The valley of the Ohio— Its primitive aspect— Its great fertility— Existing indications of an ancient and semi-civilized race— Indian villages on the banks of the Ohio— Cause of their desertion— English colonial settlements— First account of the Ohio Valley— Exploration of the mountain passes by Governor Spottswood— Origin of the first Ohio company— Claims of Great Britain to the Ohio region— Counter claims of France— Discoveries of La Salle— The extent of Louisiana— French settlements— Celeron sent to take possession of the Ohio Valley— Explorations of Gist on behalf of the Ohio company— Singular Shawanese custom— The Miamies— Attacked by the French for protecting English traders— Virginia alarmed— Indian council at Logstown— Movements of the French— Measures of Pennsylvania and Virginia— Journey of Washington to Fort le Boeuf— His return— Virginia calls upon the colonies for assistance in repelling invasion— Fort commenced at the forks of the Ohio— The colonial governors ordered to repel force by force— The French descend the Alleghany— Capture of the English works.
Sixty-six years ago the territory comprised within the limits of the present state of Ohio was an uncultivated wilderness; to-day, from its wealth and population, it ranks third in importance among the confederated republics of North America. History furnishes no parallel to a growth so wonderful.
The primitive aspect of the noble and fertile region watered by the Ohio, was singularly attractive to those pioneers of civilization, who, to the red man's love of freedom and the chase, united a sturdy energy and an indomitable perseverance peculiarly their own. The "Beautiful River," which gave easy access to this magnificent domain, was bounded by gently sloping hills, presenting no obstacles to cultivation, and extending in irregular ranges for many miles into the interior.
These undulating lands were overshadowed by one unbroken forest. The autumnal fires of the Indians, during a long series of years, had destroyed every vestige of woody undergrowth. from hill to hill, through the dim sylvan aisles, the hunter gazed with surprise upon the large herds of deer and buffalo, which here found pasturage on the luxuriant vines and grasses that sprung up from the fertilizing ashes of the annual fires. In the autumn, when the wind shook down the abundant fruit of the chestnut, the beech, and the oak, countless flocks of wild turkeys afforded food to the hunter of the most delicious character. To attract the agriculturalist, in addition to the excellent wheat lands of the hills, were the maize lands of the bottoms. Seldom touched by frost, and rarely subject to disastrous overflow, their rich deep black loam offered a generous reward to the labours of the husbandman.
That a people, far superior to the nomadic tribes encountered by the earlier pioneers, had anciently occupied this fertile valley, is evident from the numerous traces of fortified cities whose ruins have not yet wholly disappeared. Of this people, and of the works which testify to their former existence, the traditions of their savage successors do not speak. Who they were, whence they came, and in what manner they disappeared, are mysteries which still continue to baffle the researches of the historian, and the patient scrutiny of the antiquarian.
At a later day, the red man planted his villages along the shores of the Ohio; but when the European trader first visited that river, these, with one or two exceptions, had disappeared. For sixty miles back the wilderness was left untouched even by the tillage of the Indians. Lands of extraordinary fertility were used only as vast hunting-grounds, where the warriors from the towns high up the tributaries of the Ohio, solitary, or in parties, followed the pleasures of the chase. To account for this change from comparative populousness to solitude, the traditions of the Indians relate that, for a long series of years, fleets of canoes, manned by the fierce warriors of the Iroquois, came down annually from the head waters of the Allegheny, carrying death and desolation through the entire valley of the Ohio; and, at length, driving its inhabitants to seek a more secure refuge far in the interior.
During the early half of the eighteenth century, the attention of the Anglo-American colonies, which as yet had extended their back settlements to but little over a hundred miles from the Atlantic, began to be attracted by reports of a beautiful country west of the Alleghanies. The glowing accounts given of the Ohio Valley by the fur traders, who alone had visited that region, naturally produced a desire for its occupation. As early as 1710, Spottswood, the governor of Virginia, with much pomp and a great retinue, explored the mountain passes leading to it; and Logan, from 1719 to 1731, the wise and energetic secretary of Pennsylvania, constantly urged the necessity of securing the Ohio territory to the English.
At length, in the year 1748, Thomas Lee, a member of the Virginia council, associating himself with several other gentlemen of that province, and with certain London merchants, obtained a grant of half a million acres of land, to be taken, however, principally on the south side of the Ohio between the Monongahela and Kanawha Rivers. This was the first "Ohio Land Company," and its object was the establishment of an English settlement beyond the Alleghanies.
