No. 10.) Historical Magazine. 
 
 THE PIONEER FUENCH IN THE VALLEY 
 OF THE OHIO. 
 
 Read before the U. S. Catholic Historical Society, New York, 
 
 by Rev. A. A. Lambing, May 24, 1886. 
 
 The discovery, exploration and first settlement of the 
 Western World presents one of the most interesting and 
 varied pictures to be found anywhere in the pages of history. 
 The ambition of explorers, the daring of adventures, the 
 avarice of speculators, the jealousy of powers and the zeal 
 of millionaires combine to form a panamora without parallel 
 in the annals of the world. The pen of romance could not 
 impart a more striking and varied coloring. Spain, Portu- 
 gal, England, Holland, and France, were there penetrating 
 into the deepest recesses, mountain, forest and plain, .seek- 
 ing with insatiable thirst whatever could excite cupidity, 
 from the soul of a savage to the skin of a beaver. But 
 the methods of exploration and colonization were charac- 
 terized by the genius of the nation to which individuals 
 belonged, the influence of the home government, the capa- 
 city and aim of the leaders, the chmate of the country, 
 and the strength and disposition of the aboriginal tribes. 
 This difference is strikingly illustrated in the different 
 methods of the English and French, with whom we have 
 exclusively to deal in this paper. The former, left to them- 
 selves with nothing btit a royal character, ample enough 
 in its scope, but without any aid towards carrying out its 
 provisions, thrived and became a hardy race on account of 
 the very neglect of the home government; a circimistance 
 which that government learned to its cost when its neglected 
 children had acquired sufficient wealth to be taxed. For 
 this reason it i.« Uu't .the Eng'ish, fhc/tij'fh '. lai* behind the 
 
a United States Catholic No. lo.) 
 
 French in exploration, and the fur trade, were such in ad- 
 vance of them in all that pertained to permanent coloniza- 
 tion. Their progress into the interior was slow, but where 
 they once set their foot, they never withdrew it. The frowr 
 ing range of the Alleghany Mountains, extending along the 
 Atlantic coast at the distance of only one hundred and fifty 
 or two hundred miles, so hemmed them in that they were 
 prevented from crossing that barrier until they had estab- 
 lished themselves so permanently on the eastern side as to 
 be able to protect and defend the settlements that might 
 be made beyond in the process of time. Hence we find their 
 progress was steady from the beginning, and if it received 
 an occasional check, it was temporary. 
 
 The French, on the contrary, pursued, as a nation, a 
 mistaken policy from the first. It is true, indeed, that some 
 among them, and notably Champlain, wished to follow 
 the proper course; but they were not those on whom the 
 destinies of the colony depended. The high latitude of the 
 settlement and the consequent shortness of the summer sea- 
 son were not favorable to agriculture. But in no place in 
 the New World could a colony have succeeded under the cir- 
 cumstances. The people were .. Iventurers, not colonists; 
 and the company and the minister on whom the success of 
 the colony depended appear to have been bent rather on 
 speculation than the cultivation of the soil. The bane of 
 the New World was felt here as it was by the Spaniards 
 of the South; that of drawing from the country the maxi- 
 mum of wealth for individuals and revenue for the crown 
 with the minimum of outlay. The rivers, concentrating 
 into the interior and connecting with the Great Lakes, and 
 these lying in immediate proximity to the Mississippi, in 
 the highest degree favored exploration; and the well 
 known success of the French in treating with the Indians 
 gave them an additional advantage. For this leason they 
 are found even in the days of Champlain penetrating 700 
 leagues intd.jthe Ahtfe*iC)r, ' J The |)etty .'jealousies of rival 
 officers between .SvSoiri Ihe^p'owir'twasl'semewhat divided 
 
 ,'.• •• ', " ••••■ 
 
No. 10.) HiMfjrical Magazine. 3 
 
 by the Crown with a view of havinjj them watch each 
 other, retarded the execution of any important enterprise, 
 while the brief tenure of office in many cases was a dis- 
 advantage equally great. In short, the French were better 
 explorers than the English, but not so good colonizers. As a 
 further evidence of this, the population of New France, al. 
 though it embiaced the whole of North America with the 
 exception of a narrow strip along the Atlantic seashore, and 
 comprising more than ten times as much territory as the 
 Eng'ioli, was less than ten thousand, in 1769, more than 
 seventy years after permanent settlement had been begun; 
 while at the time the French power was finally overthrown, 
 it was but one-fourteenth part of that of the English. 
 
 But with a rival like the English, urged on not only 
 by the cupidity of the present, and the religious prejudice 
 that served to give it a keener edge, but also by the tradi- 
 tional animosity of centuries of the past, it was not enough 
 to explore a country and take nominai possession. This was 
 but a preliminary step; maintaining possession -was the 
 touchstone of success. In no place was this more clearly 
 seen than in the valley of the Ohio River, using, as I do, 
 the term Ohio, as equivalent to that of La Belle Riviere, 
 the Beautiful River, in the sense in which it was employed 
 in the early days by the Indians, French and English, for 
 the water course extending from Western New York to its 
 confluence with the Mississippi. 
 
