New town and settlement of Warren--Roland’s ferry--Comfortable
situation, the effect of industry--Wheeling--Walk by moonlight--New
state road--Wheeling island--Canton.
We proceeded after dinner from Charlestown, three and a half miles
to a ferry, and two miles further, we passed a point and a tavern
on the right, a mile and a half below which on the same hand, is
the straggling town and fine settlement of Warren, laid out by Mr.
Kimberly, the proprietor, five years ago, but it is only within two
years that it has began to assume the appearance of a town. It contains
thirty-eight dwelling houses, charmingly situated on an extensive
bottom, the largest I had noticed since leaving Pittsburgh, with Indian
Short creek emptying into the Ohio at its southern extremity.
Three miles lower, we passed Pike island, which is about three quarters
of a mile long, and seems capable of cultivation, though perhaps rather
low. Opposite to it is the boundary line between Jefferson and Belmont
counties in Ohio.
Two miles further, at six o’clock we landed at Roland’s ferry, on the
left, and found Roland and his son employed building a boat on the
bank. He had removed from Pittsburgh last April, and now rents {94}
a small farm from Mr. Woods, the county surveyor, who has a handsome
house in sight, a little remote from the river where he resides,
another on the bank a little lower down, and a cottage amongst the
woods on the highest neighbouring hill, intended for a banqueting
house during summer, and commanding an extensive prospect. At Roland’s
invitation, we walked to his cottage a little distant from the river
bank. His wife and a very fine girl his eldest daughter were spinning
cotton, while a younger one was attending the ferry, who though a
delicate and pretty girl, paddled the skiff backwards and forwards as
well as a man could do. He has been very industrious, as besides having
built several skiffs since his removal, he had planted and cultivated
twelve acres of the finest corn I ever saw, some of it now twelve feet
high, just beginning to ear. He had also a large garden well stocked
with useful roots and vegetables.
At seven we left Roland’s, and three miles and a half below, passed
between the north end of Wheeling island on the right, and the
principal part of the town of Wheeling on the left,[73] which is
situated on so high a cliff, with the avenues from the river so steep,
that on account of the apparent difficulty of getting our baggage
carried up, we preferred going on to where the cliff was considerably
lower, landing just under Sprigg’s tavern near the ship-yards, a little
above the confluence of Wheeling creek with the Ohio.
This being a great thoroughfare, on account of its situation where
the great post roads from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the northern
part of Virginia unite, and cross the river, on the route through the
states of Ohio and Kentucky, to Tennessee and New Orleans, we found
several travellers of various descriptions in the house, and after
partaking with them of a good supper, we went out to saunter until bed
time through the town, into which we had to {95} ascend a steep but
short hill. It appeared very lively, the inhabitants being about their
doors, or in the street, enjoying the fresh air of a clear moonlight
evening, while two flutes were playing _en duo_ the simple but musical
Scots ballad of Roy’s wife of Aldwalloch, the prime part very tastily
executed. Yet notwithstanding appearances, our impression of the
town was not the most favourable, nor after tolerable beds and a good
breakfast next morning, had we reason to alter our opinion when we
examined it by day light.
It contains one hundred and twenty houses of all descriptions from
middling downwards, in a street about half a mile long, parallel to the
river, on a bank of about one hundred feet perpendicular, which the
face of the cliff almost literally is, of course the avenues to the
landings are very steep and inconvenient. The court-house of stone with
a small belfry, has nothing in beauty to boast of. The gaol joins it in
the rear.
It is probable that Mr. Zanes, the original proprietor, now regrets
that he had not placed the town on the flat below, at the conflux of
the Wheeling and Ohio, where Spriggs’s inn and the ship-yards now are,
instead of cultivating it as a farm until lately, when a resolve of
congress to open a new publick state road from the metropolis through
the western country, which will come to the Ohio near the mouth of
Wheeling creek, induced him to lay it out in town lots, but I fear he
is too late to see it become a considerable town to the prejudice of
the old one, notwithstanding its more advantageous situation.--The
present town does not seem to thrive, if one may judge by the state of
new buildings, two only of which I saw going forward in it. The stores
also appeared rather thinly stocked with goods, and the retail prices
are high. When the new road is finished, it will doubtless be of great
use to Wheeling, as it will be a more direct route to the western
states, {96} than any of the others hitherto used, and besides there
are no material impediments to the navigation of the Ohio with the
usual craft, below that town in the driest seasons, when the river is
at the lowest.
The surrounding country in sight is hilly and broken, but I am
informed that it is very rich and plentiful at a short distance from
the river.
Wheeling island in front of the town, is about a mile long, and
half a mile wide in its broadest part. It is very fertile, and is
all cultivated as a farm by Mr. Zanes. The post and stage road to
Chilicothe in Ohio, goes across it, which occasions two ferries, an
inconvenience which will be remedied by the new state road crossing by
one ferry below the island.
Indian Wheeling creek, a fine mill stream joins the Ohio from the N. W.
opposite the middle of the island, and Mr. Zanes has lately laid out a
new town there named Canton, which has now thirteen houses, but from
its proximity to Wheeling, it never can become considerable.[74]
FOOTNOTES:
[73] On the early history of Wheeling and its importance as a terminus
for overland travel from Redstone and Fort Pitt, see Michaux’s
_Travels_, vol. iii of this series, p. 33, note 15; also Thwaites, _On
the Storied Ohio_.--ED.
[74] The use of the terms Indian Wheeling Creek, Indian Kentucky, etc.
for streams flowing into the Ohio from its northern and western side
is a reminiscence of the days when the Ohio was a boundary between the
white settlements and Indian territory. The Indian title to these lands
was not extinguished, and the danger of attack from this side of the
river was not removed until after the Treaty of Greenville (1795).
The town laid out opposite Wheeling was not the nucleus of the
well-known Canton (Stark County), Ohio; but a place that perished,
according to Cuming’s prediction.--ED.