GALLIA
COUNTY
Page 668
GALLIA
COUNTY was formed from Washington, April 30, 1803. The word Gallia is the ancient name of
France, from whence it was originally settled. The surface is generally broken,
excepting in the eastern part, and on the Ohio river
and Kiger creek, where it is more level and the soil
fertile. Much of the county is well
adapted to wheat, and a great part covered with a sandy loam. Area, 430 square
miles. In 1885 the acres
cultivated were 69,775; in pasture, 86,973; woodland, 48,800; lying waste,
6,298; produced in wheat, bushels, 44,552; oats, 84,035; corn, 654,383;
tobacco, pounds, 153,325; butter, pounds, 461,471.
School census 1886—pupils, 5,359; teachers, 261. It has 41 miles of railroad.
Township And Census |
1840. |
1880. |
|
Township And Census |
1840. |
1880. |
Addison, |
692 |
1,440 |
|
Huntington, |
972 |
1,758 |
Cheshire, |
791 |
2,030 |
|
Morgan, |
744 |
1,465 |
Clay, |
745 |
1,507 |
|
Ohio, |
626 |
1,429 |
Gallipolis, |
1,413 |
5,227 |
|
Perry, |
973 |
1,329 |
Green, |
1,047 |
1,532 |
|
Raccoon, |
1,610 |
1,821 |
Greenfield, |
639 |
1,209 |
|
Springfield, |
991 |
1,782 |
Guyan, |
342 |
2,227 |
|
Walnut, |
423 |
1,892 |
Harrison, |
688 |
1,426 |
|
Wilkesville, |
738 |
|
The
population of the county was, in 1820, 7,098; in 1830, 9,733; in 1840, 13,445;
in 1860, 20,453; in 1870, 22,743; in 1880, 25,178, of whom 22,763 were
Ohio-born; 2,470 Virginia; 505 Pennsylvania; 323 German Empire; 398 England and
Wales; 92 Ireland; 27 France.
The
first settlement in Gallia county was at
Gallipolis. It was settled in 1791,
by a French colony sent out under the auspices of the “Scioto
Company.” This was an
association formed in Paris, the project of Col. William DUER, of New York,
Secretary of the United States Board of Treasury, a large operator and a man of
speculative turn. He was of English
birth and had been a member of the Continental Congress. While Dr. Manasseh CUTLER was
negotiating for the passage of the ordinance of the Ohio Company’s
Purchase Mr. DUER went to him and proposed to connect with it an outside land
speculation and colonization scheme.
The passage of the ordinance seemed hopeless without DUER’S influence
Page 669
and as offered generous conditions CUTLER
acceded. With his influence its
success was certain. The matter,
however, was to be kept a profound secret.
The generous conditions on the part of DUER to the
Ohio Company for permitting the contract to be made under cover of its petition
was a loan of $143,000 in securities, to enable it to complete the first
payment to the Board of Treasury, many shareholders of the Ohio Company having
failed to respond promptly to the call.
In
October, 1787, Dr. CUTLER and SARGENT closed two contracts with the Board of
Treasury. One with Manasseh CUTLER
and Winthrop SARGENT, as agents for the directors of the “Ohio Company of
Associates, so called,” was an absolute purchase of 1,500,000 acres,
lying between the Ohio river, the 7th and 17th ranges of
townships, and extending north from the river till a line due west from the 7th
to the 17th range should, with the reservations stated in the
contract, include the whole amount.
The other with Manasseh CUTLER and Winthrop SARGENT, “for
themselves and associates,” was an option to purchase all the lands lying
between the Ohio and Scioto rivers and the 17th Range, extending
north to the line of the 10th Range Township, and also all the land
east of this tract, west of the 7th Range, south of the 10th
Township, and north of the Ohio Company’s purchase. The whole tract of land included in the
last contract was estimated to be from 3,000,000 to 3,500,000 acres. In each contract the line of the 17th
range is recognized as yet to be determined. The price of the land was one dollar per
acre, subject to a reduction of one-third for bad land, to be paid in gold,
silver, or securities of the United States.
From
the above it is seen that Dr. CUTLER and Major SARGENT made an absolute
purchase from the Board of Treasury for the direct use of the Ohio Company, and
a contract for the right of purchase or pre-emption right of the three millions
and a half or thereabouts wanted by DUER and associates. Having done this they ceded to the
latter the pre-emption right.
CUTLER and SARGENT, members of the Ohio Company, were included as
associates with DUER.
What
we may term the Scioto tract was divided into thirty shares, of which DUER took
13, CUTLER and SARGENT jointly 13, and the remaining four were to be sold in
Europe. CUTLER and SARGENT assigned
interests to Generals Benjamin TUPPER, Rufus PUTNAM, S. H. PARSONS, and Royal
FLINT. Joel BARLOW was also given
an interest by DUER of one-sixtieth of the tract, he being selected as agent to
go to Paris and sell the four shares.
He arrived there the last of June, 1788. He could, however, sell only the
“right of pre-emption.”
BARLOW took with him a copy of a pamphlet by Dr. CUTLER entitled
“An explanation of the Map which delineates that part of the Federal
lands comprehended between Pennsylvania, the Rivers Ohio, Scioto, and Lake
Erie.” This pamphlet was
reprinted in Paris, in 1789, with the endorsement of Capt. Thomas HUTCHINS, the
geographer of the United States, as to its accuracy.
At
first BARLOW met with indifferent success, but early in 1789 he got acquainted
with William PLAYFAIR, whom he describes as an “Englishman of a bold and
enterprising spirit and a good imagination.”
In
July of that year the Bastile was taken and all
France was in an uproar. The times
were propitious for schemes of emigration.
