' 
 
 
 OR'r WASHINGTON at 
 
 
 
 j^i^- 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio. A brief 
 
 
 d 
 
 Ijj^^^l 
 
 Account NOW FOR THE FIRST 
 
 
 1 
 
 l^^^lj 
 
 TIME given by Rok. Ralston 
 
 
 1? 
 
 
 Jones. 
 
 
 
 
 
Class. 
 Book. 
 
 £151 
 
 3? 
 
Alto-Relievo OF" Washington, 
 
 n» THE DRAKE! BOUSK, ON THE SITE OP FORT WASHINOXOM, 
 CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
FORT -^WASHINGTON 
 
 AT CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
 ROBT. RMLSTOM JONES. 
 
 Published by the Society of Colonial IV a r s 
 
 in the State of Ohio. 
 
 f 90s . 
 
^"4^^^ 
 
 ,e 5 3 ^ 
 
 TO MR. HERBERT JENNEY, 
 
 GOVERNOR OF THE SOCIETY OF COI^ONIAL, WARS 
 IN THE STATE OF OHIO. 
 
 Through whose personal efforts the plan for marking the site of Fort 
 Washington, at Cincinnati, was successfully carried out, this paper is 
 respectfully dedicated. 
 
 . ROBT. RAI,STON JONES, 
 
 CINCINNATI, OHIO, '' \ • 
 
 JUNE 1ST, 1902. •••"* 
 
 / </ i" ■ y -! 
 
 /o 
 
ORT WASHINGTON at Cincinnati 
 was designed primarily for the pro- 
 tection of the settlers in the Miami 
 Country, that is, the region in 
 southwestern Ohio, lying between 
 the Little Miami and Great Miami 
 rivers, distant from each other, as 
 measured along the meanders of the 
 Ohio, about twenty-seven miles. 
 Two years had not elapsed after the close 
 of the Revolution, before the Ohio valley wit- 
 nessed a most remarkable immigration. Through 
 the shadows of the tangled forest, over the dangerous 
 mountain trail, and down past the rocks and shallows 
 of an unknown river, by wagon and on foot, in rude 
 flatboat and frail canoe, these pioneers came into the 
 valley of the "Beautiful River." The true story of 
 their sufferings has been but imperfectly recorded ; 
 their achievements, however, speak for themselves. 
 They vanquished the wilderness, they built up a free 
 state, they founded homes, not for their children alone, 
 but for all the oppressed peoples of the earth. The 
 chief actors in this drama could not grasp the mag- 
 nificence of the scheme which they unfolded ; but, with 
 rare faith and courage, these simple-hearted men and 
 women performed the homely duties nearest at hand ; 
 they took the rifle and the axe, the plowshare and the 
 sword, and made the wilderness to blossom like a rose. 
 Settlements sprang up like the magic plants which grow 
 at the bidding of an eastern juggler; but, where these 
 
pioneers of the valley came, there also followed the 
 schoolhouse and the church, fit emblems of time and 
 immortality. 
 
 A special impetus was given immigration to the 
 region north of the river Ohio by the passage of the 
 Ordinance of 1787, which provided for the erection of 
 the North-west Territory. 
 
 The exodus to Ohio from the eastern states then 
 attained such large proportions, that means were em- 
 ployed to arrest it. 
 
 In Massachusetts, penny pamphlets were issued, 
 filled with cartoons intended to ridicule the western 
 movement. 
 
 One such cartoon gave the meeting of two men on 
 horseback; the one "stout, ruddy, well dressed, on 
 a sleek fat horse," and labeled "I am going to 
 Ohio." The other man was thin, scantily dressed, 
 and bestrode a perfect "crowbait" of a horse. This was 
 marked "I have been to Ohio" (i). Ridicule is a 
 sharp weapon, but in this case it did not suffice to 
 check the onward march of emigration. 
 
 The year 1788 witnessed the founding by New 
 Englanders of a settlement at the mouth of the Mus- 
 kingum River, April 7, which v/as named Marietta, in 
 honor of the unhappy Queen of France. This settle- 
 ment, filled with a spirit of enlightened freedom, recog- 
 nizing as did the early colonies in New England, the 
 benefits which come from educational and religious ad- 
 vancement, flourished and grew to exert a tremendous 
 power for good in all that later transpired in the Terri- 
 tory North-west of the river Ohio. 
 
 In July of the same year a colony which had been 
 
 (1.) Discourse of Mr. Timothy Walker, Ohio HisU. & Philos. Soc- 
 Trans. Part 11, vol. 1, p. 195. 
 
JT7DQE3 John Cleves Symmes, 
 
 PROPRIETOR OF THE LANDS ABOUT FORT WASHINGTON. 
 
 From engraving in possession of his great granddaughter, 
 Mrs. Betty Harrison Eaton, of North Bend, Ohio. 
 
 John Cleves Symmes, born was on Long Island, N. Y , July 21, 1742; 
 but removed to New Jersey, from which state he entered the Revolution- 
 ary Army as Colonel of the 3d. Battalion Sussex County New Jersey 
 Militia. Resigned from army to accept the appointment of Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of New Jersey. While still holding position on Supreme 
 Bench he was delegate to Continental Congress 17H4-.5. He had also served 
 as I.,ieutenant-Governor and member of the Council. He married a daugh- 
 ter of Governor William Ivivnngston of New Jersey, and resided at Newton, 
 N. J. While on the bench he presided (1782) at the famous trial of James 
 Morgan the murderer of the patriot, Reverend James Caldwell. *Judge 
 Symmes obtained in August 1787, a grant from Congress for the purchase 
 of one million acres of land, lying between the Miamis and bordered on 
 the south by the Ohio River. After many complications and difficulties, 
 this amount was reduced to between three and four hundred thousand 
 acres. Judge .Symmes removed with his family to the Northwest Territory, 
 of which he was appointed one of the judges in 1788. He died in Cincin- 
 nati, February 2<), 1814. 
 
organized by John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey 
 for settlement in the Miami Country, set out from' 
 Elizabethtown, and proceeded overland to what was 
 then called ^'Redstone Old Fort," now Brownsville 
 Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela River. When the 
 expedition departed by river from Redstone, it num- 
 bered about thirty persons, prominent among them be- 
 ing Captain Benjamin Stites, to whom belongs the honor 
 of having personally explored the valleys of the Little 
 and Great Miami rivers, two years before. 
 
 It was eminently fitting that Captain Stites, hav- 
 ing been the explorer of the Miami Country, and hav- 
 ing first urged upon Judge Symmes the natural 
 advantages of the two valleys, should receive warrant 
 No. I of the Miami Purchase. This warrant, which 
 bore date of December 7, 1787, called for 640 acres of 
 land " at the point betwixt the mouth of the Little 
 Miami and the Ohio in the pint." 
 
 The little colony of Judge Symmes sailed down 
 the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, landing about 
 August 24 at Fort Harmar. At this point their 
 movements are noted in the journal of a gallant young 
 ofificer of the garrison, who remarks as follows: "Judge 
 Symmes, with several boats and families, arrived on 
 their way to his new purchase on the Miami. Has a 
 daughter (Polly) along. They lodge with General 
 and Mrs. Harmar. Stay three days and depart. If 
 not mistaken. Miss Symmes will make a fine woman. 
 An amiable disposition and highly cultivated mind 
 about to be buried in the wilderness" (2). The 
 writer of this journal, having spent the winter of 
 1785-86 in Fort Finney, at the lower end of the 
 Symmes purchase, was well qualified to give an 
 
 ( 2. ) Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny. 
 
 3 
 
opinion on the character of the surroundings in which 
 Miss Symmes would soon be placed. 
 
 The little party of colonists, after a rest of several 
 days, left Marietta about August 27, and proceeded to 
 Limestone (now Maysville, Ky.), where a block- 
 house had been built, and a brisk little settlement had 
 sprung up four years previously. Limestone at this 
 time, and for some years afterwards, was the port of 
 entry for the country about Lexington, in the blue 
 grass region. Lexington had acquired some note as 
 early as 1779, and the road which led out to it from 
 Limestone went over an ancient "Buffalo trace," 
 remains of which can still be seen. 
 
 Judge Symmes after a short stop at Limestone, 
 where he left his family, pushed on to the present site 
 of Cincinnati, arriving there on the 22nd of Septem- 
 ber (3). He at once began the exploration of the back 
 country, so far as the northern line of the fifth 
 range of townships, and extending westward to 
 the Great Miami. He even started on the descent of 
 that stream, but having been deserted by his escort, 
 was forced to return to the place of his original disem- 
 barkation opposite the mouth of the Licking River. 
 He soon after returned to Limestone, where he re- 
 mained for several months. 
 
 Captain Stites, after spending more than two 
 months in preparation for building, by sawing out 
 lumber for the cabins, set out from Limestone on 
 November 16, and reached the locality mentioned in 
 his land warrant on November 18, landing at a point a 
 little below the mouth of the Little Miami River. On 
 the next day the colonists set to work with great 
 activity, building cabins and several blockhouses. The 
 
 (3.) lyCtter from John Cleves Svrames to Jonathan Dayton, October 
 22, 1788. 
 
location of the first blockhouse erected by Captain 
 Stites's party has been fully identified by the writer as 
 being on Sec. 29, Tp. 5. It stood on the bank of the 
 Ohio River, at a point about one-half mile below the 
 mouth of the Little Miami. The blockhouse was 
 about eighteen feet wide and twenty-four feet long, 
 built of large round logs. It survived the ravages of 
 time until April 25, 1838, when it was undermined 
 during a time of flood, by the swells from passing 
 steamers (4). 
 
 The low-lying plain on which the Columbia col- 
 onists first established themselves was exceedingly 
 fertile, a portion of it known as Turkey Bottom hav- 
 ing been cultivated for years by the Indians. The 
 ground was, however, not well chosen for a town site, 
 as it was overflowed in the spring following the coming 
 of the colonists; and in later years the freshets of win- 
 ter and spring have covered a large portion of the plain. 
 
 With the exception of a few scattered houses, this 
 early settlement has been crowded back upon the high- 
 er ground to the northwest of the site originally se- 
 lected. 
 
 In a little more than a month after Captain Stites 
 and his party disembarked near the Little Maimi, a 
 small party landed in Yeatman's Cove, at what would 
 now be the foot of Sycamore Street in Cincinnati. 
 This settlement, which took place on the 28th of Dec- 
 ember, 1788, was made upon land which Matthias 
 Denman of New Jersey, one of the associates of Judge 
 Symmes, had contracted for as his portion of the Miami 
 Purchase. 
 
 The site was well chosen, the higher banks rising 
 above the reach of floods while a range of lofty hills 
 
 ( i. ) See Appendix I for origrinal narrative of Mr. Thomas Gregory. 
 
 5 
 
enclosed a large amphitheater of comparatively level 
 ground, then covered by a dense growth of timber. 
 The clear waters of Deer Creek on the east, and Mill 
 Creek on the west, flowed down to the Ohio through 
 beautiful little valleys bordering the site of the town. 
 
 The country was dry, healthful, and well watered, 
 while the virgin forest on every side furnished a more 
 than sufficient supply of building material. Nearly op- 
 posite the landing place lay the mouth of a rapid little 
 stream (the Licking), navigable, however, in high water, 
 which rose amid the distant hills of central Kentucky 
 then the nearest settled country to the southward. 
 
 Judge Symmes was obliged to remain at Lime- 
 stone far longer than he desired. Christmas and New 
 Year had both passed and still he prolonged his stay, 
 the weather meanwhile growing more and more in- 
 clement, and the dangers of navigation becoming in 
 tensified by reason of the ice with which the Ohio 
 River was filled. 
 
 This delay appears to have been made in order to 
 give time for the conclusion of treaties with the Indians, 
 then in progress at Fort Harmar; or, if the treaties 
 should fail of successful termination, then to secure 
 military protection for the settlers on the Miami. On 
 the 22nd of September, Lieutenant Kersey arrived at 
 Fort Harmar with forty-eight recruits from New Jer- 
 sey. Early in December the greater portion of this 
 force was dispatched to Limestone, where they arrived 
 December 12, and where at Judge Symmes's request, a 
 sergeant with eighteen privates was detached and sent 
 down to protect the settlement which had been made 
 by Captain Stites at Columbia. In the latter part of 
 the same month, a company of settlers from the upper 
 portion of the Ohio River started from Limestone, in- 
 tending to occupy the buildings at Fort Finney near 
 
 6 
 
the Great Miami River, This was a work which had 
 been erected by the troops in 1785, and later evacuated 
 when the fort near Jeffersonville was erected. The 
 company, however, after great peril from the ice, man- 
 aged to land at the Columbia settlement and abandon- 
 ed their original plans. 
 
 The treaty at Fort Harmar was signed on the 
 9th of January, 1789, and on the 29th of the same 
 month Judge Symmes with his own family and those 
 who remained of the families of other settlers who had 
 already gone forward, set out with Lieutenant Kersey's 
 (5) command for the mouth of the Great Miami. 
 
 After a long voyage, rendered somewhat danger- 
 ous by the ice in the river, the party was forced to 
 disembark on the 2nd of February, at North Bend, 
 about six miles above the spot originally chosen for 
 settlement. At this time the land immediately about 
 the mouth of the Great Miami River was covered by 
 the waters of a winter freshet. 
 
 Judge Symmes who was the original promoter of 
 the scheme for settling the Miami Country had pro- 
 jected his city upon a peninsula lying between the 
 Ohio and Great Miami rivers. It was thus located 
 that it might control the commerce of the latter stream, 
 for Judge Symmes mistrusted that the trade of the 
 Ohio might pass without halting at his settlement. 
 The first site proposed for this city on the Miami was 
 directly at the junction of the two rivers, upon land as 
 low and probably as fertile as that on which Colum- 
 bia was first built. When Judge Symmes, soon after 
 
 ( 5. ) Military Journal of Ebenezer Denny. 
 
 I<ieutenant (later Major) William Kersey was from New Jersey, which 
 in the first regiment organized for the defense of the western frontier, had 
 contributed one company. In this company. Kersey was an ensign. He 
 had served more than seven years in the Continental Army, rising from 
 his position as private in the ranks in 177tt to be captain at the close of the 
 war In the Army of the United States he rose from an ensigncy in nm, 
 to be lieutenant, captain, and major. Major Kersey died in the service 
 March 21, 1800. 
 
his arrival at North Bend, visited in a boat the mouth 
 of the Miami, he found to his chagrin, that although 
 the flood had subsided some fifteen feet from its high- 
 est level, it still covered the site he so much coveted. 
 
 It was evident, therefore, that a new site must be 
 selected, and accordingly a plan was laid out which 
 stretched across the neck of land, northwestward from 
 North Bend to the Great Miami. The general surface 
 of this region was somewhat irregular and cut up by 
 ravines and small water courses, while the portion 
 nearest North Bend and bordering the Ohio was hem- 
 med in by high hills which left but a scanty foothold 
 at their base. 
 
 When spring opened in the year 1789, there were, 
 as has been shown, three small settlements stretched 
 for about twenty-one miles along that portion of the 
 Miami Country which fronts the Ohio River (6). 
 
 The settlement at Columbia, the earliest of the 
 three, enjoyed the protection of several blockhouses; 
 but the settlers were obliged to depend entirely upon 
 their own efforts for defense as the small detachment 
 of Lieutenant Kersey's command, which had for a time 
 remained with them, was withdrawn when Judge 
 Symmes arrived from Limestone early in February. 
 
 North Bend, as shown by the correspondence be- 
 tween John Cleves Symmes and Jonathan Dayton (7), 
 also had a blockhouse at this time, with a guard of 
 twelve effective men, under command of Ensign Luce 
 (8). This detachment included nominally eighteen 
 privates, but some were disabled by sickness, besides 
 which there were one or two desertions and some 
 deaths at the hands of the Indians. 
 
 ( 6. ) See Appendix II. 
 
 ( 7. ) I,etter of John Cleves Symmes to Jonathan Dayton, July 17, 1789. 
 
 ( 8. ) The name of Frans. Luse (L,iioe, ) ensign, is appended to the treaty 
 with the Wyandots at Fort Harmar, January 9, 1799, as a witness to that 
 document. He resigned from the serWce in March, 1790. 
 
Brigadier-Genera!. Josiah Harmar 
 
 UI«I>ER ^FnOJSE COMMAND FORT WTASniNQTON \FA9 BUILT. 
 
 From portrait l)y Peale. 
 Courtesy Pennsylvania Historical Society. 
 
 Josiah Harmar, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 175'^, and educated at 
 the famous Quaker vSchool of one Robert Proud. Served in Revolutionary 
 Army from October 27, 177.5 to November 3, 1783, retiring with rank of 
 brevet Colonel. In following year conveyed dispatches from Congress to 
 Paris announcing formal ratification of peace. Appointed L,ieutenant- 
 Colonel Commandant of United States Infantry Regiment. August 12, 1784, 
 and remained at the head of the Army until superseded by General St. 
 Clair in 1791. Under his command Fort Washington was built. He con- 
 ducted the campaign which bears his name, in September and October 
 1790; and owing to adverse criticism resigned from the service January 1, 
 1792. Returned to Pennsylvania and there served six years as Adjutant- 
 General. He died in Philadelphia, August 20, 1813, and was buried with 
 military honors. 
 
The blockhouse at North Bend was probably a 
 small and perhaps a rude structure, as Ensign Luce 
 was illy supplied with even the simplest tools like axes 
 and shovels. Indeed, Judge Symmes was obliged to 
 lend him such articles. It is said that Lieutenant Ker- 
 sey originally desired to locate his command in the old 
 buildings which still remained at Fort Finney, but for 
 some reason this was not done (9). There can be no 
 reasonable doubt, however, that a blockhouse was 
 erected at North Bend early in the year 1789, and that 
 Ensign Luce remained at his post, affording to the set- 
 tlers the best protection possible with his small force, 
 instead of slipping off to Cincinnati after a black-eyed 
 beauty, as one respected historian has supposed (10). 
 
 There is no authentic record of the existence of a 
 blockhouse at the Cincinnati settlement in the spring 
 of 1789; although one had been built here when the ex- 
 pedition against the Shawanees was undertaken by 
 George Rogers Clark, nine years before (11). 
 
 When the army of the western frontier first took 
 station on the Ohio River, it was at Fort Mcintosh; but, 
 as new outposts were from time to time erected further 
 to the westward, the commander of the army found it 
 necessary to move his headquarters to some more cen- 
 tral point. Accordingly General Harmar proceeded 
 with his family to the fort which bore his name, at the 
 mouth of the Muskingum. He arrived about the mid- 
 dle of July, 1786, and still retained his headquarter^ 
 at Fort Harmar when the building of Fort Washington 
 was begun. 
 
 ( 9. > Letter from John Cleves Symmes to "Hon. Captain Dayton," Mav 
 18-20, 1789. J- - y 
 
 ( 10. ) Burnet's Notes, Ed. 1847. pp. 5J-57. N. B. Judge Burnet was not 
 living in Cincinnati at the time in question and wrote of the incident only 
 as he had been told. 
 
 ( 11. ) I<etter of John McCadden, May 16, 1842, American Pioneer, vol 
 I, p. 377. 
 
The question of establishing a post in the 
 Miami Country, had evidently been discussed between 
 General Harmar and the War Department, before even 
 the conclusion of the treaty at Fort Harmar. Under 
 date of January 22, 1789, General Harmar wrote to 
 Major Wyllys as follows: "It is not improbable but 
 that two companies will be ordered to be stationed at 
 the mouth of the Great Miami, not only as a better 
 cover for Kentucky, but also to afford protection to 
 Judge Symmes in his intended settlement there * 
 
 * * * .If the two companies should 
 be ordered to take post at or near the mouth of the 
 Great Miami, provision can be conveniently laid in and 
 forwarded from Limestone by Lieutenant Schuy- 
 ler." Although the claims of the Miami settle- 
 ments for protection against the Indians had been 
 strongly urged by Judge Symmes and his friends in 
 Congress for sometime before, it was not until the last 
 of the summer of 1789, that the construction of an ef- 
 fective, and for the times, an imposing fortress was be- 
 gun at the Cincinnati settlement. 
 
 10 
 
LlEUTElVANT EbENEZER DeNNY, 
 
 ADJUTANT AT FORT WASHINGTON, 1700-01. 
 
 Courtesy Pennsylvania Historical Society. 
 
 Ebenezer Denny was born in Carlisle, Pa., March 11, 1701, being the 
 eldest child of William Denny and Agnes Parker. His mother was 
 the sister of Mr. Alexander Parker, the original proprietor o{ the 
 land on which the city of Parkersburg, W. Va., now stands. The 
 life of Ebenezer Denny was full of adventure and romance. When a 
 mere lad of thirteen years, he was the trusted dispatch bearer to 
 the commanding officer at Fort Pitt. During the early part of the Revolu- 
 tion he served on an American Privateer, and later entering the Continen- 
 tal Army as en.sign, served to the close of the war, having then the rank 
 of lieutenant. He was appointed en,sign in the Army of the United States 
 in 17M4, and .served up to the time of his resignation in the spring of 179 , 
 leaving the army with the rank of captain. Two years later he was com- 
 rai.s.sioned by the Governor of Pennsylvania to protect the frontier at Ven- 
 ango and Presque Isle At the former place he built a new work near the 
 site of the old French ajid Engli.sh forts. Lieutenant Denny served 
 through the campaigns of Harmar and >St Clair and was the trusted aide to 
 both these officers. He was several times the bearer of important dis- 
 patches from Harmar and .St. Clair to the War Department, traveling 
 through the well-nigh unbroken wilderness in the performance of such 
 duties. His journal published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society is 
 the most valuable record of this period. Major Denny died on his place 
 near Pittsburg, Pa., July L'l, IH21'. 
 
N THE EARLY part of August, 1789, 
 Captain David Strong (12) re- 
 ceived orders to proceed to the 
 Miami Country. Accordingly, with 
 a full company of seventy men, 
 and his two subalterns, Lieutenant 
 Jacob Kingsbury (13) and Ensign 
 Hartshorn, (14) Captain Strong 
 set out from Fort Harmar on the 
 9th of August (15). Two days 
 later Major John Doughty, an artillery officer of 
 great ability, and second in command to General Har- 
 mar, set out for the same region, "for the purpose of 
 selecting the site of a fort intended to protect the set- 
 tlers on the Symmes Purchase" (16). 
 
 In the early days of the Army of the United States, 
 it was not uncommon for officers in the Artillery 
 
 (12.) Captain (later I<ieutenant Colonel) David Strong, a native of 
 Connecticut, who after faithful service in the Continental Army, from 
 which he retired with rank of captain, entered the Army of the United 
 States in which he served up to his death at Fort Wilkinson, 111., August 
 19, 1801. Captain Strong took part in at least the preliminary work in- 
 volved in the building of Fort Washington. He subsequently constructed 
 Fort Wilkinson, twelve miles below Metropolis, 111., and was in command 
 at Fort Jefferson in 1792, and Detroit lim. 
 
 (13.) I,ieutenant (later Colonel) Jacob Kingsbury, a native of Con- 
 necticut, who had served throughout the entire Revolution and was com- 
 missioned l,ieutenant in the First Reg^iment of United States Infantrj', 
 October 15, 1787. After serving under successive commanders in the various 
 reorganizations of the Army, he was honorably discharged June 15. 181o, 
 forty years after his first enlistment as a private in the Continental A!rmy. 
 At the time of his retirement he held the rank of colonel. A year before 
 his retirement he had been Inspector-General. Colonel Kingsbury died 
 July 1, 1837. While Kingsbury took part in all the various campaigns 
 against the Indians, he is particularly associated with the defense of Dun- 
 laps Station on the Great Miami River in January, 1791. At this time his 
 cheery courage animated the little garrison to hold out against great 
 odds, until help was procured from Fort Washington. 
 
