We can at this late day. but faintly imagine the outlook that presented itself to the view of the pioneers and their feelings, when they first landed upon the borders of the wilderness in which they were to make their homes.
     Before them lay the boundless wilderness covered with a dense forest of trees that were in many places interlaced and festooned with the wild grape vines, which also frequently covered the smaller timber with their closely intertwined branches that made an almost impenetrable canopy of green. Through these forests roamed countless numbers of ferocious wild beasts, as well as the savage and cruel Indian, while beneath his feet lurked venomous reptiles.
     A wilderness of great extent, presenting the virgin face of nature, unchanged by human cultivation or art, is one of the most sublime terrestrial objects which the Creator ever presented to the view of man.
     One prominent feature, of a wilderness is its . solitude. Those who plunged into this forest left behind them not only the busy hum of men, but domestic animal life generally. The parting rays of the sun did not receive the requiems of the feathered songsters of the grove, nor was the dawning of the early morn, ushered in
by the shrill clarion of the domestic fowls. The solitude of the night was interrupted only by the howl of the wolf, the melancholy moan of the ill boding owl, or the shriek of the frightful panther. Even the faithful dog, the only steadfast companion of man among the brute creation, partook of the silence of the desert; the discipline of his master forbid him to bark or move, but in obedience to his command, and his native sagacity, soon taught him the propriety of obedience to this severe government. The clay was, if possible, more solitary than the night. The noise of the wild turkey, the croaking of the raven, or the wood-pecker tapping the hollow beech tree, did not much enliven the dreary scene. The cravings of hunger often compelled him from day to day to sustain the fatigues of the chase. Eager in the pursuit of his game his too much excited immagination, sometimes presented him with the phantom of the object of his chase, in a bush, a log, or mossy bank, and occasioned him to waste a load of his ammunition, more precious than gold, on a creature of his own brain, and he repaid himself the expense by making, a joke of his mistake.  His situation was not without its dangers. He did not know at what tread his foot might be stung by a serpent, at what moment ho might be met by the formidable bear, or if in the evening, he know not, on what limb of a tree, over his bead, the murderous panther might be perched, in a squatting attitude, to drop down upon, and tear him to pieces in a moment. 'When watching a deer lick from his blind at night, the formidable. panther was often his rival in the same business, and if by his growl, or otherwise, the man discovered the presence of his rival, the lord of the world always retired as speedily and secretly as possible, leaving him the undisturbed possession of the chance of game for the night.  His situation was perilous in the extreme. The bite of a serpent, a broken limb, a wound of any kind, or sickness without medical skill, without those accommodations which wounds and sickness require, was a dreadful calamity.

ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY

     The United States having secured title to the "Great Northwest," Congress soon deemed it advisable to take the preliminary steps looking to the permanent establishment of civil government in the new and extensive territory of which that body had just become the legal custodian.  Accordingly, after much mature deliberation and careful consideration of the subject, as well as prolonged discussion of the important questions involved, they, on the 13th of July, 1787, gave to the world the results of their deliberations in "An ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States north-west of the river Ohio," which has come to be best known as "The Ordinance of '87," sometimes also called "The Ordinance of Freedom."  This ordinance was the fundamental law.

SECOND GRADE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT

     The "Ordinance of '87," provided that
     "After it shall have been ascertained that five thousand from white male inhabitants actual reside in the Territory, the second grad of Territorial government could of right, be established which provided for a Legislative council, and also an ____ House of Representatives, the two composing the law-making power of the Territory, provided always that the Governor's assent to their acts was had.  He possessed the absolute veto power, and no act of the two houses of the Legislature, even if passed by a unanimous vote in each branch, could become a law without his consent.  The conditions that authorized the second grade of Territorial government, however, did not exist until 1798, and it was not really put in operation until September, 1799, after the first grade of government had existed for eleven years."

EARLY LAWS OF THE TERRITORY

     The first permanent settlement, being made at Marietta, the first formal organization of the government was made at that place and the first laws for the new government were promulgated from here.
     The first settlers landed there Apr. 7, 1788, and a second company came the 1st of Juy following.
     As St. Clair, who had been appointed Governor the preceding october, had not arrived, it became necessary to erect a temporary government for their internal security, for which purpose, a set of laws was passed and published by being nailed to a tree in the village, and Return Jonathan Meigs was appointed to administer them.  This was the first code of written laws ever adopted in Ohio, though what it was we are not informed.

