Some Things Belonging to the Settlement of the Valley of the Ohio

 

By William C. Howells

 

[Originally published by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in Transactions, New Series, No. 11 (1875)]

 

(Read before tke Society on the l9lh of May, 1875.)

 

WHEN I concluded to prepare this paper, I intended to make my subject, the settlement and growth of Ohio, using the early history of the Ohio Valley as a kind of background. But in sketching this background, I find the living figures, that belong to it, pressing themselves forward for expression, till they come into such prominence as to occupy enough of the foreground, to break up my plan. I have therefore adopted the freer way of making a running sketch of certain features and incidents common to the whole subject, that would not require an exact method of arrangement. I have in this way sought to present some outlines of life in the once new West as I have seen them or talked of them, with many of the old pioneers, whom I have met when I was coming upon the stage, and they were passing off; and thus using my own recollection and their story of their experiences I have been able to present traditions of the whole period at second hand, or relate remembered facts. As I have written wholly from memory, I do not pretend to great exactness of statement, though I vouch for what I give as coming within what the Lawyers express by "be the same more or less".

 

If you take up a map of North America, the striking feature that arrests the eye is the great water line dividing the continent from North East to South-West. Starting at the Island of Anticosti, you follow the St. Lawrence from its icy gulf, Southward to the point where it emerges from the bosom of Lake Ontario, and further on, to the second of these inland seas; when at an altitude of 800 feet above the South margin of Lake Erie, you see among the pine forests a river of no mean proportions, running in an opposite direction, to meet a sister stream and form by their junction, La Belle Rivière of the old Canadian Voyageurs. From this point the Ohio continues its South-west ward flow a thousand miles, to unite with the Father of Waters, and complete the seven hundred leagues to the tropic Gulf of Mexico, over which the adventurous Gauls had explored their way whose language has marked the nomenclature of the coasts; and whose colonies had planted civilization at each end of this stretch of a thousand leagues,

 

"From lands of snow to lands of sun."

 

When Louis XIV. saw on the North side of this line, a field for an empire, he wisely essayed to establish a cordon of military posts to mark and guard this boundary against his natural rival quietly settling the shores of the Atlantic. Prominent on this line he built Fort Du Quesne, at the head of the Ohio, above all points important as a key to the commerce that was destined to fill these rivers with its shipping or to turn a line of attack upon that contemplated empire. Here was a point that was most accessible to the rapidly growing colonies of Englishmen, who were projecting a tide of emigration over the Alleghenies, from a stock of population adapted to that wild country, and which was rapidly assuming a character peculiarly its own, and crystalizing into a nationality that was soon to exchange all idea of loyalty for independence, and which was in its own interest about to contend with European powers for an empire which it claimed by right of possession. And doubtless the volunteers who under Washington accompanied the imprudent Braddock in the attack on Fort Du Quesne were inspired with their own interest rather than any feeling of loyalty to the sovereign who claimed their allegiance. But in the turn of fortune the keys of French rule in the North East passed into English keeping, at the taking of Quebec; and this great line, with all its posts, lost its importance when it ceased to mark a boundary. With this change in affairs the people of the Atlantic coast were encouraged to emigrate and fill up the country which a short time before had been forbidden ground. And right well they accepted this invitation; for scarcely had Du Quesne become Fort Pitt, till the country between the mountains and the Ohio was alive with settlers.

 

The natural boundary, formed by the river, for a long time marked the division between these emigrants and the Indian natives; who from having been the allies of the French and enemies of the settlers as Englishmen, soon became allies of the English and enemies of the settlers as Americans. In this position the emigrants on the Western slope of the Alleghenies had scarcely taken their places till they were involved in a three-fold war—with the English, with the Indians and with the wilderness; for the emigration to this region had but fairly begun when the Revolution took place. But the great battle, that called forth their grandest heroism was with the "Forest Primeval". The toil and hardships of this warfare were incessant, and were shared by the entire people. Every hand was turned to labor; and neither age nor infancy rested. Steady work was only interrupted by the darkness of night or the quiet of the Sabbath. Success and peace came at last; but it was only after more than a generation had fallen in the strife.

 

The situation of this country and the emigration into it were peculiar. Though it was in one sense the extension of the frontier, it was also an expatriation; for the Allegheny range interposed so great a barrier between the old settlements and the new, that when the emigrants had once passed it, they were practically cut off from communication with their old homes. The journey would consume almost a month; while, unlike a voyage by sea, it was attended with great labor, without the means of transporting supplies. Therefore those who crossed this barrier did so empty handed and dependent upon the supplies their hands could produce in the new situation. Not even provisions for a season, could be transported; and the emigrant was compelled to subsist for months upon the game of the wilderness, till he could raise from the soil the precarious supply from his first year's crops; while with the same rifle that procured him meat, he was forced to guard his family from the savage that in turn hunted him.

 

The period I have now in view was that which immediately succeeded the English conquest of Canada, when the settlement of Western Pennsylvania and that part of Virginia that afterwards became West Virginia and Kentucky, was commenced, which continued forward near half a century, with scarcely any change beyond the increase of population and the general clearing and opening-up of the country. The manner of life during that period was exceedingly primative and simple, as respects physical comforts and conveniences; though the mental and intellectual state of the people was in advance of the material; for this population conducted the affairs of their domestic polity in a most respectable and orderly manner, instituting among themselves, schools, churches and courts of justice among their first public acts; while the later and wilder judicature of Judge Lynch, which marked the settlement of places farther West, was unknown to them. They were hardy, active and bright—ready for emergencies, but not lawless— and trained to maintain themselves in independence of all the world. The whole people were inured to labor; and the hive being almost without drones, they produced and accumulated a superabundance of the necessaries of life that amounted to wealth. With an almost uniform condition of society, they were free from the social rivalries that embitter older countries; and schooled to dispense with luxuries, their wants were limited to the real. From such a state of society would spring the very people best fitted to subdue the wilderness then covering the territory lying before them, in possession of the native savages, and to plant the civilization that now covers it with near twenty millions of people, the whole cultivated to a degree never dreamed of by the Grand Monarch, in the empire he had designed for it.

 

Until after the close of the war of Independence, Indians held the actual possession of the lands Northwest of the Ohio and East of the Mississippi. The Kings of Europe who acquired titles to lands that belonged to somebody else, by discovery, had not a very clear notion of what they had discovered; and when they came to divide up the spoils by metes and bounds, they were governed by one rule— that the greater contains the less—and set their boundaries as widely as possible. Thus to the French colonies, was assigned all the country Northwest of the St. Lawrence, the Ohio and the Mississippi. The Kings of England granted charters to the colonies on the Atlantic coast, all of which extended back to the Western or Pacific Ocean. These grants of course overlapped the territories claimed by France, and overlapped each other besides. The ownership thereof had to be settled before emigrants could enter upon them,—particularly as the Indians disputed all the colonial claims, and also held the possession. It was therefore not till the United States had achieved their Independence, that the territory most desirable for that purpose could be made available for settlement.