 (14.) Ensign (later Captain) Asa Hartshorn, of Connecticut, entered 
 the United States Army in 1787. After performing much useful duty on 
 details to protect surveyors and the government geographer, he served 
 against the Indians and was killed during the Wayne campaign June 80, 
 1794, under the walls of Fort Recovery. This action was between an escort 
 of 150 United States troops and a body of Indians probably assisted by 
 British agents and French volunteers. 
 
 (15.) Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny. 
 
 (16.) Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny. 
 
 u 
 
branch of the service to perform duties more strictly 
 pertaining to the Engineers, in fact the two corps were 
 at one time combined as the "Artillerists and En- 
 gineers." Major Doughty had, moreover, established a 
 fine record during the war of the Revolution, and sub- 
 sequent thereto was intrusted with various important 
 missions on the western frontier. He was not only 
 held in high esteem by his commanding officer, but by 
 others qualified to form an opinion. Major Doughty( 17) 
 too had the advantage of experience in this line, hav- 
 ing constructed Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Mus- 
 kingum, in 1785 — 6. For all these reasons he was 
 chosen by General Harmar as a trusted and efficient 
 officer to select the site and design the plan of the pro- 
 posed fortress. 
 
 Major Doughty after a passage down the Ohio, 
 which consumed a week's time, arrived in the Miami 
 Country on the i6th of August; and five days later he 
 sent a letter to General Harmar, which embodied a 
 report on his expedition. The Major had spent three 
 days in making a reconnaissance of the region between 
 the Miamis, during which time, he carefully weighed 
 the advantages offered by various localities. 
 
 He considered the matter of safety from Hoods, the 
 surroundings of the proposed site as affecting the health 
 
 (17.) Major John Doughty was a native of New Jersey, the eldest son of 
 Joseph Doughty and Siche Wiltsie, and was born "the 8th day of ye fith 
 month 1757." He served in the Continental Army, in the Artillery, except 
 for a short time (in 1777) when he was aide to General Schuyler, and re- 
 tired at the close of September 17H;^ with the rank of brevet major. He 
 was appointed Major of the Artillery Gattalion. United States Army iu 
 17S4, resigned from the service in 17!)l. but in 17!tS reentered it as L,ieuten- 
 ant-Colonel of the Second Kcgiment of Artillerists and Engineers. Two 
 years later he permanently retired from the service, and died vSeptember 
 16, l>-26. Major Doughty was the designer and constructor of I"ort Harmar 
 on the Muskingum in 178,5 and the designer of Kort Washington in 17il». 
 He held command at Fort Mcintosh, Fort Harmar and Fort Washington, 
 and in 17fll executed a hazardous mis.sion to the Indians of the Tenneessee 
 from which he narrowly escaped with liis lif'j. Major Doughty was an en- 
 thusiastic horticulturist and it is said originated the famous Doughty peach 
 which for many years flourished about the Muskingum River. 
 
 12 
 
of a garrison, and also looked into the question of wa- 
 ter supply for the fort. 
 
 Of all the places examined, he considered that the 
 best selection he could possibly make was "opposite 
 Licking River, high and healthy, abounding in never 
 failing springs" (i8). 
 
 Major Doughty's report was accepted as satisfac- 
 tory, and General Knox, Secretary of War, was duly 
 informed thereof by General Harmar. 
 
 The situation of the fort having thus been deter- 
 mined, it only remained to carry out the plan which 
 had been prepared by Major Doughty. To this end 
 about the 4th of September, Captain William Ferguson 
 (19) was ordered with his company "to join Captain 
 Strong in erecting a fort near the Miami"; and Lieut- 
 enant Pratt, who was then acting as post Quarter- 
 master, was ordered to proceed to the same point (20). 
 
 The work of actual construction thus began very 
 promptly, and was carried on under the personal su- 
 pervision of Captain Ferguson and Lieutenant Pratt,(2i ) 
 who performed their duties in such satisfactory man- 
 
 (IS.) Report of General Harmar to General Knox, vSecretarv of War 
 September 12, 1789. ' 
 
 (19.) Captain (later Major) William Ferguson was from Pennsylvania 
 and had served m the Corps of Artillery during the Revolution He was 
 appointed Captain in the United Stales Army in 1785. He appears to have 
 been the principal constructor of Fort Washington at Cincinnati in 1789 
 and during the preparations for the campaign two years later he was 
 very actively engaged in the repair and manufacture of arms 'gun car- 
 nages, etc. He was killed during the St. Clair campaign, November 4 
 1791. Major Ferguson had married Susanna, daughter of Maskell Ewing' 
 Secretary of the Grand I^odge (Masonic) of New Jersey. Maskell Ewing's 
 name appears as Secretary on the original charter granted to the Nova 
 Caesarea (Harmony) I^odge of Cincinnati, dated' September 8, 1791 Major 
 Ferguson shortly before he set out on campaigns of 1791, purchased the lot 
 on S. W. corner of Broadway and Fourth Street, opposite the upper end of 
 the military reservation on which Fort Washington stood. 
 
 (20.) I,ieutenant (later Captain) John Pratt was a native of Connecticut 
 who had served in the Continental Army from which he retired with the 
 rank of lieutenant. He was appointed to the same rank in the Army of 
 the United States in 1785, and resigned in December 17()3 He was regimen- 
 tal quartermaster in 1789, when Fort Washington was under construction 
 and in fact the army li.sts show him carried as Acting Quartermaster- 
 General at this time. * 
 
 (21.) Report of General Harmar to General Knox, Secretary of War 
 January 14, 1790. See Appendix II. > j . 
 
 13 
 
ner that they were mentioned in a special report to the 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 The various forts on the western frontier were 
 very similar in outline and the methods employed in 
 their construction were almost identical. There were 
 of course slight variations in the disposition of the 
 blockhouses, and the height of palisade work; but as a 
 rule, the outline of each fort was rectangular, with 
 blockhouses, or in military parlance, bastions, located 
 at the angles. The first step taken in the building of a 
 fort was the clearing of the ground of all underbrush 
 and the cutting down of the trees, close to the ground, 
 for a distance of several hundred yards all about the 
 proposed site. 
 
 The blockhouses were next constructed, being 
 sometimes, as in the case of Fort Steuben and Fort 
 Harmar, set obliquely to the faces of the curtains, or 
 side walls, of the fort. Generally, however, the faces 
 of the blockhouses were parallel to the curtains, but 
 projected about half their width beyond them. This 
 arrangement permitted of a raking fire from the block- 
 houses, along the face of each curtain, and so made the 
 scaling of the palisades by an enemy almost an im- 
 possibility. The blockhouses were usually two stories 
 in height, with the upper story projecting beyond the 
 lower, and pierced with loop holes for muskets. The 
 blockhouses which were commonly about twenty feet 
 square, were built of heavy logs hewed, at least on 
 the upper and lower edges, in order to bring them, 
 when laid, into close contact. The logs were built up 
 in horizontal courses and notched together at the cor- 
 ner of the blockhouse. 
 
 In the middle of each curtain, the walls of the fort 
 were formed by the barrack buildings or storehouses 
 built also of logs but without projection of upper stories. 
 
 14 
 
Fort WASHiN«roN^ at Ci^vcinnati, Ohio. 
 
 BUII^T 17S0« DKMOL18HBD 190S. 
 
 From a sketch by Major Jonathan Heart, U. S. A., in 1791. 
 
 Jonathan Heart was born in Kensington (now Berlin), Con- 
 ne ticut, in the year 1744, his father, Deacon Ebenezer Hart, being a 
 descendant of one ot tlie early settlers in the Colony. Jonathan Heart was 
 graduated from Yale College in the class of 1708. After the completion of 
 his collegiate studies. Heart taught school in New Jersey but returned 
 to his native state prior to the Revolution. He started with' the volunteers 
 ot the •■I.exington Alarm," was a private at Bunker Hill, and an ensign 
 at the siege ot Boston. After a service of eight and one-half years in the 
 Continental Army, Heart retired at the time of its final dfsbandment, 
 November 8, 1783, with the rank of brigade-major. In lys Heart was 
 appointed captain of one of the two companies which Co inecticut fur- 
 nished as her quota to the Army of the United States, and he then con- 
 ducted his company across the country from Connecticut by way of West 
 Point to Fort Pi' t and thence down to Fort Mcintosh, where the company 
 went into gam on. During Heart's service in the army of the frontier he 
 performed much u.seful work. He was the designer and constructor of 
 Fort Franklin at French Creek, Penna. Heart was promoted to be Major 
 of the Second Regiment of Infantry in 1791, and arrived at Fort Washing- 
 ton on the 2(lth of April. Between this time and the departure of the 
 troops on the St. Clair Campaign in the following autumn. Major Heart 
 made the sketch which is given above. In the engagement of 
 November 4, 1791, Heart (with many of the officers and men of his regiment) 
 was killed. 
 
The spaces along the curtains which intervened 
 between the blockhouses and barracks, were filled 
 with palisades. These palisades were formed by tree 
 trunks cut into such lengths that after being placed up- 
 right in a trench about four feet deep, they would rise 
 from ten to sixteen feet above the surface of the 
 ground. The lower end of the logs composing the pali- 
 sade, were carefully squared off, and the upper ends 
 usually pointed. 
 
 The edges of the palisades where they came in 
 contact with each other, were slightly hewed to re- 
 move any great irregularities, and the tightness of the 
 wall was further insured by a second row, the logs of 
 which were placed behind the joints of those in the 
 outer row. Horizontal string pieces were secured by 
 wooden pins to the upper ends of the palisades to bind 
 them all firmly together. 
 
 The roofs of all buildings and the floors were 
 usually constructed of the rough plank riven or sawed 
 from logs, unless, as in the case of Fort Washington, 
 other more suitable lumber was obtainable. Chim- 
 neys were constructed of stone, or of small sticks laid 
 up "cob house" fashion, chinked and lined with clay. 
 The earth from the trench in which the palisades 
 were erected, was replaced and carefully rammed 
 about them; while outside of the fort, ditches were 
 dug, usually quite shallow, which provided for the sur- 
 face drainage. 
 
 Ordinarily the frontier forts, as already observed, 
 were constructed wholly of the material nearest at 
 hand ; they were literally hewed out of the forest; but 
 in the case of the fort which Captain Ferguson and 
 Lieutenant Pratt were building, there was a cheap 
 supply of lighter and better lumber for certain portions 
 of the structure. 
 
 15 
 
Contemporary accounts of Fort Washington state 
 that its walls were built from trees cut from the forest 
 which then thickly covered the plateau round about. 
 The more exposed portions, the blockhouses, barracks, 
 and palisades, were doubtless constructed of logs, as 
 the heaviest material obtainable from the small tlat- 
 boats then plying upon the Ohio, would hardly prove 
 bullet-proof, hi fact. General Harmar in his report does 
 not state that flatboat timbers alone entered into the 
 Fort's construction, and we may infer that of the pur- 
 chased material, this was the only lumber used, for he 
 ends his remarks with the expression, "thus much for 
 the plank work." The log work costing nothing be- 
 yond the labor of the soldiers, which was free, he did 
 not consider. 
 
 A sojourn in the wilderness had taught the sol- 
 diers self-reliance and ingenuity. Of all the material 
 used in the construction of the fort, the Government 
 was put to expense only for glass, nails, wagon hire, 
 and such lumber as was taken from the tlatboats. 
 Stone for the mason work in foundations and lime, was 
 near at hand in abundance. The soldiers burned the 
 lime themselves and performed all other necessary 
 labor. The virgin forest all about the fort, contained 
 material for the heavier portions of the structure; while 
 the lumber from flatboats furnished floors, roofing 
 material, doors, sentry boxes, etc. These flatboats 
 were purchased at Limestone, some 40 or 50 in all, at 
 a cost of from one to two dollars each. They were so 
 called Kentucky flatboats, which had come down the 
 river laden with emigrants or supplies; and having 
 fuliilled their purpose were now of little or no value 
 and could be purchased very cheaply. Indeed such 
 boats after having been unladen were often cut adrift 
 and allowed to float down the river in order that room 
 might be made for fresh arrivals. 
 
 16 
 
As to the size of the fort, the best authorities in- 
 cluding depositions and maps presented as evidence in 
 court, justify the statement that the blockhouses were 
 each about twenty feet square; and that about one 
 hundred and eighty feet intervened on each side, be- 
 tween the four blockhouses situated at the angles of 
 the fort. A deposition made in the United States 
 Court many years later by one who had been a sol- 
 dier at the fort, establishes the fact that the buildings 
 used as barracks were located, one in the middle of 
 each of the four sides, and that the one on the side 
 facing the Ohio River was divided into six rooms of 
 twenty feet each. These rooms were arranged three 
 on each side of the principal gateway. As this gate- 
 way was about twelve feet wide, the entire length of 
 the south, or river side, barracks, making allowance for 
 the necessary partitions between the rooms and the 
 end walls, was about one hundred and thirty-five feet. 
 To fill in the space between the ends of the barracks 
 and the blockhouses at the angles of the fort, would 
 require about twenty-two and one-half feet of palisade 
 work at each end of the barrack buildings. Accord- 
 ing to the deposition already alluded to, there was a 
 sort of triangular extension on the west side of the fort, 
 terminated by a fifth blockhouse which must have 
 stood near the present east line of Broadway. This 
 extension is not alluded to by other deponents, nor 
 was it shown on the map presented in Court, nor 
 does General Harmar mention it in his report to the 
 Secretary of War; and it may have been added subse- 
 quently to that time. Captain Heart, however, shows 
 such an extension in the sketch which he made in 1791. 
 
 The southeast blockhouse of Fort Washington 
 was used for the transaction of official business. 
 
 In the center of the quadrangle stood a flag. 
 
 17 
 
staff. As regards the water supply for the garrison, 
 there was at least one well within the walls of the fort, 
 this one having been dug during the summer of 1791, 
 by one John Robert Shaw, then an enlisted soldier at 
 the fort (22). 
 
 (22.) Xife & Travels of John Robert Shaw, the Well Digger.' 
 Pub. I,exington, Ky., 1807. 
 
 
 IS 
 
Majur-GtEnekal, A-Rthctr St. Clair, 
 
 GOVERNOR OP THB NORTH-WEST TERRITORV. 
 
 From pencil sketeli hy TrumhiiU, Irving's Life of Washington, 
 
 Edition, 1859. 
 
 Courtesy G. P. Futmiru's Sons. 
 
 Arthur St. Clair was born in the town of Thurso, Scotland, in the 
 year IT'A. He entered the University of Edinburgh :md for a short 
 tim;: studied m dicine with Dr. Willi im Hunter, of L,ondon ; but after his 
 mother's death in the winter of 17.5(i-7 he purchased a release from this en- 
 g igement and procured a commission as Etisign in the Royal American 
 (Sixtieth) Regiment of Foot. In the following year (17.5«) St. Clair 
 sailed with Gi ticral Amherst in the fleet of Admir.il Boscawen, arriving 
 b-fore L,ouisburg May 28. For gallantry in the siege which ensued, St. 
 Clair was promoted to a lieutenancy in 1759, following which he served 
 under Wolf at the taking of Quebce. In 1760 he marri d a Miss Phoebe 
 Bayard, niece of Governor James Bowden, resigned his commission two 
 years later, and resided in Boston until 17t)4, when he removed with his 
 accomplished wife to the wilds of Western Pennsylvania. The marriage 
 portion of his wife together with his own fortune now made St. Clair a 
 rich man, and he later became the holder of but little less than eleven 
 thousand acres of land. St. Clair served throughout the Revolution, leav- 
 ing the army at its close with the rank of major-general. The war had, 
 however, left him a man of broken fortune. In 1780 General St. Clair was 
 a delegate to Congress and the next year was chosen President of Con- 
 gress. Shortly after the passage of the ordinance which created the North- 
 west Territory, St. Clair who had been its friend, was chosen the first 
 . Governor. On the 9th of July, ITKS, the Governor's party arrived at Mari- 
 etta under the escort of a body of troops commanded by Major Doughty, 
 and was received with militarj' honors including a .salute of fourteen guns 
 from Fort Harmar. From this time until 1802, St. Clair governed a terri- 
 tory whose area was greater than that of the British Isles and France. 
 
HE SHORES OF the Ohio River in 
 front of Fort Washington, rose 
 rather steeply to a terrace about 
 55 feet above low water, which 
 extended for some distance east 
 and west. This terrace was the 
 land first built upon when Cin- 
 cinnati was settled, but the 
 ground was not sufficiently ele- 
 vated to insure it against overflow 
 by the freshets of winter and spring This lower ter • 
 race extended back from the top of the river bank 
 about four hundred and fifty feet, being terminated on 
 the north by a second bank which rose precipitously 
 some thirty feet higher. Fort Washington stood upon 
 the second terrace, which extended back from the up- 
 per edge of the second bank, at an elevation of between 
 eighty and ninety feet above low water in the Ohio 
 River. The lower terrace was originally covered by a 
 growth of white walnut, water maples, hickory, and 
 ash trees; with a few very large sycamores. One of 
 these sycamores, situated near Deer Creek a little 
 above its mouth, was hollow and of such a great size, 
 that a woman who acted as laundress (about 1796), 
 for the garrison at Fort Washington, occupied it as a 
 dwelling; the broken end of a hollow limb which pro- 
 jected from the trunk being utilized as a chimney (23). 
 The second terrace was also heavily wooded, back 
 to the hillsides which on three sides hemmed it in. 
 There were a few white oak and poplar trees, but the 
 
 (23.) Recollections of Samuel Stitt, Cincinnati in lSo9, by Charles Cist, 
 p. 145. 
 
 19 
 
forest growth consisted mostly of black and red oaks, 
 hickory, beech, ash, and black walnut (24). 
 
 Fort Washington standing there upon the second 
 terrace, quite above the reach of the highest floods in 
 the Ohio River, looked down upon the little hamlet 
 which had already begun to spread out upon the lower 
 plane. The fort was sufficiently removed from the 
 edge of the upper bank to leave an esplanade from six- 
 ty to eighty feet in width, extending along its entire 
 front. The great gateway of the fort opened upon 
 this esplanade which may have been used as a 
 drilling ground for small bodies of troops. At the edge 
 of bank a picket fence extended along the esplanade. 
 
 The ground surface of the lower terrace sloped 
 back from the edge of the outer or river bank to the 
 foot of the second bank so that the water collected here 
 in the winter, forming a skating pond which extended 
 across Eastern Row (Broadway), and for a little dis- 
 tance north of Pearl Street. 
 
 The picture presented by the fort from the river 
 side must have been quite imposing, rising high above 
 the river, with its blockhouses and barrack buildings 
 two stories in height, connected by lines of high pick- 
 ets; the whole white and glistening in the open sun- 
 light, for the forest trees had been cleared away from 
 about the fort. 
 
 Fort Washington was a sight to gladden the heart 
 of a weary voyager descending the Ohio, standing as 
 it did, an emblem of the growing power of a young Re- 
 public, and an earnest of that marvelous expansion 
 through which the country has since passed. 
 
 High above all else, from the mast within the 
 quadrangle of the fort, floated a flag, then but little 
 
 (.24.) Judge Matson to Charles Cist, 1846. 
 
 20 
 
known or Honored among nations; but now recognized 
 and respected throughout the world. 
 
 The construction of the fort at Cincinnati made 
 such progress that General Harmar, even before the 
 close of September, began to plan the removal of head- 
 quarters to the new station. To an old friend, Colonel 
 Francis Johnson, he wrote: " I am shortly going to 
 make my headquarters down opposite Licking River." 
 A few days later in another letter, he says: "Your 
 humble servant is a bird of passage. Sometime the 
 latter end of next month, or beginning of November, 
 1 shall move down the river, bag and baggage (leaving 
 Ziegler's (25) and Heart's companies at this post 
 for the protection of our New England brethren), and 
 shall fix up my headquarters opposite Licking River. 
 1 am in hourly expectation of the Governor" [General 
 St. Clair] (26). General Harmar was, however, de- 
 layed at the Muskingum longer than he anticipated, 
 for in November he wrote to General Mifflin, as follows: 
 "It will afford me great happiness if you could steal 
 three or four months from the Atlantic, and spend 
 them with me. I am now on the wing, expecting to 
 move down the Ohio in a few days, and to fix head- 
 quarters opposite the mouth of Licking River about 
 three hundred miles below this garrison, where I 
 
 (25.) Captain (later Major) David Ziegler was born in Heidelbvirg about 
 1748. He had probably seen more extended military service than any 
 officer in the army of the frontier, having been in the Saxon Army, as well 
 as the armies of Frederick the Great, and Russia. He served in the Con- 
 tinental Army from 177.5 and was once captured by the British. In the 
 year 1784, Ziegler was appointed Captain in the Army of the United States 
 and was promoted Major in 1790, but resigned March 5, 1792. While sta- 
 tioned at Fort Harmar in 1789 he married Miss Sheffield of Marietta, his 
 friend, I,ieutenant Denny, acting as best man at the wedding. After his 
 retirement from the Army, Major Ziegler engaged in business in Cincin- 
 nati, where he died September L'l, 1811. He was the first President of the 
 City Council after Cincinnati had become incorporated in 1802. In 1804 he 
 was the first United States Marshal for the District of Ohio and in 1809 the 
 Surveyor of the Port of Cincinnati. Major Ziegler was in command of Fort 
 Harmar in the latter part of 1789, and after the St. Clair defeat was in com- 
 mand of Fort Washington during the latter part of December 1791, also 
 January and part of February, 1792. 
 
 (26.) I^etterof General Harmar to General Richard Butler, September 
 28, 1789. 
 
 21 
 
should be proud of being honored with your company. 
 Venison, two or three inches deep cut of fat, turkeys 
 at one pence per pound, buffalo in abundance, and cat 
 fish of one hundred pounds weight, are stories that are 
 by no means exaggerated. I am going to a country 
 where there is a much greater plenty of game than is 
 here at present" (27). 
 
 General Harmar left the Muskingum on the 24th 
 of December and after a passage of four days arrived 
 at the new fort opposite the mouth of Licking River 
 with a command embracing about three hundred men. 
 
 Now for the first time the fort received a name in the 
 official reports. General Harmar writing to the Secre- 
 tary of War says: "On account of its superior excel- 
 lence, I have thought proper to honor it with the name 
 of Fort Washington" (28). 
 
 General Harmar and his command carried with 
 them the sincere regrets of the Marietta Colony. An 
 address of thanks for the zeal he had shown in pro- 
 tecting the settlement, and wishes for the General's 
 continued welfare, was forwarded to him at Fort Wash- 
 ington early in January, 1790. This address was 
 signed on behalf of the people of Marietta by a commit- 
 tee of prominent citizens. 
 
 General Harmar was evidently pleased with the 
 situation of his new post, and took measures to make 
 his surroundings still more pleasant by the laying out 
 of gardens for his own use, beyond the military re- 
 servation. He wrote to Judge Symmes early in March 
 stating that he wished to secure an acre or so "near 
 the garrison, on the east side of it, for the purpose of 
 making a garden. I suppose, by applying to Mr. Lud- 
 low, he will be able to stake off three or four lots ac- 
 
 (27.) I^etter of General Harmar to General Mifflin, November 9, 17H9. 
 (28.) See letter of General Harmar to General Knox, January 14, 17110. 
 Appendix II. 
 