 In the first half of the last century, the English trad- 
 ers, regardless of the claims of the French to all the coun- 
 try lying west of the Allegheny Mountains, had penetrated 
 as far at least as the centre of the present State of Ohio, 
 and had opened up trade with the tribes of that locality. 
 Having to carry their goods but a few hundred miles, in 
 which the severity of winter did not cause them any seri- 
 ous inconvenience or expense, their advantages were so 
 manifestly superior to those of the French, who had to bring 
 theirs all the way from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 
 and to endure the hardships of a long winter season, tiiat 
 
4 United States Catholic No. lo.) 
 
 all the tact of the latter was not capable of retaining the 
 natives in their allegiance to the representatives of his Most 
 Christian Majesty. Territorial claims amounted to as little 
 with the Indians as they did with the traders; for accord- 
 ing to the ideas of the savages the land was all their own 
 hvmting ground, and, though favoring for the present the 
 one from whom they derived the greatest advantages, it 
 was only from interest, or in the hope of one day being 
 able to expel both intruders from the country. 
 
 The claim of the French to the Valley of the Ohio 
 by the right of discovery, and that of the English to it as 
 comprised within their several charters, was naturally cal- 
 culated to engender strife here, and in the end involve 
 the home governments in deadly conflict. The general 
 outline of the history of the war that ensued is too well 
 known to need repetition here, but the details of the 
 French occupation, and later, of their attempt at coloniza- 
 tion, may not be so familiar to the student of our his- 
 tory. It is important to determine, if possible, the precise 
 time the French Pioneers first entered the valley of the 
 Beautiful Hiver. Few points of our early history have been 
 argued with greater warmth than that for and against 
 the discovery of this stream by the Chevalier Robert de La 
 Salle, about the year 1670. The most weighty authorities 
 are arrayed against each other; and if less enlightened 
 minds differ, they need not be taxed with either ignorance 
 or credulity. But. though the country owes much to that in- 
 defatigable explorer, and though the undertaking would 
 have been in perfect harmony with his inclinations, it is all 
 but certain that the honor of the discovery is not due to 
 him. Subsequently it was to the interest of the French to 
 claim the country on the strength of his supposed discov- 
 ery, because it was well known to precede any claim that 
 could be advanced by the English; and this they did, as 
 may be learned from various historical documents. That 
 the French discovered the stream, and descended it as far 
 as Attiqu^, the present Kittanning, forty-five miles above 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. ^ 
 
 Pittsburg, as early as 1730, admits of no doubt. But 
 whether they descended it further or not, it is impossible 
 to determine. Not long after this time the half-breed 
 Peter Chartier, who was married to a Shawanese squaw, 
 went from the west bank of the Susquehanna River nearly 
 opposite Harrisburg, and settled on the Alleghany at the 
 mouth of Bull Creek, about twenty miles above Pitts- 
 burg. Devoted at first to the interests of the English, 
 suspicion was soon aroused that he had gone over to the 
 French, and had induced many of the Indians, over whom 
 he exercised great influence, to follow his example. But 
 being untrustworthy neither party coveted his friendship, 
 and he was accordingly banished from his village to the 
 Vermillion country further west, by the authorities of New 
 France, in 1745. He has left his name to two streams to the 
 present day, one twenty-two miles above Pittsburg, the 
 other three miles below. From certain expressions found in 
 Cdloron's Journal, also appears that M. Longueuil paid at 
 least a passing visit to the Indian village of St. Yotoe, 
 or Scioto, about the year 1739; but we have no record of 
 the particulars. 
 
 By far the most important event in the history of the 
 transactions of the French up to this time in the Valley 
 of the Ohio was the expedition of C^loron down the Beau- 
 tiful River in the latter part of the summer of 1749. The 
 English settlements east of the mountains were now in so 
 flourishing a condition as to place them in comparative 
 security, and the spirit of adventure that had hitherto been 
 satisfied with trading with the Indians beyond the Alle- 
 ghenies, began at length to contemplate the formation of 
 permanent settlements. The proximity to the source of sup- 
 plies enabled the traders to furnish goods to the Indians on 
 terms more reasonable than those demanded by the French ; 
 a circumstance which naturally gained the good will of the 
 savages. Steps were also taken as as early as 1 748 looking to 
 the formation of the Ohio land company to take up and set- 
 tle lands on the Ohio River. The members succeeded in ob- 
 
« United States Catholic No. ?o.) 
 
