The Cumberland and the Tennessee--Stately Solitudes--Old Fort
Massac--Dead towns in Egypt--The last camp--Cairo.
Opposite Metropolis, Ill., Saturday, June 9th.--As we were dressing
this morning, at half-past five, the echoes were again awakened by the
vociferous negro on the Kentucky shore, who was going out to his work
again, as noisy as ever. One of our own black men walked down the
bank, ostensibly to light his pipe at the breakfast fire, but really
to satisfy a pardonable curiosity regarding us. The singing brother on
the mainland appeared to amuse him, and he paused to listen, saying,
"Dat yere nigger, he got too loud voice!" Then, when he had left our
camp and regained the top of the bank, he leaned upon his hoe and
yelled: "Say, niggah, ober dere! whar you git dat mule?"
"Who you holl'rin' at, you brack island niggah?" was the quick reply.
"You lan' niggah, you tink you smart!"
"I'se so smart, I done want no liv'n' on island, wi' gang boss, 'n not
'lowed go 'way!"
The tuneful darky had evidently here touched a tender spot, for our
man turned back into the field to his work; and the other, kicking the
mule into action, trotted off to the tune of "Dar's a meet'n' here,
to-night!"
We went up into the field, to see the laborers cultivating corn. The
sun was blazing hot, without a breath of air stirring, but the great
black fellows seemed to mind it not, chattering away to themselves
like magpies, and keeping up their conversation by shouts, when
separated from each other at the ends of plow-rows. A natural levee,
eight and ten feet high, and studded with large tree-willows, rims
in the island farm like the edge of a basin. We were told that this
served as a barrier only against the June "fresh," for the regular
spring floods invariably swamp the place; but what is left within the
bowl, when the outer waters subside, soon leaches through the sandy
soil.
After passing the pretty shores of Dog Island, not far below, the
bold, dark headland of Cumberland Island soon bursts upon our view.
We follow the narrow eastern channel, in order to greet the Cumberland
River (909 miles), which half-way down its island name-sake,--at the
woe-begone little village of Smithland, Ky.--empties a generous flood
into the Ohio. The Cumberland, perhaps a quarter-of-a-mile wide,
debouches through high clay banks, which might readily be melted in
the turbulent cross-currents produced by the mingling of the rivers;
but to avoid this, the government engineers have built a wing-dam
running out from the foot of the Cumberland, nearly half-way into the
main river. This quickly unites the two streams, and the reinforced
Ohio is thereafter perceptibly widened.
Tramp steamers are numerous, on these lower reaches. We have seen
perhaps a dozen such to-day, stopping at the farm landings as well as
at the crude and infrequent hamlets,--mere notches of settlement in
the wooded lines of shore,--doing a small business in chance cargoes
and in passengers who flag them from the bank. A sultry atmosphere
has been with us through the day. The glassy surface of the river
has, when not lashed into foam by passing boats, dazzled the eyes most
painfully. The hills, from below Stewart's Island, have receded on
either side, generally leaving either low, broad, heavily-timbered
bottoms, or high clay banks which stretch back wide plains of yellow
and gray corn-land--frequently inundated, but highly productive. Now
and then the encroaching river has remained too long in some belt of
forest, and we have great clumps of dead trees, which spring aloft in
stately picturesqueness, thickly-clad to the limb-tips with Virginia
creeper. A bit of shaly hillside occasionally abuts upon the river,
though less frequently than above; and often such a spur has lying
at its feet a row of half-immersed boulders, delicately carpeted with
mosses and with clinging vines.
The Tennessee River (918 miles), the largest of the Ohio's
tributaries, is, where it enters, about half the width of the latter.
Coming down through a broad, forested bottom, with several pretty
islands off its mouth, it presents a pleasing picture. Here again the
government has been obliged to put in costly works to stop the ravages
of the mingling torrents in the soft alluvial banks. The Ohio, with
the united waters of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, henceforth
flows majestically to the Mississippi, a full mile wide between her
shores.
Paducah (13,000 inhabitants), next to Louisville Kentucky's most
important river port, lies on a high plain just below the Tennessee.
It is a stirring little city, with the usual large proportion of
negroes, and the out-door business life everywhere met with in the
South. Saw-mills, iron plants, and ship-yards line the bank; at
the wharf are large steamers doing a considerable business up the
Cumberland and Tennessee, and between Paducah and Cairo and St. Louis;
and there is a considerable ferry business to and from the Illinois
suburb of Brooklyn.
Seven miles below the Tennessee, on the Illinois side, we sought
relief from the blazing sun within the mouth of Seven Mile Creek,
which is cut deep through sloping banks of mud, and overhung by great
sprawling sycamores. These always interest us from the generosity of
their height and girth, and from their great variety of color-tones,
induced by the patchy scaling of the bark--soft grays, buffs, greens,
and ivory whites prevailing. When sufficiently refreshed in this cool
bower, we ventured once more into the fierce light of the open river,
and two miles below shot into the broader and more inviting Massac
Creek (928 miles), just as, of old, George Rogers Clark did with his
little flotilla, when _en route_ to capture Kaskaskia. Clark, in his
Journal written long after the event, said that this creek is a mile
above Fort Massac; his memory failed him--as a matter of fact, the
steep, low hill of iron-stained gravel and clay, on which the old
stronghold was built, is but two hundred yards below.[A]
The French commander who, in October, 1758, evacuated and burned Fort
Duquesne on the approach of the English army under General Forbes,
dropped down the Ohio for nearly a thousand miles, and built "a new
fort on a beautiful eminence on the north bank of the river." But
there was a fortified post on this hillock at a much earlier date
(about 1711), erected as a headquarters for missionaries, and to guard
French fur-traders from marauding Cherokees; and Pownall's map notes
one here in 1751. This fort of 1758 was but an enlarged edition of
the old. The new stronghold, with a garrison of a hundred men, was the
last built by the French upon the Ohio, and it was occupied by them
until they evacuated the country in 1763. England does not appear to
have made any attempt to repair and occupy the works then destroyed
by the French, although urged to do so by her military agents in
the West. Had they held Fort Massac, no doubt Clark's expedition to
capture the Northwest for the Americans might easily have been nipped
in the bud; as it was, the old fortress was a ruin when he "reposed"
on the banks of the creek at its feet.
When, in 1793-1794, the French agent Genet was fomenting his scheme
for capturing Louisiana and Florida from Spain, by the aid of Western
filibusters, old Fort Massac was thought of as a rallying-point and
base of supplies; but St. Clair's proclamation of March 24, 1794,
ordering General Wayne to restore and garrison the place, for the
purpose of preventing the proposed expedition from passing down the
river, ended the conspiracy, and Genet left the country. A year later,
Spain, who had at intervals sought to detach the Westerners from
the Union, and ally them with her interests beyond the Mississippi,
renewed her attempts at corrupting the Kentuckians, and gained to
her cause no less a man than George Rogers Clark himself. Among other
designs, Fort Massac was to be captured by the adventurers, whom
Spain was to supply with the sinews of war. There was much mysterious
correspondence between the latter's corruption agent, Thomas Power,
and the American General Wilkinson, at Detroit; but finally Power,
in disguise, was sent out of the country under guard, by way of Fort
Massac, and his escape into Spanish territory practically ended this
interesting episode in Western history. The fort was occupied as a
military post by our government until the close of the War of 1812-15;
what we see to-day, are the ruins of the establishment then abandoned.
No doubt the face of this rugged promontory of gravel has, within a
century, suffered much from floods; but the remains of the earthwork
on the crest of the cliff, some fifty feet above the present
river-stage, are still easily traceable throughout. The fort was
about forty yards square, with a bastion at each corner; there are the
remains of an unstoned well near the center; the ditch surrounding
the earthwork is still some two-and-a-half or three feet below the
surrounding level, and the breastwork about two feet above the inner
level; no doubt, palisades once surmounted the work, and were relied
upon as the chief protection from assault. The grounds, a pleasant
grassy grove several acres in extent, are now enclosed by a rail
fence, and neatly maintained as a public park by the little city of
Metropolis, which lies not far below. It was a commanding view of land
and river, which was enjoyed by the garrison of old Fort Massac. Up
stream, there is a straight stretch of eleven miles to the mouth
of the Tennessee; both up and down, the shore lines are under full
survey, until they melt away in the distance. No enemy could well
surprise the holders of this key to the Lower Ohio.
Our camp is on the sandy beach opposite Metropolis, and two hundred
yards below the Kentucky end of the ferry. Behind us lies a deep
forest, with sycamores six and eight feet in diameter; a country road
curving off through the woods, to the sparse rustic settlement lying
some two miles in the interior--on higher ground than this wooded
bottom, which is annually overflowed. Now and then the blustering
little steam-ferry comes across to land Kentucky farm-folk and
their mules, going home from a Saturday's shopping in Metropolis.