Lieutenant (Later Major) Erktjries Beatty, 
 
 PAYMASTER AT FORT WASHINGTON. 
 
 Erkuries Beatty, of Pennsylvania, was born October <), 17o9. During the 
 Revolution he served as lieutenant, from 1777 to the close of the war; and 
 after this he was clerk in the War Department until commissioned a 
 lieutenant in the United States Infantry Regiment in 1784. After having 
 been promoted captain aud major, he resigned from the army in the fall 
 of 1792. For several years he was Paymaster of the Army, and to reach 
 the various posts, traveled through the settlements of Virginia and 
 Kentucky bordering the Ohio River. His journal of this period is valuable 
 and interesting. Major Beatty died at Princeton, New Jersey, February 
 •j;{, 1823. 
 
cordingly. I wish you to give him the necessary di- 
 rections" (29). 
 
 This garden was located south of Third Street and 
 east of Ludlow, and the location of a certain summer 
 house thereon became an important point for de- 
 termination, some years later, when the situation of 
 lots adjoining the garrison became a matter of litiga- 
 tion (30). 
 
 On the 2nd of January, 1790, General Arthur St. 
 Clair, who had been appointed Governor of the 
 North- West Territory, arrived at Fort Washington and 
 after a brief stay, during which he organized the coun- 
 ty of Hamilton and appointed judges, set out again for 
 the Illinois country with an escort of fifty men under 
 command of Lieutenant Doyle (31). In a letter to 
 Mr. Jonathan Williams of Philadelphia General Har- 
 mar recalls the pleasant hours spent with the former in 
 Paris, whither the General had gone in 1784 as the 
 official messenger of Congress to convey the news of 
 the peace with Great Britian. He says: "Her^ we 
 are delightfully situated on the most beautiful river in 
 the world, LaBelle Riviere, opposite tiie Licking in 
 Kentucky. You'll wonder at this when you call to 
 mind the handsome meanders of the Seine at the foot 
 of your old quarters. Society, unless what the military 
 
 (29.) General Harmnr to John Clcves Symmes, March 7, 1790. 
 
 (30.) A case in the United States Courts, later described herein. 
 
 (HI.) General Harmar's letter of January 14, 1790. See Appendix II. 
 Also Memorandum of Benjamin Van Cleve. See Appendix XVI. 
 
 Ivieutenant (later Major) Thomas Doyle was from Pennsylvania, and 
 had served more than four year.s during the Revolutionary War, leaving 
 the Continental Army at its final disbandment, November 3, 1788. Hav- 
 ing been appointed a lieutenant in the First United States Infantry Regi- 
 ment in 1784, he was promoted successively to be captain and major. He 
 took part in various engagements and was honorablv discharged, Novem- 
 ber I, 1796. He died February 1.5, ISO.'j. Major Doyle' was a perfectly fear- 
 less than as was shown on more than one occasion. He once traveled for 
 miles in the Indian country accompanied only by a guide, visiting the In- 
 dian villages and urging the chiefs to attend the treaty making' at Fort 
 Finney in 1780. At the time of St. Clair's campaign, having been tempo- 
 rarily deserted by his command. Doyle served as a volunteer with the Ar- 
 tillery. Major Doyle in 1794 rebuilt the old French Fort Massac, near 
 Metropolis, 111. 
 
affords, is entirely out of the question. Buffalo, veni- 
 son, turkeys, and fish of an enormous size (when the 
 season arrives), we have in great abundance. If ever 
 Miss Fortune, the slippery jade, should direct your 
 course to the westward, it will give me great pleasure 
 to regale you with some of our dainties. You shall 
 have a hearty soldierly welcome" (32). 
 
 It is pleasant to note the part taken in scientific re- 
 search by the officers of this frontier army. 
 
 General Harmar himself took a broad interest in 
 such matters, and closely occupied as he was in per- 
 fecting plans for the protection of the frontier, he yet 
 found time to secure and send eastward, fragments of 
 the mastodons which had been discovered at "Big 
 Bone" Creek in Kentucky, forty-four miles below Fort 
 Washington. Later the General arranged to send 
 down Doctor Allison, (33) the surgeon of the post, 
 for a week's work among the giant remains of these 
 animals, and writes to a friend: "Upon his return I am 
 in hopes to be able to send you a proper collection of 
 the bones, and worthy of your acceptance, as the Doc- 
 tor is curious in these matters" (34). 
 
 Early in the year, 1790, the Indians became 
 troublesome upon the Ohio River above Fort Wash- 
 ington, attacking the stations of the settlers and even 
 fleets of descending boats. 
 
 General Harmar reported to the Secretary of War, 
 the destruction of Kentons Station, situated about fifty 
 
 ("2.) lyCtter dated from Fort Washington, February 25, 1790. 
 
 i'iS.) Dr Richard Allison was a native of Pennsylvania, who after serv- 
 ing more than five years during the Revolution, had been ai<pointed 
 Surgfon's Mate in the United States Infantry Regiment in 1784 and was 
 promoted Surgeon in 1788. He continued in the Army until the time of 
 his honorable discharge in 1796. Dr, Allison lived on the east side of 
 I,awren'e Street near its intersection with Third Street in Cincinnati, that 
 is a little east of Fort Washington. His fruit trees were so famous that his 
 place was sometimes called "I'each Grove." The house of General I,ytle, 
 which in IWi is still standing, was built upon the Allison place. 
 
 (34.) General Harmar to Dr. Caspar Wistar, of Philadelphia, April 5, 
 1790. N. B. This promise was fulfilled by sending the bones of mastodons 
 sometime prior to August 17, through I,ieutenant Ernest, at Fort Pitt. 
 
 24 
 
miles above Limestone, and the death or capture of all 
 the people in the station, supposed to be ten or twelve. 
 About the same time a body of Indians supposed to be 
 Shawanees attacked a fleet of descending boats near the 
 mouth of Scioto River, and secured plunder whose val- 
 ue was estimated at ;^4,ooo. A member of the Virgin- 
 ia Legislature, Mr. Buckner Thruston, being upon one 
 of the boats thus attacked, made a formal statement 
 and complaint which was forwarded to the War De- 
 partment (35). 
 
 It finally became necessary to place small squads 
 of soldiers on the boats of the army contractors, in 
 order to insure their safe passage down the river. 
 The character of the cargoes brought down in this 
 way was extremely heterogeneous, one such boat con- 
 taining clothing for the soldiers, sheet-iron, cartridges, 
 arid flints for the muskets (36). 
 
 (35.) General Harmar to General Knox, Secy, of War. March 24 179' 
 Vm "^ ^''"'■°*' °^ ^^^°'' S^^'^*^^^ Denny under head olApriin' 
 
 (36.) General Harmar to Capt. Ziegler, April 5, 1790. 
 
 25 
 
URING THE five years which im- 
 mediately followed the building of 
 Fort Washington, that post was an 
 important base of operations 
 against the Indians. After the 
 Treaty of Greenville August 3, 
 1795, the importance of the fort in 
 diis respect, declined, and before 
 the beginning of the War of 1812, 
 the fort had passed out of existence. 
 The first of the retaliatory campaigns against the 
 Indians subsequent to the Fort Harmar Treaty in 1789, 
 vvas sent out from Fort Washington about April 20, 
 1790. This expedition, which included about 300 men, 
 vvas directed against the Shawanee villages on Paint 
 Creek, whose warriors had committed many bold 
 depredations on the boats of settlers passing the mouth 
 of the Scioto, in which they had secured much valuable 
 plunder. 
 
 The Indians, however, kept posted regarding the 
 movements of the armv, and the inhabitants of the 
 villages deserted them before the arrival of the troops. 
 The command, therefor, after passing down to the 
 mouth of the Scioto about May 2, returned to Fort 
 Washington, without the accomplishment of any definite 
 purpose. 
 
 Soon after the time that Governor St. Clair re- 
 turned to Cincinnati from the Illinois country, where 
 several months had been spent in organizing Territorial 
 Government (37), he held a consultation with General 
 Harmar with reference to a fresh campaign. 
 
 (37. ) Governor St. Clair set out from Fort Washington for the lUinoi.s 
 country about January ,'>, 1790, and returned July U. He had suffered a 
 long delay at the "Fall.s" ( l,ouisville ), from the failure of the army con- 
 tractor to furnish provisions. 
 
William Henry Harrison, 
 
 ensign at fort washington, 179i. 
 
 Born in Berkley, Virginia, February 9, 1773. Died in 
 Washington, D. C, April 4, 1841. 
 
 DELEGATE TO CONGRESS. 
 
 GOVERNOR OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. A. 
 
 NINTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The original portrait hung on the walls of the famous "Old lyOg Cabin" 
 at North Bend, Ohio, which was destroyed by fire in 1858, A copy of that 
 portrait of General Harrison has been procured through the kindness of 
 his granddaughter, Mrs. Betty Harrison Eaton. 
 
This was to be sent against the Maumee towns 
 near the St. Mary River, where, according to advices 
 received by General Harmar, the Indians had deter- 
 mined to assemble, for the purpose of making a descent 
 upon his troops (38). 
 
 HARMAR CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Preparations for the campaign were pushed, so far 
 as laid in the power of General Harmar and his officers, 
 in the most energetic manner. Requisitions for pack 
 horses, ammunition, and supplies of all kinds were sent 
 in, and Captain Ferguson, the artillery oificer, was 
 soon busily engaged with his men in overhauling the 
 artillery, arms, and stores. To quote the adjutant of 
 the regiment: "Indeed every ofificer was busily em- 
 ployed in something or other necessary for the expedi- 
 tion, but particularly the Quartermaster Pratt (39). 
 No time was lost." 
 
 A call for levees of militia had been made by Gov- 
 ernor St. Clair, and those from Kentucky began to as- 
 semble at the fort on the i8th of September, followed 
 soon after by the detachment from Pennsylvania. The 
 militia as a body were not of the best type, they were 
 not the genuine frontiersmen who had figured in the 
 border wars of the Revolution. Some had little knowl- 
 edge of woodcraft or the use of fire arms, and were in 
 many cases the substitutes for better men who could 
 not leave their improvements. The arms brought in 
 by the militia were old and dilapidated to such an ex- 
 tent that the artificers at the fort soon had their hands 
 full in making needed repairs. Disputes among the 
 various officers of the levees, were quieted by the ap- 
 
 (38.) General Harmar received advices to this efifect from Major HamT 
 tramck then at Fort Knox (Vincennts, lud. ). 
 
 (39.) Captain John Pratt, regimental quartermaster. Major John Belli 
 was also acting quartermaster in this campaign. 
 
 27 
 
pointment of Colonel Hardin (40) to command all the 
 militia. The force of regular troops was swelled by 
 two companies commanded respectively by Captains 
 Ziegler and Heart, which had been in garrison at Fort 
 Harmar. These companies arrived September 25, and 
 the next day Colonel Hardin with his command set out, 
 followed on September 30 by the regular troops, with 
 General Harmar as Commander in Chief of the 
 expedition. 
 
 The route taken by General Harmar, on his march 
 to the Maumee towns came to be called "Harmar 
 Trace" by the early settlers, and for much of its course 
 can be located with some defmiteness. Attention has 
 been directed in the opening portion of this article to 
 the fact that the Indian war parties were accustomed 
 to cross the Ohio River into Kentucky at a point near- 
 ly opposite the mouth of the Licking River. Stealthy 
 as was the tread of the redman, long continued use of 
 any given trail wore down at last a narrow pathway, 
 easily recognizable by the woodcraft of the frontiersman. 
 
 Three such principal trails or traces led down to 
 the Ohio at the point where Cincinnati now stands, 
 and when the early settlers of Kentucky began to ex- 
 ecute retaliatory measures upon the Indians who made 
 
 MO.) Colonel John Hardin was born in Farquar County, Va., October 1, 
 175!! ; but alx)ut twelve years later his father removed from his old homo to 
 the wilderness which then stretched along the northern border of Vir- 
 ginia. John Hardin became such a skillful marksman that he commanded 
 both the fear and hatred of the Indians, so that his death, many years 
 later, has been attributed to the feeling against him thus engendered. 
 Hardin was an ensign in I,ord Dunmore's War in 1774, and during the Revo- 
 lution was much of the time attached to the R'fle Corps commanded by 
 General Daniel Morg^an. It was to a daring reconnaissance within the 
 enemy's lines.raade hy Hardin, that Gen. Gates owed one of his succes.^es in 
 the Northern Campaign ; but Wilkinson then assumed the credit for the 
 undertaking. In the year 1786, Hardin removed to Kentucky and was ap- 
 pointed lyieutenant-Colonel of Militia; Kentucky then forming part of 
 Augusta County, Virginia. He served in Clark's expedition against the 
 Wabash Indians and in fact all the Indian campaigns except that of St. 
 Clair. In 1792, Colonel Hardin was selected to bear a letter from Washing- 
 ton to the Indians. While performing this mis.sion umler flag of truce, 
 Hardin was treacherouslv killed and .scalped by the Indians, on the site of 
 the town which bears his uaiuc in Shelby Coianty, Ohio, a little prior to 
 May ::0. 
 
 28 
 
raids upon their infant settlements, what was more 
 natural, than that the white man should follow back to 
 the Shawanee towns in the path made by the Indian 
 himself. In this way the expeditions under Colonel 
 Bowman in 1779 and General Clark in 1780-2 came to 
 follow these ancient roads of the redman, and so clear 
 and widen them, that they became sufficiently well 
 marked to be recognized for many years thereafter. 
 After the conclusion of the Treaty of Greenville the 
 condition of the country became settled and the pioneers 
 felt the necessity for better roads than those offered by 
 these primitive trails, which were fit only for pack 
 animals. They accordingly set themselves to work 
 widening still further these old Indian-military traces, 
 and making them fit for rude vehicles ; so that they 
 became the first highways in the Miami Country, many 
 of them remaining in use to this day. The older road- 
 ways in this country between the Miamis were there- 
 fore developed according to the principles of evolution. 
 First perhaps a deer path or buffalo trace, then an In- 
 dian trail, then the Indian trail widened a little by Ken- 
 tucky frontiersmen to allow the passage of light artil- 
 lery; later these trails widened still further by the cam- 
 paigns of 1790- 1791 and 1795 ; until at last the Ohio 
 settlers seized upon them and made them highways, 
 so preserving to this day the trail of the primitive 
 savage. 
 
 It was over the most easterly of the three princi- 
 pal trails, that General Harmar set out from Fort 
 Washington, about the middle of the forenoon, on Sep- 
 tember 30, 1790. 
 
 This course led, probably by way of Main and 
 Sycamore streets, up over the hill now known as 
 Mount Auburn, (41) and thence by way of Auburn and 
 
 (•11.) It was while being borne down this steep hill, wounded and lyms; 
 upon a litter, that Colonel McCracken died, November 4, 1782, ar; the second 
 expedition of General Clark was returningtothe settlements of Kentucky. 
 
 29 
 
East Auburn avenues, trending to the northeast, north, 
 and east along the ridge leading down to the old Leba- 
 non Road near Oak Street in Avondale. The trace 
 then followed the direction afterwards covered by the 
 old Lebanon Road, dipping down into the little cross 
 valley leading from Mill Creek to the Little Miami, un- 
 til at nightfall a camp was formed near where Ross Run 
 now crosses the public highway. 
 
 Lieutenant Armstrong (42) who has left a journal 
 of this expedition, describes the first day's march as 
 covering "about seven miles N. E. course — hilly rich 
 land," and the second days march, which terminated 
 on the banks of a small branch of Mill Creek near the 
 present town of Sharonville. as leading "through a 
 level rich country, watered by many small branches, 
 waters of Mill Creek * * * about eight miles." 
 This was through Mill Creek Valley. Continuing 
 along the general course of the present Lebanon Road 
 and passing a little south and east of where the town of 
 Lebanon now stands, the trace turned over to the Lit- 
 tle Miami River and crossed it at a point about one mile 
 below a branch called Sugar or Caesar's Creek. From 
 here the trace led along the east side of the Little 
 Miami, generally in sight of this river, as far as Old 
 Chillicothe, an Indian village (now Oldtown), and 
 there recrossing the Miami, struck over to the Mad and 
 Big Miami rivers. On October 11, they came to the 
 
 (42 ) Ivieutenant ( later Colonel ) John Armstrong was a native otJ»ewn- n 
 
 9ylT««ia,^pom -which -state -he entered the Continental Army, in 17/6 as a i-v^.^. »t*~w^' 
 non-commissioned officer ; but he was promoted through successive grades ) 
 to the rank of captain at the close of the war. He was appointed to an 
 Ensigncy in the Army of the United States, and retired in 1793 with the 
 rank of major. His conduct in the Harmar campaign was illustrative of 
 his great tenacity of purpose, when out of a command numbering thirty 
 men, he lost twenty-two before reluctantly falling back from the position 
 to which he had been assigned. He had held command of Fort Pitt, Fort 
 Finney ( or Steuben ) at Jeffersonville, Ind., and Fort Hamilton. After his 
 retirement from the United States Army, he served as Colonel in the 
 Militia of the Northwest Territory, Treasurer of the Territory and Judge 
 in the courts of Hamilton County. He had received the confidence of 
 Harmar, St. Clair, Wilkinson, and Wayne to a remarkable degree. His 
 death occurred in 1810, on his farm in Clark County, Indiana. 
 
 30 
 
old "French Store," which Lieutenant Denny 
 estimated to be distant from Fort Washington 
 about one hundred and seven miles. The march 
 continued, some of the time through very swampy 
 land, to the junction of the St. Mary and St. 
 Joseph rivers, where they unite to form the Maumee. 
 On the igth of October a severe engagement took place 
 at a point about eight miles beyond the principal Miami 
 town, which was located immediately east of the St. 
 Joseph River. This battle ground was about eleven 
 miles distant from the present city of Fort Wayne, 
 Indiana. 
 
 The result of this fight, which involved the advance 
 guard of about three hundred men under Colonel John 
 Hardin, was an entire defeat for the troops. Two 
 miles east of the Miami town just described, and re- 
 moved a little to the north of the Maumee River, was a 
 village of the Shawanees, which has been called Chilli- 
 cothe. The name is one frequently applied to the 
 Indian villages and has no special significance. It does 
 not mean the Chillicothe (or village) upon the Scioto 
 River, nor that upon the Little Miami (nowOldtown) 
 four miles north of Xenia. While Colonel Hardin and 
 his advance guard was giving battle to the Indians, 
 General Harmar with the main army marched to this 
 Shawanee Chillicothe, or village, two miles from the 
 Miami town, and destroyed the Indian huts and their 
 corn. General Harmar had found it necessary to re- 
 prove the troops (more particularly the militia), in 
 general orders on the i8th and 20th. About the middle 
 of the forenoon on October 21, the army turned back 
 towards Fort Washington and camped for the night 
 about eight or nine miles from the confluence of the St. 
 Mary and St, Joseph rivers. Up to this time the 
 troops had destroyed the principal Miami town, and five 
 
 31 
 
scattering villages belonging to the Shawanees, Miamis 
 and Delawares. Colonel Harmar was now strongly 
 urged to permit a return to the Indian towns, and take 
 by surprise the inhabitants, who had supposedly re- 
 turned to their ruined habitations. Accordingly a picked 
 force of four hundred men, made up of both regulars 
 and militia, set out at midnight, under command of 
 Major Wyllys, (43) the intention being to reach the 
 ruined villages about daybreak on October 22 The 
 Indians were, however, upon the alert and succeeded in 
 drawing the main body of the troops on a futile pursuit 
 which led up the St. Joseph River, leaving the rest of 
 force to bear the brunt of the battle. This engagement 
 resulted in great loss of life among the troops (44). 
 
 An extract from a letter written by Captain (after- 
 wards Major) Jonathan Heart from Fort Harmar. De- 
 cember 3, 1790, shows how stubborn was the fighting 
 in this engagement of October 22. He says : "A regu- 
 lar soldier on the retreat near the St. Joseph River, 
 being surrounded and in the midst of the Indians, put 
 his bayonet through six Indians, knocked down the 
 
 (43.) Major John Palsgrave Wyllys was born in 1754, being the son of 
 George Wyllys of Hartford, Conn., and a direct descendant of that George 
 Wyllys who was governor of the colony in lft41-2. He was graduated from 
 Yale College in the class of 1773, and three years later entered the Conti- 
 nental Army, where his military experience included the siege of Boston, 
 the campaign about New York and the Hudson, the dreary winter at Val- 
 ley Korge, and the campaigns in Virginia and about Yorktown. He was 
 appointed Major in the First Regiment of Infantry, United States Army, 
 in 17H5, and ni the following year for a time was in command of Fort Fin- 
 ney near the mouth of the Great Miami River. In the campaign above 
 noted. Major Wyllys commanded a detachment of regulars According to 
 Mr. Urice, the local historian of Fort Wayne, Ind., Major Wyllys with oth- 
 er officers and men, was buried not far from the Maumee River near a 
 ford in the vicinity of the residence of a Mr. Coraparet. In his report to 
 the .Secretary of War, General Harmar speaks of Major Wyllysas one who 
 "united the talents of a cultivated mind with the best virtues of the heart.' 
 
 (44.) The regular troops lost two officers. Major Wyllys and lyieutenant 
 Frothingham; and forty-eight men. The total killed and missing of the 
 army was 183; but it was believed that among the missing were many de- 
 serters. Major Fontaine who led the cavalry, charged gallantly against 
 the enemy ; but was deserted by his men and killed. Captains Thorp, 
 McMurtry, and Scott; L,ieutenants Clark and Rogers; together with F'n- 
 signs Bridges, Sweet. Higgins, and Thielkield, all officers of the militia 
 levies, were among the slain. (Journals of X<ieuteuauts Ueuny and 
 Armstrong.) 
 
 32 
 
seventh, and the soldier himself made the eighth dead 
 man in the heap." 
 
 An early writer who secured his information from 
 those who actually took part in the Harmar campaign, 
 says in regard to the second engagement: "Nothing 
 could exceed the intrepidity of the savages on this oc- 
 casion; the militia they appeared to despise, and with 
 all the undauntedness conceivable, threw down their 
 guns, and rushed upon the bayonets of the regular 
 soldiers; a number of them fell, but being so far superi- 
 or in numbers, the regulars were soon overpowered, 
 for while the poor soldier had his bayonet in one In- 
 dian, two more would sink their tomahawks in his 
 head." (Samuel L. Metcalf, Lexington, Ky., 1829.) 
 
 The remainder of this day was spent in reorganiz- 
 ing the troops and making litters for the wounded. On 
 October 23 the return march was begun, and Fort 
 Washington was reached November 3. At no time 
 on this expedition did the Army march over to the 
 Scioto River which was many miles from the scene of 
 conflict ; yet certain writers, failing to follow the nar- 
 ratives of those who were actually present at the fight, 
 have taken it for granted that the name of Chillicothe 
 applied to the town of that name on the Scioto. It is 
 possible that the confusion has been heightened by the 
 fact that an expedition was led out against the Shaw- 
 anee towns on Paint Creek, not far from Chillicothe 
 on the Scioto, some five months prior to the Harmar 
 expedition, as has already been described in these 
 pages. 
 
