|
Page 204
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
MONROE COUNTY is situated in the southeast part of
the State, and in that geological division designated as
Coal Measures. It is bounded on the north by
Belmont and Noble counties, on the east by the Ohio river,
on the south of Washington county, and on the west by Noble
county, and lies between 32°
31' 52", and 39° 50' 3" north latitude, and on the fourth
degree of longitude west from Washington. The river
margin is about twenty-nine miles in length. In this
distance, according to the report of W. Miner Roberts,
United States Civil Engineer, the river falls about twenty
feet six and a half inches making an average of about eight
and a half inches to the mile. Most of the fall,
however, pertains to the ripples, which, in the aggregate,
fall about eighteen feet three and a third inches, while the
descent in the pools is about two feet three and a third
inches. There is a fraction over eight and a half
miles of ripples, and a fraction less than twenty and a half
miles of pools. The average pools. The average
fall in the the ripples is about two feet six and a half
inches, and that of the pools about one inch and an eighth.
INTRODUCTORY
HISTORY.
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 1607, 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 ive boatmen, set out on a
mission from Makinaw, at which place his countrymen had
established a post two years before, and passed thence down
the lake 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, 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 Canada.
After organizing another expedition, 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 distances, they passed their destined port,
and anchored at the entrance of Matagorda 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, Mar. 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 LaSalle'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 head
waters of the Ohio, by either 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 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 Pittsburgh now
stands. Washington was sent by the Governor of
Virginia, with a letter to the French commandant,
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 were 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 signal
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 Sargeant,
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
legislative 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 it first session in Cincinnati, Jan. 22, 1799; its
second session at Chillicothe, on the first Monday of
November, 1800, and its third session at Chillicothe, on the
first Monday of November, 1800, and its third session at
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, reaching 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 as a State.
Belmont county was organized Sept. 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 the constitutional convention, who met at Chillicothe,
Nov. 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 from which Monroe county was formed, were James
Caldwell and Elijah Woods, of Belmont
county, and Ephraim Cutler, Benjamin Ives Gilman, Rufus
Putnam, and John McIntire, of Washington county.
[Pg. 205]
The Territorial Government was ended by the
organization of the State Government Mar. 1, 1803, pursuant
to the provisions of the constitution framed at Chillicothe.
 |