 

One of the first acts of the new government was to arrange terms with Indians for the territory in general, and with the States claiming particular parts of it, for the management (in trust for the people) of the lands not included within the defined limits of the States. In this transaction there was no territory included that was not clearly under United States control. The National boundary at that time was another thing from the present. The Canada line on the North and the Mississippi on the West, till it entered Louisana, whence the line passed Eastward along the- West line of Georgia on the Atlantic,—formed the frontier line of the States. So that the "Northwest Territory", lying between the Lakes, the Mississippi and the Ohio constituted all the lands then at the disposal of the Government.

 

Of this Northwest Territory the greater part was claimed by Virginia, whose colonial boundary was, by its charter, made the Pacific Ocean, and Connecticut to whom King Charles had given a like Western limit. If there was any left, New York was ready to claim that. In 1787, Congress entered into a convention with these States, when the " Ordinance of Eighty-Seven," as it has been called, was adopted. It was there stipulated that Congress should procure an extinguishment of the Indian title to the country and open it for settlement as speedily as possible.

 

The claim of Virginia to any part of this territory was compromised by ceding to Virginia the ownership of the lands lying North of the Ohio, and between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers and the Indian lands on the North. This district embraces about fourteen of the present counties of Ohio. The State of Virginia dedicated it to the payment of certain military obligations incurred by that State during the revolution; and from this it received the designation of the Virginia Military District. The Virginia land system, which had been extremely loose and uncertain, was applied to this District. The State, instead of surveying its lands into lots, and disposing of them under specified metes and bounds, issued warrants to settlers, who selected lands wherever they could find them, in the District, and made their own surveys. Under this vicious system, the land claims, all over this district interfered with each other, overlapped, doubled and took or all the conceivable inconveniences of a has hazzard location; and interminable lawsuits resulted from it which furnished practice and wealth for a most destructive crop of Lawyers, who preyed and fattened upon the mistakes and disputes about land titles. This district, as a matter of course was settled chiefly from Virginia. It embraces some of the most fertile land in the world. After seventy-five years of steady culture in Indian corn, much of this land now yields 100 bushels to the acre, without manure.

 

The State of Connecticut, which claimed to the Pacific Ocean, was willing to compromise her claim on receiving a fee simple title to the lands in the Northeast corner of the territory, bounded on the North by Lake Erie, East by the West line of Pennsylvania, South by the forty-first degree of North latitude, and West by a line striking the Lake near Sandusky Bay. This tract includes Cleveland and twelve counties of Ohio, and is popularly known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. This land, which is some of the best in the State, and nearly every acre of which is tillable, was sold out by the State of Connecticut, in townships, or as they call them towns, of five miles square, to individuals or companies, by whom they were surveyed into lots of 100 acres, or suitable quantities, and sold to settlers on private terms—often very easy. In this region of country, which is not hilly, every lot is laid out square, and the lines and roads all run North and South, or East and West; and all the houses are set accordingly, "square with the world". I think my information is correct, when I say that the proceeds of these lands went to constitute the Common School fund of Connecticut, and furnished her the means to set her brilliant example to the world of Free Common Schools. The dwellers in this Western Reserve, now pay taxes on these very lands, in support of their share of the Common Schools of Ohio. This part of the new State was of course settled from New England, and chiefly from Connecticut.

 

This outlying North-west Territory was prospectively laid out into five States, which are now the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and one now embracing parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. The Act of Congress by which the disposition of this territory was arranged, has been known as the Ordinance of 1787; and in the politics of the country has been important, as settling the principle of free labor, by a provision that forever, within this territory, there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment of crime. This principle, (contemplated in the establishment of the Republic, and though ardently desired by the Fathers, but prevented by the existence of slavery in some of the States), secured a degree of prosperity to the new country, that could not otherwise have attended it. The provision is said to be due to statesmen of Virginia, one of the States in after years to secede from the Union, because of the growth of this principle.

 

The Indian title to this region of country was extinguished as speedily as possible; and the lands were surveyed and brought into market as required. Thus the flood-gates that arrested the flow of emigration at the shores of the Ohio, were opened; and settlement took place as if by magic along the entire border.

 

The emigration across the Allegheny mountains had been attended with great labor and privation. The mountain range interposed a serious obstacle, that could only be passed at great expense making roads, on foot, with only pack horses for transportation of freight. One or two military expeditions had crossed the mountains, whose pioneers made temporary tracks for the transportation of stores, etc.,—as in the case of Braddock to Fort Du Quesne, and Lord Dunmore to the mouth of the Kanawha. But there had been no posts established, and these roads were only available to emigrants as mere way marks. And more than all, there were few inducements to settle on the rugged slopes of these mountains that descended to the very limit to which they could venture, except with the poorer farmers, who were farm laborers, or renters of the lands they had cultivated on the eastern side. This kind of people had no wheeled vehicles with which to use the roads—still less the means to keep them in repair. The old colonies did nothing to foster emigration at the first of the period of settlement; and soon after, as States in revolution, they had something else to do. So that "the young man who wanted to go west", took up his knapsack and gun and went over the hills and far away". He opened a clearing, built him a little cabin of logs, cultivated a patch of corn, gathered the crop, which he stored in the loft of his cabin, and returned to spend the winter, and finish courting his sweetheart, for an early start in the spring; when with one, or possibly two horses, on which was loaded, upon pack-saddles, his wordly-gear and bride's dower of a few household goods—very little ones— clothing and spinning wheel. Then casting back a farewell look from some mountain summit, over the old scenes, he and his partner on foot took up their line of march for a new home on which a Western sun shed rosy hues, that were only visible to courageous hope. The common method of transporting every thing over these mountains, in that day, was by means of pack-horses. Wagons, practically were never used; or if they were, the roads were in such a condition that the horses could carry their burdens better than they could haul them. The country was of that character, that after a certain range of settlement was reached, there was no land that could be cultivated till you crossed an intervening wilderness of several day's travel. It was, therefore, impossible to transport any thing but what the absolute necessity of the case made indispensable; and it became a rule to do without luxuries or conveniences, or any thing that could be dispensed with. Greatly needed articles could not to be had for love or money; and the latter was exceedingly scarce.

 

But a few years sufficed for these settlements to fill up, and to open and keep open communication with the older parts of the country. At the same time they cultivated mechanic arts and manufactures, so as to supply many of their wants at home. Iron and salt, as prime necessaries, were packed on horses, from the East of the mountains, within the memory of men whom I have known. But as iron and salt were made in the new country as soon as ore and springs were discovered, the transportation of them on horseback was discontinued at an early day. Other manufactures and improvements followed, till by the time the North Western Territory was opened these settlements had become a base of supplies for the new; from which the tide set afresh with a stronger flow than ever.