 The campaign was a disastrous one, although at 
 first it was believed by Governor St. Clair to have 
 been a success and was so reported by him to the Sec- 
 retary of War (45). General Harmar was severely 
 
 (45.) This was directly after the arrival at Fort Washington of runners, 
 bearing the news of the destruction of the Mautnee village, 
 
 33 
 
and probably unjustly criticised for the maneuver be- 
 gun on the night of October 21, when Major Wyllys 
 was sent back to the Indian towns to surprise such of 
 the enemy as might have returned to their habitation, 
 then destroyed In regard to this matter, Lieutenant 
 Denny, the Regimental Adjutant, then also Acting Ad- 
 jutant General, and Brigade-Major, says: "The de- 
 sign of sending back Major Wyllys with his command, 
 was evident to all the army, and would have answered 
 the fullest expectation, provided due obedience had 
 been observed on the part of the militia, but owing to 
 their ungovernable disposition, an excellent laid plan 
 has in some measure been defeated." 
 
 On returning to Fort Washington, the militia cross- 
 ed the Ohio to the present site of Covington, where 
 they formed camp and were promptly mustered out. 
 
 Lieutenant Denny, carrying dispatches from Gen- 
 eral Harmar to the War Department, set out from Fort 
 Washington, November 7th, and pursuing his journey 
 on horseback by way of Lexington, Crab Orchard, and 
 the Wilderness Road, arrived at Philadelphia, Decem- 
 ber 12, having been thirty-five days on the way. 
 General Harmar keenly sensitive to adverse criticism, 
 requested a Court of Enquiry, to pass upon his conduct 
 in the campaign. This Court of Enquiry was con- 
 vened in the southeast blockhouse of Fort Washington 
 on the 15th day of September, 1791, by Major General 
 Butler, (46) its President; the other members of the 
 
 (46.) Major-General Richard Butler was one of five brothers, all of 
 wlioni performed service in the war of the Revolution. Richard, the eldest, 
 was born in Ireland, from whence his parents removed prior to 17»iO, set- 
 tling in Pennsylvania. He was present at the surrender of both Burgoyn;; 
 and Cornwallis. Subsequent to the war. General Butler was Indian Com- 
 mi.«sioiier, and with Generals Clarke and Parsons concluded the treaty at 
 Fort Finney — near the Great Miami River — January ;{1, 1786. In the cam- 
 paign under St. Clair, General Butler commauded the right wing of the 
 army with the rank of Major-General. 
 
 34 
 
THE LOCK OF THE GREAT GATE OF 
 FORT >VASHINGT01Nr. 
 
 This lock is constructed of wrought iron and wood. It is about fourteen 
 inches long and seven and one-quarter inches wide. The key i.s six and 
 one-half inches long 
 
 When Fort Washington was demolished, Mr. Joseph Coppin, one of the 
 pioneers of Cincinnati, secured the lock, and it has been in the possession 
 of his family ever since. 
 
court being, Lieutenant Colonels Gibson (47) and 
 Darke (48). The finding of this court was highly- 
 favorable to General Harmar, but he resigned January 
 I, 1792, and returned to private life. 
 
 In passing judgment upon the success or failure of 
 the campaign projected by General Harmar, many 
 things which seriously affected his plans must be taken 
 into account. It is not the purpose of this article to ex- 
 amine these matters in minute detail, but simply to call 
 attention to the fact that over the two elements which 
 appear to have been most prominent in defeating the 
 plans of the campaign; viz., the undisciplined condition 
 of the auxiliary troops, and the wholly inadequate 
 nature of the commissary department. General Harmar 
 could exercise little control. It is true he might have 
 delayed his campaign until the troops could be brought 
 into proper form, as did General Wayne, several years 
 later; but, on the other hand, these auxiliary forces 
 were restive from the first and began to desert before 
 the march was fairly under way. A strong pressure 
 was also brought to bear upon the General to begin his 
 campaign without the delay necessary for proper dis- 
 ciplinary formation. The history of all the wars in 
 
 (17.) I<ieutenaat-Colonel George Gibson was bom in I<ancaster, Penn- 
 sylvania, October 10, 1747. He received an excellent education, and just 
 prior to the American Revolution was employed as super-cargo on vessels 
 engaged in trade with the West Indies. He served in the Continental 
 Army from 1776 to 1782 and after the close of the war was County I,ieuten- 
 ant for the County of Cumberland, Penna. He joined the frontier army in 
 17.^1, and in the engagement of November 4, 1791, commanded the Second 
 Regiment of lyCvies. He fell mortally wounded, and was removed to Fort 
 Jefferson, where he died on the 11th of the following December. 
 
 (48.) lyieutenant-Colonel William Darke was born in Pennsylvania in 
 17.^;i, but four years later his parents removed to near Shepherdstown in 
 Jefferson County. Virginia. Darke served in the French-Indian war and 
 was present at Braddock's defeat. He joined the Continental Army at the 
 outbreak of the Revolution, and was captured at Germantown ; but on his 
 release he rejoini d the Army and took part in the siege of Yorktown. In 
 the Constitutional Convention of 1788, Colonel Darke representing the 
 County of Berkeley, voted to adopt the Federal Constitution. In the St. 
 Clair campaign. Colonel Darke commanded the left wing of the army, 
 and in the engagement of November 4, he twice drove back the Indians m 
 a gallant bayonet charge. His only son. Captain Joseph Darke, fell mor- 
 tally wounded in this engagement. Colonel Darke was a man of huge 
 size, and was frauk and perfectly fearless in his bearing. He died Nov- 
 ember 20, 1801. 
 
 36 
 
which this country has been engaged, has shown the 
 absolute necessity for a careful and strict disciplinary 
 probation, before troops could be used for arduous and 
 long continued service. The brilliant but spasmodic 
 exceptions to this rule, which have sometimes marked 
 the history of this nation's wars, do not affect the gen- 
 eral truth. 
 
 RAIDS AGAINST THE WABASH INDIANS. 
 The campaign of General Harmar had been so in- 
 decisive in its results, that serious alarm was felt by 
 the settlers in the Ohio Valley lest the Indians combine 
 for a general attack upon the whites. The Legisla- 
 ture of Virginia was asked to furnish temporary assist- 
 ance until another campaign could be set in motion 
 (49), and Washington was also appealed to for aid 
 (50). At this juncture a plan was devised which it 
 was hoped might afford at least temporary protection, 
 and at the same time leave the regular troops in gar- 
 rison until their ranks could be refilled by recruiting in 
 the East. A local Board of War was appointed by 
 the general government, which, acting under the ad- 
 vice of General St. Clair and the Secretary of War 
 (51), provided bodies of volunteer troops for the pur- 
 pose of making raids into the enemy's own country, 
 and so avert an attack upon the settlements. 
 
 (49.) The l,eg:islature of Virginia was memorialized for temporary aid 
 in December, 1700, and Governor Randolph in the following month noti- 
 fied President Washington regarding certain protective measures which 
 had been taken by the state. 
 
 (50.) Rufus Putman, who had been intimately associated with Wash- 
 ington as his military engineer in the compaigns about New York in 1776, 
 made an appeal by letter to the President, January 8, 1791, setting forth the 
 defenseless condition of the settlements on the Muskingum River. 
 
 (51.) Shown by a letter of General St. Clair to Brig. Gen. Scott, dated 
 from Fort Wa.shington May 18, 1791 ; also letter from Gen. Knox to Brig. 
 Gen. {5cott, March ',), 1791. Gen. Scott led the first expedition consisting of 
 about eight himdred men, who crossed the Ohio River near the mouth of 
 the Kentucky, May 2-3. After inllicting severe blows upon the Indians 
 whose towns were situated near where l,afayette, Ind., now stands, the 
 command returned to the Kentucky settlements by way of the Falls of the 
 Ohio (I<ouisville), June 14, without the lo.ss of a single mau. (Report of 
 Gen. Scott to Secretary of War, June 28, 1791.) 
 
 36 
 
During the spring and summer of 1791, two such 
 expeditions were sent out, both composed of mounted 
 volunteers. 
 
 The second expedition made its rendezvous at 
 Fort Washington, from which point it set out on the ist 
 of August, numbering about five hundred and twenty- 
 five men, under command of James Willkinson 
 holding the rank of Brigadier General. He first made 
 as if to strike the Miami villages, but changing his 
 course more to the westward, pushed over to the 
 Indian towns lying about the confluence of the Eel and 
 Wabash rivers, near the present site of Logansport, 
 Ind. Besides destroying several towns, and killing or 
 taking prisoners, many Indians, the growing corn was 
 cut down for a second time that season. But for the 
 laming of a great number of horses, the raid might have 
 accomplished even more than it did. As it was. Gen- 
 eral Wilkinson felt obliged to turn back sooner than he 
 desired. This expedition was remarkable for the ce- 
 lerity of its movements, (52) so that when it returned 
 to the settlements by way of the Falls of tlie Ohio 
 (Louisville), August 21, a march of about four hundred 
 and fifty miles from Fort Washington had been made in 
 the space of twenty-one days (53). 
 
 ST. CLAIR CAMPAIGN. 
 
 In the year following the unfortunate campaign of 
 General Harmar, Fort Washington was the scene of 
 active preparations for a second expedition into the 
 Indian country. 
 
 General Arthur St. Clair, the Governor of the 
 North-west Territory, had made a brief visit to Fort 
 
 (52.) The average progress each day of march was a little more than 
 twenty-one miles. This is in marked contrast to later marches made by 
 toot soldiers where the average progress each day was less than four miJes. 
 Ihe superiority of mounted troops in a campaign requiring rapid move- 
 ments, was very clearly demonstrated at this time ; but the lesson was not 
 applied in the subsequent campaign. 
 
 (53.) Report of Gen. Wilkinson to Governor St. Clair, August 24, 1791. 
 
 37 
 
 / 
 
Washington in January 1790, stopping for three days 
 only, while on his way to the Kaskaskia country in 
 Illinois. The Governor was absent until about mid- 
 summer, but after that time, much of his correspond- 
 ence is dated from the fort. He lived at one time in 
 a house on Front Street about 50 yards west of Law- 
 rence Street. The nearest way from this house to the 
 fort, was by way of the "trace," as one witness (in a 
 lawsuit many years later), called the shallow ravine 
 which occupied the present line of Ludlow Street, on 
 the east side of the reservation. One can picture the 
 stately old Governor, now also Commanding General 
 of the Army, who as was testified before the Congres- 
 sional Committee in 1792, was "the first up in the 
 morning, going from shop to shop to inspect the prepar- 
 ations" (54). 
 
 The powder was tested here by Major Ferguson, 
 and the various supplies inspected. The shells used in 
 the expedition "were fixed at the fort, also wheels for 
 the carriages and the carriages themselves and many 
 other things." Some of this work was done in the"Ar- 
 tificers' Yard" adjoining the fort on the west; and other 
 things, perhaps the heavier articles of wood and iron 
 were made in the lower yard, on the river bank direct- 
 ly in front of the fort. The quality of the clothing, 
 pack saddles, powder, axes, and other articles supplied 
 for the campaign, was complained of in the course of 
 the testimony taken by the congressional committee 
 already alluded to (55}. 
 
 For safety against the Indians, who had become 
 very bold in their depredations and at times stole 
 horses which had been tethered under the very walls 
 
 (54.) Testimony of Major Ziegler before a special committee of Con- 
 gress, which was appointed March 27, 1792, to examine into the failure of 
 the St. Clair expedition. 
 
 (55.) General Harmar and Major Ziegler both testified in regard to 
 these matters. 
 
 38 
 
]!ifcCjOR-GE>fERAi. James Wir.KiNSON, U. S. A., 
 
 IN COMMAND OF FOKT WA&UINGTON 1702. 
 
 From crayon portrait lii Independence Hall, Philadelphia. 
 Courtesy McUlure's Magazine. Copyright, 1902, S. S. MeClure. 
 
 Tames Wilkinson was born in Benedict, Charles County, Maryland, 
 in the year 1757. He had just completed his studies in the medical pro- 
 fession when the Revohition began, and he at once joined the army at the 
 siege of Boston. He served under Gates in the Northern campaign and 
 was promoted first to a lieutenant-colonelcy and then to brevet rank of 
 brigadier-general, but resigned the latter on account of active opposition 
 from his fellow officers. He later served as Secretary of the Board of 
 War and Clothier-General of the Army. After the close of the war. Gen- 
 eral Wilkin-son removed to I^exington, Ky., and in 1787 engaged in trade 
 with the Spanish Province of Louisiana. It was charged that the General 
 then begun a series of intrigues with the Spanish Government which con- 
 tinued for many years. He reentered the army as lieutenant-colonel in 
 1791, was promoted to be brigadier-general in 1792 and on the death of 
 General Wavne was made commander-in-chief. In 180.5 he was Governor 
 of Louisiana, and in 1811 was court-martialed for complicity in the Burr 
 conspiracv, but he was acquitted. He was made major-general m 1813, 
 but after the failure of the Northern compaign was the subject of a Court 
 of Enquiry which exonerated him. At the close of the war, General Wil- 
 kinson received an honorable discharge a8l6) and retired to Mexico where 
 he died December 28, 1826. 
 
of Fort Washington, a small island in the Ohio River 
 was used as a corral for the cattle destined to furnish 
 the troops with a supply of fresh beef, while on 
 the march. This island is now obliterated, but it 
 formerly occupied the site of what is now the Dayton, 
 Ky. Bar (56). 
 
 The army set out early in September, 1791, 
 and followed a course which led to the fording place of 
 the Great Miami River at Fort Hamilton. From Fort 
 Hamilton the line of march led up to Fort Jefferson, 
 then in process of building in what is now Darke Coun- 
 ty. On the 4th of November, the army lay encamped on 
 a branch of the Wabash River, distant from Fort Wash- 
 ington as estimated by Captain Denny, about ninety- 
 eight miles. Desertions from the force of militia levies 
 had been frequent, on one occasion a sergeant and 
 twenty-five men deserting in a single night. The 
 march too had been slow and tedious, averaging since 
 the army left Fort Washington less than four miles 
 each day. 
 
 On the 4th of November, early in the morning the 
 Indians attacked in force and with great persistence. 
 Owing to the conduct of the auxiliary levies, the 
 brunt of the battle fell upon the regular troops (57) and 
 more especially upon the artillery and the Second Reg- 
 iment, for the First Regiment had been sent back a 
 little way to check desertions. 
 
 Major General Butler, a soldier of three wars, here 
 
 (56.) This island figured in the engagement which took place between 
 Colonel David Rodgers and a large body of Indians. Colonel Rodgers re- 
 turning from New Orleans with munitions of war purchased from the 
 Spanish, here attempted to surprise the Indians, but was himself led into 
 ambush and his command well-nigh annihilated This was in 1779, 
 
 (57.) The artillery lost Major Ferguson, Captain Bradford, and I.,ieu- 
 tenant Spear, killed ; and Captain Ford, wounded. In the cavalry, or 
 mounted infantry, Captain Freeman, I,ieutenant De Butts, and Cornet 
 Bhines were wounded. The First Regiment had Captain Doyle wounded ; 
 while the Second Regiment lost JIajor Heart, Captains Phelon, Newman, 
 and Kirkwood, l,ieutenant Warren, and Ensigns Balsh and Cobb killed, 
 while I<ieutenaiil Graton was wounded. The total loss was thirty-seveu 
 officers, and five hundred and ninety-three privates killed and missing ; 
 also fifty privates wounded. (From records ot Captain Denny.) 
 
 39 
 
met his death. He had been wounded in the leg 
 at the beginning of the battle, and as he could not then 
 be moved, was made as comfortable as possible leaning 
 against a tree. He was cheerful and had no fear. The 
 battle which for a time had fallen away from General 
 Butler's resting place, now surged back thither and he 
 was killed and scalped by the enemy. Colonel Sar- 
 gent and Viscount Milartie, a volunteer aide-de-camp 
 from the French Settlements at Gallipolis, v/ere both 
 wounded. The army was beaten back, and was only 
 saved from complete rout by the promptitude of IWajor 
 Hamtramck (58) commanding the First Regiment, who 
 first occupied Fort Jefferson and then sent out ail the 
 force he could spare to check desertions and rally the 
 fugitives. 
 
 During the fight. General St. Clair had four horses 
 killed under him and was much of the time on foot. 
 Eight bullets passed through his clothes and one grazed 
 his head, cutting off a lock of hair. He wore "a coarse 
 cappo coat and a three-cornered hat. He had a very 
 long cue and large locks, very gray, flowing beneath 
 his beaver" (59). 
 
 The most harrowing feature of the battle of No- 
 vember 4, 1791, was the sufferings of the women who 
 had accompanied the army to the number of between 
 one and two hundred. Most of these were slain with 
 horribly contrived tortures, and their bodies treated 
 with the greatest indignities. 
 
 Captain Denny was selected by General St. Clair 
 to convey dispatches containing the news of defeat to 
 
 (58.) Major John Francis Hamtramck was a native of Canada but en- 
 tered the Continental Army from New York. He was a captain in 177ti 
 and served to June 3, 1783. He was appointed Captain in the First United 
 States Infantry in 1785, and serving through the various Indian campaigns, 
 was promoted successively major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel. He 
 was a most efficient officer and commanded the respect and trust of the 
 various commanders of the Army. He died April II, LSO;?, and was buried 
 in the grounds of St. Amies Orphan Asylum, Detroit. 
 
 (59.) Narrative of St. Clair campaign. St. Clair Papers Vol. I, p. 176. 
 
 40 
 
the War Department at Philadelphia. The journey 
 was begun November 19. After consuming twenty 
 days in passage by river to Wheeling, and eleven days 
 more in the saddle between Wheeling and Philadelphia, 
 Captain Denny arrived at the latter place on the 19th 
 of December. 
 
 The awful scene of conflict v/ith the Indians had 
 made such an impression on the mind of Captain Den- 
 ny, that he said but little on the subject. "To talk at 
 all," he says, "is an unpleasant task to me." His ac- 
 count of his interview with Genera! Knox is very brief, 
 and he wrote that on the day following his arrival in 
 Philadelphia, he was taken by the Secretary of War to 
 breakfast with the President, who discussed the cam- 
 paign very fully, asking many questions. 
 
 General St. Clair had proposed the erection of one 
 or more military stations in the Indian country as 
 early as the campaign of General Harmar, but the Sec- 
 retary of War did not then favor their establishment. 
 When, however, preparations for the campaign of 1791 
 were begun, a reluctant assent was given to a scheme, 
 which the year before might have changed the entire 
 result. Nov/ it was too late to bring about the advan- 
 tages promised in 1790, for the Indians had been encour- 
 aged by their successes and could no longer be easily 
 overavv'ed by the presence of a military establishment 
 in their midst. 
 
 By the construction of Fort Hamilton, at the cross- 
 ing of the Aliami River, Fort Jefferson in Darke Coun- 
 ty, and Fort St. Clair, near the town of Eaton, in 
 Preble County and between forts Hamilton and Jeffer- 
 son, a line of communication had been advanced be- 
 tween sixty and seventy miles from Fort Washington, 
 towards the scene of active operations in the Indian 
 country. While this chain of forts did not insure the 
 
 41 
 
success of the campaign; for nothing could compensate 
 for the rawness and general unpreparedness of the sol- 
 diery, it did greatly mitigate the final disaster, by con- 
 verting a disorderly rout into a retreat somewhat held in 
 check. What the result might have been without these 
 fortified halting places for the calming and reassurance 
 of the panic-stricken militia levies, it is hard to con- 
 jecture. 
 
 To General St. Clair, the commander in chief, a 
 brave soldier of three wars, an incorruptible official, 
 and one who was a long neglected creditor of 
 the nation, is due proper recognition for his 
 valuable services in both military and civil life. 
 The passions of political strife and intrigue, helped 
 to obscure for many years the true conditions which 
 prevailed during the campaign of 1791. Happily since 
 then, time and the moderating influence of calm inves- 
 tigation, have cleared the atmosphere and enabled 
 later writers (60) to present the facts as they really 
 were, not as partisan friends or enemies have desired. 
 EXPEDITION UNDER GENERAL WILKINSON. 
 
 Setting out from Fort Washington on January 
 24, 1792, General Wilkinson conducted a small com- 
 mand, made up of regulars from the fort and mounted 
 militia from Kentucky, to the battle ground of the St. 
 Clair campaign. 
 
 The object of this expedition was to give decent 
 burial to the bodies of the slain and to recover if possi- 
 ble the artillery which had been abandoned in the 
 hurried retreat of the army. 
 
 When the troops marched from Fort Washington, 
 a deep snow covered the ground, so that the supplies 
 
 (fiO.) Mr. William Henry wSmith, the able editor of the St. Clair Papers, 
 has presented calmly and dispassionately all the facts connected with 
 General St. Clair's long and useful life. 
 
 42 
 
Major-Generat^ Anthoxy "Wayne. 
 
 From portrait by Trumbull, Irvliig's Life of Wasliington, 
 
 Edition. 1859. 
 
 Courtesy G. P. Putnanrs Sons. 
 
were drawn on sledges. The weather was excessively 
 inclement and for part of the time snow, hail, and rain 
 obstructed the march. The crust of frozen snow so 
 cut the legs of the horses that the trail was marked 
 for miles with the blood of these faithful animals. The 
 scene of . battle was reached on February i and a 
 graphic picture of the horrors there presented has been 
 given by Captain Robert Buntin who accompanied the 
 expedition (6i). 
 
 When the soldiers pitched their tents, they were 
 obliged to scrape up the bones of the dead and remove 
 them, in order that their blankets might be spread 
 upon the ground. 
 
 The troops under General Wilkinson buried the 
 dead in great pits and returned to Fort Washington in 
 safety bringing with them several of the gun carriages, 
 some of the guns themselves being recovered at a sub- 
 sequent period. 
 
 THE WAYNE CAMPAIGN. 
 When General Anthony Wayne was appointed 
 commander of the army, he began his preparations 
 with a caution which was surprising to those who knew 
 him only as the dashing Mad Anthony of Stony Point, 
 the brave but impetuous and sometimes unwise leader. 
 Wayne was a soldier by inheritance of fighting blood 
 which had shown itself in the wars of two conti- 
 nents. His grandfather, a Yorkshireman by birth, had 
 emigrated to County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1681, and 
 while there following the peaceful occupation of farm- 
 ing, nine years later, entered the army of William of 
 Orange. He took part in the battle of the Boyne- 
 Water, and the siege of Limerick, and later on, as if to 
 
 (61.) Captain Buntin writes to Governor St. Clair from Fort Washing- 
 ton, February 13, 1792. 
 
 43 
 
show that his courage was not chilled by age, emigrat- 
 ed to Pennsylvania in 1722, at the age of sixty-three. 
 Isaac, the youngest son of this old soldier, himself took 
 part in the Indian wars and was a member of the Co- 
 lonial Assembly of Pennsylvania. Anthony, only son 
 of Isaac Wayne, was born January i, 1745, in Eas- 
 town, near Paoli, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He 
 early showed an inclination for military pursuits. 
 His uncle who was conducting his education once wrote 
 a complaining letter to Anthony's father, in which he 
 says: **one thing I am certain of, that he will never 
 make a scholar. He may make a soldier; he has al- 
 ready distracted the brains of two-thirds of the boys 
 under my direction, by rehearsals of battles, and 
 sieges; * * * some, laid up with broken heads and 
 others with black eyes. During noon, instead of the 
 usual games and amusements, he has the boys em- 
 ployed in throwing up redoubts, skirmishing, &c."(62). 
 Young Anthony, however, became more steady, and 
 did after all become a scholar to the extent of taking up 
 land surveying, astronomy, and engineering, so that in 
 spite of his natural impetuosity, he could control his 
 sometimes rash impulses. Anthony Wayne was a 
 provincial deputy in Pennsylvania i-n 1774-5. His rec- 
 ord in the Continental Army is too well-known to re- 
 quire mention, and when he returned from the army at 
 the close of the war, with the rank of Major-General 
 he at first resumed civil life in his native state. Later 
 removing to Georgia, he represented that state in Con- 
 gress during a part of the years 1791-92. He was con- 
 firmed as Major-General in command of the United 
 States Army, April 3, 1792, and at once set about 
 bringing his troops into fit condition. The apprentice- 
 
 (62.) From letter of Gilbert Wayne to his brother Isaac, quoted by Brice 
 In his History of Fort Wayne, Ind. 
 
