Monday, January 11, 2016

FRF - Symmes


http://frfgenealogy.com/articles/symmes-purchase/


SYMMES PURCHASE

John Cleves Symmes was a lawyer, former Colonel of the Militia, judge and member of Congress from NJ. He was induced to visit the Miami Valley by Major Benjamin Stiles of Redstone, Pennsylvania, which he did in early 1787. Upon returning to the East he petitioned Congress on 29 August 1787, as John Cleves Symmes and associates, to buy the land between the Miami Rivers. At one point the purchase was said to be for two million acres but this was revised to be one million acres. The contract was modified by Congress, with Symmes consent, in 1792, to reduce the purchase to the final size of 311,682 acres. The purchase finally was approved on 30 October 1794, when President George Washington signed the patent. As finally executed, the Symmes Purchase extended between the Miami rivers and north from the Ohio River about 2/3 of the way to Dayton.

SymmesPurchase @80

Judge Symmes evidently was a headstrong, take-charge sort of guy because he sent surveyors into the field in 1788, sure that his 1787 request would be approved. He also was a frugal guy because he ordered the surveyors to work their way north setting Section corner markers at one-mile intervals but he told them NOT to spend the time running east-west lines to insure the Sections were indeed one-mile squares. The purchasers of the land would need to pay for these surveys to be performed. Further, a basic problem with the Symmes survey was that he ordered his surveyors to define the north-running lines simply using compass heading … not correcting the compass heading to true North.

C. Albert White, writing in the 1982 A History of the Rectangular Survey System for the Bureau of Land Management, had this to say about the Symmes survey; “The supposed northwest corner of a section might be 15 to 20 chains or more, north or south of the northeast corner of the same section. The longitudinal distances between corners were also grossly in error. A purchaser of a full section might have 100 acres more or less than he was to pay for.” Since a surveyor’s chain measured 66 feet and a full section contains 640 acres the work done by Symmes’ surveyors could have been horribly wrong! The History of Warren County cited an example where one Ichabod Halsey purchased a plat from Symmes said to contain 640 acres that actually contained 840!

But wait! There is more. Judge Symmes sent surveyors into the territory beyond the limits of his contract for 311,682 acres … surveying and selling land even farther north than the future site of Dayton, Ohio, which itself was 20 miles or more beyond the northern boundary of the land he actually owned. Symmes spent years selling land he did not own! John Edgar, son of one of the pioneer settlers of Dayton, reports in his Pioneer Life that a group of men (including Jonathan Dayton) bought the seventh and eighth ‘ranges’ from Symmes. Each range was a six-mile (north-south) swath of land extending from the Great Miami River on the west to the Little Miami River on the east. This includes the future sites of Dayton, Beavercreek, Fairborn, Wright-Patterson AFB and Yellow Springs as well as other smaller villages. Edgar further reports that his father received a certificate for two lots in the town of Dayton that reads as follows; 

“This will certify that Robert Edgar has complyed (sic) with the conditions of settlement in the town of Dayton and is entitled to receive a deed for the following lots so soon as the Honorable John C. Symmes shall obtain a patent from Congress, including the premises, viz: Town Lot numbered on the plat of said town Thirty-two and ten-acre outlot number Five.

For the proprietor, 

D. C. Cooper

Dayton, March 17, 1798”

Edgar notes that the ‘new proprietors’ refused to honor this certificate and his father received nothing for his labor in clearing the lots.

So. Was “the Honorable John C. Symmes” a con artist, scamming everyone to make a fast buck while hoping that his reputation ‘Back East’ would protect him from prosecution … or hoping that the distance from the sites of real power would protect him? Was he a headstrong individual who was confident that a do-nothing Congress would finally see the wisdom of HIS ways and sell him the lands he had been peddling? Or was he like the lead character in the musical ‘Music Man’ who claimed he always thought there would be a boy’s band?

Your guess is as good as mine …

The Rest of the Story is equally murky; what happened to those who bought land from Symmes?

Its clear from the story told by Edgar about his father, that some folks simply lost all claim to ‘their’ land. But Congress tried to make amends, passing relief acts in 1799 and 1801. By the terms of these acts a person who thought he had bought land from Symmes but actually was a squatter on Government land was given first opportunity to buy the land from the Government at $2 per acre … even though they previously had paid Symmes at the rate of (probably) 66 cents per acre. This may not sound like a good situation but if the ‘squatter’ had been improving the land for five or ten years it was better than simply walking away.

Then there were the problems related to the faulty survey. A court ruling (whose reference I have misplaced) found that the section corners of the original survey should prevail. This explains why some county boundaries in southwestern Ohio are zig-zaggy since they follow the lines of the original Symmes survey.