 

The whole country between the mountains and the Ohio, though very hilly and broken, was fertile and susceptible of easy improvement. It abounded in timber; and salt springs and iron ore were accessible at convenient distances. The great bulk of the population being engaged in farming, provisions were produced in so great a superabundance, that the new-comers, after a very few years, found the necessaries and comforts of life ready to their hands, at reasonable prices. Before any settlements were made west of the river, mills had been built in every desired locality; and the shipment of flour by means of flat-boats, floated to the French and Spanish colonies, near and at New Orleans, had grown into a trade of real importance; and with the increasing growth of grain, the manufacture of whiskey for the same markets, or for re-shipment at New Orleans, had attained such importance, that the inhabitants were able to resist successfully an excise upon distilled liquors, and force the Government to a compromise, in the famous Whiskey Bebellion. There was an outlet for this country, down the river to the ocean and foreign countries, by which their surplus was sent to market, in arks and various kinds of floating water craft, that could not return against the current; and though produce could be shipped away, merchandize could not be brought in, except by the tedious process of packing and wagons. As the roads were improved, transportation and travel increased, until lines of stage coaches and constant relays of wagons were steadily engaged in the trade. This transportation employed a large amount of the means of the growing country, until the introduction of steam navigation and the canals and railways perfected the means of communication. But as long as wagon transportation continued, commerce was burdened with freights that at first cost near ten dollars a hundred pounds, and never fell below two. The wagons and the teams of five or six horses each, employed in this trade when it was in its glory, would now surprise the most credulous. Their trips were voyages; and there was a time when these teams were rarely out of sight of each other, on the entire road from Baltimore or Philadelphia to the Ohio River, a distance of near four hundred miles, over which the journey occupied about three weeks, or the time of a ship across the Atlantic.

 

Till 1787, white men had crossed the Ohio only as adventurers and trespassers upon the Indian territory; but now the right to go there was secured; and they went in earnest. In all these settlements there was one idea that governed every adventure—that of a man's securing a homestead farm, the fee simple title to which should be his own. Not a trace of fudalism remained with this people; and each man made it a point to own a piece of land and occupy it as he pleased. Congress met this idea by surveying the land into sections of one square mile, 640 acres, and townships of six miles square—and put it on the market at low prices—at first two dollars an acre. But there were men who wanted farms and could not buy a section, at that price; and it was found necessary to offer it in quarter sections, in payments of one, two and three years. And here hangs many a tale of suffering—of emigrants who paid their last dollar on the first installment, and failing to make the others, off the land, forfeited their labor, or saw the home around which their affections began to cluster, sold over their heads, to some rapacious speculator; who, perhaps, mercifully rented it to them, till growing sons could relieve them, or till the misfortunes that lurked in the many little distilleries of the country, overwhelmed them. Congress, for the relief of this class, adopted the plan of taking back half the quantity of land; and eighty acres became a purchasable quantity. But in 1820 the lands were offered for sale at a dollar and a quarter an acre in cash only, and in 80 acres or more. This was a real relief; but it fell short of the beneficent system of Upper Canada, where the emigrant was furnished a homestead of 100 acres and stores for a year, on condition that he would occupy it. The American policy in this respect was extremely niggardly and retarded settlement; while it, worked into the hands of moneyed speculators, greatly to the disadvantage of poor emigrants. And this policy was pursued long after it was apparent that the lands yielded no real revenue by sales. After more that fifty years and great effort on the part of a few far seeing men, the free homestead policy was adopted; but it was only when the lands were almost beyond reach.

 

Several Companies had acquired lands in what is now Ohio, which they sold on tolerably easy-terms, and as it was their interest, they encouraged emigrants in various ways. The Connecticut lands of the Western Reserve were sold on easy terms to settlers. To the Ohio Company, made up in New England, of which the famous Gen. Israel Putnam of wolf hunting memory, was a member, Congress sold a tract lying on the Ohio, between the Muskingum and Scioto Rivers, and joining the Virginia Military district.

 

On the seventh day of April, 1788, Gen. Putnam and others of his company landed with a colony of emigrants from Connecticut, at the mouth of the Muskingum river, where they built a block-house, cleared up a considerable quantity of land and laid out the town of Marietta, as their first summer's work. This was the first permanent settlement in Ohio.

 

Between the Great and Little Miami Rivers, and extending Northward to the Indian Reservations—the finest tract of land in the Miami Valley, of over three hundred thousand acres, was purchased by three enterprizing citizens of New Jersey, Jonathan Dayton, Israel Ludlow and John Cleve Symmes. By their means a large colony of emigrants from New Jersey came on and settled near the mouth of the Little Miami, at a place which they called Columbia, in the summer of 1788. At this point where the lands were unusually fertile, about ten miles above Cincinnati, the settlers made their head quarters for two or three years; and at this place the first house of worship in the State, was built by the Baptists. Fort Washington, situated where Cincinnati now stands, was occupied by a small garrison. This was also a central military depot; and here were organized the expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne against the Indians—the first disastrous, and the second successful, resulting in the settlement of terms of a peace that was not disturbed until the war with England of 1812-14. This fertile country was speedily filled with emigrants; and has ever since kept the lead in wealth and population. Indeed the ten or twelve counties lying in the Southwest corner of Ohio, covering a space of about sixty miles square, probably contain a greater population at this time, than any equal extent of territory in America. In 1789 a city was laid out at Fort Washington, which was called Cincinnati in honor of the patriotic order of that name. At the close of the war of Independence, many of the retiring officers of the army and their friends instituted an order somewhat resembling Knighthood, known as the Order of the Cincinnati—a patriotic fraternity, which, however well intended, excited a fear that it would lead to aristocratic distinctions; on which account it was prohibited by Congress from receiving any new members, after a given date, and left to expire. And thus the city received its name.

 

While the Ohio Company was preparing to bring its lands into market, some scamps bargained for part of the purchase, at its Southwest corner; and without securing it by any payment, they sent an agent to Paris to sell lands, which they misrepresented by false descriptions of the country and the usual tricks of such speculators. They induced many to purchase of these lands; and a colony embarked for this, the most inhospitable wilderness in the whole tract; where the margins of the streams were narrow and the hills rugged and sterile. This colony was made up of denizens of that gay city, who were glad to fly from the Reign of Terror then approaching, and invest their little means in an enterprize, and community such as only enthusiastic Frenchmen could conceive of. These unfortunate emigrants arrived on the Ohio, in 1790 or 91—late in the season, at a point four miles below the mouth of the Kanawha, over 100 miles below Marietta and 200 above Cincinnati—with no intervening settlements. The name of their town Gallipolis, and the county of Gallia commemorate their adventure. These misguided people were made up from tradesmen, shopkeepers, jewellers, musicians, hair-dressers, and just such callings as belong only to a great city—many of them cultivated, and all polished to the style of Paris; and they were in sooth a très-joli company. They employed men from among the pioneers to build log houses for them; who also hunted for them in the forest, and supplied them meat as well as shelter, for the first winter. Though game was plenty in the wild woods,, it required skill to kill it; and so it was with the use of the ax, in the forest. These poor Frenchmen could neither hunt nor chop. Whilst their money lasted they had a good time of it. Their log houses were built in such proximity as allowed of easy communication; and they spent the winter right merily, with music, theatricals, and such scenes of Paris life as they could improvise. But when the spring came, and with it opened the battle with the trees and bush of the wilderness, they utterly failed; and starvation overtook them as soon as their little means were absorbed. Their plight was a most pitiable one; for they were as helpless as so many children in that rugged wilderness. The Ohio Company, on whose lauds they were innocent trespassers, interested themselves for their relief; paid them for their improvements and helped them to reach such points on the Atlantic, as they desired. Congress made them a grant of land, the sale of which yielded them further relief. Except two or three families they were all dispersed before this century began. The names of Manager, Le Clerq and Bureau remain at Gallipolis to designate the few descendants of this unfortunate colony, who are to be found there. Some of the fanciful writers of early times attempted to weave a little romance out of the stories of this adventure, but they never succeeded in even a good love tale.