 44 
 
ship of his soldiers began on the plain (just below Econ- 
 omy, Pa., — the Logstown of Christopher Gist's 
 time) which now bears the name of Legionville. Here 
 the molding and forging and riveting together of his 
 victorious legion was begun; later it was carried on at 
 '*Hobsons Choice," in Cincinnati, some two miles be- 
 low Fort Washington. When the perfected machine 
 was ready for operation, it was advanced from point to 
 point as the knights and pawns are moved upon a chess 
 board. When, however, the time for final action came, 
 then Wayne was the same impetuous commander as of 
 old, ready to defy not the Indians alone, but if must be, 
 the whole British Army. In his enthusiasm he was 
 near forgetting that he was not merely the leader of a 
 company, but rather the commander in chief; so that 
 his aide, Captain William Henry Harrison, had to ask in 
 advance for orders which he feared might not be given, 
 once the fight had begun. With this impulsive desire 
 to carry out his plans there was a sober, prudent side to 
 General Wayne, which is shown in his letters to the 
 army contractors, Messrs. Elliot and Williams, and to 
 Major John Belli the Deputy Quartermaster-General 
 at Fort Washington (63). These letters throw some 
 light on the secret of General Wayne's success where 
 other leaders had failed. He was daring to a remark- 
 able degree, as was shown by his throwing down the 
 gage of defiance to the British commander at "Fort 
 Miami," in 1794; but, this daring quality of mind and 
 heart was held in check by prudent preparations for 
 his campaign; by a personal supervision of the little 
 details which were so essential to the carrying out of 
 his general plan. General Wayne did not long survive 
 
 (63.) See Appendix III for letters of General Anthony Wayne to 
 Messers Elliott and Williams, and John Belli, D. Q. M. G. From MSS. 
 hitherto unpublished, as believed, and now in possession of Mr. H. D. 
 Gregory of Covington, Ky. 
 
 45 
 
his triumph. He died in a rude log cabin at Presqu' 
 Isle (Erie), Pennsylvania, on the 15th of December, 
 1796, and in accordance with his own request was 
 buried under the flagstaff of the fort. 
 
 With the successful termination of this campaign, 
 the importance of Fort Washington visibly declined. It 
 was a garrison only, for the Indians had at last met 
 their master, and had retired beyond the limits set by 
 the Treaty of Greenville. 
 
 46 
 
The Drake House. 
 
 Built by Doctor Daniel Drake in 1S12, on the site of the Southeast Blockhouse of 
 Fort Washington. 
 
 The Alto-relievo of Washington (see frontispiece) forms a part of the 
 cornice in the parlor, on the north wall, between the two windows opening on 
 the balcony, and is said to have been placed in the house about the year 1815. 
 
 Daniel Drake was born at Plainfield, N J., October 20 1785, 
 but at an early age removed with family to Mayslick Mason County, Ky. 
 About the years lSOl-2 he was engaged in the study of medicine at Cincin- 
 nati living at this time in one o? the buildings within Fort Washington. 
 Dr brake's medical studies were completed at the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania bv lectures which he attended in 1805 and again some years later. 
 He became an active promoter of medical education in the West, at Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio, and at I^ouisviUe and I^e.xington, Kentucky. He wa.s also au 
 extensive writer on medical .subjects. Dr. Drake died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 November (i, 1852. 
 
3- 
 4- 
 
 I: 
 
 7. 
 
 8. 
 
 9. 
 10. 
 II. 
 12. 
 
 13. 
 
 N A LETTER from General Harmar 
 to Lieutenant Ernest then com 
 manding Fort Pitt, is given a list 
 of the officers composing the gar- 
 rison at Fort Washington, on the 
 9th of June, 1790. 
 
 1. General Harmar (Josiah of 
 Pa.) 
 
 2. Captain Ferguson (William of 
 Pa.), 
 
 Captain Strong (David of Conn.), 
 Captain McCurdy (William of Pa.), 
 Captain Beatty (Erkuries of Pa.), 
 Lieutenant Armstrong (John of Pa.), 
 Lieutenant Kersey (William of N. J.), 
 Lieutenant Ford (Mahlon of N. J.), 
 Lieutenant Pratt (John of Pa.), 
 Lieutenant Denny (Ebenezer of Pa.), 
 Ensign Suydam (Cornelius Ryker of N. J.), 
 Ensign Hartshorn (Asa of Conn.), 
 Ensign Thompson (Robert of Conn.), 
 Doctor Allison (Richard of Pa.). 
 
 out for the information of the 
 
 14. 
 
 This list was made 
 Quartermaster or the army contractor who had en- 
 gaged to furnish the garrison at Fort Washington with 
 rations and other supplies. These returns were for- 
 warded at a time when a number of the officers belong- 
 ing to the "First United States Infantry" were on duty 
 at other posts in the valley of the Ohio. Fort Pitt 
 was still maintained as a distributing center for supplies; 
 Fort Franklin (at Venango, near the site of the old 
 French and English forts), was also occupied; while 
 at Fort Harmar on the Muskingum; Fort Steuben (often 
 called Fort Finney), near Jeffersonville, Ind.; and Fort 
 
 47 
 
Knox at Vincennes, Ind.; small garrisons were held in 
 readiness for operations wherever most needed. Fort 
 Mcintosh at Beaver, Pa.; Fort Steuben atSteubenville, 
 O.; and Fort Finney (near the mouth of the Great 
 Miami); having outlived their usefulness, had been 
 abandoned. New Fort Massac, about i^ miles above 
 the present town of Metropolis, 111.; and Fort Wilkin- 
 son, at the head of the Grand Chain, about 12^ miles 
 below Metropolis; were not constructed until a later 
 period. 
 
 With but few exceptions, the officers of this, the 
 first Army of the Republic, had served during the 
 Revolution; and an examination of their individual 
 records, unfolds an outline picture of the War for Inde- 
 pendence. From the first call, the "Lexington Alarm"; 
 down through Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, to 
 the campaigns in New York and the Jerseys; through 
 the sufferings and disappointments of Valley Forge, 
 Brandywine, and Germantown, or the picturesque 
 struggle among the clouds and crags of Stony Point; 
 through the stubborn battles in the Carolinas and the 
 glorious successes of Saratoga and Yorktown; had come 
 men who now gathered in friendly intercourse around 
 the mess table at Fort Washington. Some who had 
 passed unscathed the perils of battle, and the disease 
 and suffering of the prison ship; some even who before 
 the Revolution had taken part in the wars of the col- 
 onies; were now destined to fall beneath the rifle and 
 knife of the western savage. 
 
 Only a fleeting glance can be given at the life of 
 these men. They were furnished with an army 
 wholly inadequate as regards size and, in general, illy 
 supplied with the most common necessities of life; they 
 had already served throughout a long, protracted war; 
 but now that their services were again required, they 
 cheerfully entered anew upon a life of privation and 
 danger. To them, the West owes a debt of remem- 
 brance and gratitude. 
 
 The pay of the soldiers at this time was most nig- 
 gardly, varying from three to five dollars per month, 
 as the demand for recruits to engage in active field 
 operations sometimes made it necessary to increase the 
 
 48 
 
first named amount (64). Even this meager allowance 
 was often long in arrears, and certain money-lenders 
 attempted to speculate upon the necessities of the men. 
 There is a clear, manly ring in the letter of the com- 
 manding officer denouncing such practices. He says: 
 "It is in my opinion, a most dishonorable traffic; by 
 God, my hands are clear of it, and if 1 find that any 
 officer is concerned in it, he shall be called to a strict 
 and severe account for such unmilitary proceedings" 
 
 (65). 
 
 Supplies, as once before, were delivered in such an 
 irregular manner, that the garrison at Fort Washing- 
 ton was well-nigh threatened with famine. At mid- 
 summer the men had been without meat for some days 
 and both flour and v/hiskey had given out (66). The 
 garrison was relieved from the danger of starvation by 
 the settlers, some of whom furnished corn; while two 
 hunters went down the river in a canoe and procured 
 sufficient game — buffalo, bear, and deer— to subsist the 
 soldiers for nearly six weeks. 
 
 (64.) On one occasion, a year or two earlier, an expedition bound for 
 some point in the region of Kaskaskia, III., stopped en route at "The 
 Falls" (I<ouisville), and the sergeant's mess concluded they would have a 
 friendly bowl of punch. When the score was paid, they found that the 
 entire monthly pay of one man was absorbed by that friendly bov/1 of 
 punch. (Journal oi Joseph Buell.) 
 
 (66.) General Harmar to Joseph Howell, Acting Paymaster General, 
 U. S. A, June», 1790. 
 
 (Wi.) General Harmar to Joseph Howell, June 9, 1790. 
 
 40 
 
O THE WEST of the military reser- 
 vation on which Fort Washington 
 stood, two blocl-cs. as we now 
 measure the distance, and on the 
 street which extended along the 
 northern boundary of the reser- 
 vation, lay the little graveyard 
 which received the dead of the gar. 
 rison. 
 
 Far away from the familiar 
 scenes of childhood, far from the 
 storm-lashed coast of New England or the plains 
 and valleys of the Middle States, "after life's 
 fitful dream had ended," these soldiers of the Re- 
 public were received into the bosom of Mother Earth. 
 With muffled drum and drooping colors, the mili- 
 tary cortege was wont to pass along the narrow trail 
 (67) leading from the garrison to the little graveyard. 
 No vestige of the graveyard itself is left, it has fallen 
 before man's greed for land; and there remains only the 
 pathetic remembrance, that here the dust of the half- 
 forgotten dead mingles with the soil, close to the 
 bustling city thoroughfare. 
 
 ^ The ground devoted to burial purposes occupied 
 the southern portion of the block bounded by Main, 
 Walnut, Fourth, and Fifth streets in Cincinnati. On 
 a portion of this ground there now stands the First 
 Presbyterian Church, and even this 
 comparatively modern structure has been 
 strangely metamorphosed by recent ad- 
 ditions; but its slender spire is still lifted 
 skywards and literally points a fmger 
 toward a higher world. 
 
 ((57.) The lines of the streets in Cincinnati had been 
 laid out by the surveyor, Mr. Israel l,udlow, as far as 
 Northern Row (7th Street), during the winter of 178P-90: 
 but the streets were not entirely cleared of trees and 
 underbrush until several years alter that time. 
 
 60 
 
The AlANSi^iELE) Mouse. 
 
 HuiU by Lieutenant-Colonel .Tared Manstield, U.S.A., mi llie site of the 
 (ireat Gateway ot l<'ort Washington. 
 
 Jared Mansfield was born in New Haven, Conn., May 2.S, 17.59. 
 He was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1777, and subsequent 
 thereto acquired such a reputation as a teacher and writer on scientific 
 subjects that he was appointed a Captain of Engineers, U. S. Army, 
 by President Jefferson, May '.i, 1802. He was one of the professors at 
 West Point Military Academy in 1802-.S and in the fall of the latter 
 year was assigned the duties of Survej'or-General of the Northwest 
 Territory. This office he held until October 7, 1812, when he resumed his 
 professorship at West Point and there remained until he resigned from the 
 Army, August 31, 1828, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was en- 
 gaged (1H19) on the boundary line commission between Niagara and De- 
 troit ; and was consulting engineer for the state of Pennsylvania. Colonel 
 Mansfield married a Miss Pliipps who came of the family of which Sir 
 William Phipp.s, (iovernor of Massachu.setts, was a member. In 182.') 
 Colonel Mansfield was honored by his Alma Mater with the degree of 
 Llv D. After his resignation from the army he retired to New Haven, 
 where he died February 3, 1830. 
 
Tara Fort Washington Monument 
 
 THIRD STRISEX, CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
 Erected igor, by the societies ok the; Mayflower, coloniai, 
 
 WARS, colonial dames, SONS OF THE REVOLUTION, SONS OF THE 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 
 CHILDREN OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, WAR OF l8l2, LOYAL LEGION. 
 

 s^ 
 
 
 ijijOw 
 
 t\ 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
 ^sE.*'* 
 
 1 
 
 Mj^^JSH 
 
 IK^ 
 
 f 
 
 
 nl 
 
 p 
 
 < -■" ".••i*' 
 
 [HE ARMY OF the United States in 
 these early days contained no chap- 
 lains, so that the officers and men 
 composing the garrison at Fort 
 Washington, had to depend upon 
 such religious services as might be 
 held in the straggling, little hamlet 
 below the fort. 
 
 When Cincinnati was first laid 
 out, certain lots were dedicated to 
 the use of religion and education (68). The block of 
 land already noted as containing the little graveyard 
 used by the garrison, was also intended for the occupa- 
 tion of a church and a school building. The poverty of 
 the new settlement prevented the erection of a church 
 building until 1792, although a church society (Presby- 
 terian) had been formed in the preceding year. Be- 
 tweeri the arrival of the first settled minister (69) and 
 the erection of a church building, of a Sunday morning, 
 the people gathered at the northwest corner of Fourth 
 and Main streets and listened to the preaching, seated 
 upon the fallen tree trunks, their rifles within easy 
 reach, ready for instant use. 
 
 So great was the apprehension of a sudden Indian at- 
 tack upon the settlement, that on September 18, 1792, 
 Winthi op Sargent, in the absence of Governor St.Clair, 
 issued a proclamation calling on every man enrolled 
 in the militia, when attending religious services, 
 to "arm and equip himself as though he were marching 
 to engage the enemy, or in default that he shall be 
 
 (68.) I/3ts 100, 115. 139, 140. . ,■ ^f D„, 
 
 (69 ) Rev Mr. James Kemper, an ear nest,, pious man, a native of Far- 
 quier County, Va. 
 
 51 
 
fined in the sum of one hundred cents" (70). At least 
 one fine was imposed for failure to comply with this 
 law. 
 
 When the weather proved too stormy for holding 
 these services in the open air, the congregation some- 
 times assembled in the building of a little mill used for 
 grinding corn, which stood between Third and Fourth 
 streets near Vine. Here were no windows of stained 
 glass, no hangings of rich tapestry, no strains of the 
 organ resounding amid the carved columns and groined 
 arches of a lofty nave ; but only the rough posts and 
 rafters of a frontier corn mill, hung with the dusty cob- 
 webs of the week. Here with eager attention, the 
 audience listened to the story of One whose first temple 
 was a stable, whose attendants were the simple fisher- 
 folk of a Galilean lake. 
 
 In June, 1792, and again in 1794, subscriptions were 
 secured, first for the original construction of this Presby- 
 terian Church, and then for its interior finish; as well 
 as for a fence which should surround both church and 
 graveyard. The list of subscribers contained the fol- 
 lowing names of officers and ex-officers of the garrison 
 at Fort Washington. 
 
 Allison, Richard (Surgeon) 
 
 Ford, Mahlon (Captain) 
 
 Harrison, William Henry (Lieutenant) 
 Mercer, John (Captain) 
 
 Peters, William (Lieutenant) 
 
 Shaylor, Joseph (Captain) 
 
 Wade, John (Ensign) 
 
 Wilkinson, James (Brigadier-General) 
 
 Ziegler, David (Major) 
 
 (70.) St. Clair Papers Vol. 11, p. SOd. 
 
 52 
 
The careless life of the soldier had not obliterated 
 the teachings of home; and it is pleasant to note the 
 ready response given by the officers to this call for 
 assistance from the first church organization within a 
 reasonable distance of the garrison (71). 
 
 (71.) The Baptists had organized a church at Columbia as early as 1790 
 but this was nearly five miles distant from Fort Washington, rendering 
 attendance from Cincinnati generally impracticable. 
 
 63 
 
HERE WAS a serious side to life 
 in the garrison during its earlier 
 years; i^ut there was also not 
 lacking amusement and relaxa- 
 tion. From the atmosphere of 
 bustling activity about the fort, 
 went forth the battalions who 
 marched with buoyant step, the 
 scars of a former campaign cover- 
 ed, if not healed, the empty places 
 in the ranks filled with new re- 
 cruits who had no acquaintance with disaster, fresh 
 faces and new uniforms, hearts as yet untouched by 
 the sorrow for lost comrades and with no gloomy fear 
 of the future, for how could they suffer defeat. So fared 
 they forth; but twice at least, within a few weeks of 
 their departure, there hurried back to the fort's shelter- 
 ing care, the broken remnant of an army, bruised, dis- 
 heartened, wounded, and dying. 
 
 To the old experienced campaigners, however, 
 those to whom the hazard of life was no new thing, 
 those who from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, had wit- 
 nessed the ebb and flow of fortune, there 
 came a settled philosophy which took things, good or 
 ill, with unruffled serenity. 
 
 Returning then from the various campaigns into 
 the wilderness where even if life were spared, there 
 had still been much of privation and suffering, at the 
 very least a scarcity of food and fire and rooftree; what 
 wonder that there was dining and wining at the quar- 
 ters within the fort, a breaking of glasses to prevent 
 "heeltaps," and a pledging of toasts in bumpers. 
 
 54 
 
Towards the latter part of the fort's existence 
 there were theatrical performances in the old "yellow 
 house" of the Artificers' Yard which stood on the river 
 brink in front of the fort, comic operas even ; and else- 
 where races, for which dazzling purses were offered, as 
 much as thirty-five and fifty dollars. Many an "ob- 
 long," as the three dollar bills of the old Bank of the 
 United States were locally called, changed hands at 
 these races, not to mention the more modest "sharp 
 shin" of silver, cut from a Spanish milled dollar to sup- 
 ply the local needs. 
 
 In November of 1801, a much milder amusement 
 was provided, a singing school for ladies and gentle- 
 men, where for ;^2.oo for a whole quarter's lessons, 
 the gay young ensigns and cadets of the fort might 
 meet the eyes of demurely roguish maidens, as the soft 
 modulations of Coronation and Duke Street were given 
 by the class. 
 
 Anon just before Christmas of that same year, a 
 performance was advertised at the "Cincinnati 
 Theater," "THE POOR SOLDIER and Peeping Tom 
 Coventry." "Doors to be opened at half past five 
 and the performance to begin at half past six pre- 
 cisely." 
 
 For the more serious-minded of the garrison, there 
 was the mental relaxation afforded by books. The 
 officers had a taste for reading, and some a love for 
 especially fine books. One officer in writing about a 
 certain encyclopedia which had been ordered in the 
 East, said : "I want the most elegant edition which 
 can be procured." 
 
 For those who could not afford the luxury of very 
 fine books, the advertisement of one Cincinnati book- 
 seller discloses such a wealth of reading matter as, 
 "Assembly Catechism, Abelard & Eloise, American 
 
 55 
 
Farmer, Beauties of Watts, Beauties of Fielding, Mrs. 
 Moore's Works, Philip Quarle. Citizen of the World, 
 Everyone his own Lawyer, Butler's Analogy, and Vic- 
 ar of Wakefield." There must have been those who 
 scoffed at this modest mental pabulum, and thought it 
 too circumscribed, for a month later a meeting was 
 called to consider the establishment of a library in 
 Cincinnati. 
 
 In the year 1800, and possibly a little before that 
 time a distillery was in operation within the narrow 
 confines of the Deer Creek Valley (72). It was the 
 one, lone building in all that region, half shadowed by 
 the beetling sides of Mount Adams on the east, and 
 surrounded by the oaks, sugar trees, and water maples, 
 which constituted the original forest growth. 
 
 Festoons of wild grapevine hung from tree to tree, 
 and in the days of early autumn, the morning-glory 
 spread its gay colors over the ruins of stump and fallen 
 tree top. 
 
 The two, well-beaten trails, which led to this dis- 
 tillery, one from Fort Washington and the other from 
 the straggling little hamlet upon which the fort looked 
 down, offered mute testimony to the popularity of the 
 institution. The loneliness of its situation did not 
 deter visitors from passing under the low portal, they 
 being bravely determined no doubt to "keep their 
 spirits up, by pouring spirits down." 
 
 When General Wilkinson, a very polished man, 
 was stationed at Fort Washington, about 1796, he lived 
 in what was considered very great style. 
 
 He had the first carriage in Cincinnati, so tradition 
 says, and a spanking team to pull it. He entertained 
 
 (72.) Address before the Cincinnati Medical I<ibrary Assn., Jan. 9, 1852, 
 by Dr. Daniel Drake. 
 
in a handsome, almost lavish manner, assisted by the 
 gracious lady, his wife, and the entertainments were 
 not confined to banquets and balls on the land. 
 
 Some of his boat-parties had a flavor of the old 
 world sports upon the Adriatic. The gaily decorated 
 barge, the boatmen, some twenty-five or thirty in 
 number, laboring with oar and pole to propel the craft, 
 the music rolling over the moon-lit water to the echoing 
 hills beyond, the banquet, the elegant costumes of the 
 guests, and the charming hospitality of the host, (73) 
 made the scene one of bright coloring, framed in by the 
 sombre-wooded hillsides which rose from the river's 
 brink. 
 
 (78.) Recollections, by H. M. Brackenridge. 
 
 67 
 
F THE PUBLIC functions in which 
 Fort Washington and its garrison 
 took a prominent part, may be 
 mentioned two which possess spe- 
 cial interest. One of these was 
 the celebration of the Fourth of 
 July, 1799 (74). The guns of the 
 fort boomed a salute at daybreak, 
 and after a grand parade, the offi- 
 cers attended a banquet where a 
 great many long and formal toasts 
 were proposed to the memory of the dead and the 
 health of the living. In the evening a brilliant com- 
 pany assembled at one of the town houses, where, ac- 
 cording to the reporter of that day, "it is impossible to 
 describe the ecstatic pleasure that appeared to be en- 
 joyed by all present at the Celebration of the Auspi- 
 cious Day, and the scene closed in perfect harmony" 
 
 (75). 
 
 During the following winter, an occasion of sad- 
 ness was presented in the memorial funeral of the great 
 man in whose honor the fort had been named. Owing 
 to delay in the transmission of mails, the news of 
 Washington's death did not reach Cincinnati until late 
 
 (74.) The fort was at this time commanded by Captain Edward Miller. 
 He was born in Middlesex County, Connecticut, June W, 1756, being the 
 son of Tared Miller and Elizabeth Center. Edward Miller w^as one of 
 those who responded to the first call to arms in the Revolutionary stnts- 
 gle, serving as ensign in the "Lexington Alarm" He was commissioned 
 Reutenant m the Second Regiment of Infantry, United States Army, Feb- 
 ruary 21, 179a. He had married, October 10, 17K3, Elizabeth Rockwell, 
 daughter of Samuel Rockwell and Abigail Johnson, and brought his 
 family to Fort Washington in 1798. After his retirement from the army, 
 he resided for some years in Clermont County, Ohio, and died in Columbia 
 Township, Hamilton County, July 6, 18'23. As a Mason— a member of the 
 Army l,odge — he is said to have been associated with Washington during 
 the Revolution. 
 
 (76.) Appendix IV. 
 
