(page 18)

SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

            IN no part of the Union are there more objects of archaeological interest than in the Miami valley, in Ohio, and never before were we so well prepared to study them so successfully as at the present time. It is not our purpose, however, in these volumes to go in detail into this subject, but rather to give a brief outline of the evidences extant that this region was once the abode of that mysterious people whom, for want of a better name, we call "Mound Builders." In the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, published in October, 1883, Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Cambridge, Mass., who has taken great interest in the archaeology of Ohio, has this to say of the fortified hill in Butler county:

            "Fort Hill, of which an accurate description and figure are given by Squier and Davis, is in several respects one of the most remarkable of the prehistoric works in the State of Ohio, and has not yet suffered much by the hand of man, thanks to its being difficult of access. Nature has held almost undisputed sway over the works since they were deserted, and forest trees of great age are growing upon the walls and within the enclosure. The walls of this fort are formed of stones taken from the top of the hill and from the ditch made on the inside of the walls. These walls are from eight to fifteen feet high and from twenty to thirty or more feet in width, and they enclose an area of nearly fifty acres. They are carried around the very brow of the hill, forming a continuation of its steep sides. Some conception of the antiquity of the place may be derived from the size of a decayed oak stump still standing upon the summit of the wall, which measures seven by nine feet in its two diameters, nearly three feet from the ground. This is probably the same stump which thirty-seven years ago Squier and Davis reported as having a circumference of twenty-three feet." With the exception of Ross county, Butler contains more antiquities than any other in the State. Prof. S. F. Baird pronounces it one of the most interesting spots on this continent. When it is considered that within its borders are less than three hundred thousand acres of land, the claims put forth appear to be exaggerated. And yet there are over 250 artificial mounds and seventeen enclosures. All of the latter have been surveyed and described save one. Add to these over three hundred thousand various kinds of stone implements which have been picked up, and no mean appearance is presented. Of these remains, the most celebrated is the one already mentioned and known as Fortified Hill, located in Ross township, on Section 12, and less than two and one-half miles from the Miami. The plan of the work with accompanying description was first printed in Squier and Davis' Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published by the Smithsonian Institution in the year (page 19) 1848. Passing over such works as contain only a description, the following books may be named which contain a delineation of Fortified Hill. Appletons' Cyclopoedia, 1873; Baldwin's Ancient America, 1872; Bancroft's Native Races of the Pacific Slope, vol. IV., 1875; MacLean's Mound Builders, 1879; Larkin's Ancient Man in America, 1880; Smithsonian Report, 1883; History of Butler County, 1883; and Allen's Pre-historic World, 1885. It is thus seen that great prominence has been given to this work.

            The following bibliography of earthworks in the Miami valley is taken from an article prepared by Mrs. Cyrus Thomas, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, and published in Volume I of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society publications :

Butler County

            Ancient earthworks six miles southeast from the town of Hamilton. Surveyed and described in 1842 by Jas. McBride, J. B. MacLean in Sm. Rep., 1881, pp. 600, 603. Diagram on page 602. These works are located partly in Fairfield township, Sec. 15, 8, and 16, and partly in Union township, Secs. 8 and 14.

            Fortified Hill, on the west side of the Big Miami, three miles below Hamilton. Described and figured, Anc. Mon., pp. 16, 18, P1. vi.; also by MacLean in Mound Builders, pp. 184-187, fig. 53, and brief notice and fgure by same in Sm. Rep., 1883, p. 850. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS.

            The A. McCormick mound, Fairfield township, on farm of Mrs. A. McCormick. Described and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS.

            The Wm. M. Cochran mound, one mile northeast of Bunker Hill, Reily township. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS.

            The John Hoffman group of mounds near the central portion of the county. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan,

            Thomas MS. Probably the same one mentioned by John P. MacLean, situated in St. Clair township, Mound Builders, p. 214. The George Warwick mound, two miles north of Hamilton, in St. Clair township. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS. Noticed by J. P. MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 216.

            Large circular enclosure on the west side of the Big Miami, about seven miles below Hamilton, Ross township. Described and figured, Anc. Mon. pp. 85, 86, Pl. xxx, No. 2; also by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 190, 191, fg. 55.

            Group of six mounds in Ross township, mentioned and figured, Anc. Mon., p. 170, fig. 57, No. 1. More fully described and figured, MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 194, 195, fg. 56.

            Mound on land of J. and G. Meescopf in the southern portion of the county; one mile east of the R. Cooper mounds. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS. Mound on farm of Robert Cooper, Fairfield township. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS. Noticed by J. P. MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 181.  

            (page 19) The Samuel Lamdon mound, Reily township. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS. Brief description by John P. MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 202.

            The Henry Schwarm mound, a mile and a half northwest of the village of Reily. Explored, described, and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS. Probably the one in Reily township, mentioned by J. P. MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 202.

            Enclosure, ditch, and mound on Seven Mile creek, near Somerville, Milford township. Described and figured by MacLean, Mound

            Builders, pp. 207, 209, fg. 59. Brief notice and figure, Anc. Mon. p. 90, Pl. xxxi, No. 2.

            Mound from which was taken a frog pipe and charred cloth. Reported by Thomas Dover.

            Mound one mile south of Post Town station and two miles north of Middletown in which were found rolls of cloth and other relics. Reported by John S. Earhart, O. T. Mason, Sm. Rep., 1880, pp. 443, 444.

            Ancient work (enclosure) on Four Mile Creek, in Oxford township. Described and fgured, Anc. Mon. pp. 29, 31, Pl. xi, No. 2 and also by MacLean Mound Builders, pp. 204, 205, fg. 58.

            Ancient work (enclosure) on the bank of Seven Mile creek in St. Clair township, about fve miles north of Hamilton. Described and figured, Anc. Mon., p. 29, Pl. xi, No. 1; also by MacLean in Mound Builders, pp. 212, 213, fig. 60. The mound explored by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS.

            Ancient fortification in Fairfield township. Described and figured by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 177, 178, fg. 49. Brief description and figure, Anc. Mon., p. 22. Pl. viii, No. 2. Ancient inclosure near the preceding. Brief notice and figure, MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 178, fg. 50.

            Enclosure with oblong mound inside on the bank of Nine Mile creek, in Wayne township. Described and figured by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 217-220, fg. 61. Briefly noticed and figured in Anc. Mon., p. 90, Pl. xxxi, No. 3.

            Square enclosure and mounds on east side of the Big Miami, about four miles below Hamilton, in the southwest part of Fairfield township. Described and figured, Anc. Mon., p. 85, Pl. xxx,  No.1

            Circular earthwork on east side of the Big Miami, southwest corner Fairfield township. Described and figured by MacLean,

            Mound. Builders, p. 178, fg. 50. Brief notice and figure in Anc. Mon., pp. 90, 91, Pl. xxxi, No. 4. Enclosure with double walls ; mounds and ditch on the west bank of the Big Miami, four miles southwest of Hamilton, in Ross township. Described and figured Anc. Mon. pp. 30, 31, Pl. xi, No. 3; also by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 188, 190, fg. 54. The mound explored, described at length and fgured by J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1883, pp. 848, 849.

            Mounds in Liberty township (only ancient works in this township) are mentioned by MacLean as follows : In Sec. 20, on the farm of S. Rose, one, and on the farm of D. B. Williamson, one; (page 20) in Sec. 26, on the farms of Stephen Clawson and C. Bandle, three; one in Sec. 15 and another on Sec. 34 (Mound Builders, p. 176).