 taining from the King of England the grant of five hundred 
 thousand acres of land on the southern bank of that stream 
 between the mouth of the Monongahela and the Kanawha 
 Rivers, with the further privilege of taking up lands on the 
 north side. The Marquis de La Galissoniere, then Govern- 
 or-General of Canada, felt it his duty to consult for the inter- 
 ests of the French Crown by sending an expedition for the 
 four-fold purpose of exploring the coimtry, much of which 
 was still imknown, taking formal possession of it in the 
 name of the French King, expelling the English traders, 
 and conciliating or regaining the Indians to the interests of 
 the French, many of whom wavered or had gone over to 
 the English. The task was beset with difficulties, but delay 
 would only tend to increase them. Accordingly, in the sum- 
 mer of 1749, he appointed Pierre- J oseph^C^loron, Sieur de 
 Blainville, Knight of the Royal and Military Order of St. 
 Louis, Captain in the French army, an officer who had al- 
 ready distinguished himself for courage, prudence and energy 
 in the service of Canada, to fit out and command the expe- 
 dition. In his Journal of the expedition, a copy of which I 
 had made from the original in the archives of the Mar- 
 ine at Paris, he writes : " I set out from La Chine on the 
 iSth of June, with a detachment composed of one captain, 
 eight subaltern officers, six cadets, one chaplain, twenty 
 soldiers, one hundred and eighty Canadians, and thirty In- 
 dians." 
 
 Although the Recollects were at that time appointed 
 as a rule, to the Chaplaincy of the French forces and 
 expeditions, a Jesuit Father, Rev. Louis Ignatius Bonne- 
 camp, or Bonnquant, was selected on this occasion, most 
 p^ obably on account of his scientific knowledge, for learning 
 no less than religious ministrations, was required in carrying 
 out the objects of the expedition. He was then professor of 
 mathematics and hydrography in the Jesuit College of 
 Quebec, and enjoyed, besides, the reputation of being a 
 distinguished astronomer. The expedition pursued its route 
 by way of the St. Laurence, Lake Ontario, the Niagara 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. '^ 
 
 River, Lake Erie, a portage, Chataqua Lake, and Conewan- 
 go Creek, and entered the Allegheny River at the mouth 
 of the latter stream, July 29th, at a point 188 miles above 
 Pittsburg- 
 
 A novel feature of this expedition was the burying of 
 leaden plates at various points, bearing, with the date, an 
 inscription to the effect that the exocdition had taken 
 formal possession of the territory in the name of the King 
 of France. A sheet-iron plate stamped with the arms of the 
 King was also in each case attached to a tree near by. The 
 first of these plates was deposited with due ceremony at 
 the point at which Celoron entered the Beautiful River. 
 
 This manner of taking possession appears to have been 
 peculiar to the French, and to have been employed only on 
 a few occasions. What advantages it possessed it is diffi- 
 cult to imagine, and the mere so as some of the plates 
 have not yet been found. 
 
 The work of exploring the country and reconciling the 
 Indians now began. Everywhere the Indians were found 
 to have been won over to the English by the superior ad- 
 vantages they offered in trading; and, although Celeron 
 expelled the traders he met, and extorted a promise from 
 them not to return, he knew full well they would not keep 
 it. The protestations of attachment which the Indians 
 made to the French and to their Father Onontio, as they 
 called the Governor-General, he knew were not to be relied 
 on. Indeed, it was only fear that prevented them from 
 breaking out into open hostility, evidence of which appeared 
 on more than one occasion. 
 
 Had it not been for these unpleasant features of the 
 expedition, we may imagine with what enthusiastic admira- 
 tion their keen perception must have feasted on the native 
 charms of that stream which extorted even from the rude, 
 unimaginative savages, the name of the Beautiful River. 
 Having spent all my life along its banks, and having fol- 
 lowed its winding course for more than two hundred miles, 
 I can bear witness to its surpassing beauty of its scenery, 
 
ft United States Catholic No. lo.) 
 
 thoujfh the hand of man has robbed it of much of its 
 original charms. The alternation of wooded hill and bot- 
 tom land, the outlets of many tributaries, the numerous 
 islands that dotted its bosom, the ripples and eddies of its 
 crystal current must then have presented a panorama upon 
 which the eye could feast with ceaseless delight. 
 
 Having descended the Ohio as far as the mouth of 
 the Miami, a distance of about 660 miles, the expedition 
 entered the latter stream and ascended it as far as it was 
 navigable for canoes, made the portage to the head waters 
 of the Maumee, which they descended to Lake Erie, and 
 returned to Montreal, were they arrived November loth, 
 having journeyed about twelve hundred French leagues. 
 
 Father Bonnecamp also kept a journal of the expedi- 
 tion, in which among other things he noted the latitude 
 and longitude of the principal points with con.siderable ac- 
 curacy. These two documents form a very interesting 
 chapter on the early history of the Beautiful River; and 
 the chaplain also drew, a map which furnishes a remarkably 
 correct delineation of the course of this majestic stream, and 
 the location of the numerous Indian villages that dotted 
 its banks, supplies a valuable illustration to the journals. 
 