 58 
 
in the month of January, 1800, and the first day of 
 February was set apart for fitting memorial services. 
 These services included a military funeral, in which the 
 troops from Fort Washington immediately preceded the 
 horse "with saddle, holsters and pistols, and boots re- 
 versed," which represented that of General Wash- 
 ington" (76). 
 
 As the echo of the last volley of musketry died 
 away among the hills, one might have felt that the old 
 fort was destined soon to pass away, even as had its 
 great namesake. 
 
 (76.) Appendix V. 
 
 69 
 
Y THE YEAR 1802, the fort was 
 shorn of most of its military glory. 
 In the report of the Secretary of 
 War to Congress, written in Dec- 
 ember, 1 801; it was proposed for 
 the year 1802, to divide one com- 
 pany of infantry between Pitts- 
 burg and Cincinnati {jy), so that 
 Fort Washington would have but 
 half a company. 
 
 In the year 1803, the United States 
 acquired title by purchase and gift, to a tract of land, 
 some six acres in all, in Newport, Ky., lying at the 
 confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers. 
 
 On this new reservation buildings were erected, 
 and when completed in 1804, the old flag was lowered 
 and Fort Washington abandoned; the little garrison 
 which still occupied the old post being transferred to 
 the Newport Barracks (78). 
 
 (77.) Published Report of the Sec'y of War in Western Spy & Hamilton 
 Gazette. Jan. 30, 1802. 
 
 (78.) Thi.s post was in active occupation during the War of 1812, the 
 Mexican, and the Civil War. A new post, Fort Thomas, having been erect- 
 ed on the bluffs overlooking the Ohio River, 7 miles above the I^icking, in 
 1894, the Newport Barracks were then abandoned after an occupation of 
 ninety years and the buildings demolished or moved away. 
 
 6C 
 

COPY OF MAP IN PLAT, BOOK 1. 
 
 ICITY ENGINEEH'S OFFICE. J 
 
 PLAN 
 
 OF THE FIFTEEN ACRES OF PUBLIC LANDS 
 IN CINCINNATI. 
 
 Certified this 8th day of July, 1807. 
 
 Signed: JARED MANSFIELD, 
 
 Surv. Qen'l. 
 
HE TROOPS, having been re- 
 moved to Newport Barracks, it re- 
 mained for the general government 
 only to dispose of the buildings 
 and the land on which Fort Wash- 
 ington stood. Authority for such 
 disposal was conferred by an act of 
 congress in 1806, the title of which 
 is as follows: 
 "An Act 
 Authorizing the sale of a tract of land, in the town 
 of Cincinnati, and State of Ohio." 
 
 This act was signed by Nath. Macon, Speaker of 
 the House of Representatives; Geo. Clinton, Vice Pres- 
 ident of the United States and President of the Senate; 
 and was approved by Thomas Jefferson, February 28, 
 1806 (79). 
 
 Under the authority of this act, Captain Jared 
 Mansfield, Surveyor General, made a survey and pre- 
 pared the plat to which he gave his certificate dated 
 July 8, 1807 (80). 
 
 The sale of the land was advertised by Daniel 
 Symmes, Recorder, and James Findlay, Receiver, to 
 take place on the "first Thursday of March next." 
 (March 14, 1808) (81). 
 
 (79.) Published in I^iberty Hall & Cincinnati Mercury, February 22, 
 1(^8. 
 
 (80.) This certificate which is written on the plat, reads as follows: "I do 
 hereby certify that agreeably to instructions from the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, I have surveyed, or caused to be surx'eyed, and laid off into lots, 
 streets and alleys, the fifteen acres of land belonging to the United Slates 
 King in the town of Cincinnati, in the form and manner exhibited in the 
 Plat, and the field notes of the Survey are deposited in the office of this de- 
 partment. Certified this 8th day of July 1807, Jared Mansfield Surv. Gen'l." 
 
 (81.) I,iberty Hall & Cincinnati Mercury, January 15, JS08. 
 
 61 
 
The land embraced in the Military Reservation 
 about Fort Washington having thus been divided into 
 lots and sold, the incident was for a time closed. 
 
 About 20 years later, however, a controversy arose 
 as to the location of certain lots adjoining the fort, and 
 in order to settle this matter it became necessary to de- 
 termine as precisely as possible the original location of 
 Fort Washington itself. This controversy finding its way 
 at last into the United States Court, Seventh Circuit, 
 District of Ohio, was tried before the December Term 
 for 1829. The case is for Ejectment, Lessee of Harmer 
 Heirs vs. David Gwynne and George Morris. The testi- 
 mony is voluminous, embracing numerous depositions 
 of parties who had been familiar with the original loca- 
 tion or construction of the fort. Among the depositions 
 was that of John Cleves Symmes, made in i8og 
 (82). Besides the deposition, a map made by 
 Joseph Gest, then city surveyor of Cincinnati, 
 was presented in court, and the witnesses interro- 
 gated concerning it. The map was identified by 
 the witnesses as a substantially true and correct 
 representation of the situation of the fort with 
 regard to street lines and corners. The map itself bears 
 on its face a certificate signed by Joseph Gest, to the 
 effect that it was prepared, "Pursuant to an order of the 
 Circuit Court of the United States, Seventh Circuit, 
 Ohio District, of December Term 1828, Monday 29," 
 after the parties interested had gone over the ground 
 with him(83). Besides this certificate on the map itself, 
 Joseph Gest made deposition before one of the Judges 
 of Hamilton County, in which he recites the manner of 
 making the survey and the map(84). The certificate on 
 
 (82.) Appendix. VI. 
 (83.) Appendix. VII. 
 (84.) Appendix. VIII. 
 
 62 
 
the map and the deposition by Joseph Gest, both idenr 
 tify the map as the official instrument made by order 
 of the United States Court. 
 
 Daniel Drake, a distinguished physician of Cincin- 
 nati, was also one of the deponents in this case; having 
 doubtless been selected by reason of his intimate knowl- 
 edge of Fort Washington and its surroundings. He had 
 lived in the garrison prior to its abandonment; and after 
 the land was sold in 1808, he purchased several lots, 
 built upon one of them, and resided there for upwards of. 
 eleven years. 
 
 The southeast blockhouse of Fort Washington stood, 
 upon the land purchased by the doctor, and the locality 
 came to be called "Drake's Corner." 
 
 Regarding the accuracy of the map prepared by 
 Joseph Gest, Doctor Drake says: "I was present on the 
 site of Fort Washington at the time that Joseph Gest,the 
 City Surveyor, made a survey of the foundation of. 
 that Fort, a plat and description of which is now before 
 me, and I believe that the lines and angles are accurate 
 as it is possible to fix them" (85). 
 
 John Cleves Symmes, at the time of this trial in 
 (829, had been dead some fifteen years, but a deposition 
 ^ade by him in 1809 was submitted as evidence in this 
 ;ase. Symmes testifies to the building of Fort Washing- 
 ton by Major John Doughty in the fall of 1789. He also 
 states, that, of certain lots laid out to the east of Fort 
 Washington, eight had been purchased by General 
 Josiah Harmar (86) at a cost of thirty-two pounds, 
 Pennsylvania currency. William Berry (87) and Wil-. 
 Ham H. Orcutt(88)had been soldiers at Fort Washington, 
 
 (85.) Appendix. IX. 
 
 (86.) Appendix. VI. 
 
 (87.) Appendix. X. 
 
 (88.) Appendix. XI. 
 
the first in 1792, and the other three years earlier when 
 the ground was originally cleared for the erection 
 of the blockhouses. Their testimony shows the fort to 
 have had four blockhouses, arranged in the form of a 
 square, while westward of this rectangle was an Arti- 
 ficers' Yard (89) "somewhat in the form of a triangle." 
 This triangular extension to the main fort had a block- 
 house at its western end. 
 
 The size and number of the rooms in the barracks is 
 also stated. Both witnesses agree in saying that Drake's 
 Corner was the southwest corner of Third and Ludlow, 
 and that the southeast blockhouse of Fort Washington 
 stood on Drake's Corner. 
 
 One David Lewis, whom the deposition describes 
 as a man "exceeding the age of sixty years,'' adds his 
 testimony to the effect that Fort Washington formed a 
 square, was wholly east of"Eastern Row" (Broadway), 
 and had its principal front facing the river (90). 
 
 The testimony of Griffin Yeatman who had come 
 to Cincinnati in the year 1793, relates mostly to the 
 location of lots owned by General Harmar; but he speaks 
 of the St. Clair Cellar (mentioned also in the Lewis 
 deposition) which was west of Major Ruffin's (the early 
 Postoffice), and he also certifies to the general correct- 
 ness of the location given by Joseph Gest's map (91). 
 
 The evidence in support of the location of Fort 
 Washington as laid down on the map accompanying 
 this paper includes then: 
 rC*-'^^/ ist. The testimony offered by General Mansfield's 
 
 r' original plat of the Military Reservation (1807), which 
 
 (89.) There were two Artificers' Yards in connection with Fort Wash- 
 ington. One was on the west ; while the other and much larger yard, cm- 
 bracing about two acres of land, was situated upon the river bank in front 
 sf the fort, and contained the famous "Yellow House." 
 
 (90.) Appendix. XII. 
 
 (91.) Appendix. XIII. 
 
 64 
 
 St 
 
fixes the location of the various blocks and lots laid out 
 upon them. 
 
 2nd. The map of Mr. Joseph Gest, City Surveyor, 
 made in compliance with an order of the United States 
 Court, December Term 1828; and exhibited in the same 
 court during the trial of the case of Harmer Heirs vs. 
 David Gwynne and George Morris, December Term, 
 1829; including with this, the certificate of Joseph Gest, 
 written on the face of the map. 
 
 3rd. The depositions of Joseph Gest, Daniel Drake, 
 John Cleves Symmes, William Berry, William H. 
 Orcutt. David Lewis, and Griffin Yeatman. 
 
 It may be here noted that the map of Joseph Gest, 
 City Surveyor, gives the location of the various blocks 
 and lots in the subdivision of the Military Reservation, 
 thus repeating General Mansfield's map in this respect. 
 Gest, however, gives also the position of the four 
 blockhouses with regard to the streets and lots. The 
 location of the lots is an important matter, as it makes 
 it possible to examine the legal records of each lot, 
 the original purchaser, and the transfer, mortgages, etc., 
 all of which adds concurrent testimony to that offered 
 in the case under trial. 
 
 The only clash of evidence offered in the deposi- 
 tions, appears in the first part of the testimony of Wil- 
 liam H. Orcutt, where he speaks of the Garrison as 
 having a width of "About 120 feet." He then says : 
 "there were six Barrack rooms in each row of 
 about 20 feet each" and adds over his second sig- 
 nature, that "there were three Barrack rooms on 
 each side of the gate facing the river." It is 
 evident that in speaking of the width of the "Garri- 
 son" as being "about 120 feet," Mr. Orcutt had 
 in mind the barrack buildings only, which were 
 located in the middle of each face of the fort (a common 
 
 65 
 
arrangement in frontier forts), and not the entire width 
 or length of the fort itself. His after qualification as 
 to the arrangement of the rooms on each side of the 
 gateway, would, allowing for the width of the gateway 
 which was twelve feet, and the thickness of the par- 
 titions and end walls, make the South Barracks about 
 one hundred and thirty-five feet long; and to this must 
 be added the blockhouses at the angles and the pali- 
 sade work connecting the ends of the barrack buildings 
 with the blockhouses. This point has thus been spe- 
 cifically alluded to, in order to explain the apparent 
 conflict of testimony between William H. Orcutt and 
 Daniel Drake; Joseph Gest having marked upon his 
 map, Orcutt's location as taken from the first part of 
 his testimony, as well as the location sworn to by 
 Daniel Drake. 
 
 Such explanation reconciles all apparent differences, 
 and makes the evidence offered by maps and deposi- 
 tions agree in all essential particulars. Not only is 
 this the case, but other valuable testimony such as that 
 offered by military correspondence, the description of 
 Fort Washington by Rev. Oliver Spencer (92), and 
 the sketch of the fort made by Captain Jonathan 
 Heart in 1791, bears out the testimony offered in court. 
 
 It may be observed further, that the records of early 
 deeds and mortgages in the office of the Recorder of 
 Hamilton County, mention the location of the lots 
 purchased by Daniel Drake on which the map of 
 Joseph Gest, City Surveyor, as well as the testimony 
 of Doctor Drake and William B. Orcutt, fixes the loca- 
 
 (92.) A well known Methodist clergyman, who as a child was captured 
 by the Indians at a point between Kort Washinpfton and Columbia. The 
 only particular in which Rev. Mr. Spencer's description (see Appendix 
 XIV.) fails to agree with others, is in determining the point of the com- 
 pass at which the Artificers' Yard projected from the main fort. This 
 matter is often confusing by reason of the direction in which certain 
 streets run. 
 
 66 
 
BROAD Wi 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 > 
 
 r 
 
 QO 
 
 
 00 
 
 H 
 H 
 
 <t 
 
 
 73 
 
 10 
 
 er MS. 
 
 • S;o£ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 lU 
 
 Jaretl Mansfield 
 
 later i» 
 
 Rufits Ki^nr (I 
 
 I 
 
 H , 
 
 D 
 
 66 
 
 H 
 H 
 
 l,\3l>bO>^ 
 
ir« 
 
 
 H 
 
 S 
 
 M " 
 
 - tt ►-■ M» 
 
 S <?■ 2 
 
 ssgs» 
 
 P ". » '^ M 
 
 ^ o W 
 
 M.P" ">H 
 
 B p ^ W 
 
 ^ ai B tyCB 
 
 o <* o 3 
 
 ►:» c Q 
 
 o 2 m fd 
 
 P ra « 
 
 s| « 
 
 P -S o 
 
 & ff P M, 
 
 '^ C Do 
 
 Ml ►( O 
 
 e p 2 
 
 o 
 
 ■n 
 
 •n 
 O 
 3a 
 
 H 
 
 t 
 
 > 
 (0 
 
 I 
 
 z 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 z 
 
 w 2 
 3p 
 
 S° 
 
 *'d p* 
 
 S o s 
 
 §1- P 
 Kog 
 
 2s. 
 
 
 C 0) 
 
 ►1 p 
 
 P 0. 
 
 So 
 
 64^80-- r_-'- 
 
 iTRt:ET 
 

 Pi 
 
 H 
 
fion of the southeast blockhouse. The house built by 
 Dr. Drake on lot No. 2, is still standing (1902), on the 
 south side of Third Street, the third house west of 
 Ludlow Street, and it is at present numbered 429. In 
 the cornice of the parlor of this old house, there yet 
 remains a medallion, in high relief, of George 
 Washington; an eminently appropriate tribute to the 
 great man for whom the fort was named. 
 
 The maps of Mansfield and Gest fix the location 
 of lot No. 4, Square 2, on which General Mansfield 
 built his home. This house, which is still stand- 
 ing (1902) on the south side of Third Street, is the 
 sixth house west from Ludlow Street, and bears the 
 number 423. Here stood the gateway of the fort. 
 
 The maps of Mansfield and Gest also determine 
 the location of lot No. 7 of Square 2, and the latter's 
 map shows the situation thereupon of the southwest 
 blockhouse of Fort Washington. This lot was once 
 occupied by the famous Trollopean Bazar, but the 
 land is now covered by the "Lorraine Building." 
 
 '4: J 
 
 67 
 
§-M 
 
 ORTY YEARS elapsed between the 
 building of the blockhouse and 
 the erection of that " Greco- 
 Moresco - Gothic - Chinese - looking 
 building " which, it was hoped, 
 would be the making of the Trol- 
 lope fortunes (93). Less than 
 this period of time had sufficed to 
 change the primeval wilderness 
 into a thriving and bustling little 
 city. Where the Indian had been wont to prowl about, 
 under the very walls of the fort, stealing pack horses 
 and other movable property; there had arisen, as if by 
 magic, buildings of frame and brick, churches and 
 schools, markets, business houses, and homes. 
 
 A madness for high-sounding names seems to have 
 clung to the very walls of the old bazar through its 
 checkered fortunes of more than half a century; for 
 what was in 1829 a " Literary-Athenreum-Bazar," 
 after passing from the hands of the Trollopes, is 
 described as the "Literary-Botanico-Medical-College." 
 Only the young and light-hearted escaped the spell of 
 failure and unhappiness which lay upon the building. 
 In the early thirties the young folks climbed the stair- 
 ways, which, from either side of the central entrance, 
 led to the second story, to attend the dancing classes 
 there conducted by M. Guibert ; while Tosso discoursed 
 sweet music upon his violin. The measured tread of 
 the frontier sentinel was now exchanged for the fast 
 flying steps of the dancers ; and where once the rollick- 
 cos.) Appendix XV. 
 
 68 
 
Bazar Built by Madame Trollope in i820 
 
 ON THE SITE OF TflE SOUTHWEST BLOCKHOUSE 
 OF FORT WASHINOTON. 
 
ing song of the camp fire had echoed from the rough 
 walls and rafters of the frontier blockhouse, there now 
 lingered the strains of "Money Musk" and the "Arkan- 
 sas Traveler," or the more stately measures of the 
 Cotillion. 
 
 After a sad deterioration in manners and morals, 
 the old bazar was torn down to make way for the 
 present structure in 1886. 
 
 69 
 
BOUT THE YEAR 1899, an awak- 
 ened interest in the early history 
 of the western country, brought 
 about an effort to relocate and 
 mark the site of Fort Washington 
 at Cincinnati, and foremost among 
 the organizations which took part 
 in this laudable endeavor, was the 
 Society of Colonial Wars. 
 There was not wanting literature of a certain kind 
 which touched upon the fort. Some of the early travel- 
 ers to this region had alluded to Cincinnati in the ac- 
 count of their journeys, and there was, moreover, a 
 limited cartography relating to the fort. 
 
 Doctor Daniel Drake, graphic and picturesque m his 
 description of this country as it was in the beginning of 
 the last century, had depicted upon the map of Cincinnati 
 which accompanied his "Statistical View in 181 5," the 
 location of Fort Washington. The map was, however, 
 engraved to such a small scale (825 feet to i inch, or 
 5?V^ actual size) that any attempt to enlarge the outline 
 of the fort and its surrounding streets must result, if 
 used for the purpose of relocation, in magnifying such 
 errors in size and location as inevitably creep into the 
 reproduction of any object to a very small scale (94). 
 Four years after the publication of the "Statistical 
 View," that is in 1819, a directory of Cincinnati was 
 
 (94. ) Drake in the preface to his work states that the map was drawn 
 to a scale of 800 feet to one inch. This scale was, however, reduced in the 
 process of reproducing the map, so that the engpraving .shows a scale of 825 
 leet to one inch. 
 
 N. B. The map prepared by Jo.seph Gest was drawn to a scale of 100 feet 
 to 1 inch, or eight times as large as the original from which Doctor Drake's 
 map was engraved. 
 
 70 
 
issued by Oliver Farnsworth. This directory also con- 
 tained a map of Cincinnati, engraved to scale of tttst ac- 
 tual size, showing a location of the fort generally similar 
 to that given in Doctor Drake's work. 
 
 Colton's Atlas (Ed. 1855), and Gray's Atlas (Ed. 
 1873), contain maps of Cincinnati on which Fort Wash- 
 ington is shown. Both maps are engraved to a scale of 
 itItt actual size. 
 
 In 1888, Doctor A. E. Jones, an enthusiastic archae- 
 ologist, wrote an interesting little volume on early days 
 in Cincinnati, in which he shows the location of the fort 
 upon a map drawn to a scale of jzhi actual size. 
 The location given by Dr. Jones appears to be about 
 the same as that given by Drake, Farnsworth, Colton, 
 and Gray. 
 
 It was felt that a relocation, based on these di- 
 minutive representations of Fort Washington, would not 
 answer the demand for accurate work, and the writer 
 therefore began a search for other material upon which 
 to base an authentic determination of the original site of 
 the fort. 
 
 Knowing that a map of Fort Washington had been 
 made at the time of its construction, and that this map 
 had been transmitted to the Secretary of War (95), ap- 
 plication was made to the Department, for information 
 concerning it. 
 
 A careful search through the records of the 
 Engineer Department, Adjutant General's Office, and 
 War Department at large, failed to discover the much 
 desired map. The true explanation of its disappearance 
 is undoubtedly that given by the Adjutant General's 
 Ofifice, as follows : "It is to be explained that most of 
 the records of the War Department prior to i8oo were 
 
 (95.) I,etter of General Harmar, Jan. 14, 1790. See Appendix II. 
 
 71 
 
consumed in a fire which occurred in the War Depart- 
 ment building during that year ; that another fire con- 
 sumed many records in 1809, and the greater portion of 
 such as had accumulated up to that date were either 
 burned or lost at the time of the visit of the British 
 troops to the City of Washington in 1814." 
 
 There still remained a chance of procuring original 
 data. The field notes of Surveyor General Mansfield, 
 which contained the survey of the Reservation already 
 alluded to, would, if found, undoubtedly give the desired 
 information concerning the location of the fort. The 
 lines run by Mansfield must have crossed and recrossed 
 many times the area covered by the fort, itself, and, in 
 fact, must have encountered the very walls of the fort 
 as a resistance to further progress. A search through 
 departments at Washington and the state records at 
 Columbus, O., failed to find these notes. 
 
 It was at this juncture that the search for authentic 
 data concerning the old fort was carried into the offices 
 of the Recorder and Auditor of Hamilton County, the 
 records of the United States Circuit Court, the plat- 
 books of the City Engineer's Office, and the files of early 
 newspapers. 
 
 This search resulted in the finding of the maps of 
 Mansfield and Gest in the City Engineer's Office ; and 
 the depositions in the case of Harmer Heirs vs. David 
 Gwynne and George Morris, in the United States Cir- 
 cuit Court Records, already discussed in the case of the 
 controversy over land adjoining the fort. These docu- 
 ments mutually supplemented each other ; and the old 
 newspapersmilitary correspondence, and county records, 
 together with a survey of the locality about the fort, 
 added whatever else was essential. 
 
 The relocation of Fort Washington was now com- 
 pleted and its site marked by a suitable monument, 
 
 72 
 
which was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, June 
 14, 1901. 
 
 This monument is built of native Ohio stone, in the 
 form of a blockhouse standing about nine feet above 
 the ground ; and it is surrounded by a chain railing sup- 
 ported by four old cannon. 
 
 The face of the monument towards the west carries 
 two bronze tablets, the upper one of these containing 
 the dedicatory inscription. 
 
 The lower tablet contains an outline map of the 
 main portion of the fort, together with the streets wiiich 
 intersected it or which surrounded the area upon which it 
 stood, shown in boldly relieved lines. 
 
 78 
 
T THE FORMAL dedication of the 
 monument which now marks the 
 site of Fort Washington, an inter- 
 esting coincidence presented itself. 
 In the year 1791, the Second Regi- 
 ment of hifantry was organized at 
 Fort Washington, a little prior to 
 starting out on the ill-fated cam- 
 paign of General St, Clair, when 
 Major Heart, the first commandant 
 of the regiment, was slain, together with many other 
 officers and men of the regiment, on the 4th of Novem- 
 ber of the same year. At the dedication of the monu- 
 ment in 1901, a detachment of this Second Regiment 
 was present and took part in the ceremonies. The 
 trim blue-clad soldiers who stood about the monument 
 in 1901, were the legal heirs, so to speak, of the old 
 Second Regiment which had gone forth to battle from 
 the same spot, one hundred and ten years before. 
 
