Page images
PDF
EPUB

PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.

This work is published under the superintendence of the Historical Society of Cincinnati, and forms the first volume of its transactions. It contains a full account of all that took place in Washington county, where the first settlement in the present state of Ohio took place, from 1788 to 1803; or during the existence of the Territorial Government. It also presents an outline of the leading events in the Ohio Valley, before 1788. The materials of this book are almost wholly original, comprising the papers of Colonel George Morgan; those of Judge Barker; the diaries of Joseph Buell and John Mathews; the records of the Ohio Company, &c., &c.

The high character of the author for integrity, his long residence in the country, his attainments, and laborious habits, afford such assurance of the accuracy of the work, as to justify the Society in commending it to the public.

The Society has in its possession the manuscript of a work, containing ample biographies of the first settlers of Marietta and its vicinity, prepared by the author of the present volume. Should the sale of this be as large as its merit leads the Society to hope it will be, the volume of Biography will follow it in a short time, as the second volume of the transactions.

[ocr errors]

INTRODUCTION.

There having been no historical account published of the first settlement of the Ohio Company at Marietta, but the brief one by the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, and the materials on which it was to be founded becoming annually more and more scarce, from the death of the early inhabitants, the author, in the year 1841, was led to commence this difficult, but, to him, pleasant labor. Having himself lived in the county more than forty years, he was personally acquainted with a large number of the first pioneers, and heard them relate many of the scenes described in these pages. No regular journal, or diary, of the progress of the settlements having been kept, to which he could have access, it has been a tedious work to collect all the dates of events with the accuracy desired. Many were ascertained from old letters; some by a journal kept by Simeon Wright, which was lost soon after his death; but an abstract of the most important things in which, was obtained several years previous. General Rufus Putnam's journal furnished the dates for many facts, but more were obtained from his letters. The files of old newspapers in the Antiquarian Library, at Worcester, Massachusetts, supplied numerous authentic documents, from the letters of the pioneers to their friends, and to Isaiah Thomas, the editor of the "Massachusetts Spy." The diaries of John Mathews, Esq., and General Joseph Buell, of events on the Ohio river, before the settlement of the Ohio Company, afford many valuable facts in the early history of the country, deemed worthy of preservation, and are inserted previous to the account of that event. The journal of the transactions of the Ohio Company has been very freely quoted, and goes hand in hand with the historical events that transpired among the colonists. One mode of collecting materials for the history, was to employ some of the few that remained of the first settlers to write down their recollections of the events as they occurred in the settlement to which they belonged, in Marietta, Waterford or

Belpre; and by collating these several sketches, the truth could be very nearly ascertained. The larger portion of these men are now dead, and many of the events would have perished with them, had they not been preserved in this manner.

The late Judge Barker furnished the most copious notes, sufficient for quite a good sized volume, on which is founded a large portion of this history. He was a man of a clear, sound mind, retentive memory, and correct observation. His character will be found in the volume of biographical sketches of the Ohio company settlers.* Colonel Ichabod Nye, and Mr. Horace Nye, of Putnam, and the late Charles Devoll, Esq., also supplied valuable materials for Marietta and Belpre. Many events are detailed with a minuteness not usual in ordinary history, but will be interesting to the descendants of the early settlers, and afford matter for the future historian. The period embraced extends only to the termination of the territorial government under Governor St. Clair. A preliminary account of the discoveries by La Salle, with the occupancy of the country on the Ohio river by the French, and the events about Pittsburgh, especially the campaign of Colonel Bouquet, in 1764, are matters of history but little known to the commnnity, and very properly precede the account of the settlements of the Ohio company. The closing chapter, on the early and present climate of Ohio, with the natural productions of the country, will be interesting to the student of natural history. In the Appendix will be found the address of Governor St. Clair, on taking possession of the territory under his charge; the 4th of July oration of General Varnum, 1788, delivered at Marietta; the yet unpublished eulogy of Dr. Drown, on his death, in January, 1789; and an oration on the settlement of Marietta, April 7th, 1789; documents long out of print and now rarely found. For these, the author is indebted to the Honorable Wilkins Updike, of Rhode Island, who has preserved them with great care, and had them transcribed for this history. The labor bestowed on the work now offered to the public, through the Historical Society of Cincinnati, has been accomplished in such periods of time as could be found in the intervals of the regular practice of medicine, which must apologize for its many imperfections.

MARIETTA, January 1, 1848.

*See Advertisement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

-

-

The shores of the Ohio river without inhabitants. Watch towers.- Jesuit
Missionaries on the Lakes in 1668.- Mississippi river discovered in 1673.-
La Salle's discoveries. - Iroquois Indians. Lake and river of the Illinois.
- Iroquois invade the Illinois.- La Salle embarks on the Mississippi in
February, 1682.- Arrives at the mouth 7th of April. - Returns to Michil-
limackinac in September.-Returns to France and sails with men to take
possession of the country. His death.

[blocks in formation]

1

Country on the Ohio but little known to the English until the year 1740.—
Indian traders.-Colonial Ohio land company.-The French take formal
possession of the country 1749.- Forbid English traders. Leaden plates
buried at the mouths of the rivers.-Copies and translation.-French erect
forts. Journal of Christopher Gist, on a visit to the Indian tribes. — Block
house sacked at Logstown.-George Washington sent a commissioner to the
French posts. Fort Du Quesne built. - Battle at Great Meadows. - Copy
of the capitulation in the original French.-Pontiac's Indian confederacy.

17

CHAPTER

III.

Ancient map, with a plan of Colonel Bouquet's march to Muskingum. - Indian
depredations in Western Pennsylvania. - Extracts from Colonel Bouquet's
expedition in the Indian country on the Muskingum river in 1764, with
various incidents connected therewith.— Indian treaty at Fort Pitt in 1765.

CHAPTER IV.

45

Journal of George Croghan, deputy Indian agent, while on a friendly visit to
the western tribes in 1765.-He arrives at the mouth of the Scioto river. —

-

« PreviousContinue »