 The result of Celoron's expedition wa.s, that, besides 
 acquirmg a more accurate knowledge of this part of their 
 possessions, the French kept a close watch on the move- 
 ments of the English, and held several councils with the 
 Indians on the Ohio, especially through the influence of the 
 half-breeds, Joncaire brothers, to maintain them in their 
 allegiance to the Governor oi New France. 
 
 The English, on their part, had not been idle. The 
 Governor of Pennsylvania continued to negotiate with the 
 Indians, using for that purpose the services of Conrad 
 Weiser and George Croghan, interpreters who.se influence 
 with the various tribes was greater than that of any other 
 English colonists of the day. The former met the vari- 
 ous tribes in council at their principal village of Logs- 
 towii, on the Ohio, about eighteen miles below Pittsburgh, 
 
No. 10.) HiMoricdl Magazine. ^ 
 
 in Auji^ust and September, 1748. He kept a journal of 
 his travels and negotiations with the Indians. Like the 
 English traders, he came west by way of the Juniata, 
 and crossing the mountains followed the Kiskiminetas to 
 its confluence with the Allegheny. Croghan in company with 
 Andrew Montour was sent on a similar mission to the same 
 Indians in May, 1751, and his journal of the proceedings is 
 also preserved. The Ohio Land Company, too, was on the 
 ground. In 1750, they sent Christopher Gist to the Valley 
 of the Ohio, wish instructions to explore the lands on the 
 southern bank of the river, and report on their quality and 
 fitness for settlement. It is remarkable that, having 
 reached the Allegheny by way of the Kiskiminetas, he 
 went down the west bank, and, passing behind the hill 
 which lies in the present Allegheny city directly oppos- 
 ite the Monongahela River, remained in ignorance of the 
 existence of that stream. He was again sent out on a simi- 
 lar mission in November, 175 1, and spent the entire winter 
 in his explorations. The journal of this expedition is still ex- 
 tant. 
 
 The way was gradually being paved for a conflict 
 between the French and the English on this side of the water, 
 notwithstanding that the home governments professed to be 
 at peace. The initiatory step wbs taken by the French. 
 They were anxious to secure their possessions by construct- 
 ing a line of fortifications extending from the mouth of the 
 St. Laurence to that of the Mississippi. The Beautiful River 
 being the stream which ran nearest to the eastern boim- 
 dary of their claim, the erection of certain forts upon it 
 was necessary for the execution of their plan. No point 
 was or could have been more important for either nation 
 than the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Riv- 
 ers, the site of the present city of Pittsburg; and, consequently 
 it is to this point that our attention is to be especially 
 drawn. 
 
 In the year 1753, to use the language of the savages 
 of that day, the chain of friendship was broken between 
 
10 Unitad States Catholic No. lo.) 
 
 the two nations, and the next year the hatchet was dug up. 
 In the execution of their plan the French, in the spring of 
 1753, built a small fort at Presqu' Isle, on the Southern shore 
 of Lake Erie where the city of the same name now stands; 
 and, cutting a road to the head of canoe navigation on Le 
 Boeuf River, now French Creek, constructed a second fort 
 there immediately after. This determined Robert Dinwid- 
 dle, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, who claimed south- 
 western Pennsylvania as part (*f the territory over which he 
 held sway, to inquire into the movements of the French. 
 For that purpose he sent, as the bearer of his dispatches, to 
 the commander of the French at Fort Le Boeiif, at the close 
 of the year 1753, a young man but twenty-two years of age, 
 who was destined to write his name on the proudest page of 
 the world's history — George Washington. Little did the sturdy 
 Scotch governor think, when he introduced this youth into 
 the arena of public life, that he would one day overthrow the 
 power which he represented. 
 
 In the execution of his mission, Washington bore let- 
 ters to the commander of the French forces, took careful 
 notes of all that came under his observation, and returned 
 in the early part of January, 1754. We are indebted to him 
 for the first d-^scription of the spot upon which Pittsburg now 
 stands. His report determined the Governor to send a 
 detachment of men to throw up a fortification at the 
 confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. 
 They reached the place in command of Captain William 
 Trent, on the 17th of February, and from that dates the 
 permanent settlement of Pittsburg. 
 
