Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/80

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��HISTOEY OF OHIO.

��purchase were similar to those of the Ohio Com- pany. His appHcation was followed by others, whose success or failure will appear in the narrative.

The New England or Ohio Company was all this time busily engaged perfecting its arrange- ments to occupy its lands. The Directors agreed to reserve 5,760 acres near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum for a city and commons, for the old ideas of the English plan of settling a country yet prevailed. A meeting of the Direct- ors was held at Bracket's tavern, in Boston, No- vember 23, 1787, when four surveyors, and twen- ty-two attendants, boat-builders, carpenters, black- smiths and common workmen, numbering in all forty persons, were engaged. Their tools were purchased, and wagons were obtained to transport them across the mountains. Gren. Rufus Putnam was made superintendent of the company, and Ebenezer Sprout, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tup- per and John Matthews, from Massachusetts, and R. J. Meigs, from Connecticut, as surveyors. At the same meeting, a suitable person to instruct them in religion, and prepare the way to open a school when needed, was selected. This was Rev. Daniel Storey, who became the first New England minis- ter in the Northwest.

The Indians were watching this outgrowth of affairs, and felt, from what they could learn in Ken- tucky, that they would be gradually surrounded by the whites. This they did not relish, by any means, and gave the settlements south of the Ohio no little uneasiness. It was thought best to hold another treaty with them. In the mean time, to insure peace, the Grovernor of Virginia, and Con- gress, placed troops at Venango, Forts Pitt and Mcintosh, and at Miami, Vincennes, Louisville, and Muskingum, and the militia of Kentucky were held in readiness should a sudden outbreak occur. These measures produced no results, save insuring the safety of the whites, and not until January, 1789, was Clarke able to carry out his plans. During that month, he held a meeting at Fort Harmar,* at the mouth of the Muskingum, where the New England Colony expected to locate.

The hostile character of the Indians did not deter the Ohio Company from carrying out its plans. In the winter of 1787, Gen. Rufus Put-

��*FnrtH.armar was built in 1785, by a detachment of United States soldiers, under comniand of Maj. John Doughty. It was named in honor of Col. Josiah Harmar, to whose regimnnt Maj. Doughty was attached. It was the first military post erected by the Americans wit''in the limits of Ohio, except Fort Laurens, a temporary stnict- uie Iniilt in 1778. When Marietta was founded it was the military post of that part of the country, and was for many years an impor- taiit station.

��nam and forty-seven pioneers advanced to the mouth of the Youghiogheny River, and began building a boat for transportation down the Ohio in the spring. The boat was the largest craft that had ever descended the river, and, in allusion to their Pilgrim Fathers, it was called the Mayflower. It was 45 feet long and 12 feet wide, and esti- mated at 50 tons burden. Truly a formidable affair for the time. The b(jws were raking and curved like a galley, and were strongly timbered. The sides were made bullet-proof, and it was covered with a deck roof. Capt. Devol, the first ship- builder in the West, was placed in command. On the 2d of April, the Mayflower was launched, and for five days the little band of pioneers sailed down the Monongahela and the Ohio, and, on the 7th, landed at the mouth of the Muskingum. There, opposite Fort Harmar, they chose a loca- tion, mooi;ed their boat for a temporary shelter, and began to erect houses for their occupation.

Thus was begun the first English settlement in the Ohio Valley. About the 1st of July, they were re-enforced by the arrival of a colony from Massachusetts. It had been nine weeks on the way. It had hauled its wagons and driven its stock to Wheeling, where, constructing flat-boats, it had floated down the I'iver to the settlement.

In October preceding this occurrence, Arthur St. Clair had been appointed Governor of the Ter- ritory by Congress, which body also appointed Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, and Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John Armstrong Judges. Subsequently Mr. Armstrong declined the appointment, and Mr. Symmes was given the vacancy. None of these were on the ground when the first settlement was made, though the Judges came soon after. One of the first things the colony found necessary to do was to organize some form of government, whereby difficulties might be settled, though to the credit of the colony it may be said, that during the first three months of its existence but one difference arose, and that was settled by a compromise.* Indeed, hardly a better set of men for the purpose could have been selected. Washington wrote concerning this colony :

"No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has com- menced at the Muskingum. Information, prop- erty and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there

��*" Western Monthly Magazine."

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