BARLOW and PLAYFAIR issued “Prospectus for an Establishment on the
Rivers Ohio and Scioto.” In
preparing this they used the pamphlet of Dr. CUTLER and Capt. HUTCHINS descriptive
of the Ohio country, with additions and embellishments wherein PLAYFAIR’s “good imagination” was
displayed, as is shown by the annexed extract:
A
climate wholesome and delightful, frost even in winter almost entirely unknown,
and a river called, by way of eminence, the beautiful,
and abounding in excellent fish of a vast size. Noble forests, consisting of trees that
spontaneously produce sugar (the sugar
maple) and a plant that yields ready-made candles (myrica cerifera). Venison in plenty, the
pursuit of which is uninterrupted by wolves, foxes, lions or tigers. A couple of swine will multiply
themselves a hundredfold in two or three years, without taking any care of
them. No taxes to pay, no military
services to be performed.
VOLNEY,
who came to America in 1795, in his “View,” where we find the
above, says:
Page 670
These
munificent promisers forgot to say that these forests
must be cut down before corn could be raised; that for a year, at least, they
must bring their daily bread from a great distance; that hunting and fishing
are agreeable amusements, when pursued for the sake of amusement, but are
widely different when followed for the sake of subsistence. And they quite forgot to mention that,
though there be no bears or tigers in the neighborhood, there are wild beasts
infinitely more cunning and ferocious, in the shape of men, who were at that
time at open and cruel war with the whites.
In
France, in Paris, the imagination was too heated to admit of doubt or
suspicion, and people were too ignorant and uninformed to perceive where the
picture was defective and its colors too glaring. The example, too, of the wealthy and
reputedly wise confirmed the popular delusion. Nothing was talked of, in every social
circle, but the paradise that was opened for Frenchmen in the western
wilderness, the free and happy life to be led on the blissful banks of the
Scioto. At length BRISSOT published
his travels and completed the flattering delusion. Buyers became numerous and importunate,
chiefly among the better sort of the middle class. Single persons and whole families
disposed of their all, flattering themselves with having made excellent
bargains.
VOLNEY
here refers to the travels of Brissot de
WARVILLE. Brissot
published several volumes relating to America, as we infer from his preface to
his “New Travels in America,” a work issued in the spring of 1791,
and consisting in part of a series of letters written from this country in
1788. In his preface to the last,
he says: “The third volume was published in 1787 by Mr. CLAVIERE and
me.” In the last, he refers
to the charges against the Scioto Company in this wise: “This company has been much calumniated. It has been accused of selling lands
which it does not possess, of giving exaggerated accounts of its fertility, of
deceiving the emigrants, of robbing France of her inhabitants, and of sending
them to be butchered by the savages.
But the title of this association is incontestable; the proprietors are
reputable men; the description which they have given of the lands is taken from
the public and authentic reports of Mr. HUTCHINS, geographer of Congress. No person can dispute their prodigious
fertility.” He elsewhere
speaks, in this volume, in high terms of the company.
With
the proposals they issued a map copied from that of Capt. HUTCHINS, but with a
fraudulent addition in the statement that the country east of the Scioto tract
was cleared and settled when, indeed, it was a wilderness, the first settlement
within it, that at Marietta, having been made only the year before.
The
engraved map annexed was inserted in the first edition of this work. It was copied by us in 1846 from the map
of BARLOW and PLAYFAIR in the possession of Monsieur J. P. R. BUREAU, one of
the settlers who was then living in Gallipolis, and
who came out in 1799 from Paris.
The original was sixteen inches long and twelve wide.
It
was in French, handsomely engraved and colored, with the lands of the two
companies and the tract east of them, all divided into townships of six miles
square. It represents the Scioto
Company’s tract as extending about 100 miles north of the mouth of the
Kanawha, and including more or less of the present counties of Meigs, Athens, Muskingum, Licking, Franklin, Pickaway,
Ross, Pike, Scioto, Gallia, Lawrence, Perry, Jackson, Hocking and
Fairfield. This tract, on the map,
is divided into 142 townships and thirty-two fractions. The north line of the Ohio Land Company’s
tract is eighteen miles south of the other, and included the present county of
Morgan and parts of Washington, Meigs, Athens,
Muskingum, Guernsey and Monroe, there divided into ninety-one townships and
sixteen fractions. The tract east
of that of the Ohio Company extends forty-eight miles farther north. Upon the original are the words,
“Sept rangs de municipalite
acquis par des individues
et occupes depuis,
1786;” i. e. “Seven ranges of townships
acquired by individuals and occupied since 1786.”
It
was in November, 1789, that BARLOW, as agent, concluded the sale to a company
formed in Paris under the firm-name of the “Company of the Scioto,”
the principal members of which were M. Gouy de ARSY,
M. BAROND, St. DIDIER, MAHEAS, GUIBERT, the Chevalier de COQUELON, William
PLAYFAIR and Joel BARLOW. He used
no deception with the company, showing them the exact terms of the grant to his
principals.
Page 671
The
Society of the Scioto Company sold their lands rapidly, but the deeds did not
give a perfect title nor claim to do so.
They conveyed “all the right, title, interest and claim of said
society,” but many persons accepted the deeds as conveying and warranting
a perfect title. The warranty
clause in the deeds guaranteed against “every kind of eviction or attack.”
BARLOW
exceeded his powers in allowing the Scioto Company to give deeds. He, however, expected that from the
proceeds of sales they would be enabled to
“PLAN OF THE PURCHASE OF THE OHIO AND SCIOTO
LAND COMPANIES”
perfect the title. His associate, PLAYFAIR, withheld the
funds, and BARLOW, it seems, was duped by him.
The
upshot of the matter was that the Scioto Company and Col. DUER failed, and the
failure of the latter was so great that it was said to have been the very first
financial shock of any moment from speculation New York city
ever received.
A
full history of the Scioto Company is given in thirty pages of the “Life
of Manasseh CUTLER,” published by Robert CLARKE & Co., to which the
reader is referred.
