one of its sources, I believe at Lake Chatauqua, six or seven leagues
below Lake Erie, and followed it to Louisville. He was engaged in the
beaver trade, and in 1671 had a credit at Montreal, payable in beaver.
We may be pretty confident that, with his twenty-three or twenty-four
men and several canoes, looking for beaver-skins, he did not neglect the
Mahoning River, first called Beaver creek.
La Salle’s latitude is bad; we would expect that. Joliet’s manuscript
map of 1674 lays down the Ohio marked “Route of the Sieur de La Salle to
go to Mexico.” The unpublished map of Franquelin of 1688 lays down the
Ohio more correctly than it appeared in published maps for sixty years.
The discovery was the basis of the French claims to Ohio, and La Salle’s
likeness is one of the four great discoverers of America in the Capitol
at Washington. But the knowledge gained by La Salle was to be in a great
measure lost. The English, stopped by Indians and mountains, were not to
settle here. The west and northwest were safer territory for the French.
The Iroquois roamed over Ohio, warred with the tribes beyond, even to
the Mississippi. The Wabash and Ohio became confounded, often laid down
as “Wabash or Ohio,” and most often made running almost parallel with
the lake and just about on the high land in Ohio which divides the
streams of the north from the south. The magnificent sweep of the Ohio,
which embraces our State on the east and south, was lost. The lake had
various fortunes. La Hontan made it run down like a great bag half way
to the Gulf, but that being in time changed, its south shore was drawn
nearly east and west instead of to the southwest westward. No subsequent
French writer was so sensible and intelligent as Charlevoix, yet in his
great work of three quarto volumes on New France our territory hardly
appears, and on the south of Lake Erie in his larger map of it, in 1744,
is the legend: “_Toute cette coste n’est presque point connue_”—this
coast is almost unknown.
As early as 1716 the governor of Virginia proposed to the home
Government to seize the interior. No attention was paid to it, but about
1750 Pennsylvania traders were pushing over the mountains and the French
traders from the west. In that year the Ohio Land Company sent Gist to
survey the Ohio. English traders were shortly after at Pickowilliny,
Sandusky and Pittsburgh, but not safely so. The French were the
strongest. In 1749 Celeron placed his lead plates on the Ohio. In 1753
the French crossed Lake Erie, established Presque Isle and expelled the
English from Fort DuQuesne at Pittsburgh. Washington made his appearance
to know what the French were doing. The traders had made no addition to
science or geography, but they had called attention to the country. But
the military expeditions were to rediscover it
Celeron’s map lays down the Ohio quite creditably, but the legend along
the lake is: “All this part of the lake is unknown.” Just the mouth of
the Beaver appears. He expelled English traders from Logstown, a little
above the Beaver. The great geographer, D’Anville of France, in 1755
lays down the Beaver, with the Mahoning from the west, rising in a lake,
all very incorrectly, with Lake Erie rising to the northeast like a pair
of stairs and the Ohio nearly parallel to it.
The map published in 1754 with Washington’s report takes good account of
Great Beaver creek—Logstown just above it; opposite, on the Ohio, a
fort; Delawares on the west at the mouth; Kuskuskas above; and above
that, Owendos’ town, “Wyandot.”. The mixed state of the Indians at that
time appears in Celeron, who found in Logstown Iroquois from different
places, Shawnees, Delawares, also Nepissings, Abenakes and Ottawas.
Being a convenient way of passing to the lake, a trail as an avenue of
commerce preceded the canal, and that the railroad.
Evans was to draw and Franklin to publish, in 1755, at Philadelphia, a
map plainly in demand by traders, and from information given by them. At
the mouth of the Beaver is a Shingoes’ town; a trail up to the forks
finds the Kuskuskas; a trail to the east leaves it for “Wenango” and
“Petroleum”; the trail to the west goes to “Salt Springs,” and where
farther does not appear.
In his “Analysis,” Mr. Evans says: “Beaver creek is navigable with
canoes only. At Kushkies, about sixteen miles up, two branches spread
opposite ways—one interlocks with French creek and Cherage, the other
westward with Muskingum and Cuyahoga. On this are many salt springs
about thirty-five miles above the forks. It is canoeable about twenty
miles farther. The eastern branch is less considerable, but both are
very slow, spreading through a very rich, level country, full of swamps
and ponds which prevent a good portage, but will no doubt in future ages
be fit to open a canal between the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie.”
