{90} LETTER VIII

Leave Portsmouth—Digression on economical Travelling—Salt-springs—Piketon—Chillicothe—Progress of a Scotch Family—Game—Forest Trees and Shrubs—Rolled pieces of Primitive Rocks dispersed over a Country of the Secondary Formation—Agricultural Implements—Antiquities—Bainbridge—Middletown—Organic Remains—Town of Limestone—Washington—Mayé Lick—Licking River—Millersburg—Paris—Notice of the Missouri and Illinois Countries—Paper Currency—Cut Coin—Remarks interspersed.

Lexington, Kentucky, Nov. 29, 1818.

On the 18th current I left Portsmouth, on the north bank of the Ohio, for Chillicothe, which is situated on the Great Scioto river, forty-five miles from Portsmouth by land, and about seventy by following the meanders of the Scioto.

The Scotsman twice alluded to in my last letter, was also bound for Chillicothe, and we set out together. He gave me the following account of his economy in travelling. The owner of the boat which we had just left, engaged him to work his passage from Pittsburg to Portsmouth without wages, except having his trunk carried to the latter place, artfully telling, that the passage would be completed in nine days. It turned out that twenty-one days elapsed, before the boat reached her destination. Had he, in the first place, hired himself as a boatman, he might have got seventy-five cents per day, and might have had his trunk carried for a dollar; and thus a profit of fourteen dollars and {91} seventy-five cents would have been made. On his journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, he managed better. He travelled along with the waggon that carried his trunk; the waggon also carrying his provisions. In this way he was never obliged to enter a tavern except atnight, when he slept in his own bed-clothes. His bed was a low one, but he had always the satisfaction of knowing that it was clean, and that he was exempted from having a bed-fellow intruded upon him. It is true that by travelling alone, he might have reached Pittsburg about a week sooner; but he would have arrived there without clean clothes, and incurred the payment of a week’s board, while waiting the arrival of his trunk.

Having made a digression on economical travelling, I am led to make some further remarks on it. The subject is highly interesting to emigrants whose funds are scanty, as every dollar parted with may be, in effect, giving up half an acre of uncultivated land. A steerage passenger pays only about half the freight that is charged for a passage in the cabin of a ship; and, when he lays in his own provisions, he has it in his power to be nearly as comfortable as a sea voyage can permit. In the American port, the cabin passenger is sometimes subjected to delay in entering his baggage at the custom-house, and getting the taxable part valued, whereas the steerage passenger has his goods entered by the captain, and is allowed to proceed on his journey without loss of time. Baltimore being the most convenient landing place for Europeans who intend to settle in the western country, those who arrive at New York, Boston, or other northern ports, will have a saving by re-shipping for the Chesapeake. Strangers ought to be careful in ascertaining what sloop is to sail first. By putting goods aboard of a wrong vessel, a delay for a {92} week or so may be occasioned. Having sent my own baggage round the Capes, from New York to Philadelphia, I had an opportunity of observing that several skippers, at the same time, affirmed, that his own vessel would sail first. Liverpool is the principal resort,in Britain, of ships for Baltimore. I conceive that it is unimportant to the emigrant, whether he reaches the latter place in an American coasting vessel, or by sailing an equal distance to Liverpool, along the coast of Britain.

We stopped at a tavern, four miles from Portsmouth, and had breakfast. The landlord told us, that bears and wolves are still numerous in the uncleared hills; that they devour many hogs and sheep; and that he heard wolves howling within a few yards of his house, on the preceding night. His sheep had run off, and he did not know in which direction to search for them.

About nine miles from Portsmouth, the saline nature of a spring is indicated by the ground being much trodden by the feet of cattle. The water is slightly brackish, and is not worth the expense of evaporation. Salt is manufactured, in considerable quantity, a few miles to the eastward.

Salt springs are calledlicks, from cattle and deer resorting to them to drink of the water, or to lick the concrete salt deposited on the rocks or stones, by the evaporation of the atmosphere. Riflemen also resort to the licks, in the night, to shoot the deer, which are so numerous in this neighbourhood, that they are sold at a dollar each.