Page 672
The
result of the operations of the Scioto Company was to colonize a spot in Ohio
with French people in 1790, who thus made the third permanent regular
settlement within its limits at Gallipolis, the others preceding being Marietta
and Cincinnati. The first party of
French emigrants arrived at Alexandria on May 1, 1790; about 500 in all left
their native country for the promised land, and about
October 20th the first boat-load arrived at Gallipolis.
The
terms to induce immigration were as follows: the company agreed to take the
colonists to their lands and pay the cost, and the latter bound himself to work
three years for the company, for which he was to receive fifty acres, a house
and a cow. Not all came on these
terms, for among them were men of wealth and title
GALLIPOLIS,
i.e., CITY OF THE FRENCH, IN 1790
who paid their own passage and bought land on
their own account. They were
persons ill fitted for such an enterprise.
Among them were not a few carvers and gilders to his majesty, coach and peruke makers, friseurs and other artistes, about equally well fitted for a backwoods life, with only
ten or twelve farmers and laborers.
On
the map is shown the “first town,” i. e., “Premiere Ville,”
lying opposite the mouth of the Kanawha.
It was laid out by the Ohio Company, under the name of Fair Haven; but
as the ground there is low and liable to overflow,
Gallipolis was located four miles below, upon a high bank, ten feet above the
flood of 1832.
The
location was made a few months before the arrival of the French. Rufus PUTNAM sent for that purpose Major
BURNHAM, with forty men, who arrived here on the 8th of June by
river from Marietta. They made a
clearing and erected block-houses and cabins. Col. Robert SAFFORD, who died here June
26, 1863, a very aged man, was of this party and was the first to spring ashore
from the boat and signalize his landing by cutting
down a sapling, which he did with a camp hatchet, which was the first blow
towards making a settlement.
On
the public square BURNHAM erected eighty log-cabins, twenty in each row. At each of the corners were
block-houses, two stories in height.
In front of the cabins, close by the river bank, was a small,
log-breastwork, erected for a defence while building
the cabins. Above the cabins, on the
square, were two other parallel rows of cabins, which, with a high stockade
fence and block-houses at each of the upper corners, formed a sufficient
fortification in times of danger.
These upper cabins were a story and a half in height, built of hewed
logs, and finished in better style than those below, being intended for the
richer class. In the upper cabins
was a room used for a council chamber and a ball room.
The
Scioto Company contracted with PUTNAM to erect these buildings and furnish
Page 673
the settlers with provisions, but failed of
payment, by which he lost a large amount.
It was a dense little village, the cabins close together, and in its personelle a
piece of Paris dropped down on the banks of the Ohio. According to well-authenticated
tradition one of the cabins had out the sign, BAKERY & MIDWIFERY.
We
continue the history of Gallipolis in the annexed extract from a communication
in the American Pioneer, made about
the year 1843 by Waldeurard MEULETTE, one of the
colonists.
At
an early meeting of the colonists, the town was named Gallipolis (town of the
French). I did not arrive till
nearly all the colonists were there.
I descended the river in 1791, in flat boats, loaded with troops,
commanded by Gen. ST. CLAIR, destined for an expedition against the
Indians. Some of my countrymen
joined that expedition; among others was Count
MALARTIE, a captain in the French guard of Louis XVI. General ST. CLAIR made him one of his
aide-de-camps in the battle, in which he was severely wounded. He went back to Philadelphia, from
whence he returned to France. The
Indians were encouraged to greater depredations and murders, by their success
in this expedition, but most especially against the American settlements. From their intercourse with the French
in Canada, or some other cause, they seemed less disposed to trouble us. Immediately after ST. CLAIR’s defeat, Col. SPROAT, commandant at Marietta, appointed four spies for
Gallipolis—two Americans and two French, of which I was one, and it was
not until after the treaty at Greenville, in 1795, that we were released.
Notwithstanding
the great difficulties, the difference of tempers, education and professions,
the inhabitants lived in harmony, and having little or nothing to do, made themselves agreeable and useful to each other. The Americans and hunters, employed by
the company, performed the first labors of clearing the township, which was
divided into lots.
Although
the French were willing to work, yet the clearing of an American wilderness and
its heavy timber, was far more than they could perform. To migrate from the Eastern States to
the “far west” is painful enough now-a-days, but how much more so
it must be for a citizen of a large European town! even
a farmer of the old countries would find it very hard, if not impossible, to
clear land in the wilderness. Those
hunters were paid by the colonists to prepare their garden ground, which was to
receive the seeds brought from France; few of the colonists knew how to make a
garden, but they were guided by a few books on that subject, which they had
brought likewise from France.
The
colony then began to improve in its appearance and comfort. The fresh provisions were supplied by
the company’s hunters, the others came from
their magazines. When on the
expeditions of Generals ST. CLAIR and WAYNE many of the troops stopped at
Gallipolis to take provisions, which had been deposited there for that purpose
by government; the Indians, who no doubt often came there in the night, at last
saw the regulars going morning and evening round the town in order to ascertain
if there were any Indian traces, and attacked them, killing and wounding
several—a soldier, besides other wounds, was tomahawked, but recovered. A French colonist, who had tried to raise
corn at some distance from the town, seeing an Indian rising from behind some
brushwood against a tree, shot him in the shoulder; the Indian hearing an
American patrole, must have thought that the
Frenchman made a part of it; and sometime afterward a Frenchman was killed, and
a man and woman made prisoners, as they were going to collect ashes to make
soap, at some distance from town.
After
this, although the Indians committed depredations on the Americans on both
sides of the river, the French had suffered only by the loss of some cattle
carried away, until the murder of the man above related. The Scioto Company, in the mean time,
had nearly fulfilled all their engagements during six months, after which time
they ceased their supply of provisions to the colonists, and one of their
agents gave as a reason for it, that the company had been cheated by one or two of their agents in France, who, having
received the funds in France for the
purchased lands, had kept the money for themselves and run off with it to
England, without having purchased or possessing any of the tract which they had
sold to the deceived colonists.