 Four buglers from the regiment stood at "Attention" 
 by the old guns which formed the railing around the 
 the monument. At the word of command, they gave 
 out clearly and distinctly the "'reveille." The call had 
 been sounded by the trumpeters of the old regiment 
 more than a century before, waking the slumbering 
 echoes of the valley and startling the wild bird from 
 its nest, as the silver notes rolled across the shimmerin^z 
 waters of the Ohio, or v/ere hurled back with increased 
 volume from the forest-clad hills behind the fort. 
 
 Then came the final " taps," always of mournful 
 association, as the last [tribute of the living to the 
 memory of the dead; and in this case, as it seemed, a 
 
fitting conclusion to the obsequies of those who had 
 passed for the last time the frowning portal of old 
 Fort Washington. 
 
 fs 
 
 * J J' fl 
 
 75 
 
APPENDIX I— Narrative of Thomas Gregory 
 
 OF Cincinnati, O.— My grandfather, Jonathan Gregory, 
 came to the West under General St. Clair. Although he was 
 two years younger than the required age, and had no queue 
 (which was one of the requirements of the enlisted men) ; his 
 sister cut off her braid and supplied that portion of the outfit, 
 that he might go. 
 
 He reached Columbia, the settlement of Hezekiah Stites, on 
 the night of the fight between the settlers and the Indians, the 
 latter being whipped and routed back on to what is now called 
 Bold Hill. The victory was so complete (the Indians losing all 
 their corn in addition to the fight) that the settlers had a great 
 jollification, at which some of the participants indulged too freely, 
 resulting in a fight among themselves. 
 
 My grandfather and his brother, who had preceded him down 
 the river, afterwards went to Lexington, Ky., where they assist- 
 ed in erecting the first houses of that settlement, and returned 
 again to Northern Kentucky opposite the Stites settlement, or 
 Columbia, on the Ohio River, just below the mouth of the Lit- 
 tle Miami River, where my father and I were born. 
 
 These early settlers had a local " league " or understanding 
 that at the conclusion of the annual Harvest, they were to meet 
 at the '' Congo Tree" on Crawfish, at about the present site of 
 Wortman's Corner (Delta and Eastern Avenues) where there 
 was a magnificent spring to furnish water, and there celebrate 
 the Harvest Home with three weeks dancing and feasting. My 
 sister Ellen and I were privileged to carry the breakfast, dinner, 
 and supper daily to my father, who was an enthusiastic attend- 
 ant at these occasions. 
 
 My father, Thomas Gregory, lived in Campbell County, 
 Kentucky, on the hill back of what is now " Hartvvegs Land- 
 ing," a mile or so below the present Newport Water Works. 
 
 Near the edge of the high river bank on the Ohio side of the 
 river, at a point about one-half mile below the mouth of the Lit- 
 tle Miami River, there stood a blockhouse which in 1832 was 
 occupied by a family named Hart, but owned by Athan Stites, a 
 son of Hezekiah Stites and nephew of Captain Benjamin Stites 
 who were among the first settlers of Columbia in 1788. 
 
 This blockhouse was occupied in 1832 as a dwelling house, 
 by a family consisting of two young women, Catherine and 
 Mary Hart, and their brother, Jacob, a lad of about my own age, 
 
 76 
 
(9 years). The oldest daughter afterward married Athan Stites. 
 One day in the year 1832 one of the young women alluded to 
 (Catherine) crossed the river in a boat and coming to my father's 
 house requested as a favor that 1 might be allowed to come and 
 live at their house (the blockhouse) so as to be company for 
 their young brother Jacob. 
 
 My father granted the request and I accordingly went to 
 live with the family in the blockhouse, remaining there about 
 three years. 
 
 During those three years, say 1832-1834 inclusive, 1 lived in 
 the blockhouse and have a clear idea of its size and location, in 
 part from the fact that a brick house of Athan Stites,which is still 
 standing, was built at some time within the three years I mention, 
 and this brick house was constructed facing the river at a point 
 about 100 feet back of the blockhouse and had its western end at 
 about the center of the blockhouse. 
 
 I am led to remember the relative position of the brick house, 
 and the blockhouse in which I lived, from the circumstance that 
 with the other lad, Jacob Hart, I assisted in carrying brick to the 
 mason who was employed to build the house. We each piled 
 up a few bricks on a short board and thus carried them to where 
 he was at work. 
 
 The blockhouse was about eighteen feet wide and twenty- 
 four feet long with the gable end towards the Ohio River and 
 very close to the edge of the bank. 
 
 The building was constructed of round logs about the size of 
 a man's body, unhewed, but notched together at the corners. It 
 contained two rooms divided by a rough partition of split logs, 
 afterwards changed to a board partition, and above the first story 
 was a high garret or attic. The roof was covered with split logs 
 secured by wooden pins, afterwards replaced by clap-boards. 
 There was a puncheon floor, later removed for a more modern 
 substitute. The attic projected over the lower story and was 
 provided with port or loop holes for rifles. A large stone 
 chimney stood in the middle of the gable end farthest from the 
 river. This chimney was built outside of the logwork, but the 
 fireplace opened into the lower room. This fireplace was large 
 enough to take in logs about four feet in length and at night it 
 furnished our light, for lamps of any kind were very scarce. 
 
 The front of tlie liouse, facing the Ohio River, had a win- 
 dow and door in the lower story and a small window in attic. 
 
 77 
 
There was a window opening on each side of the house in the 
 back room and anotlier small window in the attic facing away 
 from the river. The door was a heavy one secured by a bar, and 
 the windows were protected by sohd plank shutters. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1838 during a high stage of the river, 
 two steamboats were passing the blockhouse at about the same 
 time, and the swells from these boats caused the bank to cave 
 away and the old blockhouse to fall into the river. 
 
 The day on which this accident occurred was the same as 
 that on which the boilers of the Steamer Moselle exploded, at 
 Fulton, (April 25, 1838). 
 
 The above is a true statement, as I remember the events of 
 the old blockhouse, which was said to have been built soon after 
 the landing of Benjamin Stites and his brother Hezekiah, with 
 other settlers, just below the Little Miami River, on Novem- 
 ber 18, 1788. 
 
 THOMAS GREGORY. 
 
 The above account of the Stites blockhouse at Columbia on 
 Sec. 29— Tp. 5 — F. R. I, was given in my presence and I hereby 
 bear witness to it and to ,the signature of Thomas Gregory the 
 narrator. 
 
 FRANK C. STOUT. 
 
 Sworn to and Subscribed in my presence this the i5lh day of 
 January, 1902. 
 (SEAL.) Walter Stone, 
 
 Notary Public, Hamilton County, O. 
 
 78 
 
APPENDIX Il.-LETTER FROM GENERAL HARMAk TO 
 
 GENERAL KNOX. 
 HEADQUARTERS, 
 
 Fort Washington, January 14, 1790. 
 
 SIR:— I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 letter of the 29th October last, to which 1 shall now particularly 
 reply. 
 
 The Governor of the Western Territory arrived at this post 
 on the 2d instant, and departed from hence on the 5th for the 
 Illinois country. I furnished him, agreeable to his request, with 
 an escort of fifty chosen men under the immediate command of 
 Lieut. Doyle. Major Wyllys accompanies him on this tour. 1 
 did not leave the Muskingum until the 24th ult, being detained 
 so long waiting for his and the Pay-master's arrival there. We 
 were four days upon our passage. The distance from thence to 
 this garrison (which is directly opposite the mouth of Licking 
 River), is about three hundred miles. Major Doughty is left to 
 command at Fort Harmar. 
 
 This will be one of the most solid, substantial wooden for- 
 tresses, when finished, of any in the Western Territory. It is 
 built of hewn timber, a perfect square, two stories high, with four 
 blockhouses at the angles. I am particularly indebted to Cap- 
 tain Ferguson and Lieutenant Pratt, for their indefatigable in- 
 dustry and attention in forwarding the work thus far. The plan 
 is Major Doughty's. On account of its superior excellence, I 
 have thought proper to honor it with the name of Fort IVash- 
 ington. The public ought to be benefited by the sale of these 
 buildings whenever we evacuate them, although they will cost 
 them but little. 
 
 About forty or fifty Kentucky boats have begun, and will 
 complete it. Limestone is the grand mart of Kentucky ; when- 
 ever boats arrive there tliey are scarcely of any value to the 
 owners ; they are frequently set adrift in order to make room for 
 the arrival of others. I have contracted for the above number for 
 the moderate price of from one to two dollars each ; thus much 
 for the plank work. All other expenses (wagon hire, nails, and 
 some glass excepted), are to be charged to the labor of the 
 troops. The lime we have burned ourselves, and the stone is at 
 hand. Be pleased to receive the inclosed plan of the fort. The 
 distance between the Little and Great Miami is twenty-eight 
 measured miles. Near the Little Miami there is a settlement 
 
 79 
 
called Columbia; here (seven miles distance from Columbia), 
 there is another named Losanteville. but lately changed to Cin- 
 cinnati, and Judge Symmes himself resides at the other, about 
 fifteen miles from hence, called the Miami City, at the north bend 
 of the Ohio river. They are, in general, but small cabins, and 
 the inhabitants of the poorer class of people. 
 
 It is very probable that the Creek nation, under Mr. 
 AVGillivray, may be troublesome on the frontiers of Georgia. 
 &c., during the ensuing summer, and especially as you inform me 
 that the commissioners who were appointed to hold a treaty with 
 them, returned from the Omee river unsuccessful. 
 
 1 observe that tlie Governor of the Western Territory is em- 
 powered by the President of the United States, in case the hos- 
 tilities of the Indians should render the measure inevitable, to 
 call on the nearest counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia for 
 militia — not exceeding, in the whole, fifteen hundred — to act in 
 conjunction with the federal troops, in such operations, offensive 
 and defensive, as the said Governor and the commanding officer 
 of tlie troops, conjointly, shall judge necessary for the public 
 service, and protection of the inhabitants and posts. You may 
 rest assured, sir, that in all these cases, the most f>erfect harmony 
 will ever subsist between the Governor and myself. 
 
 By this time it is presumed Congress is convened, and that 
 inste:\d of a temporary, a permanent establishment of the troops 
 will be made. 
 
 Lieutenant .Armstrong, 1 see, has been writing to the War 
 Office about brevet rank. He is a valuable officer, but instead of 
 troubling you upon the occasion, it is my opinion he should have 
 represented his grievances, if any there were, unto his command- 
 ing officer. 
 
 By the latest advices from Major Hamtramck he writes roe 
 that he had manoeuvred in such a manner as to divide the Weea 
 Indians, and that eighty of tlieir warriors had come into Post 
 Vincennes, and put themselves under the protection of the 
 United States. This may be considered as a very favorable cir- 
 cumstance, provided these yellow gentry adhere to their alle- 
 giance. 
 
 The difficulty of forwarding my disp.itches from this post to 
 the War Office, is great. Up tiie river, from here to Fort Pitt, is 
 about five hundred miles ; it is too fatiguing to be monthly send- 
 ing a boat against tiie stream for the purpose, unless an extra- 
 
 80 
 
ordinary occasion should require it. I am therefore making ar- 
 rangements to send my letters to Danville, in Kentucky, from 
 thence to be forwarded through the wilderness and deposited in 
 the postoffice at Richmond, which I believe to be the most expe- 
 ditious conveyance. 
 
 1 have the honor to be, &c., 
 
 Jos. harmar. 
 
 The Honorable Major — General Knox, Secretary at War, 
 New York. 
 
 81 
 
APPENDIX III —LETTERS FROM GENERAL WAYNE. 
 HEADQUARTERS, 
 
 GREENVILLE, 8th June 1794. 
 MESSRS. ELLIOT & WILLIAMS, 
 
 GENTLEMEN :— Having fully and confidentially communi- 
 cated to your Robt. Elliot the orders that I have received from 
 the Executive & the critical situation of America & of this 
 Legion threatened with an immediate attack from a heterogenous 
 Army composed of British troops, the AAilitia of Detroit & all 
 the hostile Savage tribes under the conduct of the famous Gov- 
 ernor Simcoe from the West, & by some European powers on 
 the ocean & Atlantic States.— 
 
 I have now to desire you to make every possible exertion to 
 send forward every supply of provision & to load all the horses 
 belonging to your own & the Q. M. Generals department with 
 the flour now at Fort Hamilton; the articles of Salt,Soap and Vine- 
 gar are also essentially necessary at this crisis ; as it is more timn 
 probable that the enemy will direct their attention in force against 
 our Convoys, this will be the last trip of the waggons from Fort 
 Washington to the head of the line for a length of time. Nor 
 can we count upon more than two trips of the Pack Horses 
 between this & Fort Hamilton, as the period of offensive is not 
 more than three weeks distant, when every arrangement must be 
 perfected for a:forward move, or to repel the attacks of the 
 Enemy. 
 
 You will therefore proceed at Reveille tomorrow morning with 
 the Escort to make the necessary & final arangements in your 
 department on the present momentous occasion. 
 
 With a full reliance upon your exertions & cordial co-oper- 
 ation in sending forward the required supplies 
 
 I am Gentlemen your Most Obdt. Hum. servt. 
 
 (COPY) ANTY WAYNE. 
 
 JOHN BELLI, ESQR., D. Q. M. G. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS, 
 
 GREENVILLE, 8 June, 1794. 
 
 SIR: — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 
 30th ultimo. — I am much pleased to hear that you have succeeded 
 so well in the purchase of cattle & that in your opinion the 
 
 £2 
 
contractors will be able to supply the troops in the future; but 
 this will require at least three hundred head per month independ- 
 ent of accident, which number the Contractors have promised to 
 supply. — 
 
 You may therefore for the present desist in any further pur- 
 chases of cattle than those already made, which I wish you to 
 forward with the first escort. — at present we have not more than 
 about three weeks supply of the meat kind for the Legion, nor 
 can I think of advancing with less than from six to eight hundred 
 head of cattle, which would not be more than ten weeks supply 
 in advance, should they all arrive safe.— 
 
 The waggons will set out from Fort Jefferson tomorrow morn- 
 ing for Fort Washington under a good escort commanded by 
 Maj. Hughes they are not to be delayed at that place more 
 than 48 hours if possibly to be avoided, — and to be'loaded with all 
 the tents, intrenching tools & axes,— such hospital & ordnance 
 stores as may be ordered by the heads of those departmts., 
 together with all the hunting shirts, & shirts and shoes that 
 may be in your possession, also all my own private stores under 
 the care of a select guard which you will request Major Hughes 
 to furnish from his detachment— You will likewise forward every 
 other necessary article in the line of your departmt for the use 
 of the Legion. — 
 
 Capt Pierce is directed to divide the detachment lately ar- 
 rived under Ens: McClane into two equal divisions, as escorts 
 to ply between Forts Washington & Hamilton — say 40 at each 
 place : you will therefore make use of as many private teams as 
 can be procured which with the use of the water transport when 
 a favorable rise may happen in the Miami will enable you to for- 
 ward the grain to Fort Hamilton the quantity of which, from the 
 enclosed copy of a letter from the Secry. of War to the Q. M. 
 Genl you will find to be considerably increased.— it will also 
 tend to shew you that there is not a single moment to be lost in 
 mounting the Dragoons & furnishing all the necessary ac- 
 coutrements that may be wanted for them — such as saddles, bri- 
 dles, &c., &c. 
 
 It's probable that Colo. O'Hara may arrive at Fort Wash- 
 ington by the time you receive this ; who will undoubtedly come 
 forward prepared with Cash.— if not the paymaster Gen. will 
 furnish you with two thousand dollars in specie & 8000 in good 
 bank bills to be replaced by your department. 
 
 63 
 
You are clearly & decidedly to understand that every ar- 
 rangement must be made in your department for a forward move 
 from this post on about the ist of July, agreeably to the enclosed 
 copy of a letter to the Contractors of this date, with whom you 
 will cordially co-operate in the transport— of flour &c., the trans- 
 port to be paid for or repaid as circumstances may hereafter suit . — 
 hence you will see the necessity of keeping an exact account of 
 all you have already made or that you may occassionally make 
 on their account. — 
 
 Wishing you perfect success in your purchases & supplies 
 of every nature in the line of your department, 
 
 I am Sir, your most obedt. humble servt. 
 
 ANTY Wayne. 
 
 84 
 
APPENDIX IV.— FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION 1799. 
 ^Frota the Western Spy & Hamilton Gazette, Tuesday July 9, 1799) 
 
 " Last Thursday being the fourth of July, it was celebrated 
 by the citizens of this town in a manner which does credit to its 
 inhabitants, and testifies that they hold in just estimation the 
 DAY which gave BIRTH to our NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 " The morning was ushered in by a Federal Salute from Fort 
 Washington, the ist Battalion of Hamilton Militia paraded at 
 the muster ground in the vicinity of this place, and went through 
 the customary evolutions and firings. — As to their performance, we 
 only need refer our Readers to the Governors General Orders. — 
 After the Battalion was dismissed, the Governor, the Federal 
 Officers from Fort Washington, the officers of Militia, and a 
 large number of respectable citizens dined under a bower pre- 
 pared for that purpose. — Capt. Miller having furnished a piece of 
 Artillery, which with Capt. Smith's company of Militia, accom- 
 panied by martial music made the woods resound to each of the 
 following : 
 
 TOASTS. 
 
 1. The PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.— 
 May the display of his firmness and Patriotic Spirit, endear him 
 to all who live under his administration. 
 
 2. GENERAL WASHINGTON,the Father and Friend of his 
 country. 
 
 3. The ANNIVERSARY we celebrate ; May every year im- 
 press on our minds a stronger sense of its consequence -and 
 blesssing. 
 
 4. The Memory of those who fought and bled to establish 
 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE ; May they never be forgotten. 
 
 5. Our INFANT NAVY; May it add to the Nation's honor 
 and wealth and confound her enemies. 
 
 6. The Army of the UNITED STATES. May they stand 
 and be ever ready to guard our rights and support our Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 7. Our Foreign Ministers. May they be respected as the 
 representatives of a great, free and independent people. 
 
 8. PEACE throughout all the world on just principles. 
 
 9. The OFFICERS of the different Departments in the 
 General Government— May they be faithful in executing the 
 duties of their important stations, 
 
 85 
 
10. Ihe NORTH WESTERN TERRITORY. 
 
 11. The Fair sex of America.— May their influence lead 
 to the happiness of the nation. 
 
 12. Agriculture and Commerce. — May we feel their happy 
 effects like the SUN from East to West making a plentiful har- 
 vest. 
 
 13. The Old Patriots of Seventy-six; May they retain 
 their energy and hand down their principles to the latest pos- 
 terity. — 
 
 14. Confusion and Reformation to all designing Bad Men, 
 who are endeavoring to mar the peace and prosperity of our 
 country. 
 
 15. May the American eagle soar triumphantly when 
 danger approaches. 
 
 " In the evening the Gentlemen joined a brilliant Assembly 
 of Ladies at Mr. Yeatman's in Town, and it is impossible to de- 
 scribe the ecstatic pleasure that appeared to be enjoyed by all 
 present at the Celebration of the Auspicious Day, and the 
 scene closed in perfect harmony." 
 
 86 
 
APPENDIX v.— MEMORIAL FUNERAL FOR WASHING- 
 TON :— " At 12 o'clock the troops formed on the flat in front of 
 the garrison (then under command of Capt. Miller), where they 
 were joined by Captain Findlays (and Capt. Browns) troop of 
 horse, the Masonic brethern and a large concourse of citizens, all 
 eager to testify their high veneration for the character of the 
 deceased. The bier was received by the troops formed in lines, 
 with presented arms, officers, drums and colors saluting. 
 
 "The procession than moved on in the following order- 
 Minute guns firing from the garrison and the music performing a 
 solemn dirge. 
 
 Cavalry 
 Regular Troops 
 Horse, representing that of the General, with saddle, holsters 
 and pistols, and boots reversed 
 
 Rev. Mr. Wallace 
 Pall Bearers 
 To the left of Bier To the right of Bier 
 
 Dr. Sellman Dr. Elliott 
 
 Capt. Prince Maj. Ziegler 
 
 Col. Spencer Major Goforth 
 
 His excellency the Governor and the Attorney General as 
 Mourners 
 
 Masonic Brethern 
 Militia Officers in Uniform 
 Citizens. 
 " Having proceeded through different streets, and arrived at 
 the place representing that of interment, the military halted, and 
 opening their lines, formed an avenue for the bier and those im- 
 mediately attendant on it to pass through, the troops leaning on 
 reversed arms. 
 
 "The coffin having been deposited in the grave, a prayer 
 suitable to the occasion was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Wallace, 
 after which the Masonic Brethern performed their ceremony. 
 
 " Three discharges of musketry over the grave concluded 
 the ceremonies." Western Spy & Gazette of Feb. 5, 1800. 
 
 S7 
 
APPENDIX VI.— DEPOSITION OF JOHN CLEVES SYMMES. 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 
 DISTRICT OF OHIO. 
 
 December Term 1829. 
 
 Lessee op Hakmer Heirs ) 
 
 vs. > Ejectment. 
 
 GWYNNE AND MORRIS. ) 
 
 (^.268.) 
 
 "Be it remembered that on this seventeenth day of February 
 in the year 1809 (pursuant to due notice given him), personally 
 appeared before us the subscribing two Associate Judges of the 
 Court of Common Pleas, in and for the county aforesaid, James 
 Silvers and John Matson, the underwritten deponent, John 
 Cleves Symmes, who being examined on oath in the premises, 
 in order to perpetuate testimony between Josiah Harmer, Esquire, 
 of the State of Pennsylvania, and Ethan Stone, Esquire, of Cin- 
 cinnati, in the State of Ohio, of and concerning the purchase of 
 eight small lots, commonly called in-lots, lying in the eastern 
 part of the Town of Cincinnati, and between the creek or branch 
 of water called Deer Creek and the body of the Town of Cin- 
 cinnati, or rather the ground heretofore used for a Parade in front 
 of the late Fort Washington. This deponent, the said John 
 Cleves Symmes, deposeth and saith, that in the fall of the year 
 1789, Major John Doughty arrived at Cincinnati with a detach- 
 ment of the Army of the United States, and laid the foundation of 
 Fort Washington in Cincinnati, that very early in the beginning 
 of the year 1790, at the special request of many of the officers 
 of the Garrison at that time stationed in Fort Washington, this 
 deponent was induced to lay out into small lots of sixty square 
 Rods each, a portion of land between said Fort Washington, and 
 the aforesaid Parade on the West and the before mentioned Deer 
 Creek on the East — this deponent further saith that soon after 
 the laying out of the aforesaid small lots, he sold eight of the 
 said lots to General Josiah Harmer, at that time Commandant 
 of the Garrison in said Fort Washington, at the price of Thirty- 
 two pounds, Pennsylvania Currency, which sum of Thirty-two 
 pounds this deponent declares was fully paid and satisfied unto 
 him by the said purchaser, General Josiah Harmer, the greater 
 part thereof in cash, and fifteen dollars thereof by the acceptance 
 of an order in favor of Abner Hunt, drawn by this deponent in 
 
April, 1790, on said General Harmer, and by said Josiah Harmer. 
 Paid to said Abner Hunt in full of said Order for said fifteen dol- 
 lars, which closed the account of this deponent against the said 
 Josiah Harmer for the purchase money of said Eight Lots, which 
 eight lots are particularly described and set forth in a deed of 
 conveyance of the said eight lots, made sealed and delivered by 
 the said John Cleves Symmes to the said General Josiah Har- 
 mer by which deed of transfer the title to the said Eight Lots as 
 this deponant believes and fully intended in the month of May, 
 in the year 1791, (the date of said deed) became vested in the 
 said Josiah Harmer. This deponent further saith that from the 
 time of the sale of said Eight Lots to the said Josiah Harmer, he, 
 this deponent, hath never entertained any idea that the said 
 Eight Lots, as described in said deed, was in any degree his prop- 
 erty, or that he had any control over them, the said General 
 Harmer forthwith taking them into his immediate possession and 
 occupancy. Question by Mr. Stone : Was the deed dated and 
 executed on the day it purports to have been, to-wit, on the day 
 and year therein specified? Ans.: I verily believe it was. Ques- 
 tion by Mr. Stone : Was the deed at that time delivered to Gen- 
 eral Harmer? Answer: 1 verily believe it was. And further 
 this deponent saith not. 
 
