More than a century had elapsed after Columbus had discovered the Western Continent before any permanent settlement was made in North America.  The first was the colony of Virginia, in 167, by the English; and in the next year the French planted their first colony in Canada.  The English settlements were confined for some time to the coast; while the French gradually extended theirs up the St. Lawrence, and up on the lakes.
     It was not known that any white man had ever explored what was called the western country, until the year 1673, when a French missionary named Marquette, accompanied by M. Joliet, of Quebec, and five boatmen, set out on a mission from Mackinaw, at which place his countrymen had established a post two years before, and passed thence down the late to Green Bay, and thence from Fox river they passed over to the Wisconsin, and down that river to its junction with the Mississippi.  After having descended to the mouth of the Arkansas, and being satisfied from its course that the Mississippi discharged itself into the gulf of Mexico, they thought it imprudent to proceed further, and returned to the mouth of the Illinois, which they ascended, and passed over to Lake Michigan.
     After Marquette's return he resided among the Indians until his death, in 1675.  His discoveries were lost sight of until La Salle, in 1679, built a vessel on Lake Erie which he named the Griffon, and in August embarked with his expedition.  He sailed through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron and Michigan to Green Bay.  He then collected furs and sent back a load by the Griffon, which was never heard of afterward.  His party then proceeded in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph river, where he established a trading-house called Fort Miami.  He then ascended the St. Joseph, crossed to the Kankakee, and sailed down till he reached an Illinois village.  In January, 1680, he formed an alliance with the tribe, and established a post near the present Peoria.  After having sent father Hennepin on an exploring expedition to the mouth of the Illinois, he returned to Fort Miami, and on the 21st of December, 1681, he started from thence with his expedition, ascended the Chicago, crossed to the Illinois and descended to the Mississippi.  Sailing down, he explored the three channels to the Gulf, and on Apr. 9, 1682, set up a column with the French arms, at the mouth, and took formal possession of the country watered by that river.  In November, 1683, he reached Quebec on his return.  In August, 1684, he set sail from France, with an expedition consisting of 280 persons, in four ships, for the purpose of beginning a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi.  They entered the Gulf of Mexico, but miscalculating distance, passed their destined port, and anchored at the entrance of Metagorda Bay, where they disembarked.  Here they undertook to cultivate the soil, but after two years, in January, 1687, the whole party was reduced to fewer than forty.  La Salle, with half of these, set out to make his way to the Illinois, but was murdered by some of his own party, March 19, 1687, on the Trinity, Texas.  It is probable he saw nothing of what now constitutes the State of Ohio, except, perhaps, some occasional landings on the shore of Lake Erie, in the beginning of his expeditions.  It is said, however, that in 1669 he reached the Ohio from the country of the Iroquois, and descended it to the falls where Louisville now stands.
     Soon after La Salle's expedition, French missionaries began to traverse the country through which he had passed, and the government established military posts on the lakes.  Several settlements were made on the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Ohio, and in the year 1702, a mission was established on the Wabash, at Vincennes, and a few years later a fort was built there.
     Very little notice was taken of the country on the headwaters of the Ohio, by either the French or English governments, until about the middle of the last century.  Both parties claimed it, but neither took any steps to occupy it.  The French considered themselves as having the best right to it, because they had been the first to explore it; but they took no further measures to establish their claims, and made no other settlements in addition to those on the Mississippi and Wabash.  The English claim to the country was founded upon the royal charters to the different colonial governments, which included in their grants all the country westward of the settlements on the Atlantic, within the same parallels of latitude, to the Pacific; but this claim, like that of the French, was not carried into effect by any measures of formal occupation of the territory.  About the year 1709, however, both nations began to be impressed with the importance of the country, and to prepare to establish their respective claims by sending out traders and surveying parties.  A company under a grant from the crown of England, of six hundred thousand acres of land, on the waters of the Ohio, established a post on one of the branches of the Great Miami river, which was the first known establishment made by white men within the bounds of Ohio.  This fort was taken by the French in 1752.  The French, afterward, in 1754, built Fort Du Quesne, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela, where Pittsburg now stands.  Washington was sent by the governor of Virginia with a letter to the French commandment, remonstrating against these proceedings as an infringement of the rights of Great Britain; but neither Washington's abilities nor the operations of a powerful force under General Braddock, could overcome the French, who kept possession of the country until Canada and the whole country east of the Mississippi was surrendered by the treaty of 1763.