This intelligence exasperated them, and was the more sensibly felt as a
scarcity of provisions added to their disappointment. The winter was uncommonly severe; the
creek and the Ohio were frozen; the hunters had no longer any meat to sell;
flat boats could not come down with flour to furnish as they had done
before. This produced almost a
famine in the settlement, and a family of eight persons, father, mother, and
children, was obliged to subsist for eight or ten days on dry beans, boiled in
water, without either salt, grease or bread, and those had never known, before
that time, what it was to want for anything. On the other hand, the dangers from the
Indians seemed to augment very day.
The
colonists were by this time weary of being confined to a few acres of land; the
result of their industry was lost; the money and clothes which they had brought
were nearly gone. They knew not to whom they were to apply to get their lands; they hoped that
if WAYNE’s campaign forced the Indians to make
a lasting peace, the Scioto Company
Page 674
would send immediately, either to recover or to purchase
those promised lands; but they soon found out their mistake. After the treaty of Greenville, many
Indians passing through Gallipolis, on their way to the seat of government, and
several travellers, revealed the whole transaction,
from which it was ascertained that the pretended Scioto Company was composed of
New Englanders, the names of very few only being known to the French, who,
being themselves ignorant of the English language, and at such a distance from
the place of residence of their defrauders, and without means for prosecuting
them, could get no redress.
Lonely Condition of the Colonists.—Far
in a distant land, separated forever from their friends and
relations—with exhausted means, was it surprising that they were
disheartened, and that every social tie should have been loosened, nearly
broken, and a great portion of the deceived colonists should have become
reckless? May the happy of this day
never feel as they did, when all hope
was blasted, and they were left so destitute! Many of the colonists went off and
settled elsewhere with the means that remained to them, and resumed their
trades in more populous parts of the country; others led a half-savage life, as
hunters for skins; the greater part, however, resolved, in a general assembly,
to make a memorial of their grievances, and send it to Congress. The memorial claimed no rights from that
body, but it was a detail of their wrongs and sufferings, together with an
appeal to the generosity and feelings of Congress; and they did not appeal in
vain. One of the colonists proposed
to carry the petition; he only stipulated that his expenses should be paid by a
contribution of the colonists, whether he succeeded or not in their object; but
he added that if he obtained for himself the quantity of land which he had paid
for, and the rest had none, he should be repaid by their gratitude for his
efforts.
The French Grant.—At Philadelphia
he met with a French lawyer, M. DUPONCEAU, and through his means he obtained
from Congress a grant of 24,000 acres of land, known by the name of the French
grant, opposite to Little Sandy, for the French, who were still resident at
Gallipolis. The act annexed the
condition of settling on the lands three years before receiving the deed of
gift. The bearer of the petition
had his 4,000 acres; the rest was divided among the remaining French, amounting
to ninety-two persons, married and single.
Each
inhabitant had thus a lot of 217½ acres of land; but before the surveys
and other arrangements could be made, some time was necessary, during which,
those who had reclaimed the wilderness and improved Gallipolis being reluctant
to lose all their labor, and finding that a company, owning the lands of
Marietta, and where there was a settlement previous to that of the French
colony, had met to divide lands which they had purchased in a common stock, the
colonists sent a deputation for the purpose of proposing to the company to sell
them the spot where Gallipolis was and is situated, and to be paid in
proportion to what was improved, which was accepted. When at last the distribution of the
lots of the French grant was achieved, some sold their share, others went to
settle on it, or put tenants, and either remained at Gallipolis, or went
elsewhere; but how few entered again heartily into a new kind of life, many
having lost their lives and others their health, amid hardships, excess of
labor, or the indolence which follows discouragement and hopeless efforts! Few of the original settlers remain at
Gallipolis; not many at the French grant.
BRECKENRIDGE,
in his “Recollections,” gives some reminiscences of Gallipolis,
related in a style of charming simplicity and humor. He was at Gallipolis in 1795, at which
time he was a boy of nine years of age.
The Little French Doctor.—Behold
me once more in port, and domiciliated at the house,
or the inn, of Monsieur, or rather, Dr. SAUGRAIN, a cheerful, sprightly little
Frenchman, four feet six, English measure, and a chemist, natural philosopher,
and physician, both in the English and French signification of the word. . . .
. . This singular village was
settled by people from Paris and Lyons, chiefly artisans and artists,
peculiarly unfitted to sit down in the wilderness and clear away forests. I have seen half a dozen at work in taking
down a tree, some pulling ropes fastened to the branches, while others were
cutting around it like beavers.
Sometimes serious accidents occurred in consequence of their
awkwardness. Their former
employment had been only calculated to administer to the luxury of highly
polished and wealthy societies.
There were carvers and gilders to the king, coach-makers, friseurs and peruke-makers, and a variety of others
who might have found some employment in our larger towns, but who were
entirely out of their place in the wilds of Ohio. Their means by this time had been
exhausted, and they were beginning to suffer from the want of the comforts and
even the necessaries of life.
The
country back from the river was still a wilderness, and the Gallipotians
did not pretend to cultivate anything more than small garden spots, depending
for their supply of provisions on the boats which now began to descend the
river; but they had to pay in cash and that was become scarce. They still assembled at the ball-room
twice a week; it was evident, however, that they felt disappointment, and were
no longer happy. The predilections
of the best among them being
Page 675
on the side of the Bourbons, the horrors of the French
revolution, even in their remote situation, mingled with their private
misfortunes, which had at this time nearly reached their acme in consequence of
the discovery that they had no title to their lands, having been cruelly
deceived by those from whom they had purchased. It is well known that Congress generously
made them a grant of 20,000 acres, from which, however, but few of them ever
derived any advantage.