            Group of small works (square and oval enclosure and mound) in Union township. Described and figured in Anc. Mon., pp. 91, 92, Pl. xxxii, No. 1. More complete description by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 171, 172, fig. 46.

            On the adjoining section (8), same township, is a small circular enclosure described and figured by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 172, 174, figs. 47, 48.

            Ancient Fortification on the east bank of the Big Miami about six miles above Hamilton, in northeast corner Fairfield township.

            Described and figured, Anc. Mon., pp. 21, 22, Pl. viii, No. 1; also by MacLean, Mound Builders, pD. 181, 183, fg. 52.

            Maps and diagrams of Butler county showing location of signal mounds with explanatory notes, J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1882,  pp. 752, 758. A thorough description of the various ancient works of this county, a separate description being given of each work with fig. of most of them. J. P. MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 153, 228, figs. 46, 64 and map of the county showing location of the several works. Those described by others are mentioned separately in this catalogue under "Butler County, Ohio."

            General description of the mounds of the county with special notices of the group on Sec. 21 in Ross township (same group figured in Anc. Mon., p. 170), figured, one opened. Brief description of the group on the Miami described in Anc. Mon., p. 30, P1. xi, fg. 3; one opened and figured. J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1883, pp. 844, 851.

Hamilton County

            The Langdon Mound, near Red Bank; brief notice of the mound and contents, and of another near by Mound on the farm of Mr. Gould, two miles from Reading. Brief description of the mound and contents, 16th Rep. Peab. Mus., pp. 175,176

            Large enclosure, with outside ditch, on the right bank of the great Miami, near the village of Colerain. Described and figured Anc. Mon., pp. 35, 36, Pl. xiii, No. 2. (See also C. Pl. iii.) Possibly one of the works alluded to by Hugh Williamson, Obs. on Climate of America, Appendix D, pp. 189, 190.

            Ancient cemetery near Madisonville. Mentioned in Anc. Nat., Jan. 1881, Vol. XV, pp. 72-73. A lengthy and illustrated description by T. W. Langdon in the Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., V. III, pp. 40-68, p. 139, pp. 203-220, and pp. 237-257. Partial notices also in 15th Rep. Peab. Mus., pp. 63-67 and 77, and 16th Rep., pp. 1.65-167; pp. 196 and 199. Brief notice from C. L. Metz, Sm. Rep., 1880, p. 445.

            A square enclosure and parallel lines, opposite side of Little Miami river from the Milford Works ; nearly opposite Milford,             Clermont county. Brief description Anc. Mon., p. 95, Pl. xxxiv, A, No. 2. Also figured in Hugh Williamson's work on Climate, p. 197, fig. 2.

            Ancient works in Anderson township. Notices and partial (page 21) descriptions, 16th Rep. Peab. Mus., pp. 167-174 and p. 202; also 17th Rep., pp. 339-346, 374 and 376. Noticed by C. L. Metz, Sm. Rep., 1879, p. 439.

            Two circular enclosures in Sycamore township. Reported by J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1881, p. 683. 225. Brief notice and figure Fortified Hill, at the mouth of the Great Miami. Described and figured, Pres. Harrison in Trans. Hist. Soc. Ohio, Vol. I, pp. 217 (copy from op. cit.) Anc Mon., pp. 25-26, Pl. ix, No. 2.

            Four mounds on the present site of Cincinnati ; opened; the articles obtained described by Dr. Drake in "Pictures of Cincinnati," p. 204, etc. Mentioned by Caleb Atwater, Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., Vol. I, (1820) pp. 156-160.

            Mound and grave at Cincinnati. Opened by Col. Winthrop Sargent, and the articles taken from them described by him in a letter to Dr. Benj. L. Barton, in 1794. Illustrated, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., Vol. IV, (1799), pp. 177-180, and Vol. V (1802), p. 74.

            The following ancient works have been found "in the precincts of the town of Cincinnati :"

            Three circular embankments, two parallel convex banks, an excavation, and four mounds of unequal dimensions. Described with measurements in Western Gazetteer or Emigrant's Directory, pp. 282-283.

            Mound at Sixth and Mound streets, Cincinnati. Reported by H. H. Hill, Sm. Rep., 1879, p. 438.

            Aboriginal vault or oven at the junction of the two branches of Duck creek, near the Red Bank station, in the vicinity of Madisonville.

            Old roadway on Sec. 11, Columbia township. Reported by C. L. Metz, Sm. Rep. 1879, p. 439.

Miami County

            Mound on Corn Island, near Troy. Opened. Described and contents noted by George F. Adye in a letter in Cincinnati Gazette, and quoted in Hist. Mag., Nov. 1869, Vol. VI, 2d Ser., from the Christian Intelligencer.

            Earthworks and mounds in Concord and Newton townships. Brief descriptions by E. T. Wiltheiss, Papers Relating to Anthropology, from Sm. Rep. 1884, p. 38.

            Embankment of earth and stone on the left bank of the Great Miami, two miles and a half above the town of Piqua. Described and figured, Anc. Mon., p. 23, Pl. viii, No. 3. Noticed also by

            Drake, View of Cin. Described and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS. Notice by John P. MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 27.

            Below the preceding a group of works (circles, ellipses, etc.), formerly existed on the site of the present town of Piqua. Described in Long's "Second Expedition," Vol. I, pp. 54-66. Mentioned in Anc. Mon., p. 23.

            Mounds and earthworks in, Washington and Spring Creek townships, on the Great Miami and its tributaries. Full description and diagram by E. T. Wiltheiss, Papers Relating to Anthropology from Sm. Rep. 1884, pp. 35-38.

            (page 21)Tablets of burnt clay found on farm of W. Morrow near Piqua. Reported by E. T. Wiltheiss, Sm. Rep. 1879, p. 440.

            Graded way at Piqua. Described in Long's Sec. Expd., Vol. I., p. 60. Noticed in Anc. Mon., p. 88.

Montgomery County

            Nest of flint implements, found two miles west of Centreville. Described by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol. III., (1881), p. 144.

            Earthworks on the east bank of the Great Miami river, three miles below Dayton. Described and fgured, Anc. Mon., pp. 23-24, Pl. viii, No. 4.

            Small stone mound near Alexandersville. Opened, described, and contents noted at length by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq. Vol. III, (1881), pp. 325-328. Young Mineralogist and Antiquarian, April, 1885, pp. 79-80.

            Enclosure, partly of stone, on the bluff, two miles south of Dayton. Described by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq. Vol. VII (1885), p. 295. (Possibly the same as mentioned in Anc. Mon., pp. 23-24.)

            Group of ancient works consisting of square, circles, and mounds, near Alexandersville and six miles below Dayton. Described and fgured, Anc. Mon., pp. 82-83, Pl. xxix, No. 1. S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol. III (1881), pp. 192-193 and 325-328. Young Mineralogist and Antiquarian, April, 1885, pp. 79-80.

            The great mound at Miamisburg. Western Gazetteer (1847), p. 295. Howe's Hist. Coll. Ohio (1847), p. 375. Anc. Mon. (1848), p. 5, fig. 1. Ohio Centen. Rep. (1877), Pl. ii. MacLean's "Mound Builders," (1879), pp. 59-60, fig. 1.

            Ancient manufacturing village on the farm of M. T. Dodds, near West Carrollton. Described by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol.  (1879), pp. 256-258.

            Aboriginal cemetery on the bank of the Miami river, close to Dayton. Full description of the explorations by Aug. A. Foerste, Sm. Rep., 1883, pp. 838-844. Also noticed by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol. VII (1885), pp. 295-296.