Occasionally a fisherman passes, lagging on his oars to scan us and
our quarters; and from one of them, we purchased a fish. As the
still, cool night crept on, Metropolis was astir; across the mile of
intervening water, darted tremulous shafts of light; we heard voices
singing and laughing, a fiddle in its highest notes, the puffing of
a stationary engine, and the bay and yelp of countless dogs. Later,
a packet swooped down with smothered roar, and threw its electric
search-light on the city wharf, revealing a crowd of negroes gathered
there, like moths in the radiance of a candle; there were gay shouts,
and a mad scampering--we could see it all, as plainly as if in
ordinary light it had been but a third of the distance; and then the
roustabouts struck up a weird song as they ran out the gang-plank,
and, laden with boxes and bales, began swarming ashore, like a
procession of black ants carrying pupa cases.
* * * * *
Mound City Towhead, Sunday, 10th.--During the night, burglarious
pigs would have raided our larder, but the crash of a falling kettle
wakened us suddenly, as did geese the ancient Romans. The Doctor and I
sallied forth in our pajamas, with clods of clay in hand, to send the
enemy flying back into the forest, snorting and squealing with baffled
rage.
We were afloat at half-past seven, under an unclouded sky, with the
sun sharply reflected from the smooth surface of the river, and the
temperature rapidly mounting.
The Fort Massac ridge extends down stream as far as Mound City,
but soon degenerates into a ridge of clay varying in height from
twenty-five to fifty feet above the water level. Upon the low-lying
bottom of the Kentucky shore, is still an interminable dark line of
forest. The settlements are meager, and now wholly in Illinois:
For instance, Joppa (936 miles), a row of a half-dozen unpainted,
dilapidated buildings, chiefly stores and abandoned warehouses,
bespeaking a river traffic of the olden time, that has gone to decay;
a hot, dreary, baking spot, this Joppa, as it lies sprawling upon
the clay ridge, flanked by a low, wide gravel beach, on which gaunt,
bell-ringing cows are wandering, eating the leaves of fallen trees,
for lack of better pasturage. Our pilot map, of sixty years ago,
records the presence of Wilkinsonville (942 miles), on the site of
old Fort Wilkinson of the War of 1812-15, but no one along the banks
appears to have ever heard of it; however, after much searching, we
found the place for ourselves, on an eminence of fifty feet, with
two or three farm-houses as the sole relics of the old establishment.
Caledonia (Olmstead P.O.), nine miles down, consists of several large
buildings on a hill set well back from the river. Mound City (959
miles),--the "America" of our time-worn map,--in whose outskirts we
are camped to-night, is a busy town with furniture factories, lumber
mills, ship-yards, and a railway transfer. Below that, stretches the
vast extent of swamp and low woodland on which Cairo (967 miles) has
with infinite pains been built--like "brave little Holland," holding
her own against the floods solely by virtue of her encircling dike.
Houseboats have been few, to-day, and they of the shanty order and
generally stranded high upon the beach. One sees now and then, on the
Illinois ridge, the cheap log or frame house of a "cracker," the very
picture of desolate despair; but on the Kentucky shore are few signs
of life, for the bottom lies so low that it is frequently inundated,
and settlement ventures no nearer than two or three miles from the
riverside. A fisherman comes occasionally into view, upon this wide
expanse of wood and water and clay-banks; sometimes we hail him in
passing, always getting a respectful answer, but a stare of innocent
curiosity.
Our last home upon the Ohio is facing the Kentucky shore, on the
cleanly sand-beach of Mound City Towhead, a small island which in
times of high water is but a bar. The tent is screened in a willow
clump; just below us, on higher ground, sycamores soar heavenward,
gayly festooned with vines, hiding from us Mound City and the Illinois
mainland. Across the river, a Kentucky negro is singing in the
gloaming; but it is over a mile away, and, while the tune is plain,
the words are lost. Children's voices, and the bay of hounds, come
wafted to us from the northern shore. A steamer's wake rolls along
our island strand, dangerously near the camp-fire; the river is still
falling, however, and we no longer fear the encroachments of the
flood. The Doctor and I found a secluded nook, where in the moonlight
we took our final plunge.
It is sad, this bidding good-bye to the stream which has floated us so
merrily for a thousand miles, from the mountains down to the plain. We
elders linger long by the last camp-fire, to talk in fond reminiscence
of the six weeks afloat; while the Boy no doubt dreams peacefully
of houseboats and fishermen, of gigantic bridges and flashing
steel-plants, of coal-mines and oil-wells, of pioneers and Indians,
and all that--of six weeks of kaleidoscopic sensations, at an age when
the mind is keenly active, and the heart open to impressions which can
never be dimmed so long as his little life shall last.
* * * * *
Cairo, Monday, 11th.--At our island camp, last night, we were but nine
miles from the mouth of the Ohio, a distance which could easily have
been made before sundown; but we preferred to reach our destination in
the morning, the better to arrange for railway transportation, hence
our agreeable pause upon the Towhead.
Before embarking for the last run, this morning, we made a neat heap
on the beach, of such of our stores, edible and wearable, as had been
requisite to the trip, but were not worth the cost of sending home.
Feeling confident that some passing fisherman would soon be tempted
ashore to inspect this curious landmark, and yet might be troubled
by nice scruples as to the policy of appropriating the find, we
conspicuously labeled it: "Abandoned by the owners! The finder is
welcome to the lot."
Quickly passing Mound City, now bustling with life, Pilgrim closely
skirted the monotonous clay-banks of Illinois, swept rapidly under the
monster railway bridge which stalks high above the flood, and
loses itself over the tree-tops of the Kentucky bottom, and at
a quarter-past eight o'clock was pulled up at Cairo, with the
Mississippi in plain sight over there, through the opening in the
forest. In another hour or two, she will be housed in a box-car;
and we, her crew, having again donned the garb of landsmen, will be
speeding toward our northern home, this pilgrimage but a memory.
Such a memory! As we dropped below the Towhead, the Boy, for once
silent, wistfully gazed astern. When at last Pilgrim had been hauled
upon the railway levee, and the Doctor and I had gone to summon a
shipping clerk, the lad looked pleadingly into W----'s face. In tones
half-choked with tears, he expressed the sentiment of all: "Mother,
is it really ended? Why can't we go back to Brownsville, and do it all
over again?"
[Footnote A: "In the evening of the same day I ran my Boats into
a small Creek about one mile above the old Fort Missack; Reposed
ourselves for the night, and in the morning took a Rout to the
Northwest."--Clark's letter to Mason.]
APPENDIX A.
Historical outline of Ohio Valley settlement.
Englishmen had no sooner set foot upon our continent, than they began
to penetrate inland with the hope of soon reaching the Western Ocean,
which the coast savages, almost as ignorant of the geography of the
interior as the Europeans themselves, declared lay just beyond
the mountains. In 1586, we find Ralph Lane, governor of Raleigh's
ill-fated colony, leading his men up the Roanoke River for a hundred
miles, only to turn back disheartened at the rapids and falls, which
necessitated frequent portages through the forest jungles. Twenty
years later (1606), Christopher Newport and the redoubtable John
Smith, of Jamestown, ascended the James as far as the falls--now
Richmond, Va.; and Newport himself, the following year, succeeded in
reaching a point forty miles beyond, but here again was appalled by
the difficulties and returned.
There was, after this, a deal of brave talk about scaling the
mountains; but nothing further was done until 1650, when Edward Bland
and Edward Pennant again tried the Roanoke, though without penetrating
the wilderness far beyond Lane's turning point. It is recorded that,
in 1669, John Lederer, an adventurous German surgeon, commissioned as
an explorer by Governor Berkeley, ascended to the summit of the Blue
Ridge, in Madison County, Va.; but although he was once more on the
spot the following season, with a goodly company of horsemen and
Indians, and had a bird's-eye view of the over-mountain country, he
does not appear to have descended into the world of woodland which
lay stretched between him and the setting sun. It seems to be well
established that the very next year (1671), a party under Abraham
Wood, one of Governor Berkeley's major-generals, penetrated as far
as the Great Falls of the Great Kanawha, only eighty miles from the
Ohio--doubtless the first English exploration of waters flowing into
the latter river. The Great Kanawha was, by Wood himself, called New
River, but the geographers of the time styled it Wood's. The last
title was finally dropped; the stream above the mouth of the Gauley
is, however, still known as New. These several adventurers had now
demonstrated that while the waters beyond the mountains were not the
Western Ocean, they possibly led to such a sea; and it came to be
recognized, too, that the continent was not as narrow as had up to
this time been supposed.