A map often reprinted, and the one which was made the basis of the
treaty of peace after the Revolution, was that of John Mitchell, London,
1755.
Kushkies is said to be the “chief town of the Six Nations on the Ohio,
an English factory.” On the east branch are “Owendots.” Pennsylvania
reaches its protection over the whole of the Mahoning.
My purpose to outline discovery is nearly ended. In 1760, with Quebec,
all New France was surrendered to the English, but new wars with Indians
were to follow. Hutchins, Geographer-General to the United States, who
introduced our admirable land system, was with Bouquet in 1764. On his
map, between Kuskuske and Salt Lick Town, on the west of the river,
appears “Mahoning Town,” the first appearance in the maps of the name.
The subsequent history of Ohio is familiar. That of the Reserve grew out
of that ignorance which supposed the continent narrow. King Charles
granted in 1660 to Connecticut a tract seventy miles wide and over three
thousand long. The money for the Reserve became the school fund of
Connecticut, and led by the example, to our admirable system of free
schools, so that the ignorance of years ago leads to the wisdom of this.
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them as we will.”
The error of making the south shore of Lake Erie east and west came to a
curious end. When the association of gentlemen known as the Connecticut
Land Company were about to buy the Reserve, they agreed with a
prospective competitor to let it have the excess over three million
acres. This was the Excess Company, but there was no land for it, and
the error of one hundred years led to considerable financial disaster.
I ought to mention, as a matter of curious history, the map of John
Fitch, of steamboat memory. He spent considerable time in surveys within
the bounds of Ohio and Kentucky, and had previously traveled the country
as a prisoner among the Indians. In 1785 he made a map of the “Northwest
Country,” containing original and accurate information. He prepared the
copper plate, engraved it himself, and printed it with a cider press. He
was then living in Bucks county, Pa., and sold the map at six shillings
per copy to raise money enough to pursue his inventions relating to
steamboats.
We have now reached the period of settlement and can take a retrospect.
From the discovery of the continent in 1494 it was one hundred and
seventy-five years to the pioneer discovery of Ohio. In eighty-five
years more both France and England set to work in earnest to make good
their claims to it. In thirty-four years more England had beaten France,
America had beaten England, and the first permanent settlement had been
made in Ohio. It took two hundred and ninety-four years to reach this
point. There are but ninety-two years left to 1880 for the pioneers of
Ohio; but what a fruition to their work! The solitary settlement has
become a mighty nation of three million people, as large as the whole
United States in the Revolution, and how much stronger and with what an
abundance of wealth and comfort—a centre of intelligence and the home of
Presidents!
It is a wonderful review. The pioneers found the State covered with
large forests, almost without exception requiring the severest labor to
remove; and the change, all within a possible lifetime, seems amazing.
The world cannot show its parallel, and when one thinks seriously it
will be found to be one of the most interesting and important events in
the history of man. Peace as well as war has its victories.
We can only live over in stories the life of the pioneers. But theirs
was sturdy independence and severe labor, with least encouragement.
“Haply from them the toiler, bent
Above his forge or plow, may gain
A manlier spirit of content,
And feel that life is wisest spent
Where the strong working hand makes strong the working brain.”
C. C. BALDWIN
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]
A DESCRIPTION OF FORT HARMAR.
In the autumn of 1785 General Richard Butler passed down the Ohio on his
way to attend the treaty with the Indians at the mouth of the Little
Miami. He kept a record of his journey, and his journal gives much
interesting information, among other things the location of Fort Harmar.
In Virginia and Kentucky measures had been taken for what would have
been, really, an irresponsible invasion of the Indian country. This
action, which threatened to precipitate a disastrous war, hastened in
all probability the action of the confederation in taking measures for
the effectual strengthening of the frontier. It was determined to
establish several posts northwest of the Ohio. Fort Laurens had been
built in 1778 upon the Tuscarawas, near the old Indian town of
Tuscarawas and one mile south of the site of the present village of
Bolivar. It was injudiciously located, and was abandoned one year after
its erection. General Butler, while on his journey in 1785, chose the
site for Fort Harmar. Before leaving Fort McIntosh he had prepared and
left with Colonel Harmar, the commandant of the post, a paper in which
he expressed the opinion that “the mouth of the Muskingum would be a
proper place for a post to cover the frontier inhabitants, prevent
intruding settlers on the land of the United States, and secure the
surveys.” In his journal, under date of Saturday, October 8th, he
writes:
Sent Lieutenant Doyle and some men to burn the houses of the settlers
on the north side and put up proclamations.
