Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/106

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��HISTORY OF OHIO.

��" Arkis,"' and tliea the only safe mode of travel in the West.

Judge Symmes found he must provide for the safety of the settlers on his purchase, and, after earnestly soliciting Gen. Harmar, commander of the Western posts, succeeded in obtaining a de- tachment of •forty-eight men, under Capt. Kearsey, to protect the improvements just commencing on the jNIiami. This detachment reached Limestone in December, 1788. Part was at once sent for- ward to guard Maj. Stites and his pioneers. Judge Symmes and his party started in January, and, about February 2, reached Columbia, where the Captain expected to find a fort erected for his use and shelter. The flood on the river, however, de- feated his purpose, and, as he was unprepared to erect another, he determined to go on down to the garrison at the falls at Louisville. Judge Symmes was strenuously opposed to his conduct, as it left the colonies unguarded, but, all to no purpose; the Captain and his command, went to Louisville early in March, and left the Judge and his settlement to protect themselves. Judge Symmes immedi- ately sent a strong letter to Maj. Willis, command- ing at the Falls, complaining of the conduct of Capt. Kearsey, representing the exposgd situ- ation of the Miami settlements, stating the indi- cations of hostility manifested by the Indians, and requesting a guard to be sent to the Bend. This request was at once granted, and Ensign Luce, with seventeen or eighteen soldiers, sent. They were at the settlement but a short time, when they were attacked by Indians, and one of their number killed, and four or five wounded. They repulsed the savages and saved the set- tlers.

The site of Symmes City, for such he designed it should ultimately be called, was above the reach of water, and sufficiently level to admit of a conven- ient settlement. The city laid out by Symmes was truly magnificent on paper, and promised in the future to fulfill his most ardent hopes. The plat included the village, and extended across the peninsula between the Ohio and Miami Rivers. Each settler on this plat was promised a lot if he would improve it, and in conformity to the stipu- lation. Judge Symmes soon found a large number of persons applying for residence. As the number of these adventurers increased, in consequence of this provision and the protection of the military, the Judge was induced to lay out another village six or seven miles up the river, which he called South Bend, where he disposed of some donation

��lots, but the project failing, the village site was de- serted, and converted into a farm.

During all the time these various events were transpiring, but little trouble was experienced with the Indians. They were not yet disposed to evince hostile feelings. This would have been their time, but, not realizing the true intent of the whites until it was too late to concjuer them, they allowed them to become prepared to withstand a warfare, and in the end wereobliged to suffer their hunting-grounds to be taken from them, and made the homes of a race destined to entirely supercede them in the New World.

By the means sketched in the foregoing pages, were the three settlements on the Miami made. By the time those adjacent to JNIariettawere well estab- lished, these were firmly fixed, each one striving to become the rival city all felt sure was to arise. For a time it was a matter of doubt which of the rivals, Columbia, North Bend or Cincinnati, would event- ually become the chief seat of business.

In the beginning, Columbia, the eldest of the three, took the lead, both in number of its in- h-ribitants and the convenience and appearance of its dwellings. For a time it was a flourishing place, and many believed it would become the great busi- ness town of the Miami country. That apparent fact, however, lasted but a short time. The garri- son was moved to Cincinnati, Fort Washington built there, and in spite of all that Maj. Stites^ or Judge Symmes could do, that place became the metropolis. Fort Washington, the most extensive garrison in the West, was built by Maj. Doughty, in the summer of 1789, and from that time the growth and future greatness of Cincinnati were assured.

The first house in the city was built on Front street, east of and near Main street. It was simply a strong log cabin, and was erected of the forest trees cleared away from the ground on which it stood. The lower p;irt of the town was covered with sycamore and maple trees, and the upper with beech and oak. Through this dense forest the streets were laid out, and their corners marked on the trees.

The settlements on the Miami had become sufficiently numerous to warrant a separate county, and, in January, 1790, Gov. St. Clair and his Secretary arrived in Cincinnati, and organized the county of Hamilton, so named in honor of the illustrious statesman by that name. It included all the country north of the Ohio, between the Miamis, as far as a line running " due east from the

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