Meanwhile, the French of Canada were casting eager eyes toward the
Ohio, as a gateway to the continental interior. But the French-hating
Iroquois held fast the upper waters of the Mohawk, Delaware, and
Susquehanna, and the long but narrow watershed sloping northerly to
the Great Lakes, so that the westering Ohio was for many years sealed
to New France. An important factor in American history this, for it
left the great valley practically free from whites while the English
settlements were strengthening on the seaboard; when at last the
French were ready aggressively to enter upon the coveted field, they
had in the English colonists formidable and finally successful rivals.
It is believed by many, and the theory is not unreasonable, that the
great French fur-trader and explorer, La Salle, was at the Falls of
the Ohio (site of Louisville) "in the autumn or early winter of 1669."
How he got there, is another question. Some antiquarians believe
that he reached the Alleghany by way of the Chautauqua portage, and
descended the Ohio to the Falls; others, that he ascended the Maumee
from Lake Erie, and, descending the Wabash, thus, discovered the Ohio.
It was reserved for the geographer Franquelin to give, in his map of
1688, the first fairly-accurate idea of the Ohio's path; and Father
Hennepin's large map of 1697 showed that much had meanwhile been
learned about the river.
No doubt, by this time, the great waterway was well-known to many of
the most adventurous French and English fur-traders, possibly better
to the latter than to the former; unfortunately, these men left few
records behind them, by which to trace their discoveries. As early as
1684, we incidentally hear of the Ohio as a principal route for the
Iroquois, who brought peltries "from the direction of the Illinois" to
the English at Albany, and the French at Quebec. Two years after this,
ten English trading-canoes, loaded with goods, were seen on Lake Erie
by French agents, who in great alarm wrote home to Quebec about them.
Writes De Nonville to Seignelay, "I consider it a matter of importance
to preclude the English from this trade, as they doubtless would
entirely ruin ours--as well by the cheaper bargains they would give
the Indians, as by attracting to themselves the French of our colony
who are in the habit of resorting to the woods."
Herein lay the gist of the whole matter: The legalized monopoly
granted to the great fur-trade companies of New France, with the
official corruption necessary to create and perpetuate that monopoly,
made the French trade an expensive business, consequently goods were
dear. On the other hand, the trade of the English was untrammeled, and
a lively competition lowered prices. The French cajoled the Indians,
and fraternized with them in their camps; whereas, the English
despised the savages, and made little attempt to disguise their
sentiments. The French, while claiming all the country west of the
Alleghanies, cared little for agricultural colonization; they would
keep the wilderness intact, for the fostering of wild animals, upon
the trade in whose furs depended the welfare of New France--and this,
too, was the policy of the savage. By English statesmen at home, our
continental interior was also chiefly prized for its forest trade,
which yielded rich returns for the merchant adventurers of London. The
policies of the English colonists and of their general government were
ever clashing. The latter looked upon the Indian trade as an entering
wedge; they thought of the West as a place for growth. Close upon
the heels of the path-breaking trader, went the cattle-raiser, and,
following him, the agricultural settler looking for cheap, fresh, and
broader lands. No edicts of the Board of Trade could repress these
backwoodsmen; savages could and did beat them back for a time, but
the annals of the border are lurid with the bloody struggle of the
borderers for a clearing in the Western forest. The greater part of
them were Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas--a
hardy race, who knew not defeat. Steadily they pushed back the rampart
of savagery, and won the Ohio valley for civilization.
The Indian early recognized the land-grabbing temper of the English,
and felt that a struggle to the death was impending. The French
browbeat their savage allies, and, easily inflaming their passions,
kept the body of them almost continually at war with the English--the
Iroquois excepted, not because the latter were English-lovers, or
did not understand the aim of English colonization, but because the
earliest French had won their undying enmity. Amidst all this weary
strife, the Indian, a born trader who dearly loved a bargain, never
failed to recognize that the goods of his French friends were dear,
and that those of his enemies, the English, were cheap. We find
frequent evidences that for a hundred years the tribesmen of the Upper
Lakes carried on an illicit trade with the hated English, whenever the
usually-wary French were thought to be napping.
It is certain that English forest traders were upon the Ohio in the
year 1700. In 1715,--the year before Governor Spotswood of Virginia,
"with much feasting and parade," made his famous expedition over the
Blue Ridge,--there was a complaint that traders from Carolina had
reached the villages on the Wabash, and were poaching on the French
preserves. French military officers built little log stockades along
that stream, and tried in vain to induce the Indians of the valley to
remove to St. Joseph's River, out of the sphere of English influence.
Everywhere did French traders meet English competitors, who were
not to be frightened by orders to move off the field. New France,
therefore, determined to connect Canada and Louisiana by a chain of
forts throughout the length of the Mississippi basin, which should
not only secure untrammeled communication between these far-separated
colonies, but aid in maintaining French supremacy throughout the
region. Yet in 1725 we still hear of "the English from Carolina"
busily trading with the Miamis under the very shadow of the guns of
Fort Ouiatanon (near Lafayette, Ind.), and the French still vainly
scolding thereat. What was going on upon the Wabash, was true
elsewhere in the Ohio basin, as far south as the Creek towns on the
sources of the Tennessee.
About this time, Pennsylvania and Virginia began to exhibit interest
in their own overlapping claims to lands in the country northwest of
the Ohio. Those colonies were now settled close to the base of the
mountains, and there was heard a popular clamor for pastures new.
French ownership of the over-mountain region was denied, and in 1728
Pennsylvania "viewed with alarm the encroachments of the French." The
issue was now joined; both sides claimed the field, but, as usual, the
contest was at first among the rival forest traders. In the Virginia
and Pennsylvania capitals, the transmontane country was still a misty
region. In 1729, Col. William Byrd, an authority on things Virginian,
was able to write that nothing was then known in that colony of the
sources of the Potomac, Roanoke, and Shenandoah. It was not until 1736
that Col. William Mayo, in laying out the boundaries of Lord Fairfax's
generous estate, discovered in the Alleghanies the head-spring of the
Potomac, where ten years later was planted the famous "Fairfax Stone,"
the southwest point of the boundary between Virginia and Maryland.
That very same year (1746), M. de Lery, chief engineer of New France,
went with a detachment of troops from Lake Erie to Chautauqua Lake,
and proceeded thence by Conewango Creek and Alleghany River to the
Ohio, which he carefully surveyed down to the mouth of the Great
Miami.
Affairs moved slowly in those days. New France was corrupt and weak,
and the English colonists, unaided by the home government, were not
strong. For many years, nothing of importance came out of this rivalry
of French and English in the Ohio Valley, save the petty quarrels of
fur-traders, and the occasional adventure of some Englishman taken
prisoner by Indians in a border foray, and carried far into the
wilderness to meet with experiences the horror of which, as preserved
in their published narratives, to this day causes the blood of the
reader to curdle.
Now and then, there were voluntary adventurers into these strange
lands. Such were John Howard, John Peter Salling, and two other
Virginians who, the story goes, went overland (1740 or 1741) under
commission of their inquisitive governor, to explore the country to
the Mississippi. They went down Coal and Wood's Rivers to the Ohio,
which in Salling's journal is called the "Alleghany." Finally, a party
of French, negroes, and Indians took them prisoners and carried them
to New Orleans, where on meager fare they were held in prison for
eighteen months. They escaped at last, and had many curious adventures
by land and sea, until they reached home, from which they had been
absent two years and three months. There are now few countries on the
globe where a party of travelers could meet with adventures such as
these.
At last, the plot thickened; the tragedy was hastened to a close.
France now formally asserted her right to all countries drained by
streams emptying into the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the
Mississippi. This vast empire would have extended from the comb of
the Rockies on the west--discovered in 1743 by the brothers La
Verendrye--to the crest of the Appalachians on the east, thus
including the western part of New York and New England. The narrow
strip of the Atlantic coast alone would have been left to the
domination of Great Britain. The demand made by France, if acceded to,
meant the death-blow to English colonization on the American
mainland; and yet it was made not without reason. French explorers,
missionaries, and fur-traders had, with great enterprise and
fortitude, swarmed over the entire region, carrying the flag, the
religion, and the commerce of France into the farthest forest wilds;
while the colonists of their rival, busy in solidly welding their
industrial commonwealths, had as yet scarcely peeped over the
Alleghany barrier.
It was asserted on behalf of Great Britain, that the charters of her
coast colonies carried their bounds far into the West; further, that
as, by the treaty of Utrecht (1713), France had acknowledged the
suzerainty of the British king over the Iroquois confederacy, the
English were entitled to all lands "conquered" by those Indians,
whose war-paths had extended from the Ottawa River on the north to
the Carolinas on the south, and whose forays reached alike to the
Mississippi and to New England. In this view was made, in 1744, the
famous treaty at Lancaster, Pa., whereat the Iroquois, impelled by rum
and presents, pretended to give to the English entire control of the
Ohio Valley, under the claim that the former had in various encounters
conquered the Shawanese of that region and were therefore entitled
to it. It is obvious that a country occasionally raided by marauding
bands of savages, whose homes are far away, cannot properly be
considered theirs by conquest.