As
the Ohio was now more frequented, the house was occasionally resorted to, and
especially by persons looking out for land to purchase. The doctor had a small apartment which
contained his chemical apparatus, and I used to sit by him as often as I could,
watching the curious operation of his blow-pipe and crucible. I loved the cheerful little man, and he
became very fond of me in return.
Many of my countrymen used to come and stare at his doings, which, they
were half inclined to think, had a too near resemblance to the black art. The doctor’s little phosphoric
matches, igniting spontaneously when the little glass tube was broken, and from
which he derived some emolument, were thought by some to be rather beyond mere
human power. His barometer and
thermometer, with the scale neatly painted with the pen, and the frames richly
carved, were objects of wonder, and probably some of them are yet extant in the
west. But what most astonished some
of our visitors was a large peach in a glass bottle, the neck of which would
only admit a common cork;
THE FRENCH SETTLERS AT GALLIPOLIS, DIRECT FROM PARIS,
CUTTING DOWN TREES
this was accomplished by tying the bottle to the limb of a
tree, with the peach when young inserted into it. His swans which swam around basins of
water amused me more than any wonders exhibited by the wonderful man.
The French Philosophers and the Savages.—The
doctor was a great favorite with the Americans, as well for his vivacity and
sweetness of temper, which nothing could sour, as on account of a circumstance
which gave him high claim to the esteem of the backwoodsmen. He had shown himself, notwithstanding
his small stature and great good nature, a very hero in combat with the
Indians. He had descended the Ohio
in company with two French philosophers who were believers in the primitive
innocence and goodness of the children of the forest. They could not be persuaded that any
danger was to be apprehended from the Indians. As they had no intentions to injure that
people, they supposed no harm could be meditated on their part. Dr. SAUGRAIN was not altogether so well
convinced of their good intentions, and accordingly kept his pistols
loaded. Near the mouth of the Sandy
a canoe with a party of warriors approached the boat; the philosophers invited
them on board by signs, when they came rather too willingly. The first thing they did on coming on
board of the boat was to salute the two philosophers with the tomahawk, and
they would have treated the doctor in the same way but that he used his pistols
with good effect—killed two of the savages and then leaped into the
water, div-
Page 676
ing like a dipper at the flash of the guns of the others,
and succeeded in swimming to the shore with several severe wounds whose scars
were conspicuous.
Madame SAUGRAIN.—The doctor was married to an amiable young woman, but not
possessing as much vivacity as himself.
As Madame SAUGRAIN had no maid to assist her, her brother, a boy of my age,
and myself, were her principal helps in the
kitchen. We brought water and wood
and washed the dishes. I used to go
in the morning about two miles for a little milk, sometimes on the frozen
ground, barefooted. I tried a pair
of sabots, or wooden shoes, but was unable to make any use of them, although
they had been made by the carver to the king. Little perquisites, too, sometimes fell
to our share from blacking boots and shoes. My companion generally saved his, while
mine would have burned a hole in my pocket if it had remained there. In the spring and summer a good deal of
my time was passed in the garden, weeding the beds. While thus engaged I formed an acquaintance
with a young lady of eighteen or twenty on the other side of the palings, who
was often similarly occupied.
Our friendship, which was purely Platonic, commenced with the story of
Blue Beard, recounted by her, and with the novelty and pathos of which I was
much interested. This incident may
perhaps remind the reader of the story of Pyramus and
Thisbe, or perhaps of the hortical
ecologne of Dean Swift, “Dermot and Shela.”
Connected
with this lady is an incident which I feel a pleasure in relating. One day, while standing alone on the
bank of the river, I saw a man who had gone in to bathe and who had got beyond
his depth without being able to swim.
He had begun to struggle for life, and in a few seconds would have sunk
to rise no more. I shot down the
bank like an arrow, leaped into a canoe which fortunately happened to be close
by, pushed the end to him, and, as he rose, perhaps for the last time, he
seized it with a deadly, convulsive grasp and held so firmly that the skin
afterward came off the parts of his arms which pressed against the wood. I screamed for help. Several persons came and took him out,
perfectly insensible. He afterwards
married the young lady and raised a numerous and
respectable family. One of his
daughters married a young lawyer who now represents that district in Congress.
Sufferings of the Settlers.—Toward the latter part of summer the inhabitants suffered
severely from sickness and want of provisions. Their situation was truly wretched. The swamp in the rear, now exposed by
the clearing between it and the river, became the cause of a frightful epidemic,
from which few escaped, and many became its victims. I had recovered from the ague, and was
among the few exempted from the disease; but out family, as well as the rest,
suffered much from absolute hunger, a most painful sensation, as I had before
experienced. To show the extremity
of our distress, on one occasion the brother of Madame SAUGRAIN and myself
pushed a light canoe to an island above town, where we pulled some corn, took
it to mill, and, excepting some of the raw grains, had nothing to eat from the
day before until we carried home the flour and made some bread, but had neither
milk nor meat. I have learned to be
thankful when I had a sufficiency of wholesome food, however plain, and was
blessed with health; and I could put up with humble fare without a murmur,
although accustomed to luxuries, when I have seen those who have never
experienced absolute starvation turn up their noses at that which was a very
little worse than the best they had ever known. . . . . .