 The French were actively engaged in the meantime in 
 carrying out their original plans. During the winter 
 Joncaire had worked with his usual success on the minds of 
 the savages, and had induced them to consent to the erec- 
 tion of a fort at the mouth of the Le Boeuf River, where 
 Franklin now stands. These forts were not meant so much 
 for defence, as for securing the portage from Lake Erie 
 to the Allegheny River; the centre of active operations 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. n 
 
 must be furtier down that stream. With the completion of 
 the ^last fort early in the spring of 1754, Contrecceur, who was 
 then in command of the French forces descended the 
 river with an army of French, Canadians and Indians to 
 the number of about a thousand; and on April 16, sur- 
 prised Ensign Ward who commanded in the temporary 
 absence of Trent. Landing above the unfinished works of 
 the English, he summoned them to an immediate surrender. 
 Having but forty men, there was no alternative; and the 
 French took possession, the English retiring up the Mon- 
 ongahela. Insignificant as this action may appear in itself, 
 in the light of subsequent events it was fraught with 
 the most momentous consequence for both nations. It 
 enkindled the flames of war between the two powers in 
 three quarters of the globe, and despoiled the former after 
 a seven yearss' struggle, of all their possessions; it served 
 to discipline the colonial troops for the approaching con- 
 test which resulted in the achievement of American Inde- 
 pendence; and it schooled for them a commander who 
 shall ever stand in the foremost rank of the world's heroes. 
 
 In order to maintain the claims of their nation, the 
 French built Fort Duquesne on the point of land at the 
 coufluence of the two rivers, and it immediately became, 
 though not wisely, the principal point of attack of the Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 I say not wisely; for had they directed their efforts to 
 the capture of Fort Niagara, they could have reduced Fort 
 Duquesne without striking a blow. Yet, as it was, Fort 
 Duquesne may be said to have been for a time the cen- 
 tral point in the world's history. For four and a half years 
 the French held their little fort despite the best efforts of the 
 English to dislodge them. The ill-fated expedition of Gen- 
 eral Braddock, which resulted in his defeat and death at 
 the Battle of the Monongahela, July 9th, 1755, is too well 
 known to need more than a passing mention. But, notwith- 
 standing this success, fortune frowned on the cause of the 
 French, and they were destined to reap the bitter fruits of 
 
12 United States Catholic No. lo.) 
 
 their mistaken system of colonization. Little is known of their 
 operations from the defeat of Braddock until shortly before 
 their final withdrawal from the valley of the Beautiful 
 River, except that they made occasional incursions into 
 the English settlements, engaged in a few skirmishes and 
 maintained the Indians in their allegiance. But the dis- 
 tance of the fort from the base of supplies, the difficulty, 
 delay and danger of transportation, the time necessary for 
 sending messages to the seat of government, the long march 
 that reinforcements would be required to make to relieve 
 the fort and the continual encroachment of the English 
 settlements rendered their position at all times precarious. 
 The Indians, too, were not to be relied on the moment the 
 fortunes of the French began to waver. Rude though they 
 were, they were yet able to understand the situation, and 
 Christian Frederick Post and other agents of the English 
 were secretly at work striving to alienate them from the 
 French. Petty jealousies, by destroying harmony, also 
 weakened the front the French presented to the enemy; 
 and the successes of the English in the northeast presaged 
 their final overthrow. The trifling successes they gained at 
 Ligonier and near the fort in the early utumn of 1758, were 
 but the last flickering of the taper before it expires. The 
 fact that a large army was advancing under General Forbes, 
 against which they could offer no effectual resistance, cooled 
 the ardor of the savages; and the tardiness with which the 
 English General advanced, by keeping the Indians in sus- 
 pense, caused them to grow impatient and desert. Nor 
 had the French presents wherewith to retain them. The 
 inability of the French to receive reinforcements in time, or 
 to hold the fort without them, became daily more apparent* 
 and on the 24th of November, 1758, when the English 
 forces were within ten miles of it, they blew it up and re- 
 tired, some down the Ohio to the Wabash country, others 
 up the Beaver Valley and the rest with their commander, 
 up the Allegheny to Fort Machault at the mouth of Le 
 Buiuf River. The star of the French in the Valley of the 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. 13 
 
 Beautiful River had set never to rise. 
 
 Fort Machault was streng'thened during the winter, 
 and means of transportation provided, with a view of de- 
 scending the river with the opening of spring and retaking 
 Fort Duquesne before the English, all of whom but two 
 hundred, had retired to the east of the mountains, could 
 reinforce it. But the menacing attitude of the English in 
 the northwest made it advisable to await the result of their 
 operations. In the meantime every means was employed 
 to retain the Indians, upon whom so much depended, but 
 they had lost confidence in the French, and cared little to 
 follow them to almost certain defeat. With the siege of 
 Fort Niagara, the forts in northwestern Pennsylvania, were 
 abandoned, and with the fall of that stronghold, August 5th, 
 1759, all hope was gone. Communication between the east 
 and west was cut off, and the final overthrow of the French 
 power in the New World was at hand. The fall of Que- 
 bec, a few weeks later sealed its fate. " The funeral of 
 Montcalm was the funeral of New France." 
 
 The French, true as yet to the faith of their fathers, 
 were always accompanied in their expeditions and campaigns 
 by a chaplain, those faitliful missionaries and adventurous 
 explorers, whose early letters to their superiors in the 
 mother country must ever be the most valuable documents 
 relating to our early history. The register of their labors 
 in the field now under consideration is still extant, rescued 
 from the dust and mould of archives and published to the 
 world, thanks to the indefatigable labors of one whose name 
 is too well known to need mentit)n here. 
 