Meanwhile, both sides were preparing to occupy and hold the contested
field. New France already had a weak chain of waterside forts
and commercial stations,--the rendezvous of fur-traders, priests,
travelers, and friendly Indians,--extending, with long intervening
stretches of savage-haunted wilderness, through the heart of the
continent, from Lower Canada to her outlying post of New Orleans. It
is not necessary here to enter into the details of the ensuing French
and Indian War, the story of which Parkman has told us so well.
Suffice it briefly to mention a few only of its features, so far as
they affect the Ohio itself.
The Iroquois, although concluding with the English this treaty
of Lancaster, "on which, as a corner-stone, lay the claim of the
colonists to the West," were by this time, as the result of wily
French diplomacy, growing suspicious of their English protectors; at
the same time, having on several occasions been severely punished
by the French, they were less rancorous in their opposition to New
France. For this reason, just as the English were getting ready to
make good their claim to the Ohio by actual colonization, the Iroquois
began to let in the French at the back door. In 1749, Galissoniere,
then governor of New France, dispatched to the great valley a party
of soldiers under Celoron de Bienville, with directions to conduct a
thorough exploration, to bury at the mouths of principal streams lead
plates graven with the French claim,--a custom of those days,--and to
drive out English traders, Celoron proceeded over the Lake Chautauqua
route, from Lake Erie to the Alleghany River, and thence down the
Ohio to the Miami, returning to Lake Erie over the old Maumee portage.
English traders, who could not be driven out, were found swarming into
the country, and his report was discouraging. The French realized
that they could not maintain connection between New Orleans and their
settlements on the St. Lawrence, if driven from the Ohio valley. The
governor sent home a plea for the shipment of ten thousand French
peasants to settle the region; but the government at Paris was just
then as indifferent to New France as was King George to his colonies,
and the settlers were not sent.
Meanwhile, the English were not idle. The first settlement they made
west of the mountains, was on New River, a branch of the Kanawha
(1748); in the same season, several adventurous Virginians hunted and
made land-claims in Kentucky and Tennessee. Before the close of the
following year (1749), there had been formed, for fur-trading and
colonizing purposes, the Ohio Company, composed of wealthy Virginians,
among whom were two brothers of Washington. King George granted the
company five hundred thousand acres, south of and along the Ohio
River, on which they were to plant a hundred families and build
and maintain a fort. As a base of supplies, they built a fortified
trading-house at Will's Creek (now Cumberland, Md.), near the head of
the Potomac, and developed a trail ("Nemacolin's Path"), sixty miles
long, across the Laurel Hills to the mouth of Redstone Creek, on the
Monongahela, where was built another stockade (1752).
Christopher Gist, a famous backwoodsman, was sent (1750), the year
after Celoron's expedition, to explore the country as far down as
the falls of the Ohio, and select lands for the new company. Gist's
favorable report greatly stimulated interest in the Western country.
In his travels, he met many Scotch-Irish fur-traders who had passed
into the West through the mountain valleys of Pennsylvania, Virginia,
and the Carolinas. His negotiations with the natives were of great
value to the English cause.
It was early seen, by English and French alike, that an immense
advantage would accrue to the nation first in possession of what is
now the site of Pittsburg, the meeting-place of the Monongahela and
Alleghany rivers to form the Ohio--the "Forks of the Ohio," as it was
then called. In the spring of 1753, a French force occupied the new
fifteen-mile portage route between Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.) and French
Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. On the banks of French Creek they
built Fort Le Boeuf, a stout log-stockade. It had been planned to
erect another fort at the Forks of the Ohio, one hundred and twenty
miles below; but disease in the camp prevented the completion of the
scheme.
What followed is familiar to all who have taken any interest whatever
in Western history. In November, Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent
one of his major-generals, young George Washington, with Gist as a
companion, to remonstrate with the French at Le Boeuf for occupying
land "so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great
Britain." The French politely turned the messengers back. In the
following April (1754), Washington set out with a small command, by
the way of Will's Creek, to forcibly occupy the Forks. His advance
party were building a fort there, when the French appeared and easily
drove them off. Then followed Washington's defeat at Great Meadows
(July 4). The French were now supreme at their new Fort Duquesne.
The following year, General Braddock set out from Virginia, also by
Nemacolin's Path; but, on that fateful ninth of July, fell in the
slaughter-pen which had been set for him at Turtle Creek by the
Indians of the Upper Lakes, under the leadership of a French
fur-trader from far-off Wisconsin.
From the time of Braddock's defeat until the close of the war, French
traders, with savage allies, poured the vials of their wrath upon the
encroaching settlements of the English backwoodsmen. Nemacolin's Path,
now known as Braddock's Road, made for the Indians of the Ohio an
easy pathway to the English borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
Maryland. In the parallel valleys of the Alleghanies was waged a
partisan warfare, which in bitterness has probably not had its equal
in all the long history of the efforts of expanding civilization
to beat down the encircling walls of barbarism. In 1758, Canada
was attacked by several English expeditions, the most of which were
successful. One of these was headed by General John Forbes, and
directed against Fort Duquesne. After a remarkable forest march,
overcoming mighty obstacles, Forbes arrived at his destination to find
that the French had blown up the fortifications, some of the troops
retreating to Lake Erie and others to rehabilitate Fort Massac on the
Lower Ohio.
Thus England gained possession of the valley. New France had been cut
in twain. The English Fort Pitt commanded the Forks of the Ohio,
and French rule in America was now doomed. The fall of Quebec soon
followed (1759), then of Montreal (1760); and in 1763 was signed
the Treaty of Paris, by which England obtained possession of all
the territory east of the Mississippi River, except the city of New
Orleans and a small outlying district. In order to please the savages
of the interior, and to cultivate the fur-trade,--perhaps also, to
act as a check upon the westward growth of the too-ambitious coast
colonies,--King George III. took early occasion to command his "loving
subjects" in America not to purchase or settle lands beyond the
mountains, "without our especial leave and license." It is needless to
say that this injunction was not obeyed. The expansion of the English
colonies in America was irresistible; the Great West was theirs, and
they proceeded in due time to occupy it.
Long before the close of the French and Indian War, English
colonists--whom we will now, for convenience, call Americans--had made
agricultural settlements in the Ohio basin. As early as 1752, we have
seen, the Redstone fort was built. In 1753, the French forces,
on retiring from Great Meadows, burned several log cabins on the
Monongahela. The interesting story of the colonizing of the Redstone
district, at the western end of Braddock's Road, has been outlined in
Chapter I. of the text; and it has been shown, in the course of the
narrative of the pilgrimage, how other districts were slowly settled
in the face of savage opposition. Although driven back in numerous
Indian wars, these American borderers had come to the Ohio valley to
stay.
We have seen the early attempt of the Ohio Company to settle the
valley. Its agents blazed the way, but the French and Indian War, and
the Revolution soon following, tended to discourage the aspirations
of the adventurers, and the organization finally lapsed. Western land
speculators were as active in those days as now, and Washington was
chief among them. We find him first interested in the valley, through
broad acres acquired on land-grants issued for military services in
the French and Indian War; Revolutionary bounty claims made him a
still larger landholder on Western waters; and, to the close of the
century, he was actively interested in schemes to develop the region.
We are not in the habit of so regarding him, but both by frequent
personal presence in the Ohio valley, and extensive interests at stake
there, the Father of his Country was the most conspicuous of Western
pioneers. Dearly did Washington love the West, which he knew so well;
when the Revolutionary cause looked dark, and it seemed possible that
England might seize the coast settlements, he is said to have cried,
"We will retire beyond the mountains, and be free!" and in his
declining years he seemed to regret that he was too old to join his
former comrades of the camp, in their colony at Marietta.
As early as 1754, Franklin, in his famous Albany Plan of Union for the
colonies, had a device for establishing new states in the West, upon
lands purchased from the Indians. In 1773, he displayed interest in
the Walpole plan for another colony,--variously called Pittsylvania,
Vandalia, and New Barataria--with its proposed capital at the mouth
of the Great Kanawha. There were, too, several other Western colonial
schemes,--among them the Henderson colony of Transylvania, between
the Cumberland and the Tennessee, the seat of which was Boonesborough.
Readers of Roosevelt well know its brief but brilliant career,
intimately connected with the development of Tennessee and Kentucky.