General WILKINSON and Suite.—I had
been nearly a year at Gallipolis when Capt. SMITH, of the United States army,
came along in advance of the barge of Gen. WILKINSON, and, according to the
request of my father, took me into his custody for the purpose of bringing me
once more to my native place. He
remained two or three days waiting for the general, and in the meanwhile
procured me hat, shoes and clothes befitting a gentleman’s son, and then
took me on board his boat. Shortly
after the general overtook us I was transferred on board his barge as a
playmate for his son Biddle, a boy of my own age. The general’s lady and several
ladies and gentlemen were on board his boat, which was fitted up in a style of
convenience and even magnificence scarcely surpassed even by the present steamboats. It was propelled against the stream by
twenty-five or thirty men, sometimes by the pole, the cordelle,
and often by the oar. There was
also a band of musicians on board, and the whole had the appearance of a mere
party of pleasure. My senses were overpowered—it
seem an elysium! The splendor of the furniture—the
elegance of the dresses—and then, the luxuries of the table, to a
half-starved creature like me, produced an effect which can scarce be easily
described. Every repast was a royal
banquet, and such delicacies were placed before me as I had never seen before,
and in sufficient abundance to satiate my insatiable appetite. I was no more like what I had been than
the cast-off skin of the blacksnake resembles the new dress in which he
glistens in the sunbeam. The
general’s countenance was continually lighted up with smiles, and he seem
faire le bonheur of all around him; it seemed his business
to make every one happy about him.
His countenance and manners were such as I have rarely seen, and now
that I can form a more just estimate of them, were such as better fitted him
for a court than a republic. His
lady was truly an estimable person, of the mildest and softest manners. She gave her son and myself
a reproof one day which I never forgot.
She saw us catching minnows with pin-hooks, made us desist, and then
explained in the sweetest manner the cruelty of taking away life wantonly from
the humblest thing in creation.
Page 677
In 1807 BRECKENRIDGE again saw Gallipolis.
As
we passed Point Pleasant and the island below it, Gallipolis, which I looked
for with anxious feelings, hove in sight.
I thought of the French inhabitants—I thought of my friend
SAUGRAIN; and I recalled, in the liveliest colors, the incidents of that
portion of my life which was passed here.
A year is a long time at that period—every day is crowded with new
and great and striking events. When
the boat landed, I ran up the bank and looked around; but alas! how changed! The
Americans had taken the town in hand, and no trace of antiquity, that is, of twelve years ago, remained. I hastened to the spot where I expected
to find the abode, the little log-house, tavern, and laboratory of the doctor,
but they had vanished like the palace of Aladdin. After some inquiry I found a little
Frenchman, who, like the old woman of Goldsmith’s village, was “the
sad historian of the deserted plain.”—that is, deserted by one
race, to be peopled by another. He
led me to where a few logs might be seen, as the only remains of the once happy
tenement which had sheltered me—but all around it was a common; the town
had taken a different direction. My
heart sickened; the picture which my imagination had drawn—the scenes
which my memory loved to cherish, were blotted out and obliterated. A volume of reminiscences seemed to be
annihilated in an instant! I took a
hasty glance at the new town, as I returned to the boat. I saw brick houses, painted frames,
fanciful enclosures, ornamental trees!
Even the pond, which had carried off a third of the French population by
its malaria, had disappeared, and a
pretty green had usurped its place, with a neat brick court-house in the midst
of it. This was too much; I
hastened my pace, and with sorrow once more pushed into the stream.
GALLIPOLIS
IN 1846.—Gallipolis, the county-seat, is pleasantly situated on the Ohio river, 102 miles southeasterly from Columbus. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal, and 1 Methodist church, 12 or 14 stores, 2
newspaper printing offices, and by the census of 1840 had 1,221 inhabitants,
and now has about 1,700. A part of
the population is of French descent, but they have in a great measure lost
their national characteristics.
Some few of the original French settlers are yet living. The engraving of the public square shows
the market and court-house near the centre of the view, with a glimpse of the
Ohio river on the left.—Old Edition.
Gallipolis
is on the Ohio, 4 miles below the mouth of the Kanawha, 102 southeast of
Columbus, and on the C. H. V. & T. R. R. County officers in 1888: Auditor,
Anthony W. KERNS; Clerk, Robert D. NEAL; Coroner, Fred. A. CROMLEY; Prosecuting
Attorney, D. Warren JONES; Probate Judge, John J. THOMAS; Recorder, James K.
WILLIAMS; Sheriff, Valentine H. SWITZER; Surveyor, Ira W. JACOBS; Treasurer, D.
S. TROWBRIDGE, I. Floyd CHAPMAN; Commissioners, S. F. COUGHENOUR, Daniel J.
DAVIES, William H. CLARK.
Newspapers: Bulletin,
Democratic; Gallia Tribune,
Republican; Journal, Republican. Churches: 3 Episcopal Methodist, 1
Colored Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Colored Baptist, 1 Catholic, 1 German Lutheran,
1 Universalist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopalian. Banks: First National, R. DELETOMBE,
president, J. S. BLACKALLER, cashier; Ohio Valley, A. HENKING, president, C. W.
HENKING, cashier. Industries and Employees: Gallipolis
Steam Tannery, 14 hands; MORRISON & BETZ, lumber; James MULLINEAUX, doors,
sash, etc., 24; VANDEN & Son, A. A. LYON, carriages; Martin McHALE, brooms, 19; FULLER & HUTSINPILLER, furniture,
75; The FULLER and HUTSINPILLER Company, finishing furniture, 64; Treasure
Stove Works, stoves, etc., 21; KLING & Co., stoves, etc., 24; T. S. FORD
& Co., flooring, etc., 12; ENOS, HILL & Co., machinery, etc., 25;
GATEWOOD Lumber Company, furniture, etc., 22.—State Report for1887.
Population in 1880, 4,400. School census in 1886,
1,868; Miron E. HARD, superintendent.
TRAVELLING NOTES.
In
my original visit to Gallipolis I failed of learning that the extraordinary
specimen of humanity known as Mad Ann BAILEY passed the latter part of her days
in its vicinity. In my travels over
Virginia in the years 1843-44 taking pencil sketches and collecting materials
for my work upon that State, I learned of her and inserted therein this
account.
“There
was an eccentric female, who lived in the Kanawha region towards the latter
part of the last century. Her name
was Ann
Page 678
BAILEY. She was
born in Liverpool, and had been the wife of an English soldier. She generally went by the cognomen of
Mad Ann. During the wars with the
Indians, she very often acted as a messenger, and conveyed letters from the
fort, at Covington, to Point Pleasant.