The right of Great Britain to grant these lands was founded, in part, on her prior discovery of the North American continent through the Cabots; by which it was contended that the whole territory was truly hers. But the principal ground upon which she based her assumption was, that the Iroquois or Six Nations, by right of conquest owned the Ohio valley, and had placed it, along with their other lands, under her protection.
France, however, advanced a counter-claim. Following up the discovery of the Mississippi by the pious and enthusiastic Marquette, Robert de la Salle, a chevalier of France, the first of white men to sail the waters of Lake Erie, had pushed his way to the three outlets through which the "Great River" pours itself into the Gulf of Mexico. Here, on the 9th of April, 1682, he took formal possession of the whole Mississippi valley, in the name of his royal master, Louis XIV.
The territory thus added to the dominions of France, presently received the name of Louisiana, and was expressly declared, so early as 1692, to extend "to the head springs of the Alleghany, including the Laurel Ridge, the Great Meadows, and every brook that flowed into the Ohio." During the period that elapsed from La Salle's discovery till near the middle of the eighteenth century, the French enjoyed entire and almost undisputed, though not unquestioned possession of the west. Besides establishing flourishing settlements at Detroit, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and New Orleans, they had erected between forty and fifty forts, missionary stations, and trading posts, in various parts of the country. Upon the fact of this occupation, and of the discoveries of Marquette and La, Salle, France based her claim to the valley of the Ohio. To render this title still more valid, Galissoniére, the governor-general of Canada, in the summer of 1749, before the Ohio company had surveyed their lands, despatched Captain Louis Celeron, with a detachment of three hundred men, to bury leaden plates, on which were inscriptions setting forth the claims of France, at the mouths of the principal streams flowing into the Ohio. Celeron was also instructed, at the same time, to take possession of the country by a formal "process verbal," and to warn all English traders from its limits. This proceeding was, however, but of little avail; for, during the same year, an English trading house was established on the banks of the Great Miami.
While the French, in 1751, were busily fortifying certain points on the head waters of the Alleghany, the Ohio Land Company sent their agent, Christopher Gist, to make explorations north of the Ohio, and to survey their grant to the south of that river. He was the first white man, of Anglo-Saxon descent to visit, in an official capacity, the country now comprised within the limits of the state of Ohio. Journeying across the middle waters of the Muskingum and Sciota Rivers, Gist reached in safety a Shawanese town, just below the mouth of the latter stream, on the Ohio. While here, he witnessed a singular ceremony. One evening, public proclamation was made that all marriages were dissolved, and that a three days' fast would be held, during which the women were to choose their husbands anew. The next day was spent in dancing. Men and women danced by turns, some sixty or seventy at a time, around fires, in a figure resembling an eight. At night a grand feast was held, after which the dance was resumed, and was kept up until the evening of the third day. Then about a hundred of the men commenced dancing in and out of the council house, while the women, looked on. So soon as any of the latter had made her choice of a husband from among those passing before her, she took hold of the man's blanket, and joining the dancers, continued dancing until all the women had likewise selected their partners, when the festival ended, and the new marriages were solemnized.
Bidding farewell to the Shawanese, Gist next visited the Miamies on the larger of the two streams that bear their name, and where the block-house for trading purposes had been erected by the English. Then retracing his steps to the Sciota, he descended to the falls of the Ohio, and returned home by the way of North Carolina.
Early in 1752, a detachment of French soldiers was sent to the Miamies to require the surrender of the English traders. The Miamies adhered to their English friends with courageous fidelity, and would not accede to the demand. Irritated at meeting with an unexpected refusal, the French, assisted by Ottawa and Chippeway Indians, immediately attacked the block-house, which, after a hard fight, they took and destroyed, carrying the garrison prisoners to Canada. Thus closed the first British attempt at settlement in Ohio.
These significant demonstrations determined Virginia to establish, upon a firmer basis, her claims to jurisdiction west of the Alleghanies. As early as 1744, a cession of certain lands in that region had been obtained by purchase from the Iroquois, during a council held at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. But this treaty being regarded with distrust by the western Indians, it was thought advisable to purchase their assent to its provisions. Three commissioners were accordingly sent to Logstown, a small trading village, situated on the north bank of the Ohio, some seventeen miles below Pittsburg. On the 13th of June, 1752, these gentlemen succeeded in obtaining from the chiefs assembled at that place, a full confirmation of the Lancaster treaty, and an invitation to construct a fort at the forks of the Ohio.
