Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/48

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��HISTORY OF OHIO.

��shillings per acre, which, says Volney, " promised a climate healthy and delightful ; scarcely such a thing as a frost in the winter ; a river, called by way of eminence ' The Beautiful, ' abounding in fish of an enormous size ; magnificent forests of a tree from which sugar flows, and a shrub which yields candles ; venison in abundance ; no military enrollments, and no quarters to find for soldiers." Pui-chasers became numerous, individuals and whole families sold their property, and in the course of 1791 many embarked at the various French sea-ports, each with his title in his pocket. Five hundred settlers, among whom were many wood carvers and guilders to His Majesty, King of France, coachmakers, friseurs and peruke makers, and other artisans and artistes, equally well fitted for a frontier life, arrived in the United States in 1791-92, and acting without concert, traveling without knowledge of the language, customs and roads, at last managed to reach the spot designated for their residence. There they learned they had been cruelly deceived, and that the titles they held were worthless. Without food, shelterless, and danger closing around them, they were in a position that none but a Frenchman could be in without despair. Who brought them thither, and who was to blame, is yet a disputed point. Some affirm that those to whom large grants of land were made when the Ohio Company procured its charter, were the real instigators of the movement. They failed to pay for their lands, and hence the title reverted to the Grovernment. This, coming to the ears of the poor Frenchmen, rendered their situation more distressing. They never paid for their lands, and only through the clemency of Congress, who after- ward gave them a grant of land, and confirmed them in its title, were they enabled to secure a foot- hold. Whatever doubt there may be as to the

��causes of these people being so grossly deceived, there can be none regarding their sufferings. They had followed a jack-o-lantern into the howling wilderness, and must work or starve. The land upon which they had been located was covered with immense forest trees, to level which the coach- makers were at a loss. At last, hoping to conquer by a coup de main, they tied ropes to the branches, and while a dozen pulled at them as many fell at the trunk with all sorts of edged tools, and thus soon brought the monster to the earth. Yet he was a burden. He was down, to be sure, but as much in the way as ever. Several lopped off" the branches, others dug an immense trench at his side, into which, with might and main, all rolled the large log, and then buried him from sight. They erected their cabins in a cluster, as they had seen them in their own native land, thus affording some protection from marauding bands of Indians. Though isolated here in the lonely wilderness, and nearly out of funds with which to purchase pro- visions from descending boats, yet once a week they met and drowned care in a merry dance, greatly to the wonderment of the scout or lone Indian who chanced to witness their revelry. Though their vivacity could work wonders, it would not pay for lands nor buy provisions. Some of those at Gallipolis (for such they called their settlement, from Gallia, in France) went to Detroit, some to Kaskaskia, and some bought land of the Ohio Company, who treated them liberally. Congress, too, in 1795, being informed of their sufferings, and how they had been deceived, granted them 24,000 acres opposite Little Sandy River, to which grant, in 1798, 12,000 acres more were added. The tract has since been known as French Grant. The settlement is a curious episode in early West- ern history, and deserves a place in its annals.

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