CHAPTER XII.

ADVANCE OF THE WHITE POPULATION INTO THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY.-ADMISSION OF THE "STATE OF OHIO" INTO THE FEDERAL UNION.-A.D. 1795 To 1804.

Argument.-Security of the frontier Population after the Treaty of Greenville.-Amicable Intercourse with the Indians.-Emigrants advance upon the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami Rivers.-Population of Northwestern Territory in 1796.-Of Cincinnati in 1797.-Population advances into the Virginia Military District.-Nathaniel Massie, Pioneer of Scioto Valley-Chillicothe first Settled.-Tribute to Memory of Massie. First Mail-route opened from Wheeling to Limestone.-Population advances to the "Western Reserve."-" County of Wayne" organized.-Old French Settlements near Detroit.-Traits of Character in French Population.-Retrospect of Northwestern Territory in 1796.-Extension of Settlements up the Scioto and Muskingum Valleys.-" Adams County" organized.-"Ross County" organized.— Condition of Chillicothe in 1798.-Extreme Settlements north of Chillicothe.-Herman Blannerhasset emigrates to Ohio in 1798.-His Traits of Character.-Blannerhasset's Island.-Steubenville laid off and settled.-Territorial Population in 1798.— Second Grade of Government assumed.-First Territorial Legislature.-Public Surveys.-Counties of Trumbull and Fairfield organized.-Belmont County organized.Indiana Territory organized into a separate Government.-Congress authorizes a Convention to form a State Constitution.-Convention assembles and adopts a Constitution. "State of Ohio" admitted into the Union.-State Government organized March 1st, 1803.-Character and Merits of Governor St. Clair.-New Counties organized.-Governors of Ohio.-Subsequent Increase of Population and Extension of Civil Government.-Population in 1840.—Character of Emigration to Ohio.

[A.D. 1795.] THE treaty of Greenville was hailed with joy throughout the West; in Kentucky, Western Virginia, and Pennsylvania, no less than in the Northwestern Territory. The whole western population of these states was deeply interested in the peace and security of the frontier, for all had participated in the dangers and privations incident to the state of hostilities which had called forth the previous unfortunate campaigns into the Indian country.

Several months before the treaty, the greater portion of the Indian tribes had been anxious for peace, and had discontinued their incursions against the Ohio border; yet the exposed settlements, in the Northwestern Territory were not altogether secure from outrages committed by a few desperate malcontents, belonging chiefly to the Shawanese nation. The apprehension of danger from such was sufficient to prevent the extension of population beyond the immediate vicinity of forts, stations, and stockades. But no sooner had the treaty of

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Greenville been concluded, than the frontier inhabitants, in conscious security, began to advance; while the Indians, relieved from the toils and privations of war, confidently approached the settlements, anxious to open a friendly intercourse and trade in the sale of their furs, peltries, and game for cash, or to exchange them for powder and lead, and for such necessaries and comforts as were adapted to their mode of life. On the part of the whites, all apprehension of danger ceased, and friendly intercourse succeeded to outrage and The disaffected Indians who persisted in their hostility had retired either into the Far West or to their allies in Canada. Repose and security lighted up the path of the pioneers with new hopes, and renewed energy and enterprise for peopling the fertile and boundless regions before them; and again they prepared to explore the lands which lay inviting their advance in the valleys of the Muskingum, the Hockhocking, the Scioto, and the two Miamis. Forts, stations, and stockades, having lost their importance, began to crumble and decay; while the restless pioneer confidently advanced, pitched his tent, and erected his cabin in the dense forest, or the remote plains which expand near the sources of these beautiful streams. Men of capital and enterprise in the older settlements soon became interested in securing claims and titles to extensive bodies of land, and in leading forth colonies for their occupation. Emigrant families from Kentucky, from Western Virginia, and from Pennsylvania were also advancing across the Ohio, by way of Cincinnati, Marietta, and Wheeling, into the valleys of the Little Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum.

Among the most active of the early landed proprietors in the Miami country were Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and General James Wilkinson, of Kentucky. These two officers, anxious to speculate in lands, associated themselves with Jonathan Dayton and Israel Ludlow, a surveyor, and made a joint purchase of a large body of lands from J. C. Symmes, lying high up the Little Miami, and extending westward to the Great Miami as high as Mad River. This purchase was made on the 20th day of August, and only seventeen days after the treaty of Greenville had been signed. Preparations were made for the early distribution of this purchase into suitable family tracts, and on the 4th day of November Israel Ludlow commenced surveying the plot of a town,

which was named "Dayton," in honor of one of the proprietors. This town was laid out at the mouth of Mad River, and about one mile below the mouth of Stillwater Creek. The following spring witnessed the erection of the first houses and the arrival of the first families in Dayton. But it was doomed to insignificance as a town for thirteen years, until it became the seat of justice for Montgomery county in the year 1809, although some settlements sprang up in the vicinity before the close of the second year.

[A.D. 1796.] Extension of Settlements into the Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum Valleys.-A large portion of the emigrants from the New England States, and from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia, advanced by the way of Brownsville and Wheeling. Here a portion descended the Ohio to Limestone, and other points in Kentucky, to make preparations for their final residence. Others proceeded across the Ohio River at Wheeling and other convenient points, and thence by land to the section of country which they had selected for their homes. The colonies for the Muskingum and Scioto valleys passed chiefly by this route into the interior of the territory.

Before the close of the year 1796, the white population of the Northwestern Territory increased to about five thousand souls of all ages, who were distributed chiefly in the lower valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami Rivers, and upon their small tributaries within fifty miles of the Ohio River. Such were the extent and condition of the white settlements previous to the year 1797.

The Ohio Company's purchase continued to receive emigrants, and numerous settlements had been made on the banks of the Ohio and upon its small tributaries south of the Muskingum. The purchase of Symmes on the Miami presented numerous small villages, besides those near Fort Washington and Columbia, both of which had greatly increased their population since the treaty of Greenville.

Cincinnati had increased its population and improved the style of its buildings. In the year 1792 the town contained about thirty log cabins, besides the buildings and appurtenances of Fort Washington, and not above two hundred and fifty inhabitants. In the beginning of the year 1796 it contained

* Ohio Gazetteer of 1841, p. 157.