But the most of these hopeful enterprises came to grief with the
political secession of the colonies; and when the coast States ceded
their Western land-claims to the new general government, and the
Ordinance of 1787 provided for the organization of the Territory
Northwest of the River Ohio, there was no room for further enterprises
of this character.[A]
The story of the Ohio is the story of the West. With the close of the
Revolution, came a rush of travel down the great river. It was more or
less checked by border warfare, which lasted until 1794; but in
that year, Anthony Wayne, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, broke the
backbone of savagery east of the Mississippi; the Tecumseh uprising
(1812-13) came too late seriously to affect the dwellers on the Ohio.
There were two great over-mountain highways thither, one of them being
Braddock's Road, with Redstone (now Brownsville, Pa.) and Pittsburg as
its termini; the other was Boone's old trail, or Cumberland Gap. With
the latter, this sketch has naught to do.
By the close of the Revolution, Pittsburg--in Gist's day, but a
squalid Indian village, and a fording-place--was still only "a distant
out-post, merely a foothold in the Far West." By 1785, there were
a thousand people there, chiefly engaged in the fur-trade and in
forwarding emigrants and goods to the rapidly-growing settlements on
the middle and lower reaches of the river. The population had doubled
by 1803. By 1812 there was to be seen here just the sort of bustling,
vicious frontier town, with battlement-fronts and ragged streets,
which Buffalo and then Detroit became in after years. Cincinnati and
Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, had still later, each in turn,
their share of this experience; and, not many years ago, Bismarck,
Omaha, and Leadville. From Philadelphia and Baltimore and Richmond,
there were running to Pittsburg or Redstone regular lines of stages
for the better class of passengers; freight wagons laden with immense
bales of goods were to be seen in great caravans, which frequently
were "stalled" in the mud of the mountain roads; emigrants from all
parts of the Eastern States, and many countries of Europe, often
toiled painfully on foot over these execrable highways, with their
bundles on their backs, or following scrawny cattle harnessed to
makeshift vehicles; and now and then came a well-to-do equestrian with
his pack-horses,--generally an Englishman,--who was out to see the
country, and upon his return to write a book about it.
At Pittsburg, and points on the Alleghany, Youghiogheny, and
Monongahela, were boat-building yards which turned out to order a
curious medley of craft--arks, flat- and keel-boats, barges, pirogues,
and schooners of every design conceivable to fertile brain. Upon
these, travelers took passage for the then Far West, down the
swift-rolling Ohio. There have descended to us a swarm of published
journals by English and Americans alike, giving pictures, more or
less graphic, of the men and manners of the frontier; none is without
interest, even if in its pages the priggish author but unconsciously
shows himself, and fails to hold the mirror up to the rest of nature.
With the introduction of steamboats,--the first was in 1811, but they
were slow to gain headway against popular prejudice,--the old river
life, with its picturesque but rowdy boatmen, its unwieldy flats and
keels and arks, began to pass away, and water traffic to approach the
prosaic stage; the crossing of the mountains by the railway did away
with the boisterous freighters, the stages, and the coaching-taverns;
and when, at last, the river became paralleled by the iron way, the
glory of the steamboat epoch itself faded, riverside towns adjusted
themselves to the new highways of commerce, new centers arose, and
"side-tracked" ports fell into decay.
[Footnote A: See Turner's "Western State-Making in the Revolutionary
Era," in _Amer. Hist. Rev._, Vol. I.; also, Alden's "New Governments
West of the Alleghanies," _Bull. Univ. Wis._, Hist. Series, Vol. II.]
APPENDIX B.
Selected list of Journals of previous travelers down the Ohio.
_Gist, Christopher._ Gist's Journals; with historical, geographical,
and ethnological notes, and biographies of his contemporaries, by
William M. Darlington. Pittsburg, 1893.
Gist's trip down the valley, from October, 1750, to May, 1751,
was on horseback, as far as the site of Frankfort, Ky. On his
second trip into Kentucky, from November, 1751, to March 11,
1752, he touched the river at few points.
_Gordon, Harry._ Extracts from the Journal of Captain Harry Gordon,
chief engineer in the Western department in North America, who was
sent from Fort Pitt, on the River Ohio, down the said river, etc., to
Illinois, in 1766.
Published in Pownall's "Topographical Description of North
America," Appendix, p. 2.
_Washington, George._ Journal of a tour to the Ohio River. [Writings,
ed. by Ford, vol. II. New York, 1889.]
The trip lasted from October 5 to December 1, 1770. The party
went in boats from Fort Pitt, as far down as the mouth of
the Great Kanawha. This journal is the best on the subject,
written in the eighteenth century.
_Pownall, T._ A topographical description of such parts of North
America as are contained in the [annexed] map of the Middle British
Colonies, etc. London, 1776.
Contains "Extracts from Capt. Harry Gordon's Journal,"
"Extracts from Mr. Lewis Evans' Journal" of 1743, and
"Christopher Gist's Journal" of 1750-51.
_Hutchins, Thomas._ Topographical description of Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, comprehending the Rivers
Ohio, Kenhawa, Sioto, Cherokee, Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi, etc.
London, 1778.
_St. John, M._ Lettres d'un cultivateur Americain. Paris, 1787, 3
vols.
Vol. 3 contains an account of the author's boat trip down the
river, in 1784.
_De Vigni, Antoine F. S._ Relation of his voyage down the Ohio River
from Pittsburg to the Falls, in 1788.
Graphic and animated account by a French physician who came
out with the Scioto Company's immigrants to Gallipolis. Given
in "Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc.", Vol. XI., pp. 369-380.
_May, John._ Journal and letters [to the Ohio country, 1788-89],
Cincinnati, 1873.
One of the best, for economic views. May was a Boston
merchant.
_Forman, Samuel S._ Narrative of a journey down the Ohio and
Mississippi in 1789-90. With a memoir and illustrative notes, by Lyman
C. Draper. Cincinnati, 1888.
A lively and appreciative account. Touches social life at the
garrisons, _en route_.
_Ellicott, Andrew._ Journal of the late commissioner on behalf of
the United States during part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798,
1799, and part of the year 1800: for determining the boundary between
the United States and Spain. Philadelphia, 1803.
His trip down the river was in 1796.
_Baily, Francis._ Journal of a tour in unsettled parts of North
America, in 1796 and 1797. London, 1856.
The author's river voyage was in 1796.
_Harris, Thaddeus Mason._ Journal of a tour into the territory
northwest of the Alleghany Mountains; made in the spring of the year
1803. Boston, 1805.
A valuable work. The author traveled on a flatboat.
_Michaux, F. A._ Travels to the west of the Alleghany Mountains.
London (2nd ed.), 1805.
Excellent, for economic conditions. The expedition was made in
1802.
_Ashe, Thomas._ Travels in America, performed in 1806. London, 1808.
Among the best of the early journals, although abounding in
exaggerations.
_Cuming, F._ Sketches of a tour to the Western country, etc.,
commenced in 1807 and concluded in 1809. Pittsburg, 1810.
_Bradbury, John._ Travels [1809-11] in the interior of America.
Liverpool, 1817.
_Melish, John._ Travels in the United States of America [1811].
Philadelphia, 1812, 2 vols.
Vol. 2 contains the journal of the author's voyage down the
river, in a skiff. The account of means of early navigation is
graphic.
_Flint, Timothy._ Recollections of the last ten years. Boston, 1826.
There is no better account of boats, and river life generally,
in 1814-15, the time of Flint's voyage.
_Fearon, Henry Bradshaw._ Sketches of America [1817]. London, 1819.
_Palmer, John._ Journal of travels in the United States of North
America [1817]. London, 1818.
_Evans, Estwick._ A pedestrian tour [1818] of four thousand miles
through the Western states and territories. Concord, N. H., 1819.
_Birkbeck, Morris._ Notes on a journey in America, from the coast of
Virginia to the Territory of Illinois. London, 1818.
The author traveled, in 1817, by light wagon from Richmond to
Pittsburg; and from Pittsburg to Cincinnati by horseback. This
book, interesting for economic conditions, together with
the author's "Letters from Illinois," did much to inspire
emigration to Illinois from England. His English colony, at
English Prairie, Ill., was much visited by travelers of the
period.
_Faux, W._ Journal of a tour to the United States [in 1819].
Excellent pictures of American life and agricultural methods,
by an English gentleman farmer. Attacks Birkbeck's roseate
views.
_Ogden, George W._ Letters from the West, comprising a tour through
the Western country [1821], and a residence of two summers in the
States of Ohio and Kentucky. New Bedford, Mass., 1823.
_Welby, Adlard._ A visit to North America and the English settlements
in Illinois. London, 1821.
The author went by horseback, occasionally touching the river
towns.
_Beltrami, J. C._ Pilgrimage in Europe and America. London, 1828, 2
vols.
In Vol. II the author describes a steamboat journey in 1823,
from Pittsburg to the mouth.