 

A very few years sufficed to fill the entire south side of the State of Ohio. The promise of rich lands at low prices; the hope of acquiring wealth, or, at least, a home; the general love of adventure; and the want of room that so afflicts Americans, all conspired to accelerate the flow of emigration till it filled the laud like the encampment of an army. This country filled up so rapidly, that in 1800 the population was 45,000; while in 1810 it had grown to 231,000. In 1802, the State was organized with a population of a hundred thousand. The mass of population was necessarily near the Ohio and the navigable streams entering into it; because, although it could not be reached from the Eastern States by water, emigrants, after crossing the mountains, availed themselves of water conveyance from the points where they could readily reach it, on the Mononghela, Allegheny and Upper Ohio; and once embarked upon the river, it was only a question of a few days' time and slight expense, whether they landed at the East or West boundary of the State. From the shore of the river inward, the settlement extended to the line of Indian occupation in a few years; and farmers in Ohio were able to produce full supplies for immigrants and export large quantities of flour, corn, pork and whiskey, along with their Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky neighbors.

 

Previous to steamboat navigation of the Western rivers, there grew up an extensive trade, down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. This trade was carried on in boats of every conceivable size and manner of construction. The prevailing style, however, was the "Broadhorn" Flatboat. This kind of craft was simply made and had great carrying capacity. It was made by whip-sawing the trunk of a large tree into two immense planks, according to the size of the tree, some of these planks being as much as seventy or eighty feet long, and from 24 to 30 inches wide, by 8 or 10 of thickness. These formed the gunwhales of the boat, which was made of the same width from bow to stern. They were hewed off at the ends so as to give the boat a slight rake fore and aft, while the bottom was otherwise flat These two great gunwhales were framed together at each end, and by cross ties on which were placed stringers at a convenient distance apart. This frame presented the bottom of the boat upward; and in that condition the planking was done by laying the planks like a floor, the planks being of uniform thickness and width. The gunwhales having been rabbeted to receive the ends of the planks, the planking was fastened at the ends and on the stringers, with wooden pins, driven and wedged into auger holes. The whole was calked with flax-tow, and pitched; when the boat was turned over and launched. Then the gunwhales and end pieces were morticed for stanchions, which were set all round to which siding of suitable boards was fastened, and calked to a proper height. Above that lighter boards were used for siding and roof, the roof being a gentle arch from side to side, and covering all but the front end for a few feet, which was left for entrance. The interior of a large boat of this kind would be a plain box, seventy feet long, twelve wide and six or seven deep. Into such a boat as this a large amount of freight could be stowed, and leave accommodations for the crew or a number of passengers, who, however, did not each expect separate state-rooms. A fire-place with a wooden chimney, and lined with flat stones, would be fixed near the bow, which decided the location of the cabin. Scarcely ever one of these boats descended the river without a family or two as passengers; who put up with accommodations that would sorely puzzle ladies of this day. Taking this boat as a model, you have, with variations of size and purpose, the forms of nearly all the craft for navigating the river downward. Sometimes a family of means would build a boat for themselves, and transport, horses, a cow or two, the stock of poultry for the new place, supply of provisions and various comforts and conveniences.

 

It was a common practice for a trader to fit out such boats, stock them with an assortment of merchandize suited to the country trade, and make a coasting venture till his stock was sold out or ex changed for produce of the country; which he would sell at the end of his voyage, or ship it round to the Eastern cities. Or a mechanic of some kind, would open a shop on a boat, and ply his trade for customers, or traffic to the best advantage. The great scarcity of money made it an object with the people along the shores to deal with these river traders, as they always took produce of the country in pay. These trading boats became an institution that lasted on till long after steamboats had taken the carrying trade. There was something very fascinating about them, that the people seemed to cling to; while the novelty of a voyage and all connected with it must have had a charm for all concerned. The traders would usually remain long enough and repeat their visits in successive years, to become acquainted at the landings. They were decidedly popular; and if the proprietor of a boat "drew a good bow", as was often the case, he was a power in the land; for besides the entertainment of the idlers and those who shared his private supply of old whiskey, he was often a dependence at parties and frolics, for the music necessary to the indispensible dance. These boats almost invariably carried a tin horn, on which some one on board could announce their coming, or produce at night or in a fog, a kind of weird music, embracing but few notes on a minor key, which woke echoes from the shores and rustic sentiment in many a heart. I need not apologize here for quoting from a poet of Kentucky, who, in the midst of military and civic distinction, did not forget to paint this custom in colors most attractive. I cannot better present the effect of this rude music and its surroundings than in these lines by Gen. Wm. 0. Butler, a veteran officer of the Battle of the Thames, and of the Mexican War, and afterwards a candidate for the Vice-Presidency:

 

O, Boatman! wind that born again,

For never did the listening air

Upon its lambent bosom bear

So soft, so wild, so sweet a strain!

What though thy notes are sad and few,

By every simple boatman blown,

Yet is each pulse to Nature true,

And melody in every tone.

How oft in boyhood's joyous day,

Unmindful of the lapse of hours,

I've loitered on my homeward way,

By wild Ohio' bank of flowers;

While some lone boatman from the deck,

Poured his soft numbers to that tide,

As if to charm from storm and wreck,

The boat where all his fortunes ride!

Enchanted echo bore its sound,

In whispers soft and softer still,

From hill to plain, from plain to hill.

Till e'en the thoughtles frolic boy

Bend, o'er the flood with eager ear.

To catch the sounds, far off yet dear.

 

These boats were floated to their destination like rafts, and like rafts they were guided by long sweeping oars, rigged on the deck. In high water it was easy enough to direct these vessels; but as the waters receded, it required skill to manage them and keep them clear of islands and shoals. The Ohio is a variable stream—at times so shallow that you may wade it in places, at times 50 or 60 feet deep. The flatboating and the rafting, in which there came to be an extensive trade, was chiefly done in the spring and fall. From March 1st to July, there was plenty of water. This was succeeded by three months of dry weather and low water; after which there was a "fall lise", lasting two months or so. Altogether the navigation was good about half the year; and, in this respect, the Ohio is no better than the St. Lawrence.