Shelby County

            A mound in the northern part of Van Buren township. Explored ; contained balls and burnt human bones. Described by C. Williamson, "Science," Vol. IX (1887), p. 135.

Warren County

            Fort Ancient, on a bluff in Washington township, overlooking the Little Miami, six miles east of Lebanon. Described and plan given in the "Portfolio" (Phila., 1809)_ Described and fgured by Caleb Atwater, Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., Vol. 1 (1820), pp. 156-159, PI. ix. Howe's Hist. Coll. Ohio, pp. 503-505. Drake's "Pictures of Cin." (1815), p. 2. Western Gazetteer, p. 292. Anc. Mon.

(1847), pp. 18-21, P1. vii. Drake's Inds. N. A. (15th Ed.), p. 58. Amer. Antiq., Vol. I (1878), pp. 49-51, and Vol. V (1883), pp. 238-239. Statement of present condition, Sixteenth Rep. Peab. Mus. (page 23) (1884), Vol. III, pp. 168-169; also by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, with figures, in "Science," Vol VIII (1886).

            A mound on N. W. Quar. Sec. 23, Franklin township. Opened and briefly described.

            Two mounds on the S. W. Quar. Sec. 22, Franklin township, between the turnpike and the township line. Opened. Briefly noticed by J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1883, p. 851.

            Ancient forks (fortifications and mounds) near Foster's Crossing, on the hills west of the Little Miami. Brief notice by Josiah Morrow, Sm. Rep., 1879, p. 439. Reported also by J. D. Blackburn. The Miamisburg mound is the second most important one of its character perhaps in the United States. It is of perfect conical shape, some seventy feet high with the circular base of 300 feet in diameter. It is located just outside the city on one of the highways. In 1869 a number of citizens sunk a shaft from the top to two feet below its base. So far as startling revelations are concerned, the exploration was not a success. About eight feet below the summit a human skeleton was discovered in a sitting posture. A cover of clay several feet in thickness and a deposit of ashes and charcoal seemed to be the burial. At a depth of twenty-four feet was found a number of flat stones, set at an angle of forty-five degrees, and overlapping like shingles on a roof, and this may have been the top at one time. Several theories have been advanced regarding the object of the builders of this mound. It is thought to have been a place for sacrifice, or a burial mound. The failure to discover a large number of human bones within it seems to disprove these theories. It was in all probability used as a place of signaling, as it is one of a chain of similar earthen structures through this part of Ohio. Fires on its summit, which rises above the top of the surrounding forests, could be seen at a great distance. The trees which now cover it have grown since the settlement of the country by the whites.

            Of the historic fortifications of the Miami valley that known as Fort Ancient is the most imposing. It is located in Warren county, on the Little Miami river, about ten miles east of Lebanon. It is on a promontory 270 feet above the river bottoms, and commands a magnificent prospect of the fertile valley below. Two ravines head near each other on the tableland to the east of the river. Along the margin of the summit of the jagged outline eroded by these streams earth has been piled all around to strengthen the natural fortification. So irregular is the line, that though enclosing but 150 acres, it measures nearly four miles in length (18,712 feet, not counting any detached works). A moderate estimate of the amount of material removed to constitute this earth wall is 9,000,000 cubic feet. Its construction would require the continuous labor of several hundred men, with primitive tools, as much as ten years. In the words of Prof. Orton, "We cannot be mistaken in seeing in the work of Fort Ancient striking evidence of an organized society, of intelligent leadership, in a word, of a strong government. A vast deal of labor was done and it was done methodically, systematically and with continuity. Here again we must think of the conditions under which the work was accomplished. * * * Not only were (page 24) the Mound Builders without the aid of domestic animals of any tort, but they were without the service of metals. They had no tools of iron; all the picks, hoes and spades that they used were made from chipped flints, and mussel shells from the river must have done the duty of shovels and scrapers. In short, not only was the labor severe and vast, but was all done in the hardest way. * * * Can we be wrong in further concluding that this work       was done under a strong and efficient government? Men have always shown that they do not love hard work, and yet hard work was done persistently here. Are there not evidences on the face of the facts that they were held to their tasks by some strong control?"

            If it is desired to go further into the unknown and largely conjectured past, it may be stated that the Miami valley is located well within the glaciated region of Ohio. And it is of great interest to know that when man, in a state of development similar to that of the Eskimo, was hunting the mastodon, and the reindeer, and the walrus in the valley of the Delaware, the ice-front extended in Ohio as far south as Cincinnati. At that time the moose, the caribou, the musk-ox, and reindeer ranged through the forests and over the hills of Kentucky. And, if the theory of a glacial dam at Cincinnati can be entertained, there was for a period a long, irregular lake occupying the valley of the Ohio and its tributaries, rising to the top of the blufs in all the lower portions of the valley above Cincinnati, and being as much as three hundred feet deep at Pittsburgh. The explorer at that time, coming up from the south, would have encountered an ice wall along the line which marked the glacial margin; and upon ascending it would have had before him naught but such icy wastes as Commodore Peary and Dr. Cook found while engaged in their polar expeditions. The forests and flowers south of this margin were then also very different from those now covering the area. From the discoveries of Prof. Orton and others, it may be inferred that red cedar abounded all over the southern part of Ohio. There is record of preglacial red cedar wood in Butler county, specimens of which can be seen in the cabinet of the State university. Excavations made in these glacial terraces have disclosed evidences of a preglacial race of men, which opens a new realm of conjecture. The chief value of this fact, in this connection, is to show that the work of the Mound Builders is very recent, as compared with the glacial period. The mounds and earthworks of the lost race which inhabited the Miami valley before its discovery by Europeans, are all upon the surface, being built like our present cities, upon the summits of the glacial terraces, or upon the present flood plains. Without doubt, where the antiquity of the Mound Builders is counted by hundreds of years, that of preglacial man must be counted by thousands.

            To what degree of civilization the Mound Builders attained will perhaps ever remain a matter of conjecture, as they have left naught, save the mounds and the articles found in them, upon which we can base an opinion. But whatever their status as a civilized people, certain it is that the region of which we write was later allowed to become an unclaimed and unbroken wilderness. At the (page 25) of early explorations in this region there were no permanent settlements by the white race within what is now a populous territory, and with the exception perhaps of a few French traders and, a few captives among the Indians, there were within it no white people. Within this valley there are now several populous and prosperous cities, many prosperous towns and villages, and a population of approximately a million people, living under conditions of prosperity and happiness, of morality and intelligence not surpassed by any community of equal magnitude which has ever existed in the history of the world. But we must not forget that another people-another race-occupied this territory between the exodus of the Mound Builders and the entrance of the Anglo-Saxons, and that here they lived and energized for many centuries, before the advent of the white man. And in this introduction to the marvelous record of development in the Miami valley it is fitting that mention be made of our immediate predecessors, the Indians. The Miamis, of the Algonquin linguistic family, occupied all the western portion of Ohio, all of Indiana and a large portion of what is now the State of Illinois. This tribe had long occupied that territory and was once the most numerous and powerful of the tribes in the Northwest. They had no tradition of ever having lived in any other portion of the country and so they must have occupied this territory for many generations. Their principal villages were along the headwaters of the two Miamis of the Ohio, and the Miami of the Lake (now the Maumee) and along the waters of the Wabash in Indiana as far south as the vicinity of Vincennes. At the time of the treaty of Greenville they had been greatly reduced in numbers and in power, but were the oldest occupants of the Ohio territory. They claimed the right of possession in the territory between the Scioto and the Miamis, and they were at one time in possession of and entitled to the same, but in time the Wyandots seem to have been accorded the right thereto. In the traditions which the Miamis gave of their own history they stated that they had been at war with the Cherokees and Chickasaws for so long a period of time that they had no account of any time when there had been peace between them. As illustrating the ferce nature of the conflicts between the tribes north of the Ohio and those south of it in times past, it is an important fact that no tribes lived along the banks of that river or permanently occupied the contiguous territory. The Ohio as it flowed through the wilderness was and has always been considered one of the most beautiful rivers on the globe and its banks presented every allurement to. and advantages of permanent occupation. Yet, there was not on it from its source to its mouth, a distance of more than a thousand miles, a single wig-wam or structure in the nature of a permanent abode. Gen. William Henry Harrison, in an address before the Historical Society of Ohio, said:

