PART ONE

CHAPTER I

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY

In 1498, when Sebastian Cabot discovered North America, this continent was the empire of the native American Indian, a barbaric people who roamed, not unlike the wild beasts of the field, over its wide domain, all untamed and not governed by any regular type of civilized, Christianized life.

The discoveries of both Columbus (1492) and Cabot opened this vast territory to immigration from European countries. Soon Spain, England and France the then great rival nations-vied one with the other for possession and final occupancy of the New World.

It was Spain that had the distinction of being the founder of the first colony in North America, the same being established at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, it being by forty years the most aged city in the United States.

The second colony was planted by the French people in 1604, at Port Royal, in Acadia, the original name of Nova Scotia. The third settlement was effected by the English at Jamestown, Virginia, in the month of April, 1607, the first English settlement on the continent.

The French people had commenced to make rapid strides toward settlement and naturally England soon became alarmed at the French encroachments in the north part of the new-found world, as then known and styled. Hence the country was divided into two grand divisions, that portion lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of northern latitude, and James I by grant disposed of that portion of the country included between the forty-fourth and forty-first degrees to an association of merchants, called the London Land Company, and to the Plymouth Company, which later settled New England, between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees. The Cabots had visited Nova Scotia as early as 1498, though there there was no European colony established until the above named, but Henry IV of France had as early as 1603 granted Acadia to De Monts, a Frenchman, and his followers, and some Jesuits, who for a number of years tried to form a set

tlement in Port Royal and St. Croix, but who were finally expelled from the country by the English governor and colonists of Virginia, who claimed the country by right of discovery of Sebastian Cabot. The grant to De Monts comprised the lands between the fortieth and fortysixth degrees of latitude, and hence included the lands at present composing the state of Ohio.

The grant of James I of England to the London Company also embraced Ohio, and the grant of the same monarch to the Plymouth Company compassed a portion of it. France, much desiring to hold sway and possess this domain, sent forth her boldest adventurers to explore and really possess the country in question. Among these men may be mentioned La Salle, Champlain and Marquette. Forts were built by them on the lakes and the Mississippi, Illinois, Maumee and Wabash rivers, and the whole Northwest Territory was included by them in the province of Louisiana. In brief, according to the geographers the entire country was known as New France, except that east of the great ranges of mountains whose streams flow into the Atlantic Ocean, and of this portion they even claimed the basin of the Kennebec and all of Maine to the east of that valley. As early as 1720 they had strong and well fortified posts on the Wabash river, and a line of communication was established to Acadia by way of this stream, the lakes and the St. Lawrence. The English not only claimed the Northwest Territory by reason of discovery and by grant of the King of England, but by virtue of the purchase of the same from the Indians by treaty at Lancaster, in 1744. By that treaty the Six Nations ceded the territory to the English, as they claimed. For the purpose of formally possessing it and vying with the French in its settlement, a company, denominated the Ohio Company, was organized in 1750 and during that year obtained a grant from the British Parliament for six hundred thousand acres of land on or near the Ohio river, and in 1750 the English built and established a trading post--"trading house”—at a place called Loramie's Store, on the Great Miami river, and which was the first English establishment erected in the Northwest Territory, or in the great Mississippi valley. In the early part of 1752 the French demolished this trading house and carried the inhabitants off to Canada. This brought on somewhat of a conflict, and the Ottawas and Chippeways assisting the French, fourteen of the Indian warriors were killed and many more wounded before the affair was adjusted.

It was in 1762 that the Moravian missionaries, Post and Heckwel der, had established a station upon the Muskingum river. One year later the French ceded their possessions in the Northwest and, indeed, in North America, to Great Britain, and from that time forward the English had only the natives with whom to contend. After many con

flicts had ensued and much blood and precious life had been lost, the English became masters of the soil. In 1774, by act of Parliament of the English government the whole of the Northwest Territory was annexed to and made a part of the province of Quebec.

July 4, 1776, the colonists declared their independence and renounced further allegiance to the British crown, and each colony then claimed jurisdiction over the soil embraced within its charter. The Revolutionary war terminating favorably to the American colonies, the King of England, September 3, 1783, ceded all claim to the Northwest Territory of the United States. By charter, Virginia claimed that portion of the territory which was situated northwest of the river Ohio, but in 1784 she ceded all claim to the territory to the United States. By virtue of this act or deed of cession the General Assembly of Virginia did, through her delegates in Congress March 1, 1784, "convey (in the name of and for and on behalf of the said commonwealth), transfer, assign and make over unto the United States, in Congress assembled, for the benefit of said states, Virginia included, all right and title and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, to the territory of said state lying and being to the northwest of the river Ohio.”