 

Besides the flatboats, there were in use, barges, propelled by oars, which were copied from the batteaux of the French boatmen of the Lower Mississippi. Occasionally these made a voyage up the river, painfully rowed against the stream. But they were mostly built above, freighted and rowed down to the French settlements and sold out. For the up-stream navigation, the main dependence was what they called Keel Boats. They were batteaux, sharp at bow and stern, of light draft and narrow beam. They were propelled down stream by sweeps or oars. Up the streams they were propelled by pushing, with socket setting poles— the men setting their poles on the bottom, and facing the stern, pushing from stem to stern, walking on cleeted running boards. They usually carried a sail and used it when the wind was fair. As the river, rarely exceeded a quarter of a mile in width, they could only sail square before the wind. This manner of boating was very laborious, and could not be practiced except in low water, when the bottom could be reached, and when the swift water was only encountered in places. The current of the Ohio, at a medium stage, is about four miles an hour; but in the summer it is much less, except at the ripples or rapids. Laborious as was the keel-boat navigation, it was continued long after steamboats had come into general use, as the only means of low water navigation. The men who worked on these keel-boats became a distinct class, celebrated along the length of the river, for tough endurance of fatigue and hardships, and a degree of wickedness of manner and morals that was without precedent or rival, even in the ideal Coureurs du Bois of Canada. But I have come to believe, after an acquaintance personally with many of these men, that their popular reputation was unjust and untrue. In after years these boatmen were of great value to the country, as pilots for steamboats.

 

The vast Pine Forests of the Allegheny Valley, in Western New York and Pennsylvania, were the source of a very extensive lumber trade, which was kept up by means of rafting, over the longest range of rafting, perhaps in the world; for rafts formed at Olean Point, three hundred miles above Pittsburgh, were often floated to New Orleans. The system of rivers of the Mississippi Valley favored, by their gentle flow, this manner of transportation, with more than usual safety. For the transportation of an emigrant family, or half a dozen of them, there was nothing to compare with the rafts of sawed lumber on the Ohio; where they floated their hundred miles a day, and encountered neither rapids nor storms; and a farmer could embark upon them his entire outfit. I have seen one of these rafts of an English acre in extent, on which was built a comfortable hut, and even a shed for horses, wagon, cattle, poultry and other stock; while children played at will, and the washing hung upon the lines, as in a well settled home—but ah! how like the voyage of life, that closes before we begin to live.

 

Ship building was one of the first enterprises of the West; and sea-going vessels were built at Pittsburgh, Marietta, and Cincinnati, about the beginning of this century, some of which were freighted with flour and pork and cleared for foreign ports. One of these took out her papers at Marietta, to have the very existence of her port of clearance questioned at the end of her voyage in Italy. Unrigged ships were frequently floated out to New Orleans, after we got possession of that port.

 

Steamboats were the craft naturally suited to these rivers; and in 1811, the first one was built at Brownsville, sixty miles above Pittsburgh, on the Mononghela. A few others were built soon after; but it was full fifteen years from that time before they came into such general use, as to make any sensible dimunition in flat and keel-boat navigation. Indeed it was not till a comparatively late period that they took possession of the trade. In building their first steamboats they followed the models of ships, making the holds deep. This of course made them useless in low water and harder to propel against the current. They also built them with low pressure engines and machinery that was too heavy; and thus the carrying capacity was reduced. Then to attain speed, they made them sharp and narrow; but shortly after, the builders of steamboats discovered that they would run on the water faster than in it; and then the models were made flat and broad, till they got a boat capable of carrying 1000 tons, when drawing only 4 feet, and only 2 ½ feet light. Then with two high pressure engines, one to each wheel, they could make unprecedented speed; and boats thus built afforded travelling and freight accommodations equal to any in the world. Indeed they were marvels of splendor in their appointments; and more sumptuous fare was not to be found at any public taules; while the prices of passages, including the meals, seldom exceeded hotel rates. About 25 years ago, daily lines of these boats plied between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, making the 465 miles against the stream in 48 hours. The Chief improvement, in point of utility, made in the structure of river steamboats, was placing the wheel at the stern, entirely behind the hulk, with paddles the full length of the beam, operated by double engines and quartering cranks. This had the advantage of giving the wheel the eddy water of the boat to the boat of the after-draft. By this means very rapid currents and shallow water could be navigated, as could not be done otherwise. But this, after the competition of railways had taken away all passenger travel, reduced the steamboat to the veriest beast of burden ; and on these rivers where once the proud steamer "walked the waters like a thing of life," waking the echoes of the hills with her sterterous voice, and arresting every eye with her splendor, now meekly plods the humble, unpretensious tow-boat driving before her a raft of coal or freight barges, begrimed with the smoke of coal, and condemned to the task of towing raft after raft, down the river and returning the empty barges, in the most plodding manner conceivable.

 

The great difficulty that lay in the way of the settlers of this country was the battle with the forest. Immense trees covered nearly all the land;—certainly all of what was first opened,—and though this timber was convenient for building their houses and barns, and making rails for their fences, it had to be cleared from the ground to make way for culture. First, when upon the ground, a house was made of logs and covered with thin boards, riven out of oak blocks, and next floored with slabs of split oak. Then came the clearing, which was done by grubbing out the bushes—and cutting off the smaller trees, which, with the brush were immediately burned. Then the trees were deadened, by chopping a girdle of notches through the bark. The ground was then ready to be plowed, as well as the rough state of it would allow, and planted with Indian corn, potatoes and pumpkins. As the trees never put out leaves after the girdling, they did not affect the crops with shade. In the fall the corn was gathered and, wheat sown where it stood. The next year more land was cleared and treated in like manner. But as the cattle and pigs lived in the forest, and boarded themselves there the greater part of the year, substantial fences—the zig-zag rail fence—had to be built around each field; and this fencing cost nearly as much labor as the clearing. Had they not adopted the plan of deadening the trees, it would have been more than the poor emigrants could have compassed, to have cut the trees down and removed them from the ground. As it was, the trees stood till they dried up, and the branches dropped off and the trunks fell. The rubbish was cleared up and burned each spring till it was gone. In those places where the timber, like beech, elm and maple, could not be deadened, it was the custom to chop down all the trees, felling them one way; and after they had lain a year or two, set fire to the whole mass, burn it off, and work between the stumps, till they rotted, which soon took place with that kind of timber. Throughout the whole of the middle-aged emigrant's life there was a steady fight with the forest. At times this was hard and fierce. If a man was poor, and had no sons to help him, he had, as we used to say, "a hard row to hoe". But I have many a time seen a man and his wife and daughters gathering and burning brush and building fence on a spring clearing, with far better spirits than our ladies often do their spring shopping.

 

On this subject of clearing the ground, people who have not been acquainted with the process, have little idea of the necessary slovenliness of it. Ever since I can remember, I have heard farmers from old settled countries, particularly Englishmen, grumble about the stumps and dead trees; and recently I saw an article in an Upper Canada paper, lauding an invention for pulling out trees by the roots, as a blessing to emigrants, in clearing the land. The use of such a machine would be a curse. If I wanted to clear a farm, I wouldn't have the trees pulled out that way for me for nothing. Fancy the labor of getting rid of all this green timber, and filling up and smoothing over the holes left from the trees! I hope the Emigration Societies wont inflict such a contrivance upon the poor men coming over to people the new lands of Ontario. When you clear land for a farm, the true policy is to do it with the least labor possible, and depend upon the aid of burning and rotting to get rid of the timber.