Went on very well to the mouth of the Muskingum and found it low. I
went on shore to examine the ground most proper to establish a post
on; find it too low, but the most eligible is in the point on the Ohio
side. Wrote to Major Doughty and recommended this place with my
opinion of the kind of work most proper. Left the letter, which
contained other remarks on the fort, fixed to a locust tree.
A few days later the general instructed a man whom he met ascending the
Ohio to take the letter from the mouth of the Muskingum to Major
Doughty.
A short time later Major Doughty, with a detachment of United States
troops under his command, arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum and
began the erection of a post, which was not fully completed until the
spring of 1786.
[Illustration: FORT HARMAR IN 1788.]
The fort stood very near the point on the western side of the Muskingum,
and upon the second terrace above ordinary flood water. It was a regular
pentagon in shape, with bastions on each side, and its walls enclosed
but little more than three-quarters of an acre. The main walls of
defence, technically called “curtains,” were each one hundred and twenty
feet long and about twelve or fourteen feet high. They were constructed
of logs laid horizontally. The bastions were of the same height as the
other walls, but unlike them were formed of palings or timbers set
upright in the ground. Large two-story log buildings were built in the
bastions for the accommodation of the officers and their families, and
the barracks for the troops were erected along the curtains, the roofs
sloping toward the centre of the enclosure. They were divided into four
rooms of thirty feet each, supplied with fireplaces, and were sufficient
for the accommodation of a regiment of men,[1] a larger number, by the
way, than was ever quartered in the fort. From the roof of the barracks
building towards the Ohio river there arose a watch tower, surmounted by
the flag of the United States. This tower was also used as a guardhouse.
There were other buildings within the enclosure—an arsenal, a
store-house, and several smaller structures. The main gate was toward
the river with a sally-port on the side fronting on the hills. A well
was dug near the centre of the enclosure to supply the garrison with
water in case of siege, but, happily it was never needed, and we are
told that ordinary water was brought from the river. The timber used in
the construction of the fort was that of the heavy forest which covered
its side and several acres of land around about. The area cleared up was
nearly all utilized for gardening purposes under the direction of Major
Doughty, who seems to have had a remarkable fondness for tilling the
soil and considerable taste and knowledge as a horticulturist.[2] Fort
Harmar was named after General (then Colonel) Harmar, who was the
commander of the regiment to which Major Doughty was attached, and for
some time commandant at the fort at the mouth of the Muskingum.
Joseph Buell (afterward one of the prominent early settlers at Marietta)
was on the frontier for nearly a period of three years, dating from the
latter part of December, 1785, and he spent a considerable portion of
his time at Fort Harmar. His journal affords some interesting glimpses
of life in the garrison and affairs in the western country during the
years immediately preceding its settlement. Much is said in the
beginning of the hardships of army life, the depravity of the troops,
and the severity of the punishments inflicted for various offences.
Drunkenness and desertion were prevalent evils. The punishment for the
former and other venal misdemeanors was not infrequently flogging to the
extent of one hundred or even two hundred lashes, and the death penalty,
without the process of court-martial, was inflicted upon deserters. The
pay of the soldiers at that time guarding the frontier was only three
dollars per month.
On the 4th of May, 1786, Captain Zeigler’s and Strong’s companies
embarked for Muskingum, and from this date forward the entries in the
journal relate to occurrences at Fort Harmar.
May 8th. We arrived at Muskingum, where we encamped in the edge of the
woods a little distance from the fort.
10th. Captain Zeigler’s company embarked for the Miami, and our
company moved into the garrison, where we were engaged several days in
making ourselves comfortable.
12th. Began to make our gardens, and had a very disagreeable spell of
weather, which continued for twenty-two days raining in succession.