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     The first legal law was proclaimed July 25, 1788, and was entitled "An act for regulating and establishing the militia."
     Quite a number of laws were necessarily adopted and established during 1788 and the following year.  From 1790 to 1795 they published sixty-four, thirty-four of

them having been adopted at Cincinnati during the months of June, July, and August of the last named year, by the Governor  and Judges Symmes and Turner.  They are known as the "Maxwell Code," from the name of the publisher, and were intended, says the author of "Western Annals," to form a pretty complete body of statutory provisions."  In 1798 eleven more were adopted.  It was the published opinion of the late Chief Justice Chase, "that it may be doubted whether any colony, at so early a period after its first establishment, ever had so good a code of laws."  Among them was that "which provided that the common law of England, and all statutes in aid thereof, made previous to the fourth year of  James I.? should be in full force within the Territory."  Probably four-fifths of the laws adopted were selected from those in force n Pennsylvania; the others were mainly taken from the statutes of Virginia and Massachusetts.

LOCAL COURTS AND COURT OFFICERS

     Among the earliest laws adopted was one which provided for the institution of a county court of common pleas, to be composed of not less than three nor more than five Judges, commissioned by the Governor, who were to hold two sessions in each year.  Pursuant to its provisions, the first session of said court was held in and for Washington county, Sept. 2, 1788.  The Judges of the court were Gen. Rufus Putnam, Gen. Benjamin Tupper, and Col. Archibald Crary.  Col. Return Jonathan Meigs was Clerk, and Col. Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff.  Elaborate details of the opening of this, the first court held in the North-west Territory, have come down to us, showing it to have been a stylish, dignified proceeding.  Briefly, "a procession was formed at the Point (the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio River) of the inhabitants and the officers from Fort Harmar, who escorted the Judge of the court, the Governor of the Territory, and the Territorial Judges to the hall appropriated for that purpose, in the North-west block--house in "Campus Martius."  "The procession," says Mitchener," was headed by the Sheriff, with draw a sword and baton of office."  "After prayer by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the court was organized by reading the commissions of the Judges, Clerk, and Sheriff; after which the Sheriff proclaimed that the court was open for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by the peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the ease."
     On the 23d day of August, 1788, a law was promulgated for establishing "general courts of quarter sessions of the peace."  The court was composed of not less than three nor more than five Justices of the Peace, appointed by the Governor, who were to hold four sessions in each year.  The first session of this court was held at "Campus Martins" Sept. 9, 1788.  The commission appointing the Judges thereof was read.  Gen. Rufus Putnam and Gen. Benjamin Tupper, says Mitchener, constituted the Justices of the quorum, and Isaac Pearce, Thomas Lord, and Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., the assistant Justices; Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, Sr., was Clerk.  Col. Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff of Washington county fourteen years.  The first grand jury of the North-west Territory was impanneled by this court, and consisted of the following named gentlemen:  William Stacey, (foreman), Nathanial Cushing, Nathan Goodale, Charles Knowles, Anselm Tupper, Jonathan Stone, Oliver Rice, Ezra Lunt, John Matthews, ___ge Ingersoll, Jonathan Devol, Jethru Putnam, Samuel Steb___, and Jabez True.
     The first permanent settlement in the new Territory was made at Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum, by the Ohio Land Company.  It was known as the "Muskingum Settlement."
     On the 2d of July, a meeting  of the directors and agents was held on the banks of the Muskingum, for the purpose of namingthe new born city and its public squares.  As yet the settlement had been merely "The Muskingum," but the name Marietta was now formally given in honor of Maria Antoinette; the square upon which the block house stood was named Campus Mortius; the square No. 19, Capitolium; the square No. 61, Cecilia; and the great road, the covert way, Sacra Via.
     the second settlement was made at Cincinnati, late in 1788.  There were two or three different companies of emigrants that came soon after each other, but the day and hour in which the party came, that laid out the village that has grown up to be the present city of Cincinnati, is not with certainty known, although historians and writers have puzzled their brains over the question for many a day.  It appears to be settled that this party left Maysville on the 29th of January, 17889, but as it has failed to record the day of its arrival, writers have undertaken to estimate the amount of hindering causes in navigation, such as ice and the bad weather usually occurring at that season of the year, but no two arrive at exactly the same conclusion.  therefore, each reader must make his own calculation.
     To ascertain the original price paid for the land on which the city stands is another question that has sorely perplexed writers in their researches.  Now we state that Mathias Denman, the original purchaser, bought about eight hundred acres, for which he paid five shillings per acres, in continental certificates, which were worth then, in specle? five shillings on the pound - so that the specie price per acre was fifteen pence.  That sum multiplied by the number of acres __ give the original cost of the plot of Cincinnati.
     The third settlement made in Ohio was at Manchester, Adams county, by Gen. Nathaniel Massie and a company of some twenty or thirty families or persons who located where the upper part of the town now stands.
     The exact day upon which these first emigrants pitched their tents there is not known, but it must have been the latter part of December, 1799, or early in January, 1791, for we learn that by the middle of March, of 1791, they had their cabins built and enclosed by a stockade that contained four or five acres of land.
     We are aware that most writers say Galliopolis was the third point settled in the State and they likewise give the date as 1791.  But this we think erroneous, because Massic's arrangements for a settlement being completed in the latter part of 1790, and his contract with his colonists being written, and signed on the first day of December of that year, and those colonists living at no greater distance