On the other hand, in anticipation of the settlements projected by the Ohio company, the French made extensive preparations both to assert and maintain their supremacy. A large force of troops, with adequate supplies of stores and munitions of war, were collected at Presque Isle, on the borders of Lake Erie; and, notwithstanding the remonstrance of the Indians, by the spring of 1753, a well organized expedition was ready to advance, at any moment, into the valley of the Ohio.
The governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia becoming alarmed at these hostile indications, took such measures to meet them as their restricted means allowed. Messengers were despatched to confer with the Ohio tribes, with whose delegates councils were held during the months of September and October, 1753. A commission was also sent to warn the French of the consequences which would, follow their encroachments; but the envoy, fearful of his, personal safety, returned without fulfilling his instructions. To the Indian remonstrances the French coolly replied, that it was their intention to build forts at Venango, an old Indian town at the mouth of French Creek; at the forks of the Ohio; at Logstown, and at Beaver Creek. The ill success of his first agent induced Governor Dinwiddie to select a more capable and fearless one, in the person of Major George Washington, then a young man of twenty-two, whose previous duties as a surveyor, and whose well-known solidity of character eminently fitted him for the service he was called upon to perform. Accompanied by Gist, and five attendants, Washington left Wills Creek on the 15th of November, and on the 22d stood upon the banks of the Monongahela, a few miles above its junction with the Ohio. Proceeding thence to Logstown, he held several unsatisfactory conferences with the principal chiefs in that vicinity. He was, however, enabled to obtain important intelligence concerning the military posts already established by the French, and their ulterior designs. Resuming his journey on the 30th, he reached Venango on the 4th of December, and, after the lapse of another week, entered Fort le Boeuf, at the head of French Creek. He was courteously received by St. Pierre, the French commandant at that post; and having delivered the letter of Governor Dinwiddie, and received an unequivocal response, he set out on his return to Virginia. After encountering several perilous incidents, by which his life was twice endangered, he reached Wills Creek on the 6th of January, from whence after a brief sojourn, he proceeded to the capitol to report the result of his mission.
The determination of the French to occupy the valley of the Ohio being now clearly evinced, despatches were immediately forwarded to England, notifying the Board of Trade of the dangers to which the frontiers were exposed; while Pennsylvania and New York were urgently called upon by Virginia to assist the people of that province in maintaining the integrity of the English possessions. Thoroughly aroused to the necessity of adopting effective measures, the Virginia assembly authorized the enlistment of two additional companies, one of which was to be raised by Washington in the more settled portions of the province, and the other by Trent, upon the frontiers. The latter was directed to commence at once the erection of a fort at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela with the Ohio, and to defend the post by force of arms against any who might attempt to dispossess him. These instructions being sustained soon after by a circular from the English secretary of state, ordering the various provincial governors to repel force by force, New York responded to the call of Virginia by voting the sum of twenty-two thousand dollars, to aid in obtaining the necessary means of resisting the common enemy. Pennsylvania, more directly interested, evaded the requisition by professing to doubt whether the French had actually encroached upon English territory. It was not long before all uncertainty upon this subject was at an end. In April, 1754, tidings were received of the gathering of French troops at Forts le Boeuf and Venango, preparatory to descending the Ohio. They were reported to be in such force, that the assembly of Virginia resolved to increase the two additional companies to six. Of the regiment thus ordered to be raised, Joshua Fry was appointed colonel, and Washington second in command.
While these companies were being organized, the workmen at the forks of the Ohio, utterly unconscious of the danger by which they were menaced, while busily engaged in the construction of the fort at that point, suddenly discovered, descending the Alleghany, sixty batteaux, and three hundred canoes, crowded with men, and deeply laden with stores, cannon, and munitions of war. Contrecoeur, the commander of this imposing flotilla, immediately demanded the surrender of the unfinished works; and as Ensign Ward, with a party of forty men indifferently armed, was in no condition to maintain an unfinished stockade against a thousand troops, and a battery of eighteen guns, he submitted to the very courteous coercion of his polite antagonist, by evacuating the post, and bearing with him the working tools of his detachment, ascended the Monongahela with his men, to report at the nearest settlement, the presence of the enemy. The capture of this feeble military station preluded that long and sanguinary war by which, after supporting the contest with varying fortunes for nine successive years, the power of the French was effectually broken, their admirable chain of western posts either destroyed or captured, and the whole territory heretofore claimed by them, left in undisputed possession of their conquerors.