first board of police was Rufus Putnam, Archibald Crary, Griffin Greene, Robert Oliver and Nathaniel Goodale. They also appointed a sealer of weights and measures, and a register of births and deaths, with fence viewers, &c.

First marriage.

The first marriage took place on the 6th of February, 1789, between the Hon. Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Northwest territory, and Miss Rowena Tupper, daughter of General B. Tupper, by General Rufus Putnam, judge of the court of common pleas for Washington county. The certificate is now on the files of the court.

Doings of the Ohio company.

Soon after the death of General Varnum, in January, Griffin Greene, Esq., was chosen a director to fill his place, and continued to occupy that post until the lands of the company were divided, in 1796. In February, the agents and proprietors passed the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the 7th day of April be forever considered as a day of public festival in the territory of the Ohio company, as their settlements in this country commenced on that day; and that the directors request some gentleman to prepare an oration to be delivered on the next anniversary."

This festival was observed with all due regard for many years thereafter, by the first inhabitants and their children, until there came in so many strangers, who knew nothing of the trials and hardships of the forefathers in the early days of the colony. It is now kept as a kind of holiday, or May-day, by the young people, with "pic-nic parties" upon Devoll's island, excursions into the hills, or social intercourse at each other's houses. The half-century celebration, in the year 1838, was observed by an oration and dinner at

Marietta, and also at Cincinnati, and has been occasionally observed since by the historical society of Washington county. During the Indian war, the inhabitants celebrated the day by a public dinner, and spent the afternoon in athletic amusements, such as games of ball, wrestling, and foot races, in which all took a part, from the oldest to the youngest. These were healthy exercises, and fitted them the better to contend with their Indian enemies in any personal contest that might ensue.

In February, further provision was made for the erection of water mills, at the nearest suitable point on Duck creek, and lands granted Captain Enoch Shepherd amounting to nearly a thousand acres, who took in as partners in this expensive speculation Colonel E. Sproat and Thomas Stanley, enterprising and active men. The mills were to be com pleted by the 1st of September, 1790; suitable defenses for their protection erected, and a guard of eight men kept on the ground. The dam and mills were put up in that and the ensuing year, and were nearly ready to go into operation, when the war broke out and put a stop to further work. The saw mill was finished in September, and had sawed some boards, when a sudden flood in the creek tore away a part of the dam. The cost of their erection proved a dead loss to their owners, as the articles of the contract were not fully complied with. A grant of lands was also made for the building of mills at Wolf creek, about a mile from its junction with the Muskingum. Donation lots to settlers were also surveyed, around it. A more full account of this mill, as the first built in the territory, will be given in the history of the settlement at Waterford.

Not regarding the recent treaty at Fort Harmer, parties of Indians still continued to harrass the settlements in western Virginia, from April to October, probably not considering their old enemies as included in the compact; killing the people, stealing their horses, and burning their houses.