The lower and richer lands are all entered, (appropriated by individuals,) but the higher and poorer, a considerable portion of which is too steep for the plough, remains as public property in the market. The time for cultivating them is not yet come. I must remark that the hilly, or what is here called {93} broken land, has many fertile spots, and that the comparative salubrity of such parts of the country forms a very strong recommendation to them. Coal and limestone are not known within eight or nine miles of this part of Scioto river.

We lodged at Piketon,[55]the head town of the new county Pike, so called in memory of General Pike, who, to the character of the enterprizing explorer of Mexico, added that of the brave soldier. Three years ago there were five houses here, now there are about a hundred.

November 19.We could not procure a breakfast at a tavern where we called, because the family had a sick child.

At the next tavern, breakfast was prepared for some labourers on the farm; but there was not enough of bread baked, to admit of our taking breakfastalong with them. We were told that if we chose to wait for two hours, we might eat.—We went onward.

After travelling several miles, we arrived at a third tavern; here, too, the bread was not prepared; but the people were obliging, and made it ready for us in a short time. The landlord was a farmer. He told us that Indian corn sells at twenty-five cents (1s. 11/2d. English) per bushel, and that he could procure twenty thousand bushels of it within three miles of his house. This appeared to be somewhat surprising, on considering that the cleared grounds form only small detached parcels, when compared with the intervening woods.—Wheat sells at seventy-five cents (3s. 41/2d. English) per bushel. This sort of crop is, at present, more profitable than Indian corn, as in most cases it yields more than a third part by measure; it does not require to be cleared of weeds; and is more easily carried to market. The predominance of crops of {94} Indian corn is occasioned by the ease with which it is disposed of in feeding hogs and other stock,and, perhaps, in some degree, by prejudice. The bottoms are wide, and their soil rich. They are often inundated by the Scioto and its numerous branches, the water leaving great quantities of logs, and other vegetable matter, to be decomposed on the surface of the ground. These facts convince us that the situation is not healthy, notwithstanding the affirmations we heard to the contrary; and we were the more fully persuaded of this, as we saw a young man pale and meagre, in consequence of an attack of the ague.

We came to a saw-mill near Paint Creek.[56]A woman asked us how we proposed to get across the run. She told us that there was neither bridge nor boat; and that the water would reach up to our middle. She told us further, that travellers commonly hire a creature (a horse) at her house. We ordered one, and her husband followed us with it. At the Creek, we discovered that the water was shallow. Some of our party, (now increased to five,) indignant at the hoax, waded the stream. The water did not reach to the knee.

Chillicothe,[57](formerly the seat of government, in the State of Ohio, now transferred to Columbus,) is situated on an extensive high plain, in a great bend of the Scioto, which here varies from one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards in breadth. The town has a court-house, an academy, two places of worship, two printing offices, that publish a weekly newspaper each, a woollen manufactory, a cotton manufactory, a grist-mill wrought by steam, a brewery, a tannery, a variety of merchants’ shops, several taverns, and three banks. One of the last establishmentshas its door {95} shut. There is a good wooden bridge across the river, near the town.

November 20.I crossed Paint Creek, by the road toward Limestone.[58]The bottoms are rich, but the greater part of them uncleared. The cattle of this neighbourhood are better than those I have seen by the river Ohio, and in the western parts of Pennsylvania. It is not here, however, that the fine droves formerly noticed are reared. These must have come from the more northerly part of the State, where the grass on the prairies (lands without timber) is said to be abundant. All accounts that I have heard of these prairies, say, that they are wet, and unfavourable to health. The ease with which settlements are formed on them, and the facility for rearing cattle, are, however, attracting many settlers.

Visited a Scotch family about thirteen miles from Chillicothe. They settled here twelve years ago. Their farm consists of three hundred acres of first and second rate land; of which seventy acres are cleared and fenced. They have met with two misfortunes; either of which, they think, would have finally arrested their progress in Scotland. They bought a bad title to their land; it being part of an old military grant,[59]and omitted to see it traced back to the government. In addition to this, their house, withmost of their moveables, was burnt. They have now surmounted these losses; and are in better circumstances than at any former period. It is astonishing to see how much this family have adopted the manners and customs of the Americans. The father, who is seventy-five years of age, has almost entirely laid aside the peculiarities of his native provincial dialect. Nothing but the broad pronunciation of the vowel A remains. The son {96} has acquired the dialect of the country perfectly; and has adopted the American modes of farming; is a good axeman, and is in every respect identified with the people. During the late war, he was out on a campaign, on the frontier of Canada. This absence must have been extremely painful to the father, who lost an amiable son in the fight with the Indians, at Tippecanoe, in 1811.[60]

Religious and patriotic views seem to have supported this worthy old man under every discouragement.