So far as further large land sales by Congress were concerned, White notes “The Symmes Purchase was so badly managed and the surveys so poor that it effectively killed any further large land sales by Congress. It brought out the need for proper surveys, executed by the government, and the fixing in position, by law, of survey corners and lines once claims were made based on them.”

postscript

I plan a later posting in which I will describe the activities of John Cleves Symmes, Jr, nephew of the Symmes Purchase Proprietor, and his connection to the Jefferis family by way of Jeremiah N. Reynolds.

FRF

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Symmes purchase from surveyor’s perspective: http://www.surveyhistory.org/symmes_purchase.htm by C. Albert White from A History of the Rectangular Survey System, U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Washington, D. C., 1982.

DRURY, Augustus Waldo, History of the City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, vol 1, found at Google Books.

History of Warren County http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohwarren/Bogan/bogan322.htm

BURKE, Thomas Aquinas, Ohio Lands, a Short History, published by the Ohio State Auditor, 1997. Available at www.auditor.state.oh.us .

EDGAR, John F., Pioneer Life in Dayton (Ohio) and Vicinity, 1796-1840,W. J. Shuey, publisher, Dayton, 1896. Reprinted 1999 by Heritage Books, Bowie, Maryland. ISBN 0-7884-1276-0.

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Blount - First Fort (compilation)





THE JIM BLOUNT HISTORY ARCHIVES

FORT BUILT TO PROTECT THE SYMMES PURCHASE

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Jim Blount History Resources

On November 18, 1788, 26 brave persons stepped off flatboats on the Ohio River and established the first settlement in Southwestern Ohio to inhabit Columbia, a community about a mile west of where the Little Miami River empties into the Ohio River.

The site today is in Cincinnati’s southeast corner, between Lunken Airport and Alms Park.

About a month earlier — October 15, 1788 — Congress had approved the sale of one million acres in the Northwest Territory to John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey.

Symmes is a familiar label on the area’s landscape, and most of the names are a tribute to the region’s first land owner and real estate agent.

John Cleves Symmes was born July 21, 1742, at Southold, Long Island, N. Y., and was residing in Sussex County, N. J., in 1770, before the start of the American Revolution.

During the war, he was a colonel in charge of New Jersey troops. He was on the committee that drafted a new state constitution in 1776, and was an associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1777 through 1783.

He was a New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress from 1785 through 1787 while that body searched for a way to sell land and control settlement in the Ohio valley.

Congress, which was then the only branch of government in the new United States, adopted ordinances in 1785 and 1787 which opened the way for migration into the region that would become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

In New York City, Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance July 13, 1787, while in Philadelphia the Constitutional Convention worked until September on a new plan of government.

August 29, 1787 — less than seven weeks after enactment of the Northwest Ordinance — the 45-year-old Symmes asked his colleagues to permit him to buy one million acres in the wilderness.

Joining the often-controversial Symmes in the venture were Elias Boudinot and Jonathan Dayton, past and present members of Congress from New Jersey. Dayton also was then a member of the Constitutional Convention.

In the spring and summer of 1787, Symmes had traveled down the Ohio River to inspect potential locations.

His choice, because it was north of the Ohio River between the Little Miami River and the Great Miami River, was known as the Miami Purchase. It included a portion of what is now Butler County.

It wasn’t until October 15, 1788, that Congress approved the sale to Symmes. By then, Symmes had been appointed to one of five administrative positions in the territory. February 18, 1788, Congress named him one of three territorial judges.

He planned to buy a million acres and profit by reselling smaller parcels to others. First, he priced his land at 66 and two-thirds cents an acre. Later, the standard price was $1.

John Reily’s First Stop in Ohio

Symmes quickly sold several thousand acres to Benjamin Stites, who a few weeks later guided the pioneers on the two-day trip from Limestone (now Maysville, Ky. ) to Columbia.

Stites had been with Symmes and others in September 1788 during their inspection of the land north of the Ohio River between the Little Miami and Great Miami rivers.

The first, task for Stites and others who arrived at Columbia in November 1788 was to build a small fort for protection from possible Indian raids. Of course, log cabins also had to be constructed before the onset of winter.

But food was more of a problem than shelter that first winter. The settlers soon consumed the food they brought with them. Then they had to rely on wild game — which was plentiful — and what they could extract from the ground.

According to one account, Columbia women and children had “to scratch up the bulbous roots of the bear grass, which when mashed, boiled and dried, were pounded into a kind of flour which served as a tolerable substitute for wheat and corn flour.”

