University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER IV.

LAND OPERATORS IN THE WEST.

Time had scarcely been allowed to dry the ink on the
signatures to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, ere the British
government proceeded to carry out one of its well matured
plans for forestalling the movements of the French, and
taking immediate possession of the country lying west of the
Mountains, and east of the Ohio. This scheme was the formation
by an act of Parliament, of a great landed corporation,
which was designed to check the encroachments of France,
despoil the Indians of their inheritance, and secure permanent
possession of the valley of the Ohio.

We will quote from Sparks, the nature, &c., of this corporation.
In 1749, Thomas Lee, one of His Majesty's Council in
Virginia, formed the design of effecting settlements on the
wild lands west of the Alleghany Mountains. * * * With
the view of carrying his plan into operation, Mr. Lee associated
himself with twelve other persons in Virginia and Maryland,
and with Mr. Hanbury, a merchant in London, who
formed what they called "The Ohio Company." Five
hundred thousand acres of land were granted almost in the
terms requested by the company, to be "taken on the south
side of the Ohio river, between the Monongahela and Kanawha
rivers. Two hundred thousand acres were to be located at
once, and held for ten years free of quit-rent, provided one
hundred families were settled on it within seven years, and a
fort erected of suitable strength to protect the inhabitants."
This may be considered the first decisive step on the part of
the English, to take possession of the country bordering the

Ohio river. Other companies were organized about the same
time by the colonial authorities of Virginia, under direct
instruction from the mother country. Of these, were the
Greenbriar Company, with a grant of 100,000 acres; and
the Loyal Company, incorporated on the 12th June, 1749,
with a grant for 800,000 acres, from the "line
of Canada, North and West." The British Ministry
had evidently become alarmed at what they were pleased
to term the encroachments of the French; and it was to forestall
their movements by throwing into the disputed territory
an "armed neutrality," in the shape of several hundred
American families, that made the English Government and
its Virginia agents, so solicitous to colonize the regions of
the West. We will revert to this subject in another chapter,
and now resume the thread of our narrative.

Early in 1750, the Ohio Company sent out Christopher
Gist on an exploring expedition. He is represent-

ed to have crossed from the south branch of the
Potomac, to the headwaters of the Juniata; thence to the
Alleghany, crossing that river a few miles above where
Pittsburgh now stands. Descending the Ohio to the mouth
of Beaver, he went up that stream, thence across to the
Muskingum, and down to the Miami. After an absence of
several months, he returned to the Kanawha, and made a
thorough examination of the country lying east of that river
and south of the Ohio.[16]

In 1751, as already stated, Andrew Lewis, afterwards so
distinguished in the military annals of our State, commenced
a survey of the Greenbriar tract. The movements of both
these agents, however, had been closely watched, and information
conveyed to the French, who by this time had fairly got

their eyes open as to the policy and designs of the English.
Determined to maintain their rights, and to assert their claim
to the country bordering the Ohio, the French crossed Lake
Champlain, built Crown Point, and without delay proceeded
to fortify certain other positions on the waters of the upper
Ohio. With this view, they erected a fort at Presque Ile, on
Lake Erie; another about fifteen miles distant, which they
called Le Bœuf; and a third, at the mouth of French Creek,
now Venango. But lest, while these little fortresses were
quietly rising in the wilderness, the English might attempt
corresponding means for defence, a company of soldiers was
despatched by the French Commandant, with positive orders
to keep intruders out of the valley of the Ohio; but to use no
violence, "except in case of obstinate continuance, and then
to seize their goods."[17]

This party doubtless heard of the movements of Gist, and
the presence of English traders on the Miami. Thither they
directed their steps and demanded that the intruders should
leave, or be given up as trespassers upon French soil.

The traders refusing to depart, and the Indians being
unwilling to give them up, a fight ensued, in which fourteen
of the Twigtees or Miamas were killed, and the traders,
four in number, taken prisoners.[18]

This occurred early in 1752, as the Indians referred to the
fact at the treaty of Logstown, in June. It may justly be

regarded as the prologue to that long and bloody drama, the
catastrophe of which, was the expulsion of the French from
the Ohio valley, and the consequent loss to France of all her
territory east of the Mississippi. (See note A., end of Part II.)

Thus stood matters in the spring of 1752. The English
thwarted in their attempt to locate lands on the Ohio, deemed
it expedient to invite the chiefs of the neighboring tribes to a
convention at Logstown, when they hoped to have the claims
of Great Britain recognized, as they were clearly determined
to possess themselves of the lands in question, by fair means
or foul. Accordingly, in June 1752, Joshua Fry,[19] Lunsford
Loamax, and James Patton, commissioners on the part of
Virginia, met the Sachems and chiefs of the Six Nations, and
desired to know to what they objected in the treaty of Lancaster
(see note B., end of Part II.), and of what else they complained.
They produced the Lancaster treaty, insisted upon
its ratification, and the sale of the Western lands; but the
chiefs said "No; they had heard of no sale of lands west of the
warriors' road[20] which ran at the foot of the Alleghany ridge."
The Commissioners finding the Indians inflexible, and well
aware of the rapid advance of the French, decided to offer
great inducements in goods, &c., for the ratification of the
treaty, and the relinquishment of the Indian title to lands
lying south of the Ohio and east of the Kanawha.

The offers and importunities of the Virginians at length
prevailed, and on the 13th June, the Indians

consented to confirm the Lancaster deed in as
"full and ample a manner as if the same was here recited,"[22]
and guaranteeing that the settlements south-east of the Ohio
should not be disturbed by them.[23] The Virginia Commissioners,
both at Logstown and Lancaster, were men of the
highest character, "but treated with the Indians according to
the ideas of their day."

The French in the meantime had not been idle observers;
and no sooner did they ascertain the result of the conference
at Logstown, than it was resolved to check the English the moment
they should set foot upon the banks of the Ohio. Vigorous
measures were taken to complete their line of fortifications
on the head-waters of the Ohio, and to supply each post with
an abundance of ammunition. In the spring of 1753, the Ohio
Company directed Gist to lay out a town and erect

a fort at the mouth of Chartier's Creek, two and a
half miles below the forks of the Monongahela and Alleghany.
This order, however, was not carried into effect, as
Washington, in his journal, uses the following language:—
"About two miles from this place, (the forks,) on the southeast
side of the river, at the place where the Ohio Company
intended to lay off their fort, lives Shingiss, king of the
Delawares."

Well do we remember, how often, in the joyous days of
ripening youth, we have roamed over the beautiful grounds
celebrated as the once residence of the noble and generous
Shingiss. The spot is a short distance from the river, and a
little south by west from McKee's rocks;—a rugged promontory
just below the mouth of Chartier's Creek. Associated
with this locality are many wild and startling Indian
legends.[25]