            "Of all this immense territory, the most beautiful portion was unoccupied. Numerous villages were to be found on the Scioto and the headwaters of the two Miamis of the Ohio ; on the Miami of the Lake (the Maumee) and its southern tributaries and throughout the whole course of the Wabash, at least as low as the present (page 26) town of Vincennes; but the beautiful Ohio rolled its amber tide until it paid its tribute to the "father of waters" through an unbroken solitude. At and before that time and for a century after its banks were without a town or single village or even a single cottage, the curling smoke of whose chimneys would give the promise of comfort and refreshment to a weary traveler."

            There is every reason to believe that it was the ambition and efort "of the five nations to subdue, disperse or assimilate all the tribes of the Ohio valley," as stated by Dodge, in his "Indians in the Ohio valley." But they seem to have been successful only along the lake shore. In the hundred years preceding 1750, it is certain that many Indian tribes were gravitating towards the navigable rivers, rich valleys and fertile fields of Ohio. That was the most accessible and advantageous territory between the Great Lakes and the "beautiful river." There were easy portages connecting the sources of the rivers emptying into the Erie and those debouching into the Ohio; short transfers from the Cuyahoga to the Tuscarawas ; the Sandusky to the Scioto ; the Maumee to the Miami or to the Wabash. Thus the canoes of traffic and travel from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi would traverse the natural water channels of the Ohio country. All roads led to Rome. All rivers led to and from Ohio. The cunning red man selected in peace and war these avenues of least resistance. Hence the Ohio country was a chosen center for the western tribes and in the early half of the eighteenth century the tide of permanent settlement was Ohioward. The Miamis, chief occupants of Indiana and portions of Illinois, spread into the valleys of the Maumee and the Miamis. They were divided into three tribes: the Twigtwees, or Miamis, the Piankeshawes and the Weas. Their limits were well defned and doubtless correctly described by Little Turtle: "My father kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the head waters of the Scioto ; from thence to its mouth ; from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash, and from thence to Chicago, over Lake Michigan. These are the boundaries within which the prints of my ancestor's houses are everywhere to be seen." The Miamis, who belonged to the Algonquin family, were a powerful nation and were undoubtedly among the earliest immigrants into Ohio. In their prime, they could command two thousand warriors, and it is claimed were the forces that met and repelled the inundating waves of the Iroquois. It must be kept in mind that the settlements of the various tribes, which came into the Ohio country, were not permanent, but were more or less shifting as tribal wars, white immigration and changing conditions required. The Indian above all else is migratory, and if he did not descend from the lost tribes of Israel, as many ethnologists claim, he certainly had the characteristics of the "wandering Jew."

            It is not quite 170 years since the first white man of which we have knowledge visited the locality of the Miami valley. In 1751 Christopher Gist, accompanied by George Croughtan and Andrew Montour, passed over the Indian trail from the forks of the Ohio to the Indian towns on the Miami. Gist was the agent of an English and Virginia land company. On January 17, 1751, he and his party (page 27) were at the great swamp in what is now Licking county, known to us as the "Pigeon Roost," or "Bloody Run Swamp," which is five miles northwest from the Licking reservoir and one-half mile south of the line of the National road. Thence they proceeded to the Miami towns, which were in the region of Xenia and Springfield. In 1780, while the Revolutionary war was still in progress, Col. Bird, with a detachment of 600 Indians and Canadians, and with four pieces of artillery, left Canada, passed up the Maumee over to Loramie creek, thence to the Miami, down the same, passed the site of what eleven years later was Fort Hamilton, all a wilderness, to the Ohio, up the Ohio to the Licking, reduced several American frontier stations and returned by the same route with prisoners and plunder. And in the same year, Gen. Rogers Clark, with his Kentuckians, took up his line of march from the site of Cincinnati for the Shawnee towns on Little Miami and Mad rivers, which towns he destroyed. On this campaign he erected two blockhouses on the north side of the Ohio. These were the first structures known to have been built on the site of the city of Cincinnati. The beautiful country between the Miamis had been, so infested by the Indians that it was avoided by the whites, and its settlement might have been procrastinated for years, but for the discovery and enterprise of Major Benjamin Stites, a trader from New Jersey. In the summer of 1786 Stites happened to be at Washington, just back of Limestone, now Maysville, where he headed a party of Kentuckians in pursuit of Indians who had stolen some horses. The pursuit continued for some days, and the Indians escaped, but Stites gained a view of the rich valleys of the Great and Little Miami as far up as the site of Xenia. With this knowledge, and charmed by the beauty of the country, he hurried back to New Jersey and revealed his discovery to judge Cleves Symmes, of Trenton, a man of great influence. Symmes was about forty-four years old, a native of Long Island, had been a colonel of militia in the Revolution, and had rendered public service as lieutenant-governor of New Jersey, judge of the supreme court of that State, and member of the council and of Congress. Stites was of a speculative turn of mind and became enthusiastic over the possibilities of the Miami valley. He had but little trouble in arousing the interest of Symmes, and with the latter was associated Gen. Jonathan Dayton, Elias Boudinot, Dr. Witherspoon, and other worthies of that day. An association resembling the Ohio, or Marietta, company, was formed, Congress was asked (August, 1787) for a grant on the same terms given Rufus Putnam and his associates in the Muskingum country. The territory asked for was the lands between the two Miamis, as far back as the north line of the proposed purchase of the Ohio company. Symmes encountered considerable delay on the part of the government, but being of an enthusiastic nature, he seems to have taken it for granted that his enterprise would be approved, and began disposing of the country, in November, by covenanting to deed Stites 10,000 acres of the best lands in the valley. This he followed with a glowing prospectus, inviting settlers to select lands and avail themselves of the low price, two-thirds of a dollar per acre, before it was raised on May (page 28)    1, 1888, to one dollar. On his own behalf he reserved the nearest entire township to the mouth of the Great Miami, as well as fractional townships about it, as the site of a proposed city. There was a rush for the land bargains, and Matthias Denman, of New. Jersey, also with a town in view, took up an entire section opposite the mouth of Licking river.