 JOHN Cleves Symmes. 
 Sworn and subscribed to the day and year first written be- 
 fore us. 
 
 JAMES SILVERS, 
 JOHN MATSON. 
 
 89 
 
APPENDIX VII.— Certificate of Joseph Gest. 
 
 (From Book of vSuia-eys in Cincinnati, 1833.) 
 James Jackson ex dem. Josiah Harmers Heirs, Plaintiff, ) 
 
 vs. V Ejectment. 
 
 George Morris and David Gwynne, Defendants. ) 
 
 "Pursuant to an order of the Circuit Court of the United 
 States, seventh circuit, Ohio District, of December Term, 1828. 
 Monday 29. The undersigned surveyor, of the City of Cin- 
 cinnati, did on the 9th day of April, 1829, a day fixed by the 
 Plaintiff, (David Gwynne, one of the Defendants being sick 
 and unable to attend) and on the i6th day of April, inst., a day 
 fixed on by the Defendants, the Plaintiff attending proceeded to 
 the premises in controversy and surveyed the claims of the 
 different parties and examined such and objects as sup- 
 posed to have a bearing to prove their respective claims as 
 pointed out or suggested by the parties, 1 find the ground in con- 
 troversy or ed by Plaintiff to be sixty feet three inches 
 
 on Front Street, running back nortliwarJly, Ilel to Law- 
 rence Street, twenty poles or three hundred and thirty feet to the 
 second street from the River, called Congress Street. 
 
 Said claim lays immediately westward of and lots 
 
 Number three and twenty-two, of John Cleves Symmes' map, as 
 may be fully seen by the annexed map, showing the connection 
 and interference of the U. S. Subdivision, Cincinnati, April 27, 
 1829. 
 
 Joseph Gest, City Surveyor." 
 
 N. B. The incomplete words occurred in margin which was torn. 
 
 90 
 
APPENDIX VIII.— Deposition of Joseph Gest. 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 
 DISTRICT OF OHIO. 
 December Term, 1829. 
 Lessee of Harmer Heirs ) 
 
 vs. > EjECTMEHT. 
 
 GWYNNB AND MORRIS. J 
 
 {p. 291.) 
 
 "Be it remembered that on the seventh day of July 1829 at 
 the office of Charles Hammond Esquire in Cincinnati between 
 the hours of eight o'clock A. M. and seven o'clock P. M. person- 
 ally came before me Enos Woodruff an Associate Judge of the 
 County of Hamilton aforesaid, Joseph Gest who being first 
 carefully examined cautioned and sworn to testify the whole 
 truth to be read in evidence in the above entitled cause, does 
 depose and say 
 
 That the annexed plat was made by him as City Surveyor in 
 pursuance of an order of Court for that purpose and is a correct 
 copy of that returned to Court. Deponent says that he was 
 called upon by G- W. Jones to lay out Harmers lots according to 
 a decree of Court as he understood as well as he recollects. Mr. 
 Jones said they could not make a better of it than to take Ethan 
 Stones Statement of the boundaries, and that Mr. Stone would be 
 on the ground for that purpose, he also referred me to Mr. Este, 
 for the same purpose, who told me about the same, and that Mr. 
 Stone did come upon the ground and designated the boundaries, 
 and the survey was made accordingly and is described on the map 
 by light blue lines and the letters 1. K. N. L. D. M. 
 
 At a subsequent period he was called upon by G. W. Jones or 
 Josiah Harmer to fix the point for building the brick house marked 
 S. on the plat at the intersection of Front and Ludlow Streets 
 and he fixed the corner where the house is now built. He 
 believes the house was built by or for the heirs of Harmer. Sub- 
 sequently to the time of fixing the corner, Deponent further says 
 that Mr. Jones went with him on the ground in company with 
 Mr. Stone but is not certain that he was there when the 
 survey was made. He recollects no difference between Mr. Jones 
 and Mr. Stone at the time as to the situation of the ground. Mr. 
 Jones did not pretend to have any personal knowledge of the 
 situation of the lots. After the survey according to the blue 
 lines was made in pursuance to the decree he handed it to Mr. 
 Jones while standing on the steps of the U. States Bank. 
 
 JOSEPH GEST," 
 
 91 
 
APPENDIX IX.— DEPOSITION OF DANIEL DRAKE. 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 
 
 DISTRICT OF OHIO. 
 
 December Term, 1829. 
 
 Lessee of Harmer Heirs ) 
 
 vs > Ejectment. 
 
 GwrNNE AND Morris. \ 
 (p. 291.) 
 
 "Be it remembered that on the seventh day of July 1829 at 
 the office of Charles Hammond Esquire in Cincinnati between the 
 hours of eight o'clock A. M. and seven o'clock P. M. personally 
 came before me Enos Woodruff as Associate Judge of the 
 County of Hamilton aforesaid, Joseph Gest who being first care- 
 fully examined cautioned and sworn to testify the whole truth to 
 be read in evidence in the above entitled cause, does depose and 
 say." »•»**** 
 
 (p.m.) 
 
 "Same time and place came Daniel Drake, who likewise 
 being carefully examined cautioned and sworn to testify the 
 whole truth does depose and say. I was present on the scite of old 
 Fort Washington at the time that Joseph Gest the City Sur\'ey- 
 or made a survey of the foundation of that Fort a plat and 
 description of which is now before me, and I believe that the line 
 and angles of said Fort as laid down by him are accurate as it is 
 possible to fix them, Question. How is it that you are able to tes- 
 tify to this fact? Answer. 1 once lived in the rooms that were occu- 
 pied by the Commander of the Garrison, this was in 1802 or 3, and 
 afterward in 1808 when the reserve was sold by the Govern- 
 ment, I purchased several lots which included the S. E Angle 
 and Block house and built upon the same, where I resided, from 
 1812 to 1823, during which period the foundations of the Fort 
 were everywhere to be seen and could be compared with the lines 
 and corners of the lots and streets, finally in preparing a plat of 
 the town, for the picture of Cincinnati in 1814 I took great care 
 and pains to lay down the scite of the Fort correctly and find that 
 the plat made by Mr. Gest corresponds almost exactly with it. 
 Question by the Defendants. How did Fort Washington front 
 and where was the principal Gateway? Answer. It fronted lo 
 the South, a little inclining to the east. The whole Soutli Front 
 was on the South side of Front street, but not exactly parallel to 
 it. The South West Block-house was farther from the street 
 than the South East. The Great Gate was I believe in tlie 
 centre of the South line of Block-houses. Question by the Defend- 
 ants. What would be the location of four lots, the calls for 
 which were lying directly in front of Fort Washington ? Answer. 
 They must all be between Ludlow Street and Broadway, that is 
 West of Ludlow Street. 
 
 DANIEL DRAKE." 
 
 92 
 
APPENDIX X.— DEPOSITION OF WILLIAM BERRY. 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 
 DISTRICT OF OHIO. 
 
 December Term, 1829. 
 
 Lessee of Harmer Heirs) 
 
 vs. |- Ejectment, 
 
 GWYNNE AND MORRIS. ) 
 
 (/. 876.) 
 
 "Be it remembered that on the 31st. day of March, 1829, 
 before me, Enos Woodruff, one of the Associate Judges of the 
 Court of Common Pleas for Hamilton County, in the State of 
 Ohio, came Christopher Cary." 
 
 (A S77.) 
 
 "Same time came William Berry, who in like manner, being 
 carefully examined, cautioned and sworn, deposeth and saith : 
 That he came to Cincinnati the spring after St. Clairs defeat 
 with a detachment of troops, and was put in the Garrison and 
 stayed there for about one year. Understood there were lots on 
 the bottom called General Harmer 's lots. They lay the upper 
 side of what is now called Ludlow Street. Question by Plain- 
 tiff's counsel : Will you state whether you were acquainted where 
 Ludlow Street now runs? Answer: I do. 1 helped make it. 
 Question by same : Will you state if you can what number of 
 lots situated on the bottom you understood belonged to General 
 Harmer? Answer : I cannot say how many, but understood he 
 had lots there. Witness says as early as 1795 or thereabouts he 
 was acquainted with an old cellar not a great way beiow Ruffins 
 Corner, between the Columbia road and the River — was acquaint- 
 ed with the situation of the summer house on the hill, thinks it 
 stood on Strongs lot — has been on the ground to-day and meas- 
 ured the distance from the town blockhouse near Drakes Corner 
 to where he believes the summer house stood— the distance is 
 about one hundred and thirty feet eastwardly. Drakes Corner 
 is the corner of Third and Ludlow Street — said blockhouse stood 
 on Drakes Corner. Q. by Defendants : Did you ever see 
 the lots on the bottom called Harmers lots surveyed? Ans- 
 wer : No, I never did. Question : How then do you know 
 that Harmers lots on the bottom were located above or east- 
 wardly of what is now called Ludlow street ? Answer : I never 
 knew where they were located except by hearsay from other 
 people. 
 
 his 
 WILLIAM X Berry." 
 
 mark 
 93 
 
APPENDIX XI.— Deposition of William H. Orcutt. 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UN'ITED STATES FOR THE 
 DISTRICT OF OHIO. 
 December Term, 1829. 
 Lessee of Harmer Heirs ) 
 
 vs. V Ejectment. 
 
 Gwynne and Morris. ) 
 
 " Be it remembered that on the 31st day of Mnrch 1S29, be- 
 fore me Enos Woodruff one of the Associate Judj^es of tiie 
 Court of Common Pleas for Hamilton County in the Slate of 
 Ohio came Christopher Cary." 
 
 »-x- #»■»•*«* 
 
 (p. S77.) 
 
 " Same time and place came William H. Orcutt who also 
 was carefully examined and cautioned and sworn to testify the 
 whole truth deposes and says : He came to Cincinnati in the 
 year 1789 in the month of August with other troops. Soon after 
 they proceed to clear the ground and build the blockhouses, 
 in Fort Washington. Staid in Cincinnati 3 or 4 months, was 
 then sent off on command and staid 8 months and then re- 
 turned to Cincinnati. Was well acquainted with the situation 
 of the Garrison and the blockhouses ; there were four block- 
 houses in the Garrison one at each corner and one in the Artifi- 
 cers yard ; have this day been on the ground where the Gar- 
 rison stood and was in my own mind able to fix the corners. 
 The Southeast blockhouse stood on Drakes Corner at the junc- 
 tion of Ludlow and Third street. There was a kind of trace 
 coming up from the river on the the east side of the Garrison. 
 VVitnqss further says that when on the ground this day he 
 pointed out to Air. Gest where the Summer house stood. - There 
 was a place on the river called the iStone Landing 10 or 15 rods 
 below Ruffins Corner, was acquainted with a man by the name 
 of Jones who was about the Garrison who cultivated a garden 
 near the Summer house for General Harmer and had free access 
 to the Garrison. Question by Defendants Counsel. What was 
 the position of the blockhouse in the Artificers yard, in relation 
 to the Garrison? Answer. It was to the west of Garrison. 
 The Artificers yard was somewhat in the form of a triangle and 
 the blockhouse was on the western corner of the triangle. 
 Q. by same. What width do you estimate the Garrison to have 
 been? Answer. About 120 feet, there were six barrack rooms 
 in each rov/, of about 20 feet each. Q. by same. How long 
 since you have been on the ground before last week ? Answer. 
 About 30 years, and further saith not. 
 
 WM. H. ORCUTT. 
 
 Mr. Orcutt further states that there were three barrack 
 rooms on each side of the gate fronting the river 
 
 WM. H. ORCUTT. 
 
 94 
 
APPENDIX XII.— DEPOSITION OF DAVID LEWIS. 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 
 
 DISTRICT OF OHIO. 
 
 December Term, 1829. 
 
 Lessee of Warmer Heirs) 
 
 vs V Ejectment, 
 
 GWYNNE AND MoRRIS. ) 
 
 (/. S74.) 
 
 " Be it remembered that on the 31st day of March 1829 at 
 the office of Casewell and Starr in Cincinnati before me Enos 
 Woodruff an Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
 of the County of Hamilton and State of Ohio, came David 
 Lewis exceeding the age of sixty years and after being carefully 
 examined cautioned and sworn to testify the whole truth, 
 deposeth and saith. 
 
 (/>. 275.) 
 
 " Question by same : Was the front of Fort Washington 
 between Broadway and the first street east of Broadway and 
 running parallel to it? Answer: Fort Washington fronted the 
 river and was on the east side of Broadway. Question by 
 Plaintiff's Counsel. A map is now shown you with the name 
 of Thomas Henderson on it, have you examined that 
 map and does it correctly denote the situation of the block- 
 house, Ruffins Corner and other objects according to your 
 recollection when you first knew their situation. Answer. I 
 have examined the map and it does denote the situation of 
 the four blockhouses. Ruffms Corner, the cellar and the summer 
 house agreeably to my memory and recollections. Question by 
 same. Will you state whether within a day or two past you 
 have been upon the ground to point out the former situation of 
 those objects according to your recollection. Answer. I was. 
 Question by same. Will you state whether you were able in 
 your own mind to fix upon those objects as you believe 
 them to have been without consulting others? Answer. Yes I 
 was. I pointed out their situation without consulting others. 
 Quesiion by Defts. Counsel. Did not the four blockhouses 
 that originally stood in the four corners of the Garrison 
 form accordins to the best of your recollection a square? Answer. 
 They appeared so. Question by same. Was not the two West 
 blockhouses on aline of what was then called Eastern Row? 
 Answer. They both stood on the east side of what was called 
 the Eastern Row and some distance from it. 
 
 **«***f* 
 
 David Lewis." 
 
 96 
 
APPENDIX xill.— Deposition of Griffin yeatman. 
 
 CIRCUIT court of THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 
 DISTRICT OF OHIO. 
 December Term, 1829. 
 Lessee of Harmer Heirs i 
 
 vs. > Ejectment. 
 
 GWYNNE AND MORRIS. ) 
 
 (/. t78.) 
 
 "Be it remembered that on the first day of May, 1820 before 
 me Enos Woodruff one of the Associate Judges of the Court of 
 Common Pleas for the County of Hamilton and State of Ohio, 
 came Jacob White." 
 (/. 280.) 
 
 "Same time and place came Griffin Yeatman who being first 
 carefully examined cautioned and sworn to testify the whole 
 truth does depose and say. Question. Who was the reputed 
 owner of the lots on half block directly west of Ruffins Corner 
 situated on Front and Lawrence Street in the year 1791 or about 
 that time? I came to Cincinnati in the year 1793 and in that 
 year 1 understood that General Josiah Harmer was the owner 
 of lots lying west of what is called Ruffins Corner. Ques- 
 tion by same. Did you understand that General Harmers lots 
 lay immediately west and near to Ruffins Corner, or did they 
 belong to some one else, and if to any other person to whom 
 did they belong? There was a cellar dug on the lots west 
 of Ruffins Corner called St. Clairs Cellar, but never heard 
 of any one owning lots here but General Harmer, the cellar is 
 laid down upon the map of Mr. Gest which is now before me. 
 and agreeable to my impression it is correct or nearly so as to its 
 east and west position. GRIFFIN YEATMAN." 
 
 The United States of America, 
 Southern District of Ohio, 
 Western Division. 
 1, BENJAMIN R. COWEN, CLERK of the CIRCUIT COURT 
 
 of the United states of America, within and for the Dis- 
 trict and DIVISION aforesaid, do hereby certify that the fore- 
 5oing Entries, being the sworn statements, respectively, of 
 ohn Cleves Symmes, February 17, 1809 [Appendix VI]; Joseph 
 Gest, July 7, 1829 [Appendix Vlll]; Daniel Drake, July 7, 1829 
 [Appendix IX]; William Berry, March 31, 1820 [Appendix X]; 
 Wm. H. Orcutt, March 31, 1829 [Appendix Xl]; David Lewis, 
 March 31, 1829 [Appendix XII]; and Griffin Yeatman, May i, 
 1829 [Appendix XIll]; all presented in this Court at the Decem- 
 ber Term, 1829, are truly taken and correctly copied from the 
 Journal of said Court. 
 
 IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF. 1 have hereunto set my Hand 
 and affixed the seal of said Court at the city of Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio, this261h day of May. A. D. 1902, and in 
 [SEAL] the one hundred and twenty-sixth year of the Inde- 
 pendence of the United States of America. 
 
 B. R. COWEN, CLERK. 
 96 
 
APPENDIX XIV. — EARLY CINCINNATI AND FORT 
 WASHINGTON: — "Between Eastern-row (a narrow street now 
 enlarged into Broadway) and Main-Street, on Front and 
 Columbia Streets, there were about twenty log houses; and on 
 Sycamore and Main, principally on the second bank, or hill, as it 
 was called, there were scattered about fifteen cabins more. At 
 the foot of this bank, extending across Broadway and Main 
 Streets, were large ponds, on which as lately as the winter of 
 1798, I have seen boys skating. All the ground from the foot of 
 the second bank to the river, between Lawrence-Street and 
 Broadway, and appropriated to the Fort, was an open space, on 
 which, although no trees were left standing, most of their large 
 trunks were still lying. On the top, and about eighty feet dis- 
 tant from the brow of the second bank, facing the river, stood 
 Fort Washington, occupying nearly all the ground between 
 Third and Fourth Streets, and between Ludlow— Street and 
 Broadway. This fort, of nearly a square form, was simply a 
 wooden fortification, whose four sides or walls, each about one 
 hundred and eighty feet long, were constructed of hewed logs, 
 erected into barracks two stories high, connected at the corners 
 by high pickets, with bastions or blockhouses, also of hewed logs, 
 and projecting about ten feet in front of each side of tlie fort, 
 so that the cannon placed within them could be brought to rake 
 its walls. Through the centre of the south side, or front of the 
 fort, was the principal gateway, a passage through this line of 
 barracks, about twelve feet wide and ten feet high, secured by 
 strong wooden doors of the same dimensions. Appended to the 
 fort on its north side, and enclosed with high palisades extending 
 from its north-east and north-west corners to a blockhouse, was a 
 small triangular space, in which were constructed shops for the 
 accommodation of the artificers. [This Artificers' Yard, as was 
 established by testimony offered in the United States Court in 
 1829, was on the west, not north, side.] Extending along the 
 whole front of the fort, was a fine esplanade, about eighty 
 feet wide and enclosed with a handsome paling on the brow of 
 the bank; the descent from which, to the lower bottom, was slop- 
 ing, about thirty feet." 
 
 (From "A True Narrative of the Capture of Rev. O. M. Speucer by 
 the Indians," p. 27.) 
 
 97 
 
APPENDIX XV.— THE TROLLOPE FAMILY IN AMERICA. 
 — Mrs. Trollope, with her two daughters and a son, sailed from 
 London on the 4th of November, 1827. After a tedious voyage 
 extending over fifty-one days, the ship reached the mouth of the 
 Mississippi on Christmas Day, and in the following February 
 the party reached Cincinnati. 
 
 Of the plans then formed, Mr. Thomas Adolphus Trollope 
 wrote: "It was determined, by the advice of what Cincinnati 
 friends I know not, that he (Henry Trollope) should join my 
 mother there, and undertake the establishment and conduct of 
 an institution which, so far as I was able to understand the plan, 
 was to combine the specialties of an Athenaeum, a lecture hall, 
 and bazaar ; and it was when this enterprise had been decided 
 upon, but before any steps had been taken for the realizing of it, 
 that I accompanied my father on a visit to America." According 
 to this arrangement, Mr. Thomas Anthony Trollope, Barrister-at- 
 Law, and his son, Thomas Adolphus, taking steerage passage in 
 the ship Corinthian, sailed from England in September, 1828, and 
 joined the other members of the family in Cincinnati. 
 
 The deed which conveyed the land upon which the bazaar 
 was built, reads as follows : "This indenture, made the twenty- 
 first (21) day of January, in the Year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty-nine, by and between Jared Mansfield, 
 Esq., of the City of Cincinnati in the State of Ohio, and Eliza- 
 beth, his wife of the first part, and Thomas Anthony Trollope of 
 the Middle Temple, London, Barrister-at-Law, of the second 
 part." The consideration named in the deed is $1,655.00, and 
 the conveyance is for "All that plat, piece or parcel of ground 
 situate on the south side of Third Street near Broadway in the 
 city of Cincinnati aforesaid, being lot number seven of square 
 number two." 
 
 Anthony Trollope wrote of the building: "And the bazaar 
 was built, I have seen it since in the town of Cincinnati — a sorry 
 building." This, however, was after the enterprise had been 
 overtalcen by misfortune, which indeed came quickly enough. 
 On the i8th of November. 182Q, a mortgage was recorded against 
 the building by a firm which had furnished hardware and other 
 material, set forth in their bill in sums ranging from ten cents 
 upvvard. As a foil to the "pins, pocket-knives and pepper 
 boxes" of which Anthony Trollope wrote so derisively, we find 
 the family sternly confronted with a demand for the payment of 
 
a bill for nails, sand paper and screws. These little insignificant 
 details of house construction were likely to prove the ruin of the 
 grand enterprise, but somehow the financial difficulties were 
 temporarily tided over and the building was completed. 
 
 The bazar was of brick and stone, about thirty-four feet in 
 width, as shown by the old records, and in depth, covering the 
 greater portion of lot "number seven," now occupied by the 
 western part of "The Lorraine," on the south side of Third 
 Street a little east of Broadway. 
 
 The Trollopes had some warm friends in Cincinnati, and 
 while embittered by pecuniary losses, one of the family wrote 
 with interest of meeting local celebrities — Hiram Powers, the 
 sculptor, and Nicholas Long worth, as well as of the private the- 
 atricals at the house of Doctor and Mrs. Price. The grand 
 scheme for making the family fortunes was destined to fail 
 because of want of capital, and a total lack of experience in con- 
 ducting business affairs. Mrs. Trollope wrote, in 1832: "We 
 quitted Cincinnati in the beginning of March, 1830, and I believe 
 there was not one of our party who did not experience a sensation 
 of pleasure in leaving it." 
 
 99 
 
APPENDIX XVI.— ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR 
 AT Cincinnati.— On the 3rd of January, 1790, a party of set- 
 tlers landed at Cincinnati,among whom was Benjamin Van Cleve 
 one of the founders of Dayton, Ohio. He states that on the pre- 
 ceding day (January 2) General St Clair, the Governor, had 
 arrived. Having issued a proclamation erecting the County of 
 Hamilton, he appointed judges and justices of the peace for the 
 county. The building of Fort Washington was still in progress, 
 but it was already occupied by four companies of infantry com- 
 manded respectively by Strong, Pratt, Kersey, and Kingsbury, 
 and by Fords company of Artillery^ 
 
 Memorandum— Benj, Van Cleve, Amer. Pioneer, Vol. 2, p 148. 
 
 100