The food situation began to improve in the spring when crops could be planted. But not all of the settlement’s manpower could be devoted to farming. Half of the men worked in the fields while the other half stood guard against Indian attacks. The groups switched responsibilities during the day to break the monotony.

Columbia residents suffered another setback in November 1789 when the Ohio River flooded the community. Only one house escaped the water.

Columbia survived the hardships and prospered. It quickly became a trading center — thanks to an adjacent area known as Turkey Bottom, which produced high yields of corn each year.

At first, Columbia grew faster than nearby Cincinnati (to which it was annexed in 1873), and North Bend, a settlement started by John Cleves Symmes.

A missionary who visited the three river communities in 1792 said Columbia had 1,100 inhabitants while Cincinnati had about 900 and North Bend between 300 and 400 residents.

The first school in the Symmes Purchase was established at Columbia In June 1790 by 27-year-old John Reily, who was also an Indian fighter and soon became a leader not only in Columbia, but in the Northwest Territory.

Thirteen years later Reily — a native of Pennsylvania who spent his youth in Virginia before service in the revolutionary army — would move to Hamilton and continue to serve in various official capacities until a few years before his death June 7, 1850, at the age of 87.

A Campaign Against the Natives

Attempts to settle Ohio began in 1788, but migration across the Appalachians into the area was slowed by Indian resistance. Building log forts on the banks of the Ohio River at Marietta and Cincinnati had failed to intimidate the Native Americans, and in 1790 an ill-prepared military expedition ended in defeat.

In 1791, Congress — at the urging of President George Washington — authorized an increase in the army and the militia to challenge the Indians again.

At the same time, Arthur St. Clair — governor of the Northwest Territory since 1788 — was appointed major-general and commander of the U. S. Army. St. Clair, based in Cincinnati, hoped to gather 3,000 men for another campaign against the Native Americans residing later became western Ohio and eastern Indiana.

One of his objectives was to build a series of forts extending north from Fort Washington in Cincinnati. Execution of that strategy led to the building of Fort Hamilton.

The task was assigned to Lt. Col. William Darke, who also was responsible for cutting a road through the wilderness between Fort Washington and the first in a chain of “forts of deposit,” the 1790s military term describing supply posts.

In August, Darke ‘s advance unit established a camp at Ludlow Station, five miles north of Cincinnati on Mill Creek. On September 6, 1791, Darke’s soldiers started for their destination, about 25 miles north of Fort Washington. It took three days to chop through the thickly-wooded countryside.

Darke made camp near the present site of the Columbia Bridge in Hamilton and waited for orders. September 20, St. Clair ordered Darke to proceed to erect the fort on a site which had been selected during a previous scouting mission.

Built with 80 Axes and a Saw

The location on the east bank of the Great Miami River was chosen because the army planned to transport supplies from Cincinnati via the river. The site also was at a ford, a natural river crossing, which had been used by the Indians. It is believed to have been on an alignment with present Ross Avenue and Court Street. The fort’s gate was at this point, opening to the west.

About 100 men worked for two weeks to complete the fort, then about half the size of a modern football field.

From the surrounding woods, the men and their oxen combined to cut straight, 20-foot logs and drag them to a flat area beside the river. The timbers — from 9 to 12 inches in diameter — were placed upright in a three-foot trench around the perimeter.

Four blockhouses or platforms were built, three on the land side and one facing the river.

Inside the fort, soldiers built a barracks for about 100 men, a guard room, two storehouses and a magazine.

Darke’s contingent faced a familiar military problem — a shortage — according to the adjutant general of the army.

“The provisions of tools . . . was scanty in the extreme,” said Col. Winthrop Sargent in his diary of the campaign. “Eighty axes only were furnished by the quartermaster, and of these 13 were borrowed from the troops.” Sargent said the crew had “one saw and one frow” (a wedge-shaped cleaving tool).

September 30, 1791, is regarded as the completion date for the crude fort which was named in honor of Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the treasury in President Washington’s cabinet.

The fort — which would be enlarged later — immediately became the temporary base for about 2,000 soldiers, considerably less than the 3,000 that St. Clair had anticipated. Oct. 4 — five days after completion of Fort Hamilton — Gen. St. Clair led his hastily-assembled army out of the frontier outpost toward a showdown with the Indians.

‘The Miami Slaughterhouse’

Unfortunately, many of John Cleves Symmes’ deals were faulty.

There was confusion between Symmes and the government over both the size and the boundaries of the Miami Purchase.

