“Into the Wilderness”The Exploration & Settlement of the Ohio

Country1753-1795

Archbishop Hoban High School

Mr. Jason Edwin Anderson, US History Teacher

Fort Venago, Washington’s destination

in 1753

In 1753 George Washington, 31 years old, was sent on a mission to the French Fort Venago near Lake Erie.

While on this mission he utilized his surveying skills to map out the eastern Ohio Country border.

Can you see the border of Ohio in this focused image of the larger map?

This map was a part of his official journal.

These maps were created by Colonel Henry Bouquet on his expedition into the Ohio Territory in 1764. Try to find the future site of Fort Laurens on the next map.

These two maps, and the following one, are owned by the Ohio Judicial Center in Columbus.

With the map properly

oriented toward north you can make out the confluence of

the Monongahela,

Ohio, and Alleghany River (the 3 Rivers)

where Pittsburg now stands.

This original map shows the plan of Colonel

Bouquet to move into the Ohio Country towards the end of the French and Indian War.

During the French &

Indian War Colonel Henry Bouquet made an expedition

into the Muskingum

area of Western Ohio from Fort Pitt,

and built a stone

blockhouse in what is now

Bolivar, Ohio.

The initial interest of the Ohio Country

during the American

Revolution was as a staging ground to

attack the British at Fort Detroit

During the American Revolution a fort was ordered built on the ground of Colonel Bouquet’s

blockhouse from the French and Indian War.

This fort was used to ward off any attacking

Indians in the Ohio Country, as well as deter their British allies in the area. This fort was used from 1777-1778 and was

eventually abandoned due to lack of supplies.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 opened up this newly obtained land to settlement after the Revolutionary War. Slavery was not permitted Northwest of the Ohio River.

The Ohio Company worked to settle the new territory as quickly as possible. Revolutionary War soldiers were paid in land grants for their service. Many, however, were to poor after the war to travel west, so they sold their deeds to land speculators – someone who would buy low and then sell high. Alexander Hamilton and John Paul Jones were among the 817 original shareholders of the Ohio Company.

The Ohio Territory was divided into

several sections after the initial use of lands by

the newly formed Ohio Company (a

group of land speculators

whore job it was to encourage

western settlement in the newly open west

after the Revolutionary

War.

After massive destruction along the coast of Connecticut during the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress appropriated lands in the Ohio Territory for those to

resettle in the west.

According to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 all of the new lands surveyed NW of the Ohio River would be laid out in square plots. The following maps show the Ohio Company’s map, including • Ranges• Townships• Township

Sections• Acres• Partial acres

Section 16 in each Township was set aside for one specific purpose.

Military men like Arthur St. Clair and “Mad” Anthony Wayne were sent to the Ohio

country by President Washington to take care of the Indian problem. St. Clair failed, yet was appointed Military Governor of the

Northwest Territory. General Anthony Wayne won a decisive victory in 1795.Arthur St. Clair

“Mad” Anthony Wayne

The one major obstacle to the settlement of Ohio was the presence of the American Indian.

Before settlement could take place, a solution would need

to be found for the Indian dilemma.

The Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1795

brought an end to Indian attacks in

Ohio – which had been taking place for

the past twenty years. The result was the Treaty of

Greenville. The map here shows the extent of new

borders between American and the

Indians in the Ohio county. This will

soon change again when the statehood

issue became a reality.

Virginian Thomas Worthington, a post-Revolutionary War settler in the south central Ohio

Territory near present day Chillicothe, was a tremendous proponent in Ohio Statehood.

President Thomas Jefferson visited him at his home.

Thomas Worthington

Thomas Worthington (younger)

Thomas Worthington’s home, Adena, became the central point for a

cause of Ohio Statehood. Many wanted to change

status from Territory to State. Governor St. Clair was not one of

them.

Edward Tiffin, a friend of Thomas Worthington and a supporter of

Ohio Statehood, became the first Governor of the newly formed state

of Ohio in 1803.