_Hall, James._ Letters from the West. London, 1828.
Valuable for scenery, manners, and customs, and anecdotes of
early Western settlement.
_Anonymous._ The Americans as they are; described by a tour through
the valley of the Mississippi. London, 1828.
_Trollope, Mrs._ [Frances M.]. Domestic manners of the Americans.
London and New York, 1832.
A lively caricature, the precursor of Dickens' "American
Notes." Mrs. Trollope's voyages on the Ohio were in 1828 and
1830.
_Vigne, Godfrey T._ Six months in America. London, 1832, 2 vols.
_Hamilton, T._ Men and manners in America. Philadelphia, 1833.
Includes a steamboat journey from Pittsburg to New Orleans.
_Alexander, Capt. J. E._ Transatlantic sketches. London, 1833, 2 vols.
Vol. II. has an account of a trip up the river.
_Stuart, James._ Three years in North America. New York, 1833, 2 vols.
Vol. II. includes a voyage up the Ohio. The author takes
issue, throughout, with Mrs. Trollope.
_Brackenridge, H. M._ Recollections of persons and places in the West.
Philadelphia, 1834.
Describes river trips, during the first decade of the century.
_Tudor, Henry._ Narrative of a tour [1831-32] in North America.
London, 1834, 2 vols.
The Ohio trip is in Vol. II.
_Arfwedson, C. D._ The United States and Canada, in 1832, 1833, and
1834. London, 1834, 2 vols.
In Vol. II is a report of a steamboat trip up the river.
_Latrobe, Charles Joseph._ The rambler in North America. New York,
1835, 2 vols.
Vol. II has an account of a descending steamboat voyage.
_Anonymous._ A winter in the West. By a New Yorker. New York (2nd
ed.), 1835, 2 vols.
In Vol. I. is an entertaining account of a stage-coach ride in
1833, from Pittsburg to Cleveland, touching all settlements on
the Upper Ohio down to Beaver River.
_Nichols, Thomas L._ Forty years of American life. London, 1864, 2
vols.
In Vol. I. the author tells of a steamboat tour from Pittsburg
to New Orleans, in 1840.
_Dickens, Charles._ American notes. New York, 1842.
Dickens, in 1841, traveled in steamboats from Pittsburg to
St. Louis. His dyspeptic comments on life and manners in the
United States, at the time grated harshly on the ears of our
people; but afterward, they grew strong and wise enough to
smile at them. The book is to-day, like Mrs. Trollope's,
entertaining reading for an American.
_Rubio_ (pseud.). Rambles in the United States and Canada, in 1845.
London, 1846.
A typical English growler, who thinks America "the most
disagreeable of all disagreeable countries;" nevertheless,
he says of the Ohio, "a finer thousand miles of river scenery
could hardly be found in the wide world."
_Mackay, Alex._ The Western world; or, travels in the United States in
1846-47. London, 1849.
Good for its character sketches, glimpses of slavery, and
report of economic conditions.
_Robertson, James._ A few months in America [winter of 1853-54].
London, n. d.
Chiefly statistical.
_Murray, Charles Augustus._ Travels in North America. London, 1854, 2
vols.
Vol. I has the Ohio-river trip. The author is an appreciative
Englishman, and tells his story well.
_Murray, Henry A._ Lands of the slave and the free. London, 1855, 2
vols.
In Vol. I is an account of an Ohio-river voyage.
_Ferguson, William._ America by river and rail [in 1855]. London,
1856.
_Lloyd, James T._ Steamboat directory, and disasters on the Western
waters. Cincinnati, 1856.
Valuable for stories and records of the early days of river
transportation.
_Anonymous._ A short American tramp in the fall of 1864. By the editor
of "Life in Normandy." Edinburgh, 1865.
An English geologist's journal. Distorted and overdrawn, on
the travel side. He took steamer from St. Louis to Cincinnati.
_Bishop, Nathaniel H._ Four months in a sneak-box. Boston, 1879.
The author, in the winter of 1875-76, voyaged in an open boat
from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and along the Gulf coast to
Florida.
INDEX.
Aberdeen, Ky., 167.
Albany, N.Y., 299, 316.
Alden, George H., 316.
Alexander, J. E., 325.
Alexandria, O., 151.
Alexandria, Va., 131.
Allegheny City, Pa., 21.
Alton, Ind., 224, 228, 231, 233, 234.
America, Ill. _See_ Mound City, Ill.
Antiquity, O., 115.
Arfwedson, C. D., 326.
Ashe, Thomas, 114, 273, 323.
Ashland, Ky., 142, 143.
Athalia, O., 136.
Audubon, John James, 257, 258.
Augusta, Ky., 170, 171.
Aurora, Ind., 186, 187.
Baker's Bottom, W. Va., 36.
Baily, Francis, 322.
Baltimore, 162, 318.
Barlow, Joel, 130, 131.
Bearsville, O., 73, 74.
Beaver, Pa., 27-30.
Belpre, O., 100-102.
Beltrami, J. C., 324.
Berkeley, Sir William, 297.
Bethlehem, Ind., 260.
Big Bone Lick, 152, 153, 191, 195-198, 268.
Big Grave Creek, 62-66.
Bird's Point Landing, Ky., 277.
Birkbeck, Morris, 323, 324.
Bishop, Nathaniel H., 328.
Bismarck, N. D., 318.
Bland, Edward, 297.
Blennerhassett, Harman, 95-98.
Blennerhassett's Island, 95-98, 101.
Blue Lick, 160.
Boone, Daniel, 142, 206.
Boonesborough, Ky., 316.
Boone's Trail. _See_ Wilderness Road.
Brackenridge, H. M., 325, 326.
Bradbury, John, 323.
Braddock, Gen. Edward, 4, 16, 17, 128, 312.
Braddock, Pa., 17.
Braddock's Road, 4, 12, 160, 312, 314, 317.
Brandenburg, Ind., 223, 224.
Bridgeport, O., 60.
Broderickville, O., 137.
Brooklyn, Ill., 284.
Brown's Islands, 265, 266.
Brownsville, Pa., 1-6, 8, 12, 15, 19, 30, 61, 129, 131,
160, 162, 180, 295, 314, 317, 318.
Buffalo, N. Y., 318.
Burlington, O., 137.
Burr, Aaron, 96, 97.
Butler's Run, 67.
Byrd, Col. William, 304.
Cairo, Ill., 7, 15, 222, 284, 291, 294, 295.
California, O., 180.
Caledonia, Ill. _See_ Olmstead, Ill.
Cannelton, Ind., 242.
Captina, O., 70, 71.
Captina Creek, 67, 70-72.
Captina Island, 69, 70.
Carrollton, Ky., 206.
Carrsville, Ky., 276.
Catlettsburg, Ky., 137, 141.
Cave-in-Rock, Ill., 273, 274.
Celeron de Bienville, 90, 125, 309, 310.
Ceredo, W. Va., 137, 141.
Charleroi, Pa., 5, 8, 9.
Charleston, W. Va., 115, 127.
Chartier, Pa., 5, 8, 9.
Chartier's Creek, 23.
Cherokee Indians, 286.
Cheshire, O., 119.
Chesapeake & Ohio railway, 172.
Chicago, 318.
Chillicothe, O., 152, 179.
Chilo, O., 170.
Cincinnati, 88, 157, 159, 162, 170, 177-184, 217, 252,
318, 324, 328.
Circleville, O., 102.
Clark, George Rogers, 4, 5, 70, 72, 73, 94, 159, 178, 179,
218-220, 264, 285-287.
Clarksville, Ind., 219, 220.
Cloverport, Ky., 239-242.
Coal Valley, Pa., 13.
Collins, Richard H., 153.
Columbia, O., 180.
Concordia, Ky., 234, 235.
Conewango Creek, 304.
Connolly, Dr. John, 218.
Conwell, Yates, 72.
Corn Island, 219, 220.
Cornstalk, Shawanee chief, 128, 129, 221.
Covington, Ky., 178, 183, 184.
Crawford, Col. William, 46.
Creek Indians, 303.
Cresap, Michael, 67.
Cresap's Bottom, 72.
Croghan, George, 91, 95, 114, 152.
Crooked Creek, 130, 244.
Cumberland, Md., 310.
Cumberland Gap, 127, 160-162, 317.
Cumberland Island, 282.
Cumberland Pike. _See_ Braddock's Road.
Cuming, F., 322, 323.
Curran, Barney, 29.
Cypress Bend, 260.
Darlington, William M., 320.
Doddridge, Joseph, 115.
Deep Water Landing, Ind., 234.
De Lery, Gaspard Chaussegros, 304.
Denman, Matthias, 179.
De Nonville, Gov. Jacques Rene de Brisay, 300.