            While the settlers at Marietta were busy clearing fields and building log houses, in 1788, they were visited, Aug. 27, by the advance guard of the Miami colony, led by Symmes, who stopped at Marietta for a few days to perform his duties as a lawmaker for the territory. He had been appointed judge the preceding February, and thus was one of the lawmaking body of the Northwest territory. The Miami valley was, naturally, a more inviting field for settlement than the Muskingum, but it had been avoided on account of the Indian hostilities. So frequent were the forays of Kentuckians, Shawanees and Wyandots through this beautiful valley and among its verdant hills that it had become known as the "Miami slaughter house," and future events were to confirm the aptness of the title. As late as March, 1788, while Putnam and his Marietta colony were coming down the Ohio, a considerable party of explorers, including Samuel Purviance, of Baltimore, and some French mineralogists and botanists, were nearly all killed or captured by the Indians at the mouth of the Great Miami. Stites and a party of settlers landed, Nov. 18, 1788, just below the Little Miami, and founded a town called Columbia. Symmes and party were on the way, but waited at Limestone (Maysville, Ky.) for a military escort, and Denman, without a following, went to Lexington, Ky., and formed a partnership with the founder of that city, Col. Robert Patterson, a Pennsylvanian who had visited Ohio -as an officer in the Indian campaigns, and John Filson, a Pennsylvania schoolmaster who had become a Kentucky surveyor and the first of Kentucky historians. In the deal between these three, Denman received $100 in Virginia currency, and the Kentuckians each a third interest in the section opposite the mouth of Licking, where the partners proposed to found a town and call it Losantiville. Free lots being ofered as an inducement to immediate settlement, a large company of Kentuckians followed Patterson and Filson to the city cite, where they met Denman, Symmes and Israel Ludlow, chief surveyor of the Miami company, Sept. 22, 1788. A plat had been made by Filson, and the city of Cincinnati then had its dedication. But the survey and location of lots could not be made until Ludlow had ascertained if this section were within twenty miles of the mouth of the Great Miami. Symmes, in his headlong course as a promoter, had been brought to a sudden check by the fact that the treasury board did not favor his application for such a great river front, and in view of his unauthorized procedure, was disposed to have nothing to do with the project. Through the intercession of Gen. Dayton and Daniel Marsh, representing Symmes' associates, the board was brought to consent to the sale of a twenty-mile front, eastward from the mouth of the Great Miami, and running back far enough to contain one million acres, and this tract was not formally contracted (page 28) for until three weeks after the preliminary location of Cincinnati (October 15, 1788.) The matter was finally settled by a patent to Symmes and his associates, September 30, 1794, for the land between the two Miamis, and far enough inland to include 311,682 acres, from which Sections 16 and 29 were reserved for the support of education and religion, and 8, 11 and 26 for disposal by Congress; also the Fort Washington reservation, and one complete township for a college. The latter was finally selected in Butler county, though not quite complete, and is the site of Oxford. While awaiting the survey, a large part of the adventurers, as they called themselves in that day, made an excursion into the interior to view the promised land and encountered an encampment of Indians, from which they turned back. The historian, Filson, becoming separated from the party, probably was killed by the Shawanese, as he was never again heard from. The adventurers all returned to Kentucky or the east. Ludlow became the successor of Filson in the partnership. Symmes went to Limestone, and waited for the conclusion of a new treaty with the Indians to insure peace. This desired treaty was concluded by Gov. St. Clair at Fort Harmar, January 8, 1789, reaffirming the bounds set by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, as the fruit of conquest. The Iroquois chief, Joseph Brant, approached the council place, but did not participate, and it afterward appeared that the Indians present were unauthorized to bind their tribes to cede any lands northwest of the Ohio. Romance has it that Brant was met in the forest by his former acquaintance, the Governor's daughter, Louisa St. Clair, whose horsemanship and skill with the rife was the admiration of the frontier.

            Meanwhile, about Christmas, 1788, or New Year's, 1789, Patterson and Ludlow and a small party returned to Losantiville, and began laying out town lots, and the first settlers of that city gathered to select their property. "On the 24th of December, 1788," says Symmes, in one of his letters, "they left Maysville to form a station and lay a town opposite the Licking." The river was flled with ice "from shore to shore," but "perseverance triumphing over difficulty, they landed safe on a most delightful high bank of the Ohio, where they founded the town of Losantiville, which populates considerably." James H. Perkins, in his Annals of the West, points out that the day of the settlement is unknown. "Some, supposing it would take about two days to make the voyage, have dated the being of the Queen City of the West from December 26. This is but guesswork, however, for as the river was full of ice, it might have taken ten days to have gone the sixty-fve miles from Maysville to Licking. But, in the case in chancery, to which we have referred, we have the evidence of Patterson and Ludlow that they landed opposite the Licking in the month of January, 1789; while William McMillan testifies that he `was one of those who formed the settlement of Cincinnati on the 28th day of December, 1788.’ "But it is quite certain that Symmes and his party were delayed until late in January. Then, on coming down the river to Fort Finney, the country about it was found under water. The disgusted military officer abandoned the fort to go to Louisville, but (page 30) Symmes landed upon the nearest dry spot and began a town, which was given his name. With the advent of pioneer recruits, North Bend was established a few miles up the river. Which of the various locations should be the center of development was in doubt until Symmes' appeal for military protection led to the placing of an army post. Ensign Luce and eighteen men built a stockade at North Bend and occupied it several months, but there was an Indian attack in the spring of 1789 that stampeded the inhabitants. Then Major Doughty came down with a larger force and in the summer of 1789 selected Losantiville as the best position and built a stockade that he called Fort Washington. The story was told by Judge Jacob Burnet that the commanding officer became "enamored with a beautiful, black-eyed female," at North Bend, whom her husband took to Cincinnati, whereupon the officer decided that the latter was the best strategic position. "This anecdote was communicated by judge Symmes," said Burnet, "and is unquestionably authentic," but judge Symmes was much offended at the officer. Gen. Josiah Harmar, commanding the regular army of the United States, which was composed of his regiment of infantry and Major Doughty's battalion of artillery, occupied this fort with the main part of his command, December 29, 1789, and Gov. St. Clair, stopping there on his way to the Wabash and Mississippi, established, January 2, 1790, a new county, which Symmes named in honor of Alexander Hamilton. The name of the town St. Clair changed to commemorate the title of the new military order, the Cincinnati. This county included the country between the Miamis back to the Standing Stone forks of the larger river. Cincinnati, as the seat of an unsettled county, began, in a squalid and barren fashion, its history as the metropolis of the Ohio valley. In 1792 (February 11), Gov. St. Clair extended the county jurisdiction to include all west of the Scioto and a line north from the lower Shawanee down to Sandusky bay, and east of a line from Standing Stone forks of the Great Miami to Lake Huron, including all Eastern Michigan.

            In 1795, Gen. Wayne had made a treaty with the Indians, at Greenville, by which the line of the lands of the United States had been extended from Loramie's, westward to Fort Recovery, and thence southward to the mouth of the Kentucky river. The boundary of Hamilton county was extended westward, June 22, 1798, to make it correspond with this change in the boundary of the government territory. The line between Hamilton and Knox counties then became : "The western boundary of the county of Hamilton shall begin at the spot, on the bank of the Ohio river, where the general boundary line of the United States and the Indian tribes, established at Greenville the third day of August, 1795, intersects the          bank of that river, and run with that general boundary line to Fort Recovery, and from thence by a line to be drawn due north from Fort Recovery, until it intersects the southern boundary line of the county of Wayne, and from thence to the southern boundary of the county of Wayne, shall also be the eastern boundary of the county of Knox." Hamilton county in this way got a part of Knox county, and a part of what is now Indiana.

