The political
anomaly of the Western Reserve was deterring immigration and
preventing land sales by those who wished to escape the perplexing
troubles and return to their Connecticut homes. There was no
government, no legal authority, title could not be established or
recorded, contracts had no assured validity, protection of person
and security of property had no legal basis; it was "No Man's
Land," without civil officers, laws or courts. Finally on February
18, 1800, Congress by resolution, appointed a committee of which
the eminent jurist, John Marshall, was Chairman, to consider the
expediency of accepting the cession of the jurisdiction of the
Reserve. Mr. Marshall's favorable report recited the history of
Connecticut title, the history of the cessions, the sale to the
Land Company, and fully explained the difficulties and actual
perils of the settlers of the Reserve. As a result of Mr.
Marshall's report, Congress authorized the President, in behalf of
the United States, to execute and deliver to the Governor of
Connecticut, letters patent whereby the right, title, interest and
estate of the United States to the territory, commonly called the
Western Reserve, should be released and conveyed to said Governor.
The bill
provided, among other conditions, that Connecticut should, within
eight months from the passage of this act, execute and deliver to
the President of the United States a deed expressly releasing to
the United States the jurisdictional claim of the said State of
Connecticut to the Reserve. This "Easement Act," as it was called,
passed Congress and on April 28, 1800, was approved by President
Adams. The General Assembly of Connecticut promptly complied with
the conditions of the congressional act and directed the Governor
of the State to execute and deliver to the President of the United
States, official deed of the jurisdiction of the Reserve. Thus the
curious and unique problem, which as Hinsdale remarks, "gave such
abundant opportunity for constitutional metaphysics and legal
hair splitting," was happily solved, mainly through the legal
acumen and logical common sense of the Virginia Congressman, John
Marshall, who a few months later was to become the Chief Justice
of the United States.
On July 10, 1800,
St. Clair made proclamation constituting the whole Reserve,
including the Firelands, a county with the name of Trumbull, in
honor of Jonathan Trumbull, then Governor of Connecticut, and son
of the original "Brother Jonathan." The county government was
promptly organized and its seat located at Warren. At this time
(1800) the population of the Reserve was 1300, but now that civil
law was assured and the land title clouds had rolled by, a new and
powerful impetus was given to immigration and Trumbull County was
rapidly dotted with thriving settlements of incomers from New
England. Indeed, says Hinsdale, "No other five thousand square
miles [the size of the Reserve] of territory in the United States,
lying in a body outside of New England ever had, to begin with, so
pure a New England population," and he adds: "No similar territory
west of the Allegheny Mountains has so impressed the brain and
conscience of the country." Of the host, of great national leaders
in thought and action that the Western Reserve was to produce, it
is not our province to speak. That is all a well-known portion of
our country's history. The unusual character of the early colonial
settlers of the Western Reserve and the forceful influence they
and their descendants have exerted in the field of our nation's
affairs, has given an enviable prominence to the Western Reserve
which has not inaptly been styled "the Attica of Ohio." While the
Western Reserve was passing through its sea of troubles, other
sections of the State were being settled by diverse streams of
immigration. We have already mentioned how shortly after Wayne's
Treaty, Arthur St. Clair, James Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton and
Isaac Ludlow made settlements in the territory of the intended
Symmes' Purchase.
Another group of
Ohio settlements of a distinctive character was that of the
Virginians. The leader in this stream of immigration was Nathaniel
Massie, born in 1763, in Goochland County, (Va.). He came of
distinguished ancestry and according to his biographer, John
McDonald, served in the Revolutionary War from his native State at
the age of seventeen, and at nineteen started to Kentucky to
pursue his vocation of surveying the public lands and placing
warrants for the soldiers of the Revolution. David Meade Massie in
his life of his illustrious grandfather, Nathaniel Massie, says
the latter "did not go as a penniless soldier of fortune," but at
the outset was the recipient of lands already located in Kentucky,
by Daniel Boone, for Nathaniel Massie, Senior, father of our
subject. Massie developed much talent for successful enterprises,
not only in land locating but fur and salt trading, being
associated in the latter business with General James Wilkinson.
Colonel Richard C. Anderson, who was the principal surveyor of the
(Ohio) Virginia military lands, opened his office at Louisville in
1784, and in 1790 appointed Nathaniel Massie one of his deputy
surveyors. The latter had already penetrated the Virginia military
district of Ohio and was familiar with the extent and value of
that locality. In 1791, Massie established a post "on the bottom
along the Ohio River opposite the lower one of the three islands,
some twelve miles above the present town of Maysville [Kentucky],
then called Limestone." It was the first settlement in the Ohio
Virginia Military District and was at first known as "Massie's
Station," later as Manchester. It was the fourth settlement in
Ohio, following Marietta, Cincinnati and Gallipolis. To induce
settlers in his proposed Station, Massie offered each of the first
twenty-five families, as a donation, one in-lot, one out-lot and
one hundred acres of land. Upwards of thirty families quickly
responded to this alluring offer. Massie made many surveying
incursions into the region of the Scioto Valley, becoming the
owner of much land along the Scioto River and Paint Creek, in
which picturesque and fertile location he determined to found a
town. He advertised his proposition in Kentucky, offering an inlot
and an outlot of four acres in the prospective town to the first
one hundred permanent settlers. This brought together, early in
1795, at Manchester, a "party of respectable citizens of
Kentucky," who under the guidance of Massie, the city founder,
entered upon their journey to the Paint Creek region. They reached
Brush Creek, Scioto branch, where they unexpectedly encountered a
body of seventy hostile Shawnees, under the chief Pucksekaw, the
same vagrant band that soon after reported to Wayne at Greenville,
in great contrition, desiring to come under the terms of the
Treaty. A battle between the pioneers and the savages, ensued in
which the pioneers without loss of life were worsted and were
compelled to yield the field, making good their return to Massie's
Station. This ended the exploitation of the Scioto Valley for that
year. "It was," says McDonald, "the last Indian fight on the
waters of the Scioto River, " occurring at the very moment Wayne
was treating with the tribesmen at Greenville.