On these occasions she was mounted on a favorite horse of great
sagacity, and rode like a man, with a rifle over her shoulder, and a tomahawk
and a butcher’s-knife in her belt.
At night she slept in the woods.
Her custom was to let her horse
Drawn by
Henry Howe in 1846
PUBLIC SQUARE, GALLIPOLIS
go free, and then walk some distance back on his trail,
to escape being discovered by the Indians.
After the Indian wars she spent some time in hunting. She pursued and shot deer and bears with
the skill of a backwoodsman. She
was a short, stout woman, very masculine and coarse in her appearance, and
seldom or never wore a gown, but usually had on a petticoat, with a man’s
coat over it, and buckskin breeches.
The services she rendered in the wars with the Indians endeared her to
the people. Mad Ann, and her black
pony Liverpool, were always welcome at every house. Often, she gathered the honest, sim-
Fenner, Photo, 1886.
ON THE PUBLIC SQUARE, GALLIPOLIS
ple-hearted mountaineers around, and related her adventures and
trials, while the sympathetic tear would course down their cheeks. She was profane, often became
intoxicated, and could box with the skill of one of the fancy. Mad Ann possessed considerable
intelligence, and could read and write.
She died in Ohio many years since.”
I
have this notice of her death which is kindly copied for me by Mr. James
HARPER, from the Gallia Free Press,
of December 3, 1825, published by his father. In a note with it he wrote to me:
“I saw Ann BAILEY a short time before she died—the first and only
time—and she made a lasting impression upon my six-year-old mind. She wore a hat, and her
Page 679
accoutrements were tomahawk and scalping-knife.” The account was published under the
caption “Longevity.”
“Died,
in Harrison township, Gallia county, Ohio, on Tuesday,
November 22, 1825, the celebrated Ann BAILEY. From the best account we have had she
must have been at least 125 years of age.
According to her own story her father was a soldier in Queen
Anne’s wars; that on getting a furlough to go home, he found his wife
with a fine daughter in her arms, whom he called Ann,
after the Queen, as a token of respect.
In 1714 she went from Liverpool to London with her mother on a visit to
her brother—while there, she saw Lord Lovett beheaded.
She
came to the United States the year after BRADDOCK’s
defeat, aged then forty-six years.
Her husband was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774; after
that, to avenge his death, she joined the garrison, under the command of Col.
Wm. CLENDENIN, where she remained until the final departure of the Indians from
the country. She has always been
noted for intrepid bravery. Col.
Wm. CLENDENIN says, while he was commander of the garrison where Charleston,
Kanawha, is now located, an attack by Indians was hourly expected. On examination it was believed that the
ammunition on hand was insufficient to hold out a siege of any length; to send
even two, three or four men
ANN BAILEY, The Heroine of
Point Pleasant
to Lewisburg, the nearest place it could be had, a
distance of 100 miles, was like sending men to be slaughtered; and to send a
larger force was weakening the garrison. While in this state Ann BAILEY
volunteered to leave the fort in the night and go to Lewisburg. She did so—and travelled
the wilderness, where not the vestige of a house was to be seen—arrived
safe at Lewisburg, delivered her orders, received the ammunition, and returned
safe to her post, amidst the plaudits of a grateful people.
In
the April number, 1885, of the Magazine
of Western History is a sketch of Mad Ann by Wm. P. BUELL. It states she was born in the year 1700,
in Liverpool, England, and named in honor of Queen Anne, and was present with
her parents at her coronation in 1705.
She was of good family; the name SARGENT. At the age of nineteen, while on her way
to school with books on her arm, she was kidnapped, as was common in those
days, and brought to America and landed in Virginia, on James river, when she was sold to defray her expenses. At the age of thirty she married John
TROTTER, who was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. The loss of her husband filled her with
rage and, swearing vengeance upon the entire savage race, she entered upon a
career as a scout and spy. She
hunted, rode and fought like a man.
She had a fine black horse called Liverpool, in honor of her birthplace,
an animal of great beauty and intelligence. On one occasion, when she was pursued by
Indians, she came to an impenetrable thicket where she was obliged to dismount
and leave him for their capture.
She then crawled into a hollow sycamore log. The Indians came and rested on the log,
but without suspecting her concealment within. After they had gone she followed their
trail, and in the darkness of night recaptured the animal, and, mounting him,
when at a safe distance from being shot or taken gave a shout of defiance and
bounded away. The Indians eventually
became afraid of her, regarding her as insane and therefore under the special
protection of the Great Spirit.
After
sixteen years of widowhood she married John BAILEY, a soldier, and went with
him to Fort Clendenin, on the site of Charleston, Kanawha river. This was in 1790, and when she had
attained to the ripe, mellow age of ninety years. Her second husband was murdered, when
she went to live with
Page 680
her son, William TROTTER. In 1818 TROTTER moved into Gallia county, became a large landowner and was justice of the
peace for twenty-one years, and a highly respected man.
A Chat with James L. NEWSOM about Mad
Ann BAILEY and others was a wholesome entertainment for me while in
Gallipolis. Mr. NEWSOM lived in a
little cottage a stone’s throw from the Ohio. He was rather tall, cheeks rosy, and
life appeared to have gone well with him; and was a boy of fourteen when Mad
Ann BAILEY died. He told me that he
had eleven children, eight boys and three girls; that not one of the eleven had
ever tasted ardent spirits, and the eight boys always voted the Republican
ticket, which I concluded was a good thing for that ticket, but bad for the
distilling business.