 During the ^occupcition of Fort Duquesne the French 
 passed up and down the Ohio, but more especially in win- 
 ter when the severe climate of the north rendered it difficult 
 to carry provisions and munitions of war from the posts on 
 the St. Laurence. But, though they had trading posts on 
 the river, and were scattered here and there among the 
 Indian villages, there is no record of their having formed 
 any permanent scvtlcments. That was not their object even 
 
14 United States Catholic No. lo.) 
 
 at the fort Itself. Possession and occupation were all they 
 aimed at for the present. It was not until more than thirty 
 years later when the country had for the second time changed 
 masters that an attempt was made to plant a French colony on 
 the banks of the Ohio. The history of this colony, be- 
 sides being painfully interesting, so far as its origin is con- 
 cerned, is involved in considerable mystery. This I shall en- 
 deavor to un.' \.vel, with the aid of the best authorities at 
 command. The first reference to an attempt to settle a 
 French colony is found in a letter written by Thomas Jeffer- 
 son to James Monroe, dated, Paris, November nth, 1784, 
 in which, among other things, he says : " There is here some 
 person, a Frenchman from Philadelphia, who has drawn up 
 a visionary scheme of a settlement of French emigrants 
 five hundred in number, on the Ohio. He supposes Con! 
 gress, flattered by the prospect of such an addition to our 
 numbers, will give them four hundred thousand acres of 
 land, and permit them to continue French subjects. My 
 opinion has been asked, -and I have given it : that congress 
 will make bargains with nobody; that they will lay down 
 general rules to which all applicants must conform them- 
 selves by applying to the proper officers and not perplexing 
 Congress with their visions . . . and that, therefore, I 
 did not think they would encourage a settlement of so large 
 a body of strangers whose language, manners, and prin- 
 ciples were so heterogenous to ours." Nothing more is 
 heard of this scheme; but in May or June, 1788, Joel Bar- 
 low was sent to Paris to dispose of lands on the north bank 
 of the Ohio near the mouth of the Scioto. Whether he was 
 commissioned by the Ohio, or by the Scioto land company, 
 was long a matter of dispute; the supposed relation between 
 these two companies was also debated with no little warmth. 
 It may be well for us then to inquire into the relation, if 
 any, that existed between them, and learn further by whose 
 authority so glaring an imposition was practised on so many 
 innocent and unsuspecting people. Says a writer on the 
 subject : " The Scioto Land Company has been the subject 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. 15 
 
 of considerable mystery, and the cause of much misrepre- 
 sentation. I am not fully informed concerning its origin. 
 It was probably started during the negotiation of Dr. Cutler 
 with the old Congress, in 1787, for the Ohio Company pur- 
 chase. Dr. Cutler arrived in New York July 5th, and carried 
 on his negotiations'fora week ; he was then absent another week 
 on a visit to Philadelphia, where theconvention thatformed the 
 federal constitution was sitting. On his return to New York, 
 the project for the Scioto Company was broached to him 
 by Col. William E)uer, as appears from the following extract 
 from the Doctor's journal. " Colonel Duer came to me v/ith 
 proposals from a number of the principal characters in the 
 city, to extend our contract, and take in another company. The 
 arrangements of Dr. Cutler with the government made room 
 for another company. But this other association was entirely 
 distinct from the Ohio Company. Yet it has been represented 
 that the Ohio Company was concerned in the alleged wrongs 
 toward the French emigrants in 1790, who were induced to 
 come over in expectation of lAie beneficial acquisition of 
 land in this quarter, by the agency of Joel Barlow. But 
 this imputation is entirely groundless. What were the actual 
 relations and doings of the Scioto Company previous to or 
 connected with that agency, I have never learned. 
 
 " The arrangements and objects of the Ohio Compaey 
 are believed to have been very different. The aim of the 
 Ohio Company was actual settlement by shareholders. . . 
 The object of the Scioto Company seems to have been, sole- 
 ly and simply land accumulation; to purchase of Congress — 
 nominally at two-thirds of a dollar per acre — paying mostly 
 in continental paper money, at that time passing at an enor- 
 mous discount — so that, in fact, the actual cost per acre 
 might not be more than eight or ten cents; then to sell at 
 prices which yield them enormous profits." 
 