June 9th. Two boats arrived from Miami, and report that the Indians
had murdered several inhabitants this spring. We are getting short of
meat for the troops.
10th. Five frontiersmen came here to hunt for the garrison, and
brought with them a quantity of venison.
19th. News arrived here that the Indians had killed four or five women
and children at Fish creek, about thirty miles northeast from this
garrison.
July 4th. The great day of American independence was commemorated by
the discharge of thirteen guns, after which the troops were served
with extra rations of liquor, and allowed to get as drunk as they
pleased.
8th. We are brought down to half rations, and have sent out a party of
men to hunt. They returned without much success, although game is
plenty in the woods.
9th. We discovered some Indians crossing the Ohio in a canoe, below
the garrison, and sent a party after them, but could not overtake
them.
10th. Ensign Kingsbury, with a party of nine, embarked for Wheeling in
quest of provisions.
12th. Captain Strong arrived from Fort Pike.
16th. We were visited by a party of Indians, who encamped at a little
distance from the garrison, and appeared to be very friendly. They
were treated kindly by the officers, who gave them some wine and the
best the garrison afforded.
17th. Our men took up a stray canoe on the river. It contained a pair
of shoes, two axes and some corn. We suppose the owners were killed by
the Indians. Same day Lieutenant Kingsbury returned with only a supply
of food for six or seven days.
18th. Captain Strong’s company began to build their range of barracks,
to make ourselves comfortable for the winter.
19th. This day buried the fifer to Captain Hart’s company. Our
funerals are conducted in the following manner: The men are all
paraded without arms, and march by files in the rear of the corpse.
The guard, with arms, march in front, with their pieces reversed; and
the music in the rear of the guard, just in front of the coffin,
playing some mournful tune. After the dead is buried they return in
the same order, playing some lively march.
21st. A boat arrived from Fort Pit with intelligence of a drove of
cattle at Wheeling for this garrison.
22nd. Lieutenant Pratt, with a party of men, went up by land to bring
down the cattle.
23rd. Colonel Harmar arrived at the garrison. The troops paraded to
receive him and fired a salute of nine guns.
26th. Captain Hart went with a party of men to guard the Indians of
the Muskingum.
27th. Lieutenant Pratt arrived with ten head of cattle, which revived
our spirits, as we had been without provisions for several days.
29th. Three hunters came into the fort and informed us that they had
seen a party of Indians lying in the woods. We sent out some men, but
discovered nothing.
August 2nd. Our garrison was alarmed. Captain Hart was walking on the
bank of the river, and said he saw Indians on the other side of the
Ohio, and saw them shoot one of the men who was out hunting, and
beheld him fall. Colonel Harmar immediately sent the captain with a
party of men after them. They crossed the river and found one man
asleep on the ground, and another had been shooting at a mark. They
had seen no Indians.
11th. Captain Hart’s company were ordered to encamp in the open ground
outside of the fort, as the men are very sickly in the barracks.
23rd. Captain Hart and his company embarked for Wheeling with orders
to escort and protect the surveyors in the seven ranges.
September 1st. Captain Tunis, the Indian, came to the fort and
reported the Indians designed to attack our garrison, and that they
were bent on mischief. We were all hands employed in making
preparations to receive them, lining the bastions, clearing away all
the weeds and brush within a hundred yards of the fort. We likewise
cut up all our corn and broke down the bean poles, to prevent their
having any shelter within rifle shot distance.
6th. Captain Tunis left the garrison to return to his nation and bring
us further information.
7th. The troops received orders to parade at the alarm post at
daybreak, and continue under arms until after sunrise.
12th. Still busy making preparations for the Indians, and expect them
every day.
21st. Ensign Kingsbury was ordered to take a party of men into the
commandant’s house and put it in the best order for defence, and to
remain there during the night.
26th. The troops are again brought to half rations. I went with a
party of men after a raft of timber to construct our barracks.
27th. Lieutenant Smith embarked in quest of provisions. We are on
short allowance, and expect the Indians every day to attack us. Our
men are very uneasy, laying various plans to desert, but are so
closely watched that it is very difficult for them to escape.
October 2nd. Lieutenant Smith returned with provisions sufficient only
for a short time. We are busily occupied in erecting the barracks.