            (page 31) The settlements mentioned were not to enjoy peaceful conditions for a number of years. The Miami valley, as a part of the Northwest territory had passed to the United States and had been opened to their people. But the Indians were still in a large measure its occupants and in some degree its owners. They began to feel the pressure of the white settlements, and they began to commit depredations and destroy property and even lives of the settlers. Gen. Josiah Harmar, a Revolutionary veteran, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the United States army, September 29, 1789, and was at once directed to proceed against the Indians. He centered a force of some fifteen hundred men at Fort Washington (Cincinnati). His army consisted of some three hundred regulars and eleven hundred "militia," which really meant indiscriminate volunteers mostly from Kentucky, aged men and inexperienced boys, many of whom had never fired a gun. "There were guns without locks and barrels without stocks, borne by men who did not know how to oil a lock or fit a flint." With this "outfit" Gen. Harmar proceeded (September 30, 1790), into the heart of the Indian country, around the headwaters of the Maumee and the Miami. The Indians, less than two hundred, say the historians, led by the Miami warrior, Chief Little Turtle, divided the army, defeated and routed them, and Harmar, chagrined and humiliated, retreated to Fort Washington after suffering great loss of men. It was a stunning blow and created dismay and terror among the Miami valley settlers. The Indians were highly elated and emboldened to further and more aggressive attacks upon their white enemies. It was now evident to the government that large measures must be taken to establish the authority of the United States among the Indians and protect their Ohio settlements. Washington called Gov. St. Clair to Philadelphia, and with the approval of Congress placed him in command of an army to be organized for a new Indian expedition. On October 4, 1791, Gen. St. Clair, at the head of some three thousand troops, hardly better in quality than those under Harmar, set out from Fort Washington. The plan was to proceed northward along the present western line of the state and establish a line of Forts to be properly maintained as permanent points for military operation and protection. Forts Hamilton, St. Clair and Jefferson, the latter near Greenville, were erected. But when the expedition, now about twenty-five hundred strong, had reached a branch of the Wabash in what is now Mercer county, some thirty miles from Fort Jefferson, it was attacked by an allied force of Indians, fifteen hundred strong, under Little Turtle. It was a desperate, irregular combat, the troops were completely demoralized and panic stricken, and indulged in "a most ignominious f light," with the woeful loss of over six hundred killed and two hundred and fifty wounded, a loss equal to that of the American army at Germantown, when Gen. Washington suffered one of the worst defeats and greatest losses of the Revolution. The Indian question had now become more serious than ever before, and there was great danger of the disaffection spreading among the Six Nations, with whom the whites had been at peace since the treaty of Fort Harmar. Washington anxiously scanned (page 32) the list of officers for a reliable successor to St. Clair. The choice finally fell upon Anthony Wayne, the dashing, intrepid hero of Ticonderoga, Germantown, Monmouth and the storming of Stony Point. Wayne arrived at Fort Washington in April, 1793, and by October had recruited his army and was ready to move. He cautiously crept his way into the interior as far as Fort Greenville, which he erected, and where he spent the winter, and whence he forwarded a detachment of several hundred to build Fort Recovery, in commemoration of the defeat of St. Clair, at that point. This fortification was attacked by the advancing Indians, one thousand strong, under their puissant general, Little Turtle, who made a desperate charge only to be repulsed and compelled to retreat. It was their frst serious check. In August, 1794, Wayne with his

            "Legion," as his army was called, reached the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee. Here he established another link in the chain of forts, named Defiance. The Indian allies had concentrated about thirty miles down the river at the rapids of the Maumee, near the British fort, Miami, one of the post retained by the English at the close of the Revolutionary war and then recently reoccupied by an English garrison from Detroit, under the direction of John G. Simcoe, lieutenant-governor of Canada. The feld chosen for battle was at the Falls of the Maumee on the wind swept banks, covered with fallen timber. The savages were outwitted and overwhelmed. They fed in wild dismay toward the British fort. Wayne's triumph (August 20, 1794), was complete, the brilliant and dashing victory of Stony Point was won again. The Indian warfare was shattered, and the red man began to realize his critical condition. The famous Greenville treaty was entered into in August, 1795, between Gen. Wayne for the United States and the representatives, over eleven hundred in all, of some eleven leading Indian tribes. This treaty removed that influence which for six years had prevented the development of the colony planted in the Miami valley, and it was now possible to extend settlements uninterrupted into that region.

            At the time of the Treaty of Greenville there were gathered under the protection of Fort Washington and close to the stockades of Columbia, North Bend, and the dozen or more stations in that vicinity, several hundred anxious settlers who hailed that event as the beginning of an era of peace and security and an opportunity for better times. "The return of peace gave them new ambitions and new hopes." They removed from their forts into the adjacent country, selected farms, built cabins, and began to subdue the forests. So decisive was this movement that, for a time, the curious phenomenon presented itself of settlements like Cincinnati, North Bend and Columbia, in a new and growing country, actually losing a large part of their population. In evidence of this, Miller, in his Cincinnati's Beginnings, says that judge Symmes wrote to Jonathan Dayton, August 6, 1795, that North Bend was reduced more than one-half in its number of inhabitants since he had left to go to New Jersey, in February, 1793; that the people had spread themselves into all parts of the purchase below the military range since the Indian defeat on August 20, and that the cabins were (page 36) deserted by dozens in a street. Another thing that had in some measure contributed to this exodus was the demand that Symmes had made on all volunteer settlers to go out and improve on their forfeitures in the course of the year, as the truce with the Indians afforded a very favorable opportunity for the purpose. News of the treaty also accelerated the westward movement and deflected to the northwest territory many of those who otherwise probably would have gone into Kentucky. And many people who had settled below the Ohio river when the Indian wars were raging north of it now crossed the river and became numbered with the settlers in the future states of Ohio. Four important centers of settlement within the present limits of the state received the newcomers, the Western Reserve in the neighborhood of Cleveland, the Marietta district, the Scioto district in the neighborhood of Chillicothe, and the Miami valley.

            These settlers were engaged for a time almost exclusively in the primitive occupations of the wilderness. They built their own cabins and made for themselves a rude sort of necessary furniture and utensils. Preparatory to the development of a clearing the trees were deadened and soon a crop of Indian corn was planted to supply the necessities of the family. And the pioneer was a hunter as well as a primitive farmer. His time was occupied for several seasons with clearing the forest, securing a sufficient food supply, and possibly improving his cabin so that it would be more habitable. His limitations under such circumstances did not permit him to produce a surplus, and so he was enabled to buy little or nothing. He and his family were compelled to be manufacturers of a primitive sort, as store goods were necessarily denied them. They dressed in clothing made of skins or fax raised and spun and woven at home. An important step in advance was made when a few sheep were secured and linsey woolsey was substituted for cloth of pure fax. In some instances the pioneer was only a squatter, while in others he had enough money to make the first payment on his land and thus held the title in his own name.

            From the very beginning of this great rush of individual settlers "men of capital and enterprise in the older settlements became interested in securing claims and titles to extensive bodies of land and in leading forth colonies for their occupation," says Monette, in his History of the Mississippi Valley. Seventeen days after the conclusion of the treaty of Greenville, a company composed of a number of gentlemen who were prominent in the affairs of the Northwest territory made a joint purchase of land from John Cleves Symmes and subsequently laid out the town of Dayton at the junction of the Great Miami and Mad rivers. Those interested were: Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Territory; Gen. James Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton, who was one of the original owners of the Miami purchase, and Israel Ludlow. The last named had already identified himself with the early history of Cincinnati by surveying the town site and also establishing Ludlow's Station, now Cumminsville. In December, 1794, he had laid out the town of Hamilton, under the protection of Fort Hamilton on the Great Miami, and now he was called upon to lay out what was to become (page 34) the first city of importance in the Miami valley, north of Cincinnati.