November 21.I made an excursion into the woods. A few deer and wild turkeys remain. Squirrels are very numerous. They are of the grey and black varieties: also of the striped or ground species. The two former are much larger than the English squirrel, and are ate in America. Some people esteem them as equal to chickens. Quails are abundant: they are smaller than partridges, and are so tame that the report of a gun, and the destruction of a part of the covey, do not always make them take flight. It is a common practice to drive whole families of them into nets. Rabbits are not plentiful; they lodge in the hollows of fallen trees; and are not understood to burrow in the ground. The only fox that I have seen, was of a small size, and of a light grey colour. It does notrequire a thick population to exterminate bears, deer, and turkeys. The beaver is destroyed by the first hunters who invade the forests; and the buffalo retreats into more remote solitudes, almost on the first approach of white men.

The woods are principally composed ofQuercus, (Alba,)White Oak; (Tinctoria,)Black Oak; (Coccinea,)Red Oak; (Primus accuminata,)Chesnut Oak;Platanus, (Occidentalis,)Sycamore;Fagus, (Ferruginea,)Beech;Acer, (Saccharinum,) {97}Maple, (sugar tree;)Fraxinus, (Americana,)Ash;Juglans, (Nigra,)Walnut, (black;) (Alba ovata,)Hickory;Laurus, (Sassafras,)Sassafras;Cornus(Florida,)Dogwood;Fagus, (Castanea,)Chesnut;Liriodendron, (Tulipefera,)Poplar;Ulmus, (Americana,)Slippery Elm; (Mollifolia,)White Elm;Vitus, (Labrusea,)Fall Grape; (Serotina,)Winter Grape.

Amongst the shrubs, or underwood, the following may be noticed as prevalent:

Rhus, (Glabrum,)Sumach;Laurus, (Benzoin,)Spicewood;Rubus, (Fructicosus,)Blackberry; (Hispidus,)Running do.;Annona, (Glabra,)Papaw.

The prevalent strata are of slate clay, bituminous shale, and sandstone. Coal is not known, and probably has not been sought after. Rolled pieces of the latter mineral, and of granite, gneiss, quartz, and flint slate, are mixed with the sandy gravel of the streams. Dr. Drake[61]has pointed out a situation in this State, where large detachedmasses of granite lie over strata of secondary limestone; and has conjectured that they have been brought from the primitive country north of the lakes, by the agency of water passing from north to south. This hypothesis is countenanced by the vast quantities of alluvial soil which lie far above the level of the present river, and by the almost total absence of primitive rocks, between the eastern side of the Allegany ridge, and the sources of the Missouri. The only exception known is the tract between Lakes Ontario and Champlain,—a field so narrow that we cannot view it as the probable source of fragments profusely scattered over the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

In this part of Ohio State, first and second rate lands sell at four or five dollars per acre. The richest ground is in bottoms: the hilly has many {98} parts not accessible to the plough. Buildings are most commonly erected on rising grounds. Such situations are believed to be most salubrious, and abound most in good springs.

Farming establishments are small. Most cultivators do every thing for themselves, even to the fabrication of their agricultural implements. Few hire others permanently, it being difficult and expensive to keep labourers for any great length of time. They are notservants, all arehired hands: Females are averse to dairy, or menial employments. The daughters of the most numerous families continue with their parents. There is only one way of removing them. This disposition is said to prevail over almost the whole of the United States. A manufacturer at Philadelphia told me, that he had no difficulty in finding females to be employed in his work-shop; but a girl for house-work he could not procure for less than twice the manufacturing wages. Some of the children ofthe more necessitous families are bound out to labour for other people. The Scotch family, recently mentioned, have a boy and a girl living with them in this way. The indenture of the boy expires when he is twenty-one years of age; that of the girl at eighteen. They are clothed and educated at the expense of the employer. The boy, at the expiry of his contract, is to have a horse and saddle, of value at least 100 dollars; and the girl at the end of her engagement, is to have a bedding of clothes. It is said, that a law of the State of Ohio, forbids females to live in the houses of unmarried men.