     After the peace of 1763, and before the war of the revolution, the settlements were extended across the mountains into the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, but none were made in Ohio.  After the war, disputes arose between several of the States respecting the right to the soil of this territory, which was only allayed by Virginia ceding to the United States, in 1784, jurisdiction over the country northwest of the Ohio, retaining the right to the soil in the district between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, for the remuneration of her own troops.  In 1786 Connecticut surrendered all her rights of jurisdiction and soil to the general government, with the exception of the district known as the Western Reserve, the jurisdiction of which was also ceded, in 1800, the right to the soil being retained.  The Indian titles to the rest of the State were bought up by the General Government.  In this manner the territory became the property and care of the United States, and in 1787 Congress undertook its government.  But many and bloody were the conflicts with the Indians until the signed victory over them of the army of General Wayne, in 1794, resulting in the treaty of Greenville, August, 1795.
     The first permanent settlement in Ohio having been made in Marietta, Apr. 7, 1788, it became the duty of Congress to provide civil government for its new and extensive territory.  Accordingly the celebrated ordinance of 1787 was adopted on the 13th day of July, of that year, and was entitled, "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio."  This ordinance became the fundamental law of the Great Northwest, and to its wise statesmanship we may attribute much of our greatness and prosperity.
     Congress, in October, 1787, appointed General Arthur St. Clair, Governor; Major Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, and James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons, and John Armstrong, Judges of the Territory; the latter declining the appointment, John Cleves Symmes was appointed in his stead.  On the 9th of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair arrived at Marietta, and finding the secretary and a majority of the judges present, proceeded to organize the Territory.  The Governor and judges, or a majority of them, were the sole legislature power, until the Territory should contain an actual adult male population of five thousand.  Such laws were adopted, some seventy-five in number, as the necessities of the inhabitants demanded.  In 1798, it having been ascertained that the Territory contained the requisite population, a Territorial Legislature was elected, and held its first session in Cincinnati, Jan. 22, 1799; its second session at Chillicothe, on the first Monday of November, 1800, and its third session in Chillicothe, Nov. 24, 1801.
     On the 27th of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair issued a proclamation, establishing the county of Washington, which included all the territory east of the Scioto river to which the Indian title had been extinguished, reach northward to Lake Erie, the Ohio river and the Pennsylvania line being its eastern boundary, Marietta, the seat of the Territorial Government, also becoming the county seat of Washington county.  Ten counties were organized within the limits of Ohio, before being admitted into the Union of a State.  Belmont county was organized September 7, 1801, being the last before the admission of the State.  The other counties organized before that time were Hamilton, Wayne, Adams, Jefferson, Ross, Trumbull, Clermont and Fairfield.
     On the 30th of April, 1802, Congress passed "An act to enable the people of the eastern division of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States and for other purposes."  An election was held for members of a constitutional convention, who met at Chillicothe November 1, 1802, and completed their labors and adjourned on the 29th of the same month.  The members of the convention from the part of the State embracing the territory of the convention from the part of the Sate embracing the territory from which Gallia county was formed, were James Caldwell and Elijah Woods, of Belmont county, and Ephraim Cutler, Benjamin Ives Gilman, Rufus Putnam, and John McIntyre, of Washington county.
     The Territorial Government was ended by the organization of the State Government March 1, 1803, pursuant to the provisions of the constitution framed at Chillicothe.

ORGANIZATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY.

     On March 1st, 1803, the First General Assembly of the State of Ohio met at Chillicothe, about three months after the State was admitted into the Union.  One of the first acts of the new legislature was the creation of eight new counties, of which Gallia was one of the first, from a vast territory known as Washington county, "Territory of the United States, North-west of the river Ohio," which then comprised a tract covering nearly half of the present area of the State, and including what is now divided into nearly forty separate counties.
     "Gallia," the ancient name of France, was given it in honor of the French settlers, who for nearly thirteen years had been located at Galliopolis, with its borders, and it was made a separate and distinct county April 30, 1803.  It originally included the lands comprising the present

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