 

The families of these emigrants were usually large, and of good physique, coming as they did from the hardiest class of society; and they were neither afraid nor ashamed to work. I remember a case. Matthew Kenedy, a Scotchman, who stood six feet in his stockings, had one daughter and nine sons, most of whom stood six feet, but without stockings a good deal of the time, settled on a "quarter section"; (160 acres) and on the next "quarter", John Pierce, a Marylander, took up his abode. He had one son and nine daughters; and they were the tallest family of girls I ever knew, reaching six feet, nearly every one of them. The tall boys helped their father to clear up the farm; and the tall girls helped their father with the same work on his place, besides dressing flax, carding wool by hand, spinning and weaving for themselves and neighbors. Both families got to be well off; and as the most natural thing in the world, some of the Kenedy boys married some of the Pierce girls. I lost sight of these families more than forty years ago; but I will warrant the finding of some of their descendants in Illinois, Iowa, or further West.

 

The manner of life among these people was simple, and their habits socially, as well as their political notions, were exceedingly democratic. From necessity they supplied themselves with clothing of all the coarser kinds; and unless a family made more than usual social pretensions, they never indulged in "store clothes". It was the custom of each farmer to clear a small patch every year for flax, which grew best on the virgin soil. From this he would obtain all the flax fibre that his family could work up. It was prepared in winter time, and made nearly ready for spinning, by the men and boys; but the women spun and wove it. It was spun— as much of their wool also was—upon the small treadle wheel, known all over Europe; and the weaving was done on a loom, of very simple construction, with the shuttle thrown by hand. The linen thus made, furnished comfortable shirting, sheeting and outer garments; and mixed in weaving, with a filling of wool, it made good linsey, which was the staple wear of women and children. Wool was worked into coarse cloth of a quality that was substantial and comfortable, but whose texture was properly supposed to be good enough for the men.

 

Their furniture was also plain, and very little of it sufficed to furnish the cabins, or the two story, shingle-roofed houses that succeeded tbem. They had nothing in this way to look at; all was used, and used every day; and this by civilized and pretty fairly cultivated people—among whom there was sentiment, taste and intelligence. 1 have known many respectable families, housed for years in a log cabin, where they had but one room below and a loft overhead, which they reached by a ladder; and in these quarters the neighbor was always welcome, night or day. From this home the children went to school dafly, and the family went to preaching on Sunday, to a house of the same style of architecture. You may wonder how a family preserved delicacy of manner, when thus fed and lodged. This condition of things was not of their own choosing, ard they adapted themselves to it from necessity. The loft was used for the sleeping apartment of the boys and ycung men; and if in the general room it was necessary, sheets were hung about the beds; and when some went to bed others looked into the fire or went out of doors. If one of the girls had a lover, they sat by the fire and talked matters over without a candle—aptly called sparking— provided they had not said all they wanted to say on the way home from the singing or spelling school. Hospitality was of the freest kind; and was only limited by the want of wherewith to be hospitable. With this was equality and fraternity, all associated on a common level, and were frequent in their meetings. The intervening distance between neighbors was made little of; and intimacy existed between persons living miles apart. This social equality resulted doubtless from the fact that these adventurers were mostly from the same walks of life, rendered gentle and neighborly by privations and hardships, the mass seasoned by the presence of a few who, in reduced condition, retaining their refinement of manner, entered the lists of labor with their hardier neighbors.

 

It was a very constant practice with these people to unite their labor for various purposes, and thereby not only lighten the labor by united strength, but to make it the occasion of social enjoyment, and supply the natural want of fêtes and public entertainments, almost wholly unknown. If a house or a barn was to be raised, there was a gathering of the forces, such as the Yankees call a bee, or as the Pennsylvanians termed a frolic. Indeed these forties, as they were always called along the Ohio, were made on almost any occasion, that would serve as an excuse for one—to help a neighbor to husk his corn, to split a lot of fence rails, to roll the logs together in a clearing, to get in the winter wood for a widow or invalid, or for the school house, which was also utilized as a church for all denominations; or any kind of job where men could work together. Adjunct to this work there was sure to be a frolic planned for the women and girls in doors, where they would spin, sew, or quilt. Both parties worked hard all day, very quietly taking a lunch at mid-day, (the men sustained meanwhile, as was too often the case, from the contents of a brown jug;) but at right there was a grand supper, where the viands were plain, but of excellent quality, in which turkeys and pumpkins pies did duty in their best style. In these houses there was no excess of room, but they managed. In the day time the men were out, and the women filled the available space. Matronly neighbors came and helped, and ex-necessitate, brought their babies with them; and you might have seen a couple of beds spread over with the slumbering "hopes" of many houses, quietly sleeping away their last draft upon material affection. The supper over, the matrons and more sedate heads of families gone home, the largest room was "cleared for action"; and if the religious scruples of the family allowed it, the man of the neighborhood who "had a fiddle" was on hand; and the short hours saw them making the most of it, if they did not literally

 

“ Dance all night, till broad daylight.

And go home with the girls in the morning.”

 

If dancing was forbidden, as was sometimes the case, they played plays with forfeits, where the penalty was paid in kisses,—a currency that was always at par;—and these plays often alternated with the dp nee. Fifty years ago, I remember that, among these plays,- they had one in which they sung:

 

" We're marching down to old Quebec,

Where the drums are loudly beating."

 

"How these youngsters, a thousand miles away had got this idea of drums beating at Quebec, I don't know. The play wound up, as I do know, by many a pretty girl being kissed, with no want of emphasis.

 

The early emigrants to Ohio were nearly all Americans— that is, natives of the country, of the first or second generation—children of emigrants from England, Ireland or Scotland. The prevailing nationality was that compound from the North of Ireland, well called Scotch Irish. They were Scotchmen as to descent, religion and political traditions, and the general intelligence and clear-headedness of the race; but in free, uncanny manner of talking and acting, quick wit, and readiness for any occasion, they were Irishmen, tempered with American social contact. The Scotch feature in this compound, I think governed it, as it evidently had governed the forming of society in the middle Eastern States.

 

The prevailing religious belief was, therefore, Presbyterian, or, at least, Protestant dissenters. When the settlements were sparse, they met together for worship without regard to sects. As they increased they divided according to their old associations or new circumstances. There was great freedom of opinion among them; and they were greatly given to the discussion of theological questions—a fondness for which they had doubtless inherited from their Scotch ancestry. Though but a portion of these people were attached to any of the sects of the Church, there prevailed among them a reverence for religious subjects, that infused itself into their organic and statutory laws, as well as public opinion.