 It does not appear that the members of the Scioto Com- 
 pany had any sinister design beyond the securing of great 
 profit in the purchase and sale of public lands. With this 
 
1«5 UnUeil States Catholic No. 10.) 
 
 object in view, they autliorized Barlow to offer the lands for 
 sale in France and invite emigration, but nothing is known 
 with certainty regarding the specific instruction.'; he received. 
 The Ohio Company had nothing to do in the matter. In 
 1790, Barlow began to distribute proposals in Paris for the 
 sale of lands on the north bank of the Ohio near the mouth 
 of the Scioto, at five shillings per acre; the proposals prom- 
 ising "a climate healthy and delightful; scarcely such a 
 thing as frost in winter; a river called by way of eminence 
 The Beautiful, abounding in fish of an enormous size; mag- 
 nificent forests of a tree from which sugar flows, and a shrub 
 which yields candles; ... no taxes to pay; no military en- 
 rollments; no quarters to find for soldiers."' The proposals 
 were readily accepted, and many persons, and even entire 
 families disposed of their property preparatory to setting out 
 for this new land of promise. Supplied with title deeds, large 
 numbers, variously estimated at from 'We hundred to seven 
 thousand, embarked at Bordeaux, Nantes, Rochelle and 
 Havre, two hundred and eighteen leaving the latter port 
 Februaiy 19th, 1791, and arriving at Alexandria, in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, on the 3d of May. 
 
 After spendmg nearly all they had accumulated from 
 the sale of their property in France, they reached their 
 destination by different routes only to find on their arrival 
 that Scioto Company owned no land, and had scarcely any 
 existence; and that their title deeds were not worth the paper 
 on which they were written. How are we to account for this 
 outrage upon the confiding c( lonists ? Where should the 
 blame of fraud or mismanagement be laid ? The only way 
 of satisfactorily accounting for it is on the hypothesis that 
 the Scioto Company expected to buy public securities to pay 
 for their purchase of Congress, at the excessively low 
 rates of 1787. But the adoption of the Federal Constitution, 
 and the successful establishment of the Federal Government, 
 raised the credit of those securities and blasted the hopes of 
 speculation. But as the French were arriving in considerable 
 numbers, and the purchase was not yet effected, nor likely 
 
No. \o.) HisUnicol Magazine, 17 
 
 to be effected soon, what was to be done ? William Diier, 
 Royal Flint and Andrew Craj^ie, who .styled themselves 
 " Trustees of the proprietors of the Scioco lands," appliec' to 
 General Rufus Putnam and Dr. Mana.sseh Cutler, two of the 
 directors of the Ohio Company for the purchase of certain 
 interests in that company comprising- 196,544 acres. The 
 contract was ratified by the Ohio Company; and the lands of 
 the French settlement of GallipoHs, as the emigrants named 
 the town, were most probably made in consequence of this 
 arrangement General Putnam, as agent for Duer & Co., 
 provided, at some $2,000 expense, for the accommodation of 
 the French emigrants there, and by the failure of the firm 
 had to lose most or all of it. The Company not only failed 
 in securing the large purchases of Congress contemplated, 
 but did not even succeed in obtaining the interests for 
 which they had stipulated in the lands of the Ohio Com- 
 pany. They did not pay, and the contract with Putnam 
 and Cutler became a nullity. All that was required by the 
 contract, was that the Scioto Corm my were to pay as much 
 proportionably, as the Ohio Cwmp.tuy were to pay Congress, 
 and relinquish to the Ohio Company pre-emption rights 
 which the Scioto Company was understood to have in refer- 
 ence to lands lying north of the Ohio Company's location. 
 All was failure on the part of the Scioto Company. The 
 French emigrants were planted at GallipoHs, and General 
 Putnam was left to pay some 1 2,000 expended on behalf 
 of the Scioto Company." Such, according to the best au- 
 thorities, was the history of the ill-starred speculation. 
 
 If we turn from this to the elements of which the 
 French pioneer company was composed, a party more unfitted 
 than they could hardly be imagined, much less be found. 
 It may well be doubted whether the history of the New 
 World, with its endless variety of romantic adventure, fur- 
 nishes a parallel to the Scioto colony. Transferred from a 
 city life in the French Capital to the depths of a virgin 
 forest, and forced from dire necessity to make the most of 
 things, their situation may be better imagii.ed than described. 
 
18 United States Catholic No. ic) 
 
 Not a few of them were wood-carvers, gjklefs to his Majesty, 
 coach-makers, friseurs, peruke makers and other artisans and 
 artists whose usefulness in a new settlement few words are 
 needed to declare. They must clear the ground, build their 
 houses, and till their rields. Now, the spot upon which they 
 were located was covered in part with those immense syca- 
 more trees which are so frequently met with along the 
 rivers of the West, and the removal of which is no small un- 
 dertaking even for the American woodsman. The colonists 
 were wholly at a loss what to do till a happy thought 
 struck them, when they tied ropes to the branches, and 
 while one dozen pulled at them with might and main, 
 another dozen went at the trunk with axes, hatchets and 
 every variety of edge tools, and by dint of perseverance and 
 cheerfulness — for their cheerfulness never forsook them— at 
 length overcame the monsters, though not without many hair- 
 breadth escapes. But here another diffiulty met them. What 
 was to be done with the trunks ? A happy thought again led 
 them out. Large trenches were dug in the ground and the 
 huge trunks were rolled in and covered. A situation more 
 painfully ludicrous could hardly be imagined. 
 
