election to be held on the third Monday of the following December. The representatives elected were Return J. Meigs, Paul Fearing, Washington County; William Goforth, William McMillan, John Smith, John Ludlow, Robert Benham, Aaron Caldwell, Isaac Martin, Hamilton County; Shadrach Bond, St. Clair County; John Small, Knox County; John Edgar, Randolph County; Solomon Sibley, Jacob Visger, Charles F. Chabert de Joncaire, Wayne County; Joseph Darlington, Nathaniel Massie, Adams County; James Pritchard, Jefferson County; Thomas Worthington, Elias Langham, Samuel Findlay, Edward Tiffin, Ross County.

The legislature met at Cincinnati, January 22, 1799, and nominated ten men for the legislative council. The five chosen by the national government were Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, Hamilton County; Henry Vandenburg, of Vincennes, Knox County; Robert Oliver, of Marietta, Washington County; James Findlay of Cincinnati, and David Vance, of David Vance, of Vanceville, Jefferson County.

The first session of the legislature began at Cincinnati, September 16 1799, and lasted until December 19, 1799, at which time it was prorogued by the governor to meet at Chillicothe (which had been made the capital by act of Congress May 7, 1800), on the first Monday in November, 1800. At the Cincinnati session, the legislature passed thirty bills, of which the governor vetoed eleven. William Henry Harrison was elected a delegate to Congress, receiving one more vote than his rival, Arthur

St. Clair, Jr. A petition was introduced, from a number of Virginia officers, asking permission to remove their slaves into the Virginia Military District. The Ordinance of Freedom rendered their prayer futile. At the November session William McMillan was chosen a delegate to Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of General Harrison, who had been appointed governor of Indian Territory (formed May 7, 1800, and included the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and a part of Michigan).

The second and last Territorial legislature convened at Cincinnati, November 23, 1801. Ephriam Cutler and William Rufus Putnam were the representatives from Washington County. Edward Tiffin, of Ross County, was speaker, and Robert Oliver of Washington County, president of the legislative council. The representatives from Washington County opposed the formation of a State government, which about this time began to be discussed. Putnam made a speech at a supper in Cincinnati at which he proposed the toast, "The Scioto - may its waters lave the borders of two great States." This sentiment aroused the violent opposition of the Chillicothe people, who favored the formation of a State with its present limits, or at least, extending westward to the Miami, with their town as its capital. The boundary proposed by Putnam was generally favored by his constituents, and had it been adopted would have delayed the State organization considerably, as the ordinance of 1787

provided that no part of the territory should become a State until it had a population of 60,000.

The opposition to the formation of a State came from a small minority and was strongest in Washington County. On the 17th of June, 1801, a meeting was held at Marietta, attended by delegates from the several townships of the county, who adopted resolutions, afterwards forwarded to their representatives in the general assembly, declaring that, in their opinion, "it would be highly impolitic and very injurious to the inhabitants of this territory to enter into a State government at this time." There were several reasons for this opinion. First, they argued that taxes would be increased without corresponding benefits; that the expenses of the State government would fall most heavily upon the inhabitants of the Ohio Company's purchase, while the Congressional lands would be exempt from taxation. The expenses of the territorial government were chiefly paid out of the National treasury, and a State government once formed, this aid would cease. Secondly, the Washington County people were on the weaker or Federalist side in politics, and could hope for no offices under the State. This consideration may have had no weight with the major ity, but undoubtedly some were influenced by it. Thirdly, there was the hope that two States might sometime be formed of the territory now included in Ohio, and that Marietta might be the capital of the

eastern one.

The discussion of the project reached Congress, and the passage of the "enabling act" was violently opposed by Paul Fearing, of Washington County, territorial delegate; but the act became a law April 30, 1802. By it the boundaries of the State were defined, and the holding of a convention for the formation of a State government was authorized.

The convention met at Chillicothe in November, 1802. The delegates were as follows: Joseph Darlington, Thomas Kirker and Israel Donaldson, from Adams County; James Caldwell, from Belmont County; Francis Dunlady, John Paul, Jeremiah Morrow, John Wilson, Charles W. Byrd, William Goforth, John Smith and John Reily, from Hamill ton County; Rudolph Bair, John Milligan and George Humphrey, from Jefferson from Jefferson County; Edward Tiffin, Nathaniel Massie, Thomas Worthington, Michael Baldwin, and James Grubb, from Ross County; Samuel Huntington, from Trumbul. County; Ephraim Cutier, Rufus Putnam, Benj. Ives Gilman, and John McIntire from Washington CountyEdward Tiffin was elected president, and Thomas Scott secretary of the convention.

When the question was put as to whether it was expedient to form a constitution and State government. at that time, only Ephraim Cutler, of Washington County, voted in the negative.

By far the most important work of the convention was the defeat of a provision authorizing slavery in the State. In spite of the ordinance of

1787 such a measure was introduced, and came near being adopted by the committee having charge of preparing a bill of rights. But here Ephraim Cutler, the son of the author of that famous clause in the Ordinance of Freedom, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the territory," interposed, and, by the aid of other wise men, defeated the measure.

The convention, which met upon the 1st, adjourned on the 29th of No vember, having completed its work and formed that instrument which stood for half a century as the fundamental law of the State of Ohio. The constitution was never submitted to the people either for approval or disapproval, but became a law solely by act of the convention a fact somewhat remarkable, since the convention had been called by Congress without having taken the opinion of the inhabitants upon the question. Ohio was first recognized as a State by Congress February 19, 1803. Its first legislature met on March 1, 1803, and the formal organization of the government took place two days later. The legislature continued to meet at Chillicothe until 1816 (with the exception of two sessions, 1810– 11 and 1811-12, which were held at Zanesville), when Columbus became the capital of the State.