 

For many years after the settlement began, their manufactures were confined to the household manufacture of clothing for families and a few mechanic arts—except the smelting, forging and casting of iron. Of this latter the product barely sufficed to meet the necessities of the settlements. The mineral resources of the country may be said to have been almost wholly undeveloped and almost unknown. The country was underlaid with immense beds of the finest coal in the world, coal that to-day is used in smelting iron without coaking; and in close proximity to this, iron ore and limestone. Yet for many years the dependence for smelting iron was charcoal of wood ; and for making glass, kiln-dried wood was the common article. But the application of coal to these manufactures opened a new era in that department; and the production of iron and glass in various forms soon made Pittsburgh and its vicinity the center of an immense trade in these and all the dependant manufactures. The vast extent and continuity of the coal beds was not understood till a comparatively late period; but with the advance of trade and opening of a market, abundant supplies were found. As with all communities accustomed to wood as fuel lor domestic use, there was a strong prejudice against the bituminous coal of this region. But then wood was abundant, until the country was cleared up; when the comforts of coal fires brought them into favor.

 

At an early period, small potteries for making red earthen and stone ware, were set up in almost every village; and this Important article was not only cheaply supplied; but when the war with England caused great scarcity of Delft and Porcelain, these potters managed to supply the thrifty housewives of the West, with very presentable table ware, including neatly made cups and saucers, plates, etc., and porringers and bowls wherefrom the juvenile population eat theijr mush and milk. Glass and iron, on account of the more costly preparations and capital required, were made at only few places in greater quantities. Every village had its tin-plate worker and copper-smith, its nailer, who made the nails in use, either wrought or cut, by hand and was the living verification of "busy as a nailer"; a blacksmith or two; a hatter who made the hats to order, of the furs brought to him by his customers; and shoe-makers and tailors according to demand. As the country filled up, these increased; and machinery came into use to assist the production.

 

The manufacture of wool and flax into various fabrics for clothing and domestic use, was as widely spread as the population; for in every family there was more or less of it done. This manufacture constituted a large part of the employment of the women in the country; and the greater part of the year the grown up women were engaged in carding, spinning and weaving. Young women who are now hired to perform the labor of the kitchen and house generally, were then hired to spin, and were often employed steadily in a farmer's family, forming a part of the domestic circle and occupying a like social position with the daughters, who also worked their share. The luxuries of later times not having wrought out the present social distinctions. This labor was lightened by the introduction of carding and spinning machinery, which came into general use by degrees. Just before the war with England (1812), the manufacture of woolen goods by machinery in mills, was the great ambition of the statesmen who were interested in the political economy of the country. English workmen and machinery were employed in this enterprise; and fine breeds of sheep were imported from Spain, with a view of supplying the nation with home made woolens equal to the English. The new country partook of this spirit of enterprise; and several factories were established with varied success. The most extensive of these mills went into operation about 1813, at Steubenville, 70 miles below Pittsburgh on the Ohio, where over $500,000 capital was employed, and the finest qualities of broadcloth then in the market were produced.

 

The abundant production of grain in this new region, kept the market for agricultural products dull, and grain was astonishingly plenty and cheap. I have known wheat to sell readily for 25 cents a bushel, Indian corn for 18, and oats for 12 ½ cents; and even on the banks of the Ohio, with its advantages of navigation, I have seen the best flour selling for $1.00 per cwt. To relieve this plethora, mills were built on every stream, till the land was full of them, producing flour of rare quality, for export, down the river by flatboats; and millers thought they did well to realize $2.50 a barrel. This only disposed of the wheat. Indian corn was fed to hogs, and pork was shipped away with the flour; but the great outlet for the corn and rye was to make it into whiskey or highwines, which were conveniently shipped away. But from this last resource grew up a crop of small distilleries that were planted on every spring of water. These little concerns would produce a few barrels of whiskey each, besides what was sold in the neighborhood, and from which grew the most of the fights, quarrels, misery and unhappiness that beset the unthrift of the country.

 

These enterprizes would have extended even more rapidly than they did, but for the direction of nearly all effort to the opening and improvement of the lands. This indeed was an absorbing business. Every man was intent upon acquiring the right to a piece of land, or improving what he had. The labor of clearing and improving the lands was thus diverted from the production of grain, etc., and this somewhat relieved the market. In the war of 1812, the army supplies for the West were plentifully produced in the country—as the rations then were bread, meat and whisky.

 

By the commencement of this century the country west of the Alleghenies was nearly independent in its productions and manufactures. It was in a condition to do almost without foreign products, having within itself an unlimited supply of provisions of sustenance, including sugar, which was produced from the maple, of superior quality to that of more Northern latitudes; while the manufactures embraced Cloths of Linen, Wool and mixed; Leather, and its products; Glass; Iron, cast and wrought; Coarse Cutlery; Crockery; Paper, etc. In all the larger towns, Printing Offices and Newspapers were established. Before 1812 there were within the present state of Ohio alone 12 or 15 papers of very considerable circulation and influence.

 

When the North-west Territory was organized, Congress made provision for education, by the devotion of certain tracts of land to its support. In each of the proposed States, certain townships, containing 36 square miles of land, were set aside for Universities or Colleges; and in each of the surveyed townships, the section or square mile numbered 16, was devoted to the support of common schools, or, at least, to assist in a school fund. In Ohio were two University townshitps. These were taken charge of by the State Government; and on one, situated about 25 miles from Cincinnati, the town of Oxford was laid out, and Miami University established in 1809. The other is situated in Athens county, and embraces the shire town; where Ohio University was established. The lands of either of these townships, irrespective of improvements, are now worth a million of dollars; and Athens, which at first was deemed inferior to Oxford, by the discovery of its mineral wealth, is known to be the most valuable. But in the new State of the country, the value of the land only was regarded; and since the title to this land could not be readily alienated from its original purpose, it was disposed of by leases, encumbered with the expense of clearing the land, and at so low a rental that within a few years the feeholders of the neighborhood paid a tax to the State, exceeding the rents on these lands, that were exempt from a State tax. The result of this was that the lands, having been leased at too early a period, they yielded little or no endowment; and both institutions have maintained a very sickly existence. Miami has been the most successful of the two, and has turned out some men of distinction. [1] But in addition to the then poor endowment, these schools had to contend with a fierce competition from a host of rival institutions. As the State was growing into consequence, the people went College-mad; and every rising town that failed to be a county-seat, sought to become a seat of learning; and the Legislature granted charters of incorporation to Colleges and Academies, for the asking, till they became so numerous that few could maintain an existence except on paper.. It was not to be expected that classical schools could be well supported in so new a country; and yet this region has made itself respectable in the superior and widely extended education of its rising generations. With the democratic habits of the people, there was an equality in the degree of literary culture that had its advantages; and the numerous competing small colleges, no doubt, contributed their share to this state of learning, which, if not profound, covered an extended surface, and embraced great numbers. And who is to pronounce this an evil ? There seem to be good reasons why it is better that a large proportion of the people should be equally advanced to a fair grade of culture, where they can mutually enjoy each other's improvement, than that a few should be advanced to a point where they must be grandly alone. I suspect that it will be found in time, that the genius of a Democratic Government is not the most kindly hand-maid of the highest grades of schools, where the few are advanced beyond the reach of the many. Within the limits of Ohio there may be a hundred Colleges and Academies, of which very few are self-sustaining. Of colleges, perhaps Oberlin comes the nearest to that condition; which it has reached by adopting the most economical means, and accommodating students in every possible manner.