 Lamentable as their situation was, there were not want- 
 ing circumstances to increase their trials. The lands were 
 not their own, and they had no motive for improving them, 
 had they known how ; the location was not healthy; and to 
 these must be added a scarcity of provisions amounting al- 
 most to a famine, and occasional incursions of the Indians on 
 the settlement. Yet, notwithstanding the different tempers 
 and pursuits of the colonists in their native land, and the 
 privations and sufferings they had to endure in their ne^ 
 homes, they lived very agreeably together. Their houses 
 were not built in the usual straggling style of a new set- 
 tlement, but were placed in two rows or blocks of log cabins, 
 each cabin being about sixteen feet square; while at the end 
 was a large room, which was used as a council chamber and 
 ball-room. 
 
 They employed American pioneers and hnnters to aid 
 
N(j. 10.) BistoriGoJ. Magazine. 15> 
 
 them in clearing tLc for^ Ls and tilling the ground, and 
 the same hunters contributed toward their subsistence 
 from the game which abounded in the forests, and which was 
 very grateful to the palate of the ill-supplied colonists. 
 
 But it was evident from the beginning that the settlement 
 must be broken up in time, owing to the people not being 
 able to subsist on the provisions within their reach, or to pur- 
 chase lands. Some of them soon found their way to Detroit 
 and Kaskaskia; a few were able to secure lands from the Ohio 
 Company; but the greater part were so poor as to be unable 
 to buy lands and so inexperienced as not to know how to 
 till them even if they had them, or to earn a subsistence 
 in any other way in the backwoods. A few philanthropic 
 persons represented the matter to Congress, in 1795, and 
 that body granted them 24,000 acres of land on the Ohio 
 opposite the mouth of Little Sandy River, to which, in 1798, 
 1200 acres more were added. This large tract came to be 
 known as the French Grant. The descendants of the origi- 
 nal colonists who remained still occupy the spot, but are 
 being gradually absorbed into the general population. 
 
 If we turn to the religious history of the colony, for 
 it was composed entirely of Catholics, it will be found to 
 possess an interest not to have been anticipated. Indeed 
 it was all but the successful rival of Baltimore for the 
 honor of the primatial see in the new republic. The 
 history of the proposed see of Gallipolis, so far as it is 
 known, is briefly this : The colony constituted one of the 
 largest Catholic settlements in the United States, and the in- 
 fluence of the French King, to whom the people had former- 
 ly owed allegiance, being great, it was used in obtaining 
 from Home the nomination of a bishop for the settlement; 
 which was not only providing the better for the spiritual 
 necessities of the people, but also securing the appointment 
 of the first prelate for the newly established republic, an 
 honor to which the French were by no means indifferent. 
 The question of the nomination was taken up about the 
 year 1789; and the person selected, was. tjie. Abbe Boinan- 
 
 ,•..••>■• 
 
 • .**. . . . • 
 
 ' •• •••' 1,1. '». 
 
 • ••'•' , , '. . • • * 
 
20 United States Catholic No. lo.) 
 
 tier. Says Rev. C. I. White : " The late Ki.shop Hnitc, in his 
 memoranda, alludes to the faet, statii tf that the Abbe Boi- 
 nantier, of St Roch, Paris, was appointed at Home in 17B9, 
 Bishop of Scioto ((iailipolis). 'I knew Mf. Boinantier well,' 
 said Dr. I^rutc; ' he spoke to me of his nomination, and im- 
 dertook tt; look for his papers, but not findinjj them readily, 
 I only learned ex auiliui this remarkable faet of a see having' 
 been established in Ohio as early as that period." The failure 
 of the colony to establish itself permanently jJUt an end to 
 all thought of an episcopal see not only for the present but for 
 ever. 
 
 The first visit of a Catholic Missionary to the place was 
 that of Fathers Badin and Barrit-re during- their journey to 
 Kentucky, in 1793, of which Dr. Spalding, says: "The two 
 priests remained for three days at Oallipolis, the inhabitants 
 of which place were French Catholics, who had been long 
 without a pastor. They heartily welcomed the Missionaries, 
 who, during their stay, sang High Alass in the garrison, 
 and baptized forty children. The good French colonists 
 were delighted; and shed tears at their departure. They 
 were but a remnant of a large French colony of about 7,000 
 who had emigrated to America four or five years previovsly." 
 
 The place is now unimportant, both from a civil and a 
 religious point of view, being without a resident priest, and 
 ministered to by the pastor of an adjoining congregation; and 
 its future prospects are by no means flattering. 
 
 •:••• ! 
 
 
 • • < 
 
 : • • * « 
 
 ; : : ."