90
��HISTOEY OF OHIO.
��their destination, opposite Fort Ilarmar,* erected in the autumn of 1785, by a detachment of United States troops, under command of Maj. John Doughty, and, at the date of the Mayflower's arrival in possession of a company of soldiers. Under the protection of these troops, the little band of men began their labor of laying out a town, and commenced to erect houses for their own and subsequent emigrants' occupation. The names of these pioneers of Ohio, as far as can now be learned, are as follows:
Gren. Putnam, Return Jonathan Meigs, Win- throjySargeant (Secretary of the Territory), Judges Parsons and Varnum, Capt Dana, Capt. Jonathan Devol, Joseph Barker, Col. Battelle, Maj. Tyler, Dr. True, Capt. Wm. Gray, Capt. Lunt, the Bridges, Ebenezer and Thomas Cory, Andrew Mc- Clure, Wm. Mason, Thomas Lord, Wm. Grridley, Gilbert Devol, Moody Russels, Deavens, Cakes, Wright, Clough, Green, Shipman, Dorance, the Masons, and others, whose names are now be- yond recall.
Oti the 19th of July, the first boat of families arrived, after a nine-weeks journey on the way. They had traveled in their wagons as far as Wheel- ing, where they built large flat-boats, into which they loaded their efiects, including their cattle, and thence passed down the Ohio to their destination. The families were those of Gen. Tupper, Col. Ichabod Nye, Col. Cushing, Maj. Coburn, and Maj. Goodal. In these titles the reader will ob- serve the preponderance of military distinction. Many of the founders of the colony had served with much valor in the war for freedom, and were well prepared for a life in the wilderness.
They began at once the construction of houses from the forests about the confluence of the rivers, guarding their stock by day and penning it by night. Wolves, bears and Indians were all about them, and, here in the remote wilderness, they were obliged to always be on their guard. From the ground where they obtained the timber to erect their houses, they soon produced a few vegetables, and when the families arrived in August, they were able to set before them food raised for the
��*The outlines of Fort Harmar formed a regular pentagon, embracing within the area about three-fourths of an acre. Its walls were formed of large horizontal timbers, and the bastions of large uprighttimbersaboutfourteen feet in height, fastened to each oth'T by strips of timber, tree-nailed into each jiicket. In the rear of the fort Maj. Doughty laid out fine gardens. It continued to be occupied by United States troops until September 1790, when they were ordered to Cincinnati. A company, vinder Capt. Haskell, continued to make the fort their headquarters during the Indian war, occasionally assisting the colonists at Marietta, Belpre and Waterford against the Indians. When not needed by the troops, the fort was used by the people of Marietta.
��first time by the hand of American citizens in the Ohio Valley. One of those who came in August, was Mr. Thomas Guthrie, a settler in one of the western counties of Pennsylvania, who brought a bushel of wheat, which he sowed on a plat of ground cleared by himself, and from which that fall he procured a small crop of wheat, the first grown in the State of Ohio.
The Marietta settlement was the only one made that summer in the Territory. From their arrival until October, when Governor St. Clair came, they were busily employed making houses, and prepar- ing for the winter. The little colony, of which Washington wrote so favorably, met on the 2d day of July, to name their newborn city and its pub- lic sqares. Until now it had been known as " The Muskingum" simply, but on that day the name Marietta was formally given to it, in honor of Ma- rie Antoinette. The 4th of July, an ovation was held, and an oration delivered by James M. Var- num, who, with S. H. Parsons and John Arm- strong, had been appointed Judges of the Terri- tory. Thus, in the heart of the wilderness, miles away from any kindred post, in the forests of the Great West, was the Tree of Liberty watered and given a hearty growth.
On the morning of the 9th of July, Governor St. Clair arrived, and the colony began to assume form. The ordinance of 1787 had provided for a form of government under the Governor and the three Judges, and this form was at once put into force. The 25th, the first law relating to the militia was published, and the next day the Gov- ernor's proclamation appeared, creating all the country that had been ceded by the Indians, east of the Scioto River, into the county of Washing- ton, and the civil machinery was in motion. From that time forward, this, the pioneer settlement in Ohio, went on prosperously. The 2d of Septem- ber, the first court in the Territory was held, but as it related to the Territory, a narrative of its pro- ceedings will be found in the history of that part of the country, and need not be repeated here.
The 15th of July, Gov. St. Clair had published the ordinance of 1787, and the commissions of himself and the three Judges. He also assembled the people of the settlement, and explained to them the ordinance in a speech of considerable length. Three days after, he sent a notice to the Judges, calling their attention to the subject of organizing the militia. Instead of attending to this important matter, and thus providing for their safety should trouble with the Indians arise, the
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