After this great northwestern domain had been secured to the United States, Congress directed measures toward the permanent organization of civil government in the same, it now being within the legitimate province of its legislation. July 13, 1787, Congress passed "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the Ohio river," the same being styled "the Ordinance of 1787." This was made the supreme law of the territory, and from its principles grew all further legislation.

The ordinance referred to provided that the territory should be divided into not less than three nor more than five states, as soon as Virginia should alter her acts of cession and the proper bounds should be fixed. The western state in such territory should be bounded by the Ohio, Mississippi and Wabash rivers; a direct line from the Wabash at Port Vincent due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by said line direct to the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi. The middle state was fixed by a direct line from the Wabash at Port Vincent, to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Miami to the said territorial line. The eastern state was fixed as by the last named direct line, the Ohio and Pennsylvania, and to the said territorial line. Provision was, however, made that two other states might be made from the ter ritory by Congress; further that when any one of these states has sixty thousand people that it might be admitted into the Union as a state and no longer be under a territorial government.

Article six of the ordinance provided that "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided, always, that any person escaping into the same from whom labor and service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his labor and services aforesaid."

POPULATION

It is estimated that at the date of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 the entire population of all the villages and settlements of the territory in question did not exceed three thousand souls. These settlements were chiefly made in the northwest and western portion of it. The French were the occupants of the villages and environments, chief among which was Detroit, on the Detroit river; St. Vincent, on the Wabash; Cahokia, a few miles below St. Louis; St. Philip, forty-five miles below St. Louis, on the Mississippi river, Kaskaskia, six miles above the mouth of the stream by the same name; Prairie du Rocher, near Fort Chartres; and Fort Chartres, fifteen miles northwest of Kaskaskia.

ORIGINAL SQUATTERS

One who was well informed wrote of these people, many years ago, as follows: "Their intercourse with the Indians and their seclusion from the world developed among them peculiar characteristics. They assimilated themselves with the Indians, adopted their habits, and almost uniformly lived in harmony with them. They were illiterate, careless, contented, but without much industry, energy and forethought. Some were hunters, trappers and anglers, while others run birch bark canoes by way of carrying on a small internal trade, and still others cultivated the soil. The traders or voyageurs were men fond of adventure, and of a wild, unrestrained Indian sort of life, and would ascend many of the long rivers of the West, almost to their sources, in their little birch-bark canoes and load them with furs bought from the Indians. The canoes were light and could be easily carried across the portages between the streams."

There was attached to these French villages a "common field" for the free use of the villagers, every family, in proportion to the number of its members, being entitled to a share of it. It was a large, enclosed tract for farming purposes. There was also at each village a "common," or large enclosed tract, for pasturage and feed purposes, and timber for building.

CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE

The Western Annals had this to say concerning the inhabitants of this territory: "They were devout Catholics, who, under the guidance of their priests, attended punctually upon the holidays and festivals and performed faithfully all the outward duties and ceremonies of the church. Aside from this, their religion was blended with their social feelings. Sundays, after mass, was their special occasion for their games and assemblies. The dance was the popular amusement with them, and all classes, ages, sexes and conditions, united by a common love of enjoyment, met together to participate in the exciting pleasure. They were indifferent about the acquisition of property for themselves or their children. Living in a fruitful country, which, moreover, abounded in fish and game, and where the necessaries of life could be procured with little labor, they were content to live in unambitious peace and comfortable poverty. Their agriculture was rude, their houses were humble, and they cultivated grain, also fruits and flowers; but they lived on, from generation to generation, without much change or improvement. In some instances they married and intermarried with surrounding Indiana tribes.”

These remote villages and settlements were usually protected by military posts-Detroit especially, which in 1763, when held by the English, had resisted the assaults of the great Pontiac-and had witnessed the wrinkled front of grim-visaged war a century before the adoption of the Ordinance of 1787.

ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO LAND COMPANY

The best description of this great company is found in the secretary of state's reports of 1876, and is from the pen of that most accurate writer and gatherer of statistics, Hon. Isaac Smucker, of Licking County:

While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organization of a territorial government northwest of the Ohio river, the preliminary steps were taken in Massachusetts toward the formation of the Ohio Land Company, for the purpose of making a purchase of a large tract of land in said territory and settling upon it. Upon the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the aforesaid land company perfected its organization and by its agents, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Maj. Winthrop Sargent, made application to the board of treasury July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days before to make sales. The purchase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, embraced a tract of land containing about a million and a half acres situated within the counties (as now known)