10th. Major Doughty and Captain Strong left here for New England.
11th. The Indians made us a visit and stole one of our horses as it
was feeding in the woods.
16th. Captain Tunis called again at the fort and says the Indians had
repented of their design to attack the garrison.
November 3rd. Captain Tunis and a number of Indians, with two squaws,
came into the garrison. At night they got very drunk and threatened
the guard with their tomahawks and knives.
5th. Uling, a trader on the river, arrived with provisions.
9th. The hunters brought in about thirty deer and a great number of
turkeys.
25th. Captain Hart’s and McCurdy’s companies came in from the survey
of the seven ranges. They had a cold, wearisome time; their clothes
and shoes wore out, and some of their feet badly frozen.
December 3rd. Uling arrived with twenty kegs of flour and ten kegs of
whiskey and some dry goods. Our rations now consist of a little
venison, without any bread; as a substitute we have some corn and
potatoes. The weather is very cold and the river full of ice.
13th. Lieutenant Pratt embarked in a boat for Flinn’s Station (now
Belleville), distant thirty miles below the garrison, for a load of
corn and potatoes. The troops are in great distress for provisions.
About twelve miles below they landed on account of the storm, and
their boat was carried off by the ice with a considerable amount of
goods in it.
19th. Weather more moderate. Ensign Kingsbury embarked for Flinn’s
Station to make another trial for provisions.
22nd. Ensign Kingsbury returned with about sixty bushels of corn and
about twenty of potatoes.
24th. We drew for our station about a peck of frozen potatoes. As
Christmas is so near we are making all the preparations in our power
to celebrate it.
25th. This being Christmas day, the sergeant celebrated it by a
dinner, to which was added a plentiful supply of wine.
January 31, 1787. Hamilton Kerr, our hunter, began to build a house on
the island, a little above the mouth of the Muskingum, and some of our
men were ordered out as a fatigue party, to assist him, under the
command of Lieutenant Pratt.
February 11th. The weather has been very fine, and there is prospect
of an early spring.
15th. Sergeant Judd went with a party of men to assist some
inhabitants to move their families and settle near the garrison.
16th. Hamilton Kerr moved his family onto the island.
18th. Several families are settling on the Virginia shore, opposite
the fort.
24th. Isaac Williams arrived with his family to settle on the opposite
shore of the river. Several others have joined him, which makes our
situation in the wilderness much more agreeable.
27th. Major Hamtramck arrived from Fort Steuben in order to muster the
troops. The same day some of the hunters brought in a buffalo, which
was eighteen hands high and weighed one thousand pounds.
April 1st. The Indians came within twelve miles of the garrison, and
killed an old man and took a boy prisoner.
5th. Lieutenant Smith went out with a party of men on a scout and
discovered Indians on a hill within half a mile of the garrison.
9th. Ensign Kingsbury went on command with a party to bring in one of
the hunters, fifty miles up the Muskingum, for fear of the Indians,
who, we hear, are bent on mischief.
25th. One of our men discovered two Indians attempting to steal our
horses a little distance from the fort....
May 1st. This is St. Tammany’s day, and was kept with the festivities
usual to the frontiers. All the sergeants in the garrison crossed the
Ohio to Mr. Williams’, and partook of an excellent dinner.
7th. Twenty-one boats passed on their way to the lower country,
Kentucky. They had on board five hundred and nine souls, with many
wagons, goods, etc.
14th. John Stockley, a fifer in Captain Strong’s company, deserted. He
was pursued and overtaken twelve miles from the garrison, brought back
and ordered to run the gauntlet eleven times, through the troops of
the garrison, stripped of his Continental clothing, and drummed out
the fort with a halter around his neck, all of which was punctually
executed.
21st. This evening I sent a young man, who cooked for me on Kerr’s
island, about half a mile above the fort after some milk; he was seen
to jump into the river near the shore, when about a third of a mile
from the garrison. We supposed some of the people were playing in the
water. He did not return that evening, which led me to fear he had
lost his course. In the morning a party was sent after him. They
discovered fresh signs of Indians, and found his hat. They followed
the trail, but did not find them. We afterwards heard that they had
killed and scalped him. The Indians were a party of Ottawas.
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]
ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO LAND COMPANY.