In some cases, Symmes sold land which he didn’t own. Some problems were attributed to Symmes’ tendency to neglect details, including selling tracts on credit and then failing to collect payment.

The labeling of his real estate as “the Miami Slaughterhouse” — because of deadly Indian raids on settlers — discouraged some prospects from buying Symmes’ land.

Added to all of their troubles were disputes between Symmes and some of his associates.

In March 1811, a mysterious fire destroyed Symmes’ residence. Eventually, his holdings were seized and sold to satisfy legal claims against him.

Symmes, then 72, died in poverty February. 26, 1814, in Cincinnati. He was buried with military honors in North Bend, an Ohio River community which he founded February 2, 1789.

Culled from the following columns at the Lane Libraries Jim Blount History Resources Archives:

Sept. 25, 1988 – Hamilton once army fort:

Nov. 13, 1988 – Early settlers busy beavers:

April 22, 1990 – First land owner died poor:

Current Column: Sugar first food rationed during World War II; Backyard Victory Gardens and Victory Flocks suggested to supplement local food supplies

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Cincinnati Land Office Records


http://www.ohiomemory.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15005coll36


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About this collection

The Federal Land Office in Cincinnati was established in 1800 as part of what was known both as the Act of May 10, 1800 and the Harrison Land Act of 1800. This Act included many provisions, such as establishing receivers and registers, permitting the lease of parcels of land under certain conditions, and setting a minimum price of $2.00 per acre. The Act also allowed for the purchase of land on credit and payable in quarters annually, with the first quarter-payment due upon the date of purchase. Lands sold by the Cincinnati office were located in the south-western corner of Ohio and included a portion of Indiana, as well as part of the Symmes Purchase (also known as the Little Miami Purchase).

 

Ranging from 1806 to 1828, the items in this collection provide a glimpse into the history of the Federal Land Office in Cincinnati and its role in carrying out the Harrison Land Act's provisions. Included are purchase certificates, letters, and power-of-attorney documents, many of which provide the name and county of origin of the purchaser, the name of the receiver of payments and the land office register, the location of the land purchases, and the price of purchase. In the case of the power-of-attorney documents next-of-kin information is occasionally included, as well. In certain instances it has been impossible to determine the correct state of origin of the purchaser; generally this is due to the fact that both Indiana and Ohio have identically-named counties, such as Franklin County. In these cases, both Ohio and Indiana have been listed as the state of origin.

 

OHC - Symmes...

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Symmes_Purchase



Symmes Purchase
Symmes Purchase map.jpg

The Symmes Purchase was an early land division in the region of what would become Ohio.

John Cleves Symmes, a Congressman and judge from New Jersey, created a company with several of his friends to buy land in the Northwest Territory between the Great Miami and Little Miami Rivers. This land came to be known as the Symmes Purchase. It was also known as the Miami Purchase. In 1788, Symmes and his associates requested one million acres of land from Congress. In the end, they were only allowed to purchase about 330,000 acres. President George Washington approved the land patent in 1794. Symmes and his partners paid approximately sixty-seven cents per acre. They were required to follow the same basic rules as the Ohio Company of Associates. Land had to be set aside for a school, for religion, and for the government's use. In addition, a large piece of land was also to be set aside for a university. Symmes ignored this requirement.

A number of settlements were built in the Miami Purchase during the early years of the Northwest Territory. Along the Ohio River, settlers built a small community called Losantiville, which later became known as Cincinnati. The government built Fort Washington nearby to protect settlers from Native American attacks. Although the population in the region grew rapidly, Symmes and his associates faced some controversy. The investors chose not to follow the government survey system. This resulted in some confusion over property boundaries and land ownership. Symmes and his associates also founded the community of Dayton on land that was not part of the Miami Purchase. Numerous settlers in the Symmes Purchase had to pay for their property more than once. They initially purchased it from Symmes, and then, they had to buy it from the actual owner. The failure of Symmes to honor the United States Congress's provisions resulted in the federal government refusing to sell such large parcels of land to other private real estate speculators. Instead, the government surveyed the land and arranged the sale of the property directly to potential settlers.

See Also

References

  1. Bond, Beverley W., Jr., ed. The Correspondence of John Cleves Symmes, founder of the Miami Purchase, chiefly from the collectionof Peter G. Thomson. New York, NY: Macmillan Company, 1926.
  2. Carter, Clarence Edwin, ed. The Territorial Papers of the United States. Vol. I-III. New York, NY: AMS Press, 1973.
  3. Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes. Vol. II. Cincinnati, OH: C.J. Krehbiel & Co., Printers and Binders, 1902.
  4. Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.
  5. Onuf, Peter S. Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
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