The utensils used in agriculture are not numerous. The plough is short, clumsy, and not calculated to make either deep or neat furrows. The harrow is triangular; and is yoked with one of its angles forward, that it may be less apt to take hold {99} of the stumps of trees in the way. Light articles are carried on horseback, heavy ones by a coarse sledge, by a cart, or by a waggon. The smaller implements are the axe, the pick-axe, and the cradle-scythe; by far the most commendable of back wood apparatus.

The figure [page125] is descriptive of the cradle scythe. AEGB is the shaft. In working, it is held by the left hand with the thumb upward, near A; while the right hand holds the cross handle at H. BD is a post, making an angle of about 78 degrees with the straight line AB. Into this post the five wooden ribs, or fingers, MN, OP, QR, ST, and UV, are fixed. These are round pieces of tough wood, of a curvature resembling that of the back of the blade, as nearly as possible. They are upwards of half an inch in diameter; and are pointed at the extremities MOQSU. FG is another post, fixed in the shaft, parallel to BD, and about seven inches distant from it. ED is athin piece of wood, let into the shaft at E, for retaining the posts BD, FG, in their positions. IK is a small round post that passes through the fingers at the distance of ten inches from the post BD. This small post passes through broad parts of the fingers, which are left so for the sake of strength, and its lower ends stands on the blade at K. The blade is such as is used in cutting hay; but the point is allowed to stand about nine inches farther out from the handle than the grass scythe. At L is a small iron bolt, rivetted into the blade, near its back; the top of this bolt passes through the lower finger, and is furnished with a hand-screw, which holds the finger down, so that its point shall remain within about half an inch of the blade. The points of the fingers MOQSU are in a straight line, but recline backward, so that the upper finger is about five inches shorter than the under one. Between {100} the posts IK, and FG, are five small connecting stays of iron. Figure 2 is a separate plan of one of the iron stays, shewing the manner in which it is fixed to the upright bars or posts. AB is a part of the finger; C the hole through which the small post (IK of the former figure) passes; and D is the post FG of the former figure. EF is the iron stay; it is about one-sixth of an inch in diameter; and it is thin and crooked near the end E, where it is fastened to the finger by two small nails. From G to F the stay is a small screw. At K, is a female hand-screw that bears against D. At H, is a nut, also bearing against the post D. By this screw the finger is firmly kept in its proper place. The fingers are five inches apart, measuring from the centre of the one to that of the other. The shaft of the scythe is five feet long, and the whole of the parts are as light as is consistent with strength.

{101}November 22.About a mile distant from thehouse where I lodged, the woods were on fire. It was supposed that the conflagration had been begun by some mischievous person, who had kindled the dry leaves, now strewed over the ground. In the evening, the glare of light extending along a ridge for a mile and a half, was astonishingly grand. Large decayed trees were converted into luminous columns of fire; when these fell the crashing noise was heard within doors. Fires in the woods usually excite alarm in their neighbourhood. People watch them by night, their rail fences and wooden habitations being in danger.

Some parts of this neighbourhood were purchased twelve or fourteen years ago. Then proximity to Chillicothe was little regarded. The increased population and trade of the town has now made it the market of almost every disposableproduct. The lands near that place are consequently much increased in value, and town lots sell at high prices.

November 23.I again resumed my way for Limestone. By the road side are many conical mounds of earth, called Indian graves. About a mile east of Bainbridge is a large camp.[62]The ditch is in every part visible. One side is inclosed by a bend of Paint Creek, where the opposite bank forms high and strong ground. I conjectured that the fort contained nearly one hundred acres. It is not understood that the aborigines have constructed any such works since Europeans became acquainted with them. It is therefore a natural inference, that the country must have been antecedently inhabited by a more civilized and more powerful people.

From Bainbridge to Middletown the land is hilly; a small portion of it is cleared, and it is much less {102} fertile than the grounds by the river Scioto, and Paint Creek.