The winter of 1788-89 was long and severe. The Ohio River froze up in December, and no boats passed either to or from Marietta till March. Provisions were scarce, and the game had been mostly killed off in the surrounding country by the Indians, so

that wild meat was procured with difficulty. Before navigation was resumed many of the people lived for weeks with little or no meat and without bread, their food consisting of boiled corn, or coarse meal, ground in hand-mills. In 1790 the inhabitants of the county suffered again from scarcity of food. Small-pox prevailed at Marietta early in 1790, and at Belpre in 1793. But in spite

of all drawbacks the settlements slowly but surely gained in strength and prosperity.

In the winter of 1788-89 an association of about forty members was formed at Marietta for the purpose of forming a new settlement, and the Belpre colony was the result. The settlers began moving to their farms in April, 1789. The outbreak of Indian hostilities found the settlement with but two strongly built log blockhouses. In January, 1791, eleven more were built, making thirteen in all. They were arranged in two rows, along the river, and the whole was inclosed by palisades. The defence when complete was styled "Farmers' Castle," and the United States flag was raised upon one of the principal blockhouses, where sentries were posted at night, ready to discharge a small cannon in case of alarm. About two hundred and twenty persons inhabited the garrison, seventy of whom were able bodied men. Later in the war (1793) two other garrisons, known respectively as Goodale's and Stone's, were built in the vicinity of the castle, which had been found too small to accommodate all who required its shelter.

Waterford settlement on the Muskingum was begun in April, 1789, by a second association, consisting of thirty-nine members, who in accordance with the Ohio Company's resolutions, were to receive lands for settling. A part of the company were to locate on Wolf Creek, about a mile above its mouth, for the purpose of erecting mills. "The main body of the donated lands," says Hildreth, "lies on the east side of the Muskingum; and that portion of it bordering on the river was divided into lots of ten or fifteen acres each, for the purpose of making the settlement more compact, and the inhabitants near to each other for mutual assistance and defense in times of danger from the Indians; while the other portion of the hundred acres was located at a greater distance." These lots commenced where the town of Beverly now stands, and extended down the river about two miles.

On the west side of the Muskingum, in a bend of Wolf Creek known as the peninsula, another village was laid out in lots of five acres each. For the protection of the settlement two blockhouses were built, one on the east and the other on the west side of the river. After the commencement of hostilities Fort Frye, on the east side of the Muskingum about half a mile below the site of Beverly, was erected. pleted in March, 1791.

It was com

Wolf Creek mills, the first in the territory, according to Dr. Hildreth, were erected the year the Waterford settlement was begun, by Colonel

Robert Oliver, Major Haffield White and Captain John Dodge. The mills (a grist mill and sawmill) were built during the year 1789, but were not completed and ready for operation until March of the following year. The crank for the sawmill was made at New Haven, Conn., transported across the mountains on a packhorse to Sumrill's Ferry, and brought thence by water. The stones, of conglomerate rock, were quarried in Laurel Hill, near Brownsville, Pa., and were used more than fifty years. They were not suitable for grinding wheat, but served well for grinding corn, of which, it is said, the mill would grind a bushel in four minutes. About the mill there grew up a settlement of about thirty people, all of whom fled to the neighboring blockhouses when the news of the Big Bottom massacre reached them. The mill was resorted to by the people of Marietta and Waterford both before and after the war, and for many years did a thriving. business. During the Indian war it was not suffered to lie idle. Parties of twenty or thirty men sometimes went up with their grain in boats, a part of them marching by land to watch for Indians. While the mill was in operation sentries were posted round about to give warning of danger, but during the whole war the mill was undisturbed by the savages.

But one other settlement was founded under the auspices of the Marietta colonists prior to the Indian war-the ill-fated colony at Big Bottom, of which we shall proceed to speak in the following chapter.

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HE colonization of the northwestern territory began under favorable auspices. As we have already noted, when the sturdy New Englanders stepped from their boats at the mouth of the Muskingum, an influential chief and several warriors of the Delawares greeted them with friendly words. The Indians had ceded all title to the lands purchased by the Ohio Company to the government, and as far as treaties could secure title, the whites had an absolute right to the land. But on account of Indian jealousy and the mistaken policy of others, the colonists soon became involved in a long and bloody war with the savages. Jealousy of the encroachments of the whites was no doubt the primary cause of the Indian war. Another cause was the unfriendly attitude of the white settlers upon the borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky, who were a class of adventurers ill-fitted to dwell peaceably in close proximity to the

red men. The Virginians, or “Long Knives" as the savages called them, were both feared and detested by the Indians. Long years of border warfare had strengthened the Indian's hatred, and caused them to extend it to the entire race.

Again, the savages had witnessed the cruel and inhuman butchery by the whites of the innocent Moravians, and other acts of treachery performed by those professing friendship. The treaties that had been made were unsatisfactory and imperfectly comprehended. The British, who still had posts in the Northwest, sought by every means to arouse the ire of the savages against the Americans, and so prevent settlements in the Ohio Valley. Savage warfare did not cease with the close of the revolution, but continued here and there on the frontiers with almost no cessation. It was estimated that in the seven years preceding the Indian war, which began in 1790, and