Derby, Ky., 235-237, 243, 244.
Detroit, Mich., 287, 318.
De Vigni, Antoine F. S., 321.
Diamond Island, 264.
Dickens, Charles, 66, 325, 326.
Dillon's Bottom, 66.
Dinwiddie, Gov. Robert, 311.
Dog Island, 281, 282.
Dover, Ky., 170.
Draper, Lyman C., 321.
Dravosburg, Pa., 13.
Dufour, John James, 204, 205.
Dunkard Creek, 72.
Dunlap Creek, 3.
Dunmore, Lord, 23, 61, 102, 103, 125-129, 218, 221.
East Liverpool, O., 35.
Economy, Pa., 26.
Elizabeth, Pa., 12, 15.
Elizabethtown, Ill., 275, 276.
Ellicott, Andrew, 181, 322.
Emmerick's Landing, Ky., 244.
English Prairie, Ill., 324.
Enterprise, Ind., 254.
Erie, Pa., 311.
Evans, Estwick, 323.
Evans, Lewis, 321.
Evansville, Ind., 255, 256, 260, 265.
Fairfax, Lord, 304.
Fallen Timbers, 181, 317.
Falls of Ohio. _See_ Louisville, Ky.
Faux, W., 324.
Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, 323.
Ferguson, William, 327.
Filson, John, 179-181.
Fish Creek, 72, 73.
Fishing Creek, 74.
Flint, Timothy, 162, 163, 181, 323.
Forbes, Gen. John, 285, 313.
Forks of the Ohio. _See_ Pittsburg.
Forman, Samuel S., 322.
Foreman, Capt. William, 63.
Fort Charlotte, 221.
Duquesne, 16, 17, 285, 312, 313. _See_ Pittsburg.
Fincastle, 61.
Finney, 180.
Gower, 102, 103, 129.
Harmar, 91.
Henry, 61.
Le Boeuf, 15, 26, 311, 312.
Massac, 285-288, 290, 313.
Necessity, 4.
Pitt, 127, 129, 160-162. _See_ Pittsburg.
Randolph, 129.
Washington, 180.
Wilkinson, 291.
Foster, Ky., 170, 171.
Frampton, O., 137.
Frankfort, Ky., 320.
Franklin, Benjamin, 316.
Franquelin, Jean B. L., 299.
Freeman, O., 40.
French, in Ohio valley, 15, 17, 29, 30, 90, 125, 131, 132, 197,
205, 285, 286, 298-313, 321.
French Creek, 311.
French Islands, 253.
Fry, John, 141.
Galissoniere, Count de, 308.
Gallipolis, O., 130-133.
Garrison Creek, 185.
Genet, Edmund Charles, 286.
George III., king, 309, 310, 313, 314.
Georgetown, Pa., 34.
Germans, in Ohio valley, 26, 132, 205.
Girty, Simon, 71.
Gist, Christopher, 15, 26, 29, 91, 151, 152, 310, 311, 317,
320, 321.
Glassport, Pa., 13.
Glenwood, W. Va., 134.
Gnadenhuetten, 91.
Golconda Island, 276.
Goose Island, 220.
Gordon, Harry, 115, 320, 321.
Grand View, Ind., 246.
Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., 174.
Grape Island, 80.
Grape-Vine Town. _See_ Captina, O.
Grave Yard Run, 72.
Great Meadows, 312, 314.
Green River Island, 255.
Green River Towhead, 255, 256.
Greenup Court House, Ky., 147.
Greenville. O., treaty of, 181.
Gunpowder Creek, 192.
Guyandotte, W. Va., 136.
Hale, John P., 153.
Half King, 34.
Half-Moon Bar, 274.
Hall, James, 117, 128, 164, 325.
Hamilton, T., 325.
Harmar, Gen. Josiah, 180, 181.
Harmonists, 264.
Harris, Thaddeus Mason, 162, 322.
Harris's Landing, 173.
Hartford, W. Va., 119.
Haskellville, O., 136.
Hawesville, Ky., 242.
Henderson, Ky., 256-259.
Henderson, Richard, 316.
Henderson Island, 258.
Hennepin, Father Louis, 299.
Henry, Patrick, 159.
Herculaneum, Ind., 260.
Higginsport, O., 170.
Hockingport, O., 102-104.
Homestead, Pa., 17, 18.
Horse Head Bottom, 148.
House-boat life, 50-57, 62, 134, 135, 203, 204, 207, 208.
Howard, John, 305, 306.
Hungarians, in Ohio valley, 44, 45, 69.
Huntington, W. Va., 136-139.
Hurricane Island, 274, 275.
Hutchins, Thomas, 115, 321.
Imlay, Gilbert, 162.
Inglis, Mrs. Mary, 152, 153.
Ironton, O., 143-146, 157.
Iroquois Indians, 264, 298, 299, 302, 307, 308.
Irving, Washington, 273.
Italians, in Ohio valley, 69.
Jamestown, Va., 296.
Jefferson, Thomas, 97.
Joliet, Louis, 264.
Jones, Rev. David, 70, 71, 94.
Joppa, Ill., 290, 291.
Kansas City, 318.
Kaskaskia, Ill., 268, 285.
King Philip, 221.
Kingston, O., 40.
Kneistly's Cluster Islands, 36-39.
La Fayette, Marquis de, 92.
Lake Chautauqua, 299, 304, 309.
Lake Erie, 299, 304, 309, 313.
Lancaster, Pa., 307.
Lane, Ralph, 296, 297.
La Salle, Chevalier de, 218, 263, 264, 298, 299.
Latrobe, Charles Joseph, 326.
La Verendrye Brothers, 306.
Lawrenceburg, Ind., 186.
Leadville, Colo., 318.
Leavenworth, Ind., 224, 225.
Lederer, John, 297.
Letart's Falls, 113, 114, 117.
Letart's Island, 112.
Levanna, O., 170.
Lewis, Gen. Andrew, 128, 129.
Lewisport, Ind., 246.
Lexington, Ky., 159.
Limestone Creek, 158, 159, 162, 167.
Little Beaver Creek, 34.
Little Hurricane Island, 252.
Little Meadows, 128.
Lloyd. James T., 328.
Logan, Mingo chief, 36, 37, 102, 103, 127, 128.
Logstown, Pa., 26.
Long Bottom, O., 109-111, 117.
Long Reach, 79, 80.
Losantiville. _See_ Cincinnati.
Lostock, Pa., 13.
Louisa, Ky., 141, 142.
Louisville, Ky., 114, 169, 170, 180, 209, 214-223, 226, 256, 284,
298, 299.
Lower Blue River Island, 226.
Mackay, Alex., 327.
McKee's Rocks, 23, 178.
McKeesport, Pa., 13-16.
Madison, Ind., 209-214.
Madison County, Va., 297.
Malott, Catherine, 71.
Manchester, O., 157.
Marietta, O., 83-85, 87, 90-93, 130, 131, 157, 159, 162, 315.
Mason and Dixon line, 77.
Mason City, W. Va., 119.
Massac Creek, 285.
May, John, 321.
May, Col. William, 304.
Maysville, Ky., 157, 159, 167, 169.
Melish, John, 323.
Mercer, George, 126.
Metropolis, Ill., 288, 289.
Miami Indians, 303.
Michaux, F. A., 322.
Middleport, O., 118.
Millersport, O., 136.
Milwood, W. Va., 112.
Minersville, O., 118.
Mingo Bottom, 127.
Mingo Indians, 36, 37, 46, 127, 148.
Mingo Junction, O., 44-50, 57, 58.
Monongahela City, Pa., 8, 12.
Montreal, 313.
Moravian missionaries, 91.
Morgantown, Pa., 3.
Mound builders, 3, 4, 64-66.
Mound City, Ill., 290-292, 294.
Mound City Towhead, 292-295.
Moundsville, W. Va., 64-66, 115.
Mt. Vernon, Ind., 262.
Murray, Charles Augustus, 327.
Murray, Henry A., 327.
Murraysville, W. Va., 111.
Natchez, Miss., 181.
Nemacolin's Path, 160, 310, 312. _See_ Braddock's Road.
Neville, O., 170, 173.
Neville's Island, 25.
New Albany, Ind., 220-223.
New Amsterdam, Ind., 224.
New Barataria, 316.
Newburgh, Ind., 254, 255.
New Cumberland, W. Va., 37, 40.
New Harmony, Ind., 264.
New Haven, W. Va., 119.
New Martinsville, W. Va., 74-77.
New Matamoras, W. Va., 82.
New Orleans, 12, 96, 97, 170, 205, 305, 309, 313, 325, 328.
Newport, Christopher, 296.
Newport, Ky., 176, 178, 183.
Newport, O., 82, 83.
New Richmond, O., 176.
Nichols, Thomas L., 326.
