and privation, on the part of the representatives to accomplish. The distance they had to travel, on horseback, was from two to four hundred miles, through a wilderness; carrying their provisions and blankets; camping in the woods at night, a part of the time; swimming their horses across the streams, and getting along through the forest by the blazed trees, or the compass as they best could. There were no roads but bridle paths, or the old trails of the hunters. After leaving Belpre, the representatives from Marietta found no settlements until they reached the Scioto salt works, the present county seat of Jackson. The next habitation of man was at Chillicothe, where a town had been commenced two years before. From thence to Cincinnati there was no settlement, until they reached the waters of the Little Miami.

When the object of the assembly was accomplished, the governor prorogued the meeting, and directed them to assemble on the 16th of September following, and the members returned to their homes by the same laborious routes, to be again traveled over at a more temperate season of the year, and when the streams of water were at a lower stage.

The general assembly was composed of a governor, legislative council, and house of representatives. The first house of representatives contained twenty members. Colonel Robert Oliver, from Washington county, was a member of the council. All the acts passed by the house and legislative council were to be approved by the governor before they became laws; and without his assent were nugatory.

The governor vetoed a number of the bills passed at this session, which greatly offended the republican spirit of the house, and was doubtless the cause of the very limited powers delegated to the governors of Ohio, under the constitution of the state, which was formed soon after. The political parties of federalist and republican were then

unknown, and did not enter into the elections of the territory until the year 1800, or about the period of the reign of Thomas Jefferson. During this session of the legislature, a delegate was elected to represent the territory in Congress. The choice fell on W. H. Harrison, Esq., afterwards governor of Indiana, and President of the United States. The delegate had the liberty of debating on any question, but not the right to vote.

In the year 1800 a census of the United States was taken, and the territory was found to contain forty-two thousand inhabitants. On a petition of the people, Congress, on the 30th of April, 1802, granted them the liberty of forming a constitution, and becoming a member of the confederacy. The law provided that every twelve hundred inhabitants should have one representative in the convention for forming a constitution. The election took place on the second Tuesday of October, and Washington county was entitled to four delegates, who met in convention at Chillicothe the 1st of November, 1802. The delegates from this county were Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Ives Gilman, Ephraim Cutler and John McIntire. After a session of twenty-nine days, they framed our present constitution, which was approved by Congress, but was never submitted to the voice of the people.

CHAPTER XVI.

Settlement of Belpre.- Topography and description of the settlements.Upper, middle and lower. — Captain King killed by the Indians.-Crops of 1789, destroyed by frost.- Famine of 1790.- Liberality of Isaac Williams. -Shifts of the settlers for food. - Abundance of wild game, and crop in the autumn.-Boys killed at "Neil's Station."- Mill on Little Hockhocking.

IN the winter following the landing of the first pioneer corps at Marietta, the directors of the Ohio company sent out exploring parties to examine their purchase, which was as yet a "terra incognita." The main object of these committees was to select suitable places for the formation of their first settlements. Among the earliest and most desirable locations reported, was a tract on the right bank of the Ohio river, commencing a short distance above the mouth of the Little Kenawha, and extending down the Ohio four or five miles, terminating at the narrows, two miles above the Little Hockhocking. About a mile below the outlet of the latter stream, the river again bent to the south, inclosing a rich alluvion, extending two or three miles in length and a mile in width, where was formed another settlement, called Newbury, or the lower settlement; but included within the boundaries of Belpre. The main body of the new colony tract was divided into two portions, and known as the "upper and middle" settlements. The lands on the river were of the richest quality; rising as they receded from the Ohio on to an elevated plain, thirty or forty feet higher than the low bottoms, and extending back to the base of the hills. This plain was in some places more than half a mile in width, forming with the bottoms alluvious of

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nearly a mile in extent. The soil on the plain was in some places a fertile, loamy sand; in others inclined to gravel, but every where covered with a rich growth of forest trees, and producing fine crops of small grain. About a mile below the Little Kenawha, this plain came into the river, presenting a lofty mural front of eighty or a hundred feet above the surface of the water. This precipitous bank is continued for half a mile, and on its brow, and for some distance back, is clothed with evergreens, being chiefly different varieties of the cedar. That portion of the plain is known by the name of "the bluff," and is located near the head of Blannerhasset's island, close by the landing and crossing place to the mansion erected a few years after by this celebrated man. "The bluff" divided the upper settlement from those below. The upper lay in a beautiful curve of the river, which formed nearly a semicircle, the periphery of which was about a mile and a half, and rose gradually from the bank of the river on to the second bottom by a natural glacis, the grade and beauty of which no art of man could excel. From the lower end of "the bluff," the plain gradually receded from the river, leaving a strip of rich bottom land, about three miles in length, and from a quarter to a third of a mile in width. This distance, like that portion above, was laid off into farms, about forty rods wide and extending back to the hills, which rose by a moderate slope, to an elevation of an hundred feet above the surface of the plain, and were clothed with oak and hickory, to their tops. This charming location was well named "Belle-prairie," or beautiful meadow, but is now generally written Belpre.

The settlement was composed of about forty associates, who formed themselves into a company, and drew their lots after they were surveyed and platted, in the winters of 1788-9. The larger portion of the individuals who formed this association had served as officers in the late war, and when the army was disbanded, retired with a brevet

promotion. To a stranger it seemed very curious that every house he passed should be occupied by a commissioned officer. No settlement ever formed west of the mountains contained so many men of real merit, sound, practical sense, and refined manners. They had been in the school of Washington, and were nearly or quite all of them personally acquainted with that great and good man.

"In this little community were found those sterling qualities which should ever form the base of the social and civil edifice, and are best calculated to perpetuate and cherish our republican institutions. Some of them had been liberally educated, and all had received the advantages of the common New England schools in early life. They were habituated to industry and economy, and brought up under the influence of morality and religion. These men had been selected to lead their countrymen to battle and to defend their rights, not for their physical strength, as of old, but for their moral standing and superior intellect. In addition to these advantages they had also received a second education in the army of the revolution, where they heard the precepts of wisdom and witnessed the examples of bravery and fortitude; learning at the same time the necessity of subordination to law and good order, in promoting the happiness and prosperity of mankind." (MSS notes of Judge Barker.)

The Belpre associates had passed the winter in Marietta, and commenced moving on to their farms early in April, 1789; several families however did not occupy their lands until the following year. Log houses, generally of small dimensions, were built on or near the bank of the river, for the convenience of water and a more free circulation of air, into which their families were moved. Then commenced the cutting down and girdling the immense forest trees which covered the rich bottoms, and lifted their lofty heads toward the clouds. A fence of rails and timber was built on the backside of their fields, next the woods, to protect