 

Up to 1825, the Common School Education of the youth of all the Ohio Valley was achieved by private effort. All the schools were maintained by the voluntary subscriptions of Parents and Guardians, who in this way contracted with Teachers, to conduct neighborhood schools, when for a stated compensation per pupil—often paid in farm produce— the teacher agreed to instruct the youth in certain branches, rarely beyond the three Rs—Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Sometimes Grammar and Mathematics were added, as specialties. The school-houses were built by private contributions with occasional assistance from small funds provided by Congress, the principal one of which was the devotion of one section in a township of the Lands Congress had for sale. These sections were usually leased, for a rent that was little more than the tax on other lands. And this advantage only applied to the New States. But under this system the youth were pretty well educated. At the schools there was nothing taught but letters—no catechism or anything of that kind—all that being taught in the families or at special schools. In 1825, the Ohio Legislature, copying Connecticut and other New England States, passed an act, providing for the support of common schools by a public tax, the benefit of which should be free to all the youth of the State, without any distinction as to condition—inaugurating the principle, that the property of the State should be made to educate the children of the State, as a maxim of settled policy. When this system was commenced, it was found that the entire cost of tuition could not at once be provided for by a tax; for the public mind was not prepared for so radical a change of affairs; and there was a large class ready to argue the injustice of taxing the wealthy man without children enough to pay for the education of a poor man's houseful of them. Therefore for the first ten of fifteen years the school tax did not more than meet the half of the expense of the schools. But in time everything grew up to it; and now, the public schools supported by the State, and free to every person of the State, between the ages of six and twenty-one, are in every district of two miles square and in every village, ready to afford the means of instruction in all the lower branches; while in many of them, the grade is up to the usual academic course. About half the taxes paid in the State are devoted to schools, of which the State raises a million and a half of dollars as a State tax, besides the local assessments. And all this tax is levied upon property of all kinds, ad valorem. At the present time the youth, of school age, number over a million. After Ohio had taken this step the other new States followed, and with them the older States of Pennsylvania and Virginia, till at this time I believe every State has a school system that approaches this in most any of its details. A result of all this is that very few native adults are to be found, in the old Northwest territory, who cannot read.

 

To-day all the country whose settlement I have sought to describe, is an old and well developed land, in the enjoyment of all the comforts, conveniences and elegancies of life, in common with any part of the world, with which it is in momentary communication. Commerce has filled all its avenues of trade; and its cities and towns are alive with the most advanced styles of manufactures; while its fields whiten with the rich harvests of improved agriculture; and its orchards, gardens and vineyards teem with all the luxuries at the command of culture.

 

But the ordinary growth of Commerce, Agriculture and Manufactures is not all of the progress of this favored land. It has been found rich in the great minerals of Coal, Iron, Salt, Oil, Plaster, and the most valuable of rocks, to a degree that promises more from the mines than the earth produces. The coal deposits of Ohio alone exceed in extent all those of Great Britain, while they can be mined at less than half the cost.

 

The rapid developement of this country is doubtless due to steam as a motive power in the carrying trade, as well as manufactures; and next to that has been the making of highways. Perhaps the greatest single agency in this work was the Canal System of New York and Ohio, which with the Lakes, opened highways from New York to whole breadth of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. After that followed Railways before which time and space have almost disappeared.

 

The emigration first made into the country west of the Alleghenies, a little over a century ago,—and which, in its second wave, a generation later, spread into and opened up the New States of the North-West Territory,—was chiefly made up from the people of the Atlantic States, the offspring of or actual emigrants from England, Scotland and Ireland, with a small sprinkling from Germany. But the strong element in the civilization that took possession of the new country, and gave tone to it, was that combination known as Scotch-Irish, combined again with enough of the pure Scotch material to neutralize the English or German element. The religion and traditions of this people were more properly those of the Scotch-Irish than of the English. The patriotic sentiment of this country was essentially American, and had reference to the New Country from the first. Even among the earliest emigrants, and those who had grown to maturity in the old country, the sentiment of loyalty had hardly been entertained. Between this community and the New Englanders, there was very little in common of manners, domestic life, or religious polity. The one was English Puritan and the other Scotch Presbyterian. In politics they agreed. Of course the religion was Protestant; but though the standards of faith might be properly called Presbyterian, there was about the same diversity of sects as in England. But the State was so thoroughly separated from the church in the minds of this people, that the religious persuasions were not taken into the account in social or political relations; and in all these things there was great freedom. In politics they speedily adjusted themselves in two leading parties, between whom success and control have alternated at short periods. Within the last 40 or 50 years there has been a rapid immigration into this region, directly from the continent of Europe, without any intervening delay in the Eastern States. This has been chiefly from Germany and the kindred nations; and in such numbers as to materially change the tone of society and the general aspect of the population, manners and customs. With the opening up of the present system of intercommunication with the rest of the world, and the consequent inflowing along these channels of so much that was foreign, it was impossible that the primitive oneness of the people should be preserved; and it is well for the country that its institutions were well founded upon the old British ideas of constitutional government, before this immigration set in, for had the more recent element taken part in the original work, there is no telling into what seas of uncertainty we should have been cast. The last four decades have nearly revolutionized the social organization of the greater part of the West—the more Eastern part of it, however, the least.

 

But the progress of this country has been wonderful; and, having Ohio in view, as an example, the parallel is not easily found in History. In 1803, Ohio was admitted as a State, with less than 40,000 square miles of territory, and about 100,000 population; She now numbers over three millions, after having supplied half a million of emigrants to countries farther west; are yet not the half of her territory has been reduced to cultivation. The Macadamized Roads in the State will reach many thousand miles; the Canals measure nearly a thousand; and the Railways between three and four thousand miles. One of her cities has a quarter of a million inhabitants, another over 125,000, and seven over 30,000. She devotes about four millions of dollars annually to the support of public free schools, affording a good English Education to every child in the state, without cost. As a state she supports five asylums for the insane; an extensive school and asylum for idiotic and imbecile youth; a school for the Blind and one for the Deaf and Dumb, at a cost of near two millions; while in every county there is a farm and homestead asylum for the infirm and destitute.

 

Proportionably all the rest of the Great West has grown with this one state; and what is said of it, may in a manner be said of all. The mighty strides of |progress of the nineteenth century have passed over this land as an highway; and the foot prints of improvement mark its length and breadth. Its triumphs have been those of Peace; and humanity has been benefitted by its growth. When the last struggle for freedom came, in which the very word slave was to be extirpated from the American vocabulary, this West sent forth her sons, from her fields and shops, to the great battle, who laid down their lives for the right, or returned to those fields and shops, as men who could bravely serve their country in peace or war. To-day her maidens strew the graves of the fallen, who are always young, with flowers; and her matrons preside in the homes of those who still fight the battle of life in the combats of usefulness and peace.