Nicholson, interpreter, 70.
Norfolk & Western Railway, 144.
North Bend, O., 173, 180, 181, 184.
Northwest Territory, 316.
Ogden, George W., 324.
Ohio Company, 4, 90, 114, 125, 152, 310, 314, 315.
Old Wyandot Town, 91.
Olmstead, Ill., 291.
Omaha, Nebr., 318.
Owensboro, Ky., 248-251, 271.
Paducah, Ky., 284.
Palmer, John, 114, 115, 162, 164, 323.
Parkersburg, W. Va., 94, 95, 99, 100, 102, 157.
Parkinson's Landing, Ill., 276.
Parkman, Francis, 308.
Patterson, Robert, 179.
Pennant, Edward, 297.
Petersburg, Ky., 186, 187.
Philadelphia, 12, 161, 318.
Pickaway Plains, 102, 103, 129.
Picket, Heathcoat, 205, 206.
Pine Creek, 148.
Pipe Creek, 67.
Pittsburg, 3, 5, 6, 8, 17-22, 24, 25, 27, 40, 59, 88, 129, 159,
166, 271, 311-313, 316-318, 320, 321, 323, 324, 326, 328.
Plum Creek, 205.
Point Pleasant, W. Va., 125, 127-130, 157, 170, 173, 174.
Point Sandy, Ind., 227-231.
Pomeroy, O., 111, 118, 119, 157.
Pomeroy Bend, 111, 119.
Pontiac, Indian chief, 221.
Pope, John, 5.
Portland, Ky., 219-221
Portsmouth, O., 151-153, 157.
Power, Thomas, 287.
Powhattan Point, W. Va., 70.
Pownall, T., 286, 320, 321.
Presque Isle, 311.
Proctor's Run, 77.
Proctorville, O., 137.
Putnam, Israel, Jr., 100, 101.
Putnam, Israel, Sr., 100.
Putnam, Gen. Rufus, 91, 102.
Quebec, 299, 313.
Rabbit Hash, Ky., 189-191.
Racine, O., 117, 118.
Rafinesque, Constantine S., 257, 258
Rapp, George, 26.
Redstone Creek, 3-5, 72, 310.
Redstone Old Fort. _See_ Brownsville, Pa.
Richardson's Landing, Ky., 224.
Richmond, Va., 296, 318, 324.
Ripley, O., 170.
Rising Sun, Ind., 189.
River Alleghany, 20, 299, 304, 305, 309, 311, 318.
Beaver, 27-30.
Big Hockhocking, 102-104.
Big Miami, 179, 180, 185.
Big Sandy, 119, 137, 141.
Cherokee, 321.
Coal, 305.
Cumberland, 97, 282, 284, 316.
Delaware, 298.
Gauley, 298.
Great Kanawha, 70, 115, 125-130, 153, 161, 297, 309, 316, 321.
Great Miami, 304.
Green, 255, 259.
Illinois, 321.
Indian Kentucky, 206, 207.
James, 126, 127, 161, 296.
Kentucky, 206.
Licking, 179, 183.
Little Kanawha, 94, 95.
Little Miami, 152, 177, 179, 180.
Little Sandy, 147.
Little Scioto, 148.
Maumee, 264, 299, 309.
Miami, 309.
Mississippi, 284, 294, 303, 306, 307, 313, 321.
Mohawk, 298.
Monongahela, 1-20, 39, 162, 166, 310, 311, 318.
Muskingum, 90, 91, 127.
New, 297, 298, 309.
Ottawa, 307.
Potomac, 304, 310.
Roanoke, 296, 297, 304.
St. Joseph's, 303.
St. Lawrence, 306, 309.
Saline, 269, 272, 273.
Salt, 223.
Shenandoah, 304.
Scioto, 102, 103, 151-153, 321.
Susquehanna, 298.
Tennessee, 283, 284, 288, 303, 316.
Wabash, 127, 263, 264, 302, 321.
Wood, 305. _See_ New.
Youghiogheny, 13-16, 162, 318.
Robertson, James, 327.
Rochester, Pa., 27-30.
Rockport, Ind., 246, 247.
Rocky Mountains, discovery of, 306.
Rome, O., 155-157, 260.
Rono, Ind., 234, 235.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 316.
Rosebud, O., 133, 134, 156.
Rose Clare, Ill., 276.
Round Bottom, 66, 69.
St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, 180, 181, 286.
St. John, M., 321.
St. Louis, 170, 284, 318, 326, 328.
St. Mary's, W. Va., 82.
Salem, O., 91.
Saline Reserve (Illinois), 268, 269.
Salling, John Peter, 305, 306.
Sand Island, 220-222.
Sandusky, O., 46.
Sarikonk. _See_ Beaver, Pa.
Schoenbrunn, 91.
Scioto Company, 130-132, 321.
Sciotoville, O., 148-150.
Scotch-Irish, in Ohio valley, 60, 61, 301, 310.
Scuffletown, Ky., 254.
Seignelay, Marquis de, 300.
Seneca Indians, 34.
Seven Mile Creek, 284, 285.
Shaler, Nathaniel S., 153.
Shannoah Town, 151, 152.
Shawanee Indians, 26, 67, 128-130, 151-153, 307.
Shawneetown, Ill., 267-269.
Sheffield, O., 118.
Shingis Old Town. _See_ Beaver, Pa.
Shippingsport, Pa., 31-34.
Shousetown, Pa., 25.
Sinking Creek, 238.
Sistersville, W. Va., 78.
Slavonians, in Ohio valley, 44, 45.
Slim Island, 261, 264.
Sloan's Station, O., 37.
Smith, John, 296.
Smithland, Ky., 282.
Smith's Ferry, Pa., 34.
Sohkon. _See_ Beaver, Pa.
South Point, O., 137.
Spaniards, Western conspiracy, of, 286, 287.
Springville, Ky., 151, 152.
Spotswood, Gov. Alexander, 302.
Steamboats, first on Ohio, 165, 166.
Stephens, Frank, 71.
Stephensport, Ky., 237-239.
Steubenville, O., 5, 43, 44, 157, 181.
Stewart's Island, 277-281, 283.
Stuart, James, 325.
Swiss, in Ohio valley, 204, 205.
Symmes, John Cleves, 179-181.
Syracuse, O., 118.
Tecumseh, Indian chief, 317.
Tell City, Ind., 242.
Three Brothers Islands, 87.
Three-Mile Island, 252, 254.
Transylvania, 316.
Treaty, of Lancaster, Pa., 307, 308;
of Paris, 313;
of Utrecht, 307.
Trent, William, 95.
Tudor, Henry, 326.
Turner, Frederick J., 316.
Turtle Creek, 17, 312.
Trollope, Frances M., 325, 327.
Troy, Ind., 243.
Uniontown, Ky., 262, 263.
Upper Blue River Island, 226.
Vandalia, Province of, 126, 316.
Vanceburgh, Ky., 154.
Venango, 29.
Vevay, Ind., 204, 205.
Vigne, Godfrey T., 325.
Vincennes, Ind., 264.
Wabash Island, 264.
Walpole, Thomas, 316.
Walton, Pa., 13.
Warrior Branch, 72.
Wars, French and Indian, 15, 17, 29, 30, 90, 91, 152, 153, 285,
286, 308, 314, 315;
Pontiac's, 221;
Lord Dunmore's, 36, 37, 61, 67, 72, 73, 102, 103, 125-129,
218, 221;
Revolution, 61, 63, 91, 92, 100, 126, 128, 130, 151-161, 181,
182, 264, 315, 317;
of 1812-15, 287, 291.
Warsaw, Ky., 200, 204.
Washington, George, 4, 15, 23, 26, 29, 34, 46, 67, 69, 70, 72,
92, 126-128, 141, 142, 161, 310-312, 315, 320, 321.
Wayne, Anthony, 26, 181, 286, 317.
Weiser, Conrad, 26.
Welby, Adlard, 324.
Wellsville, O., 35.
West Point, Ky., 223.
Wheeling, W. Va., 5, 41, 59-62, 155, 157, 167, 187.
Wheeling Creek, 59-61.
Wheeling Island, 60.
Wilderness Road, 160-162, 317.
Wilkinson, Gen. James, 287.
Wilkinsonville, Ill., 291.
Williamson's Island, 78.
Wills Creek, 310, 312.
Wilson, Pa., 13.
Witten's Bottom, 78, 79.
Wood, Abraham, 297.
Wyandot Indians, 46, 91.
Yellowbank Island, 248-250.
Yellow Creek, 35, 36.
Zane Brothers, 60, 61.
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN PRINTED
DURING OCTOBER, 1897, BY THE
BLAKELY PRINTING COMPANY.
CHICAGO, FOR WAY & WILLIAMS.