ular station northwest of the Ohio, known as the "Campus Martius."

Its bastions and towers, all white-washed and glistening in the sun, reminded the beholder at a distance of some ancient feudal tower, with its imposing battlements, rising as if by magic in the western wilderness.*

Thus began the first settlement and the first regular town west of the Ohio River, and the first made by white men in the present State of Ohio, which now contains, after a lapse of half a century, a population of more than one million of civilized people.

The militia were organized in three companies, with three captains, three lieutenants, and three ensigns. Three justices of the peace were also appointed, and duly commissioned; also, a probate court, and clerk. A court of quarter sessions was also organized, with three associate justices, having jurisdiction over common pleas, and authority to sit as a court of quarter sessions, with a sheriff, duly commissioned for the county.†

In the mean time, the plan of a regular town was laid off on the bank of the Ohio, above the mouth of the Muskingum, to which was given the name of Marietta, in honor of the unfortunate French queen Marie Antoinette.

During the summer and autumn the settlements in Washington county increased by the arrival of numerous emigrants from east of the mountains, as well as from Western Virginia and Pennsylvania. Early in the autumn Marietta received an accession of twenty families, including those of several of the proprietors of the Muskingum purchase. In December an additional colony from Connecticut arrived by way of the Yough and Pittsburgh. Other accessions were received from the East during the following spring and summer.

* See American Pioneer, vol. i., p. 83, 84.

It might be interesting to some readers to have the names of the individuals who constituted the first civil and military organization in the Northwestern Territory. They are as follows:

1. MILITIA. Captains.-Nathaniel Cushing, Nathan Goodale, Charles Knowles. Lieutenants.-George Ingersol, Wanton Casey, Samuel Stebbins. Ensigns.-James Backus, Joseph Lincoln, Arnold Colt.

2. CIVIL AUTHORITIES. Justices of Peace. Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Winthrop Sargent. Probate Court.-Rufus Putnam, judge; Return J. Meigs, clerk. Quarter Sessions.—Archibald Casey, Isaac Pierce, Thomas Lord, Esqrs., justices; Return J. Meigs, clerk. Sheriff.-Ebenezer Sproat. The Supreme Court, composed of the Territorial Judges.-Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes; and William Callis, clerk.-See Atwater's History of Ohio, p. 130.

The first civil court ever held in the Northwestern Territory convened on the 2d day of September, 1788: it was the "Court of Common Pleas," held in the hall of the Campus Martius, with Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper presiding justices.

The opening of this court in the remote wilderness was attended with an imposing ceremony, for the first time seen in the West. The governor and judges of the territory having collated, examined, and adopted such of the statutes of the states as were deemed appropriate to the condition of the new colony, proceeded to assert the supremacy of the laws by the organization of a regular court.

A procession was formed on the point near the residence of the citizens; the sheriff, with a drawn sword, in advance, followed by the citizens, officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar, the members of the bar, the judges of the Supreme Court, the governor and a clergyman, with the judges of the newly-organized Court of Common Pleas, in the order they are named.

Arriving at the hall of the Campus Martius, the whole procession was countermarched into it, and the judges Putnam and Tupper took their seats on the bench; the audience was seated, and, after the divine benediction was invoked by the Rev. Dr. Cutler, the high sheriff, Ebenezer Sproat, advanced to the door, and proclaimed aloud, "Oyes! Oyes! a court is opened for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by their peers, and in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case."

Besides the crowd of emigrants and settlers, there were present to witness the ceremonies hundreds of Indians, who had their encampment in the vicinity, for the purpose of entering into a treaty with the Federal government.

The population continued to increase by the arrival of emigrants during the autumn and winter, and by other colonies which arrived subsequently.

In the spring following, it had been determined to make other settlements on the Ohio below the Muskingum, and General Putnam, with a number of families, descended the river to a beautiful level tract about twelve miles below Marietta; and on the 11th day of April, 1789, he commenced a new settlement near a natural meadow, and called it Belpre.* The set

* See American Pioneer, vol. i., p. 24. Also, Atwater's Ohio, p. 131.

tlers here were intelligent and hardy men; foremost among them was Nathan Goodale, an enterprising officer of the Revolutionary army. These colonists proceeded to erect a blockhouse and the ordinary family residences. Subsequently, a stockade was added, to secure them from Indian outrage, and the station assumed the name of "Farmer's Castle."

Shortly afterward, a small colony was located ten miles below, upon the bank of the Ohio, and received the name of Newberry. This settlement also augmented its population during the fall and winter, and subsequently was compelled to erect a block-house for protection against the Indians.

Such were the settlements comprised in the first New England colony on the Ohio, included within the limits of the first county of Washington.

Miami Settlement.-At the same time that the settlement was made at the mouth of the Muskingum, a colony was on the route to the West for the settlement of the Miami country. Arriving at the Monongahela late in the autumn, they descended to Limestone, where most of them remained during the winter.

Soon after the purchase by the Ohio Company, Judge John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, had purchased of the government six hundred thousand acres of land, to be located between the Great and Little Miami Rivers. The value of the government scrip having advanced since the purchase of the former company, Judge Symmes stipulated to pay sixty cents per acre in military warrants, and in other evidences of debt against the United States.*

During the winter of 1788-89, arrangements were made at Limestone for locating the colony early in the following spring. Large portions of land were sold and distributed in smaller tracts to private companies and individuals, for the purpose of opening the settlements at different points between the Little Miami and the North Bend of the Ohio, twenty-three miles below.

The first purchase from Symmes was made by Major Benjamin Stites, from the Monongahela. This purchase comprised ten thousand acres immediately below the Little Miami River. The colony for its settlement was already on the river from Brownsville.

* See American Pioneer, vol. i., p. 98, 99. Also, Burnett's Letters, p. 135–145