“I
knew Ann BAILEY well,” he said, “and heard her say she was five years
old when, in 1705, Queen Anne was crowned, and her mother took her up to London
to see the event. She was a
low-set, heavy woman, not over five feet two inches high, dressed in a
petticoat with a man’s coat over it, wore a hat, and loved whiskey in her
old age; often saw her come to town with a gun and a shot-pouch over her
shoulder. She would not live with
her son and grandchildren—was too wild. Her home was a cabin,
or rather pen, four miles below town, high on the Ohio river hills. She built it of fence rails, which
CABIN OF ANN BAILEY.
It was on the Ohio River Hills, below Gallipolis, and
built by her of fence rails.
lapped at the corners.
It was made like a shed, had one door and a single window, a small,
four-pane affair. The roof was without
nails, of black oak clapboards say four feet long, held to their places by
weight poles. The chimney was
merely an excuse for a chimney; was, outside, about four feet high; the
fireplace would take in sticks four or five feet long. The interstices of the cabin were
stuffed with straw and old rags and daubed with mud. The only floor was the earth; she had no
furniture, not even a bedstead. Mad
Ann was passionate, high spirited, had excellent sense, would allow no trifling
with her, and hated Indians.
She
was very particular in the observance of the Sabbath; gathered in the children
and taught them Sunday lessons. Her
voice was coarse, like the growl of a lion, and she chewed tobacco like a pig,
the saliva coming down the corners of her mouth. I often saw her in town; she sometimes
walked and sometimes paddled up in a canoe, and always
with a gun and shot-pouch over her shoulder in hunter fashion.
Although
spoken of as Mad Ann, no one ever had the temerity to so address her; the
people fairly idolized her, treated her with great kindness, loaded her with
presents and plied her well with whiskey.
She died from old age, never was sick—only gave out.
She
looked tough as a mule and seemed about as strong. I was a stout boy of fourteen, and one day
she laid down her bundle of things which people gave her. We boys were afraid of her, as she was
disposed to be a little cross, but as her back was turned I tried to lift it,
but was unable. She lifted it with
ease, and walked all the way to her home with it, four miles away.”
Mr.
NEWSOM brought out a picture, which he gave me, saying he had kept it for years
because it was an excellent likeness of Mad Ann, although not taken for her,
and this is reproduced in these pages.
That of the cabin is from the imagination of an artist, who being a city
man has made it altogether too palatial; Mad Ann would have scorned to have
lived in so pretentious a mansion.
Gen.
EDWARD W. TUPPER, an officer of the war of 1812, lived in a house now standing,
which faces the public square in Gallipolis. In 1812 he raised, mainly from Gallia,
Jackson and Lawrence counties, 1,000 men, marched to the northwest and had a
skirmish with the enemy at the foot of the Maumee Rapids. He was a large, fine-looking man,
continued Mr. NEWSOM, and when our people
Page 681
attempted to establish a ferry to Point Pleasant, the
inhabitants there arose in opposition.
The jurisdiction of Virginia extended over the Ohio, and they threatened
to kill the first passenger who crossed.
Hearing this, TUPPER buckled on his sword and pistols and mounting his
old war horse ordered the ferryman to take him over. He landed and galloped to and fro
through the village. No one
ventured to molest him, and thus was the ferry established.
Mr.
NEWSOM also related this anecdote of Col. Robert SAFFORD, who, as stated, cut
the first tree on the site of Gallipolis.
“One time, said SAFFORD to me, after the defeat of ST. CLAIR, I
was in the neighborhood of Raccoon creek with a brother scout, one HART, when
we discovered an Indian seated on a hillock mending his moccasins. I told HART we must shoot together and I
would give the word by counting one, two, three, four. When I said ‘four’ he must
answer ‘four,’ then we would shoot together. I did so, but HART not responding I
looked behind me where HART was and saw him running away. I again looked at the hillock and saw
not one, but four Indians; so I followed suit.”
Gallipolis
was the life-home of SIMEON NASH, one of the learned jurists of Ohio; he died
in 1879. He aided me on the first
edition by a valuable contribution.
He was one of those plain, sensible, industrious men who generally go
direct for their facts and get them.
He was born in Massachusetts in 1804, educated at Amherst; was a member
of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, and for many years Judge of the
Seventh District. Judge NASH was
author of various law works, as: “Digest of Ohio Reports,” in
twenty volumes; “Morality and the State,” “Crime and the
Family,” etc.
JOSEPH
DROUILLARD, now living, at the age of ninety-two years, with his son-in-law,
Mr. James HARPER, editor of the Gallipolis
Journal, is a son of the “Peter DRUYER” (as the name has been
wrongly spelled) who rescued Simon KENTON from being burnt at the stake by the
Indians. He was clerk of the court
here for twenty-three years and is a highly respected citizen.
The
cemetery at Gallipolis is unique from having so many monuments to French
people. One of these is to the
memory of JOHN PETER ROMAINE BUREAU.
I met him here on my first visit; a little, vivacious, old gentleman,
very urbane, graceful and smiling; evidently wanting everybody to feel as
joyous as himself. A daughter of
his, Romaine Madelaine, married Hon. Samuel F.
VINTON, one of Ohio’s most distinguished statesmen. (See Vinton county.) Their daughter, MADELAINE VINTON
DAHLGREN, for her second husband married Admiral DAHLGREN. As early as 1859 she published
“Sketches and Poems,” under the pen-name of Corrine. Her reputation as an authoress and a
lady of the highest culture, wealth of information and efficiency in the
circles of Washington is too well known for other than our allusion. The Chapel of “St. Joseph’s
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” at South Mountain, Md., her summer home,
was built through her munificence.
One of her works received the compliment of a preface from James A.
GARFIELD, and another the thanks of Pius IX., and still another
the thanks of the illustrious Montalembert. Her summer home overlooks the famous
battlefield, and resembles a castle of the Middle
Ages. Mrs. DAHLGREN has published
various works on various subjects; essays, poems, biography, magazine and
newspaper articles, and nearly a dozen novels.
CHAMBERSBURG,
CROWN CITY and PATRIOT are small villages in this county, neither of which have over sixty families.