than Maysville, the inference is that but a brief tie would elapse before they were on the ground.
     This, in connection with the amount of labor they had performed by the middle of Marh, is conclusive evidence that they must have settled here in the very beginning of 1791, if not in the closing days of the preceding year.
     Again, in regard to the Gallipolis settlement, which was made by Frenchman, we learn that in May or June, 1788, Joel Barlow, an agent for the "Scioto Land Company," left this country for Europe, "authorized to dispose of a very large body of land" in the West.  In 1790 (or 1799), this gentleman distributed proposals in Paris for the sale of lands at five shillings per acre, which promised, says Volney, "a climate healthy and delightful; scarcely such a thing as frost in winter; a river alled by the way of eminence, 'The Beautiful,' abounding in fish of enormous size; magnificent forests of a tree from which sugar flows, and a shrub which yields candles; venison in  in abundance, without foxes, wolves, lions or tigers; no taxes to pay; no military enrollments: no quarters to find for soldiers."
     During the year 1791, says history, a considerable number of Frenchmen with deeds in their pockets for farms in this beautiful happy land, embarked for Americaaa, where they arrived in 1791-92.  From this the reader can readily see whether Galliopolis was settled before Manchester.  Besides, he can imagine the feelings of these poor foreigners, who had spent their all to reach this promised land, when they found in addition to the disappointment of their anticipated expectations of its excellence, that those of whom they bought did not own a foot of it, and their deeds were worthless.

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF ADAMS COUNTY

     As stated elsewhere, in this work, Gen. Nathaniel Massic was largely interested in the sale of land in the Virginia military district, north of the Ohio river, as well as in surveying.
     For his better security in surveying and also to start a trade in land, he was anxious to effect a settlement somewhere on these lands.  As an inducement to start a colony he offered to the first twenty-five persons that would join him in making a settlement, one inlot and one outlot in a new town he proposed lay off, also 100 acres of land somewhere in the country near the proposed town.  Thirty persons soon accepted his offer.
     The following written contrast was soon drawn and signed by the contracting parties:
     "Articles of agreement between Nathaniel Massie, of one part, and the several persons that have hereunto subscribed, of the other part, witnessed, that the subscribers hereof doth oblige themselves to settle in the town laid off, on the northwest side of the Ohio, opposite the lower part of the two islands; and make said town, or the neighborhood, on the northwest side of the Ohio, their permanent seat of residence for two years from the date hereof; no subscriber shall absent himself for more than two months at a time, and during such absence furnish a strong, able-bodied man sufficient to bear arms at least equal to himself; no subscriber shall absent himself the time above mentioned in case of actual danger, nor shall such absence be but once a year; no subscriber shall absent himself in case of actual danger, or if absent shall return immediately.  Each of the subscribers doth oblige themselves to comply with the rules and regulations that shall be agreed on by a majority thereof for the support of the settlement.
     In consideration whereof,  Nathaniel Massie doth bind and oblige himself, his heirs, &c., to make over and convey to such of the subscribers, that comply with the above mentioned conditions, at the expiration of two years, a good and sufficient titled unto one inlot in said town, containing five poles in front and eleven back, one outlot of four acres convenient to said town, in the bottom, which the said Massie is to put them in immediate possession of, also one hundred acres of land, which the said Massic has shown to a part of the subscribers; the conveyance to be made to each of the subscribers, their heirs or assigns.
     In witness whereof,, each of the parties have hereunto set their hands and seals this 1st day of December, 1790.
     (Signed).

     Although the offer of this bounty was to the first twenty-five that accepted the invitation, and history informs as that thirty joined the colony, the contract as given shows but nineteen signatures.  Who the rest of the thirty were, or whether they received the bounty, we have no means of knowing.  these men were doubtless the pioneer settlers of Adams county.  They remained at Manchester, mostly in the stockade, for protection against the Indians, until after Wayne's victory over the Indians at Greenville, August 20th, 1794.
     These colonists then began to venture out to locate, settle, and improve their lands.  When a man located his hundred acres, he had the privilege of buying as much adjoining land as he had the means to purchase.  In this way these first farms were made of various sizes.  These colonists mostly settled the section of country called "
"Gift Ridge."  It is very questionable in our mind, whether there were any permanent settlements made in the interior of the county, or outside of Manchester, previous to 1795 or '96, and probably but few were made before 1797 or '98.
     For the times and places of the first settlements in the county the reader is referred to the several township histories, as they appear in the work.