            But Judge Turner seems to have anticipated the founders of Dayton, for on the day before they had completed their purchase from Symmes the Centinel of the Northwest Territory published an advertisement, saying that, "Encouragement will be given to the first ten families who will go and form a station on a township of land lying with a front of several miles upon the eastern bank of Mad river." And in the following March, Robert Benham, who appears to have been agent for Turner, advertised in the same periodical, a sale of lots in the town of Turnerville on Mad or Chillekothi river.

            An unusual thing in that early day was an editorial in a frontier newspaper, but following Wayne's treaty with the Indians the rush of population to the Mad river country was of such importance as to induce Editor Maxwell, of the Centinel, to produce the following, in his issue of April 2, 1796:

            "It is with great satisfaction that we can announce to our readers the rapid strides of population and improvement on the frontiers of this country. The banks of the Mad (or as called by the Indians) Chillekothi river, display at this moment hopeful appearances. But yesterday that country was a waste, the range of savages and prowling beasts; today we see stations formed, towns building, and the population spreading. At the mouth of the river on the eastern side now stands the town of Dayton, in which are already upwards of forty cabins and houses, with the certain prospect of many more. Three and twenty miles above this in the forks of the river, a town called Turnerville will shortly be laid out on an admired plan, and from whose situation many advantages may be expected, as roads to the lakes and Pittsburgh intersect at this point. Stations in the neighborhood are already in forewardness, and a mill will shortly be built on a fne never failing seat within a mile or two from town. Two stores of goods will be opened there in the course of the Spring*** Thus we have a certain prospect of a flourishing frontier, that in the case of a renewal of Indian hostilities, will be a shield to the older and more popular settlements within the Miami Purchase."

            Individual settlements were pushing up the (valley of the Little Miami and in 1798 the town of Waynesville was located in the wilderness on the banks of that river. In the opening year of the new century we find judge Symmes again active in a personal endeavor to extend the frontier. The Western Spy, published at Cincinnati, of March 26, 1800, contains a communication from him calling a meeting at John Lyon's tavern on Millcreek of those gentlemen who intended to become adventurers on "Scioto and Whetstone waters" to enter into articles of regulation, elect a foreman and inform each other who would furnish wagons, oxen or horses, for the purpose of transporting utensils of husbandry and provisions to the new settlement. In one week after the meeting the party was to march in a body to the place of settlement with their wagons, pack horses, cattle, sheep and hogs.

            But before their dreams could be realized these ambitious town (page 35) builders were compelled to wait for a further agricultural development. At first the best that they could hope for was a limited population of the squatter class and possibly an occasional farmer, who settled in or near one of these proposed towns in hopes of a larger social intercourse, than could be secured on a wilderness farm.

            The area of unoccupied land was so great, notwithstanding the great movement of population to the Northwest territory, that for many years, after the treaty of Greenville most of the country was sparsely settled and large areas of native forest remained untouched. In 1797, a traveler passing in a northwesterly direction from Manchester to the Little Miami river found but one cabin on the trace between those points. That one was built by a Mr. Van Metre, about seven miles from where Newmarket, Highland county, is now located. A man by the name of Wood had built a mill on the little Miami and there were several cabins in that vicinity. On the return trip the same traveler passed but two homes between Cincinnati and Chillicothe. Bailey, in his journal of a Tour, tells of passing down the Ohio in 1797 and remarks that "this tract of country lying between the two Miamis is the only properly settled country on the north side of the Ohio; for though there are a few scattered plantations along the banks of the Ohio, and on some of the rivers which run into it, yet they are too widely diffused to assume any corporate form." But at this time the whole southern bank of the Ohio, from Limestone to Louisville, had begun to assume a civilized appearance, according to the same writer. About 30,000 settlers found their way into Ohio in the first five years following the treaty of Greenville, and thus the population was increased from about 15,000, in 1795, to about 45,000, in 1800, a gain of 200 per cent. Of this number, 14,629 were living in Hamilton county. However, it must be remembered that at that time Hamilton county included practically the entire Miami valley. Its eastern boundary was identical with the present eastern boundary of Clermont county to the northeast corner of that county, and from there it extended north to the Indian treaty line. The treaty line formed both its northern and western boundaries, and Hamilton county thus included a small part of what is now Southeastern Indiana. This gave Hamilton county at that time an area of about 4,000 square miles and a population of a little over three and a half persons per square mile. That part of the Miami valley west of the river and north of the latitude of Dayton was almost entirely unoccupied.

            That speculation in land became a flourishing business is indicated by the numerous newspaper advertisements of the time, and the land law of 1800 did much to accelerate the movement of population into the Miami valley. For the next few years almost every edition of the Cincinnati papers contained numerous advertisements of land for sale. Small tracts were sometimes ofered, but generally the advertisements were for tracts of from 500 to 2,000 acres. Proximity to a mill site or a navigable stream, or on a road recently laid out, or near a community already somewhat settled added much to the value of the land. Notwithstanding that a large area had (page 36) been opened to settlement by the land law of 1800, and the minimum price had been fixed at $2 per acre, the price continued to advance, according to the Western Spy and Miami Gazette of November, 1815, especially near the few towns that were beginning to become local centers of industry and trade. And Melish, in his Travels in the United States, says that in 1805 good land near the mouth of the Great Miami was offered at $6.50 per acre, and that as late as 1809 uncleared land could be purchased as low as $5 per acre.

            By 1805 immigration to Ohio and the Miami valley was truly astonishing. Says the American Pioneer: "New settlements and improvements were springing up along the banks of the Ohio; and the busy hum of civilization was heard where silence had reigned for ages, except when broken by the scream of the panther, the howl of the wolf or the yell of the savage." There were no less than twelve towns in the distance between Cincinnati and Limestone, and some of them were of considerable importance. Espy, in his Memorandum of a Tour, estimated that from 20,000 to 30,000 immigrants had come into Ohio within that year. Many of them who settled in Southern Ohio came from the southern states, whence they had emigrated to escape the environment of slavery. The Western Spy and Miami Gazette of January 8, 1806, says that one ferry at Cincinnati, within eight months of 1805, transported 2,629 immigrants from the southern states. Of that number North Carolina furnished 463, South Carolina 669, Kentucky 568, Tennessee 200, Virginia 465, and Georgia 264. It is difficult to say what proportion of this population from the south settled in the Miami valley, but it must have been small in comparison with the number of settlers arriving from the free states. According to the Cincinnati directory for 1825, the immigrants from the southern states and their descendants then living in Cincinnati formed but 14 per cent of the inhabitants.

