1789, Symmes and his party left Maysville, and made a difficult, dangerous, and slow journey down the Ohio River. The weather was intensely cold, and the river was filled with floating ice. They reached their destination, North Bend, in safety in the early part of February. A city, magnificent on paper, was laid out and called Symmes, though it was scarcely known by any other name than North Bend. Of these three settlements Cincinnati, on account of its elevation above high water (for the flood of 1789 completely submerged Columbia and Symmes) became the principal center of the Miami country. The construction of Fort Washington at Cincinnati, and the removal of the garrison from Symmes, was another potent factor in the building of the future metropolis of the State. On the 2d of January, 1790, Governor St. Clair arrived at Fort Washington, and on the fourth he issued his proclamation establishing Hamilton county, which comprised "all of the district lying between the Little Miami on the east and the Big Miami on the west, and the Ohio on the south, to a line on the north drawn from the standing Stone Forks, on the Big Miami, due east to the Little Miami." The county seat was fixed at Cincinnati; the first Judges of the Court of Common Pleas were William Goforth, William Wells, and William McMillan. Israel Ludlow was the first Clerk of the Court. This was the beginning of the great city of Ohio. Its successful growth and permanency, as compared with contemporaneous settlements in the Miami country, were due undoubtedly to its location. Its advantages as a military post were seen by Major Doughty when he arrived at Cincinnati to construct Fort Washington. Its position above the usual floods of the Ohio gave it a preference over its sister settlements. As a result, it absorbed most of the population of North Bend and Columbia. In 1795, the population was about 500; from that date the fertile lands between the Miamis commenced to be dotted with the clearings of thrifty settlers, and their nucleus and protection was Cincinnati. The next settlement, in point of time, was the interesting one of Gallipolis, in 1791. The speculative emigration companies of to-day have their prototype in the Scioto Company, which sent Joel Barlow to France in 1788 to sell its lands. His descriptions were so picturesque and highly colored that they created a perfect rage among the Parisians. Volney, a celebrated French writer of that period, says: "Nothing was talked of in every social circle but the paradise that was opened for Frenchmen in the Western wilderness, the free and happy life to be led on the blissful banks of the Scioto." About five hundred Frenchmen, principally from Paris and Lyons, and mostly artisans, totally unfit for the laborious life of a backwoodsman, left their native land for the new settlement, which was appropriately named Gallipolis. They had not been long in their new homes when it was discovered that the titles guaranteed by the Scioto Company were valueless, and that the land was owned by the Ohio Company. The position of these settlers was truly pitiable and alarming. They were in a strange country, and amid a strange people, with their fondest hopes blasted. The Indians at this time were aroused all over the frontier, and it was certainly sufficient to drive the Frenchmen to despair. The result was that many drifted farther west to Detroit and Kaskaskia; some remained and purchased their land from the Ohio Company. Congress, in 1795, and subsequently, granted 24,000 acres of land to these defrauded emigrants. This land is in the eastern part of Scioto county, on the Ohio River, and is known, by reason of its history, as the "French Grant." At Manchester, on the Ohio River, in March, 1791, Colonel Nathaniel Massie, a Virginian, who at that time was located in Kentucky, made the first settlement in the Virginia Military District. This composed the territory between the Scioto and the Little Miami. Massie was a surveyor, and he located many land warrants for the Virginia holders. In his surveying and locating expeditions he explored the Scioto Valley, and was attracted by its richness and beauty. In 1796, Colonel Massie, assisted by Duncan McArthur, laid out the town of Chillicothe, and thus opened to emigration the far-famed region of the Shawanese. Chillicothe soon received acquisitions from Virginia, and in a few years became a very important town. Its history, and that of its citizens, play a very important part in the annals of Ohio. Thus far the Ohio settlements were in the southern and central portion, and not until 1796 was any attempt made to develop the northern part. On the 4th of July of this year, a little band of fifty-two, under the leadership of General Moses Cleveland, as the agent of the Connecticut Land Company, landed at the mouth of Conneaut creek in Ashtabula county. They came with the double purpose of surveying and settling the Western Reserve. The settlers were all from Connecticut. Leaving the party at Conneaut, General Cleveland and his surveyors proceeded to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, where he laid out the town of Cleveland. During the winter of 1796, but two families were living in the town. The pioneers of the Western Reserve suffered many privations and dangers. The country was not settled as early or as rapidly as that farther south. In 1798, there were but one hundred and fifty persons in that whole region. The character of the settlers was of that same sturdy stock that planted Marietta, and their starting point was the same- New England. The thinly arranged settlements rapidly concentrated, and finally developed into towns. Usually, the first thing done by the pioneers, was to plat into lots the land settled upon. Up to 1799, the rapid increase of emigration had drawn into the territory within Ohio enough settlers to lay off and establish the towns of Marietta, Columbia, Cincinnati, North Bend, Gallipolis, Manchester, Hamilton, Dayton, Franklin, Chillicothe, Cleveland, Franklinton, Steubenville, Williamsburg and Zanesville. The close of the century found these towns enjoying peace and prosperity. But to be able to do this, the territory had in the meantime passed through its second war with the Indians; to understand this, a retrospect is necessary. Governor St. Clair, at Fort Harmar, on January 9th, 1789, concluded a treaty with the Six Nations, and representatives of the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies and Sacs. By this he secured valuable concessions to the settlers, and confirmed the treaty of Fort McIntosh. But it did not bring the good will of the Indians. Marauding parties of the savages were still kept up. This was especially so on the Ohio river. From 1789 the tide of emigration westward became very large for that period. The northwest and Kentucky were the objective points. The Ohio river was the great channel through which this stream of pioneers flowed. The travel down the Ohio became perilous by reason of the attacks of the Indians on the emigrants. So much so that in 1790, General Wilkinson, of Kentucky, called the attention of General Harmar, the Commander-in-chief of the Western military department, who was at Fort Washington, to the condition of affairs. In a letter dated April 7th of this year, General Wilkinson says: "For more than a month past a party of savages has occupied the northwestern bank of the Ohio a few miles above the mouth of the Scioto, from whence they make attacks upon every boat that passes, to the destruction of much property, the loss of many lives, and the great annoyance of all intercourse northward. By very recent accounts, we are apprised that they still continue in force at that point, and that their last attack was against five boats, one of which they captured. It is the general, and I conceive a well-founded opinion, that if this party is not dislodged and dispersed, the navigation of the Ohio must cease." As a result of this correspondence, General Harmar and General Scott marched from Maysville, |