            The most important centers of population in the interior at this time were Dayton and Lebanon. In 1806 Dayton contained about forty houses, was situated in the midst of a prosperous farming community, and an excellent beaten public road, the borders of which were sprinkled with settlements and neat and improved farms, connected that town with Hamilton. And Ash, in his Travels in the United States, says that Lebanon was situated in the midst of a fne agricultural region that had been settled within five years, and that it had a church and schoolhouse and a population of about 200 inhabitants, living in neat log and frame houses. Other towns not heretofore mentioned that were marked on Rufus Putnam's map, which was published in 1804, were Newtown, Williamsburg, and Deerfield. This map, prepared by the Surveyor General of the United States, near the beginning of the last century, located but ten towns in the Miami valley, and none of them, except Cincinnati, was much more than a collection of log cabins. This great increase in population in the Miami valley between 1795 and 1805 must have meant considerable agricultural development and the production of a surplus that the farmer would desire to exchange for commodities that he could not produce. This (page 37) surplus was the basis of the early commerce of the Miami valley ; and the improvement in means of transportation and the building of a commercial system were two most important questions that the pioneers had to meet. And this surplus called for a trade center to which the produce of the region might be brought for export and from which also imported goods could be distributed. The building of Fort Washington at Cincinnati had given that place an advantage over other points in the Symmes purchase during the Indian wars, and to the remainder of the Miami valley, it was the most accessible point on the Ohio. It at once became the metropolis. In early settlements there have always been a number of the well-to-do among the settlers who were prepared to buy some of the conveniences of life, even at frontier prices. To accommodate such as these, traders followed closely the advance line of the frontier; therefore, soon after the founding of Columbia and Losantiville, there were merchants in the Miami valley who were prepared to furnish to the army and to the settlers whiskey and tobacco and some of the more necessary articles of eastern and foreign production. Although such commercial operations must have been limited because of the small number of immigrants who were prepared to indulge in the luxury of store goods, there were several merchants advertising groceries and dry goods for sale in Cincinnati before the time of Wayne's victory. Judging by an advertisement which appeared in the Centinel of Northwest Territory on November 29, 1793, and again on January 4 and February 22, 1794, one enterprising tradesman even considered that this frontier community had so far advanced in the scale of civilization as to be a market for imported wines. And in the same newspaper, on Nov. 30, 1793, another advertised that he would receive corn, beef, pork, butter, cheese, potatoes, furs and skins at his store in Columbia, in exchange for merchandise, groceries, etc.

            But beyond the sale of a few commodities to the settlers under the protection of the guns at Fort Washington, there was no opportunity for an extension of commercial operations before the treaty of Greenville, but following that, trade was much stimulated by the rush of population to the Miami valley, as most of the immigrants to this region landed at Cincinnati, and perhaps not a few of them bought some necessaries before breaking into the wilderness. It was also increased by the fact that Cincinnati became the grand depot for stores that came down the Ohio, bound for the forts that were located near the Indian treaty line, as we are informed by Bailey, in his journal of a Tour.

            These pioneer merchants were usually young men with abundant energy and small capital. McBride, in his Pioneer Biography of Butler county, says that such a one would purchase a stock of goods in Philadelphia or Baltimore and transport it in wagons over rough roads to Pittsburg at a cost of from $6 to $10 per hundredweight. There he would buy a flatboat or a keel-boat, load his goods in it, and float them down the river. He was usually unacquainted with the stream, and if the water was low he would be frequently in danger from sand bars, snags and other obstructions. If fortunate he would reach Cincinnati within fifteen or (page 38) twenty days. Perhaps he would stop there, or maybe hire a team and haul his goods to one of the inland settlements. Referring again to the Centinel of the Northwest Territory, issue of May 23, 1795, one of those pioneer merchants, having established himself, advertised that he had just arrived from Philadelphia with a large assortment of dry goods and groceries which he would sell on very low terms for cash only. These merchants usually found, however, that frontier conditions were unfavorable to the maintenance of cash sales; yet the general impression prevailed that these early dealers made enormous profits and generally were able to increase their stock as rapidly as the expanding business of the country demanded. But this early business of supplying eastern goods to settlers admitted of little expansion, for any considerable commercial development must depend upon the production of a surplus of agricultural products. As the Miami valley was rich in agricultural possibilities, the energetic pioneer farmer did not keep trade waiting long for those products that were to furnish the basis of early commerce.

            But for the first ten years following the treaty of Greenville, the growth of Cincinnati was slower than for any succeeding period of its early development, nor did it in any way keep up with the development of the Miami valley. In 1795 the population was about 500. By 1805 it had increased to about 960. This was an average increase of forty-six persons, or less than 10 per cent per year. In all it amounted to 90.2 per cent in ten years, whereas the increase of the Miami valley for the same period was about 480 per cent. This relatively slow increase may be easily understood when we remember that in 1795 the Miami valley, outside of the few settlements on or near the Ohio, was an uninhabited region and could supply nothing as a basis of commercial life. Agriculture must be developed before there could be any considerable growth in the towns of the region. So, while the preliminary house-raising, and clearing and planting was going on, Cincinnati in a great measure seemed to have been playing a waiting game. She could do nothing else. She received great numbers of immigrants and retained but a few of them. A few incomplete pictures have been left, in the Cincinnati directory of 1819 and in Burnet's Notes on the Settlement of the Northwest Territory, that may in some degree assist us in an appreciation of the growth of Cincinnati during the first decade following the treaty. In 1795 the 500 inhabitants were housed in ninety-four log cabins and ten frame houses, and the public improvements, aside from Fort Washington, consisted of an unfinished frame schoolhouse, a strong log building occupied as a jail and a Presbyterian church. The jail was ornamented with a pillory, stocks, and whipping post. The church was a building, 40x30, enclosed with clapboards, neither lathed, plastered nor ceiled. The floor was of boat plank laid loosely on sleepers and the seats were of the same material supported by blocks of wood. In the work called American Pioneer it is stated that by 1805 the log cabins of Cincinnati had decreased to fifty-three and the frame buildings then numbered 109. There were also six brick and four stone houses. The town boasted of two churches, a court (page 39) house and a prison. Large warehouses had arisen near the water for the storing of groceries and merchandise, brought up in barges and keel boats from New Orleans. The abandonment of Fort Washington, which occurred in 1803, was probably the most significant change to be noticed. Like all other frontier forts of its kind, when no longer needed, it was falling into decay. In 1808 the government sold the property and the land was soon afterward divided into city lots. Says Mansfeld in his Memoirs of Dr. Daniel Drake : "The enlivening notes of the fife and drum at Reveille were no longer heard, and the loud booming of the morning gun as it rolled its echoes along the hills and the winding shores along the river had ceased to awaken the inhabitants from their slumbers. * * * The enlivening hum of commerce was now beginning to be heard on the landings, while the hustle and hurry of hundreds of immigrants thronged the streets as they took their departure for the rich valleys on the banks of the Miamis."

            However, the streets were yet in a state of nature and the roads consisted of traces of narrow pathways, almost impassable on account of mud, stumps and roots. According to the Cincinnati directory for 1819, in what is now the very heart of the city many of the forest trees were still standing and the trunks of others which had been cut down encumbered the ground for several years afterward. Such in brief, was the metropolis of the Miami valley ten years after the treaty of Greenville. (Treaty signed in 1795.)

            We have seen that the decade between 1795 and 1805 was a period of locating frst settlements and clearing new farms. A few towns were located and the more important roads were marked out. The production of a surplus was begun, a commercial system had been organized and the manufacture of a few articles had commenced on a small scale. Yet the entire region retained its former character and the development of the Miami valley was only begun. After the demands of the home were met, those farmers who were near Cincinnati or some other center into which the settlers were moving, found a limited market among the newcomers. A little later the surplus corn, wheat, pork, whiskey, etc., began to demand a larger market, and no place in the Mississippi valley could furnish such a market, as the entire region was agricultural in character. The long and expensive haul prevented sending this surplus over the mountains to the east, and so the only outlet was by flat-boat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, there to reshipped to the eastern seaboard or to a foreign market. But the attitude of Spanish officials toward this trade was unsettled and wavering. High tariffs for the privilege of deposit and reshipment were the rule, and it was not uncommon for whole cargoes to be confiscated. This situation, however, had existed prior to the Spanish treaty of Oct. 27, 1795, which gave Americans the free nav