November 24.The ground west of Middletown is of clay, with a mixture of siliceous particles, and the oxide of iron. Wheat is the most prevalent crop. The health enjoyed on these high lands, is an ample compensation for the lack of a few bushels. Wheat sells at a dollar per bushel; Indian corn at thirty-three one-third cents; beef and pork at four cents a-pound; labourer’s wages, fifty cents; joiners, a dollar, with provisions.

25th.At ten miles from Limestone, the soil is good, but broken with irregularities of surface. There was a little frost in the morning, but the forenoon was warm. I observed several insects of the genus Vanessa, (paintedbutterflies,) flying about in full vigour. The autumn is said to be fine, almost beyond former example.

Near the river Ohio the soil is light, but much broken on the surface by funnel-shaped hollows, not unlike those where the sides of coal-pits have fallen in. These inverted cones are evidently excavated by the infiltration of water, and indicate that the strata abounds with large fissures or caverns.

In travelling over the last forty miles, limestone is the only stratified mineral that I have seen. It lies in a position nearly horizontal, and is literally conglomerated with organic remains. Amongst these, the most remarkable is a species of terebratula, which is very abundant, and varies from the size of a walnut to that of a pin’s head. In addition to the concentric striated character, so frequent amongst bivalve shells, it has large radiated grooves; the grooves on one valve opposite to ridges on the other. The superior margin is, of course, a zig-zag line, resembling the base of {103} polyhedral crystals, where the sides of one pyramid are set on the angles of another.

For some days past I have found the expense of travelling to be uniformly three shillings and elevenpence farthing per day.

Limestone, sometimes called Maysville,[63]is a considerable landing place on the Kentucky side of the river Ohio. The houses stand above the level of the highest floods. There is a rope-walk, a glass-house, several stores and taverns, and a bank, in the town.

On the 26th, I left Limestone by the road for Lexington, which is sixty-four miles distant. The roads, hithertoscorched by drought, were in a few minutes rendered wet and muddy by a heavy shower of rain. The roads in this western country are of the natural soil.

The high grounds every where seen from the river, are called the river hills; they are in reality banks, the ground inland of them being high. To the south of Limestone it is a rich table land, diversified by gentle slopes and moderate eminences.

At four miles from Limestone is Washington, the seat of justice in Mason County. The town is laid out on a large plan, but is not thriving.

May’s Lick is a small village, twelve miles from Limestone. A rich soil, and a fine undulated surface, unite in forming a neighbourhood truly delightful. The most florid descriptions of Kentucky have never conveyed to my mind an idea of a country naturally finer than this.

I lodged at a tavern twenty miles from Limestone. Before reaching that place the night became dark and the rain heavy. As the tops of the trees overhung the road, I had no other indication than the miry feel of the track, to prevent me from wandering into the woods.

{104}November 27.Crossed the river Licking in a boat, at a small town called Blue Licks, from the springs in its neighbourhood, from which great quantities of salt were formerly procured. The adjoining timber is exhausted, and the salt-works are abandoned.

After coming to a flooded creek, where there was neither bridge nor boat, I waited a few minutes for the mail coach. The road is in several parts no other than the rocky bed of the stream. It also crosses the same creek four or five times. After riding a few miles, I left the coach. There is no great degree of comfort in travelling by this vehicle; stowed full of people, baggage, and letterbags; the jolting over stones, and through miry holes, is excessively disagreeable: and the traveller’s head is sometimes knocked against the roof with much violence. A large piece of leather is let down over each side, to keep out the mud thrown up by the wheels. The front was the only opening, but as the driver and two other persons occupied it, those behind them were almost in total darkness. A peep at the country was not to be obtained.

Millersburg is a very small town, with several large grist-mills and a bank.

To-day I have seen a number of young women on horseback, with packages of wool, going to, or returning from, the carding machine. At some of the houses the loom stands under a small porch by the door. Although Miss does not wear the produce of her own hands, it is pleasant to see such abundant evidence of family manufacture.

I lodged at Paris, the head town of Bourbon county. A cotton-mill, and some grist-mills, are the manufactories of the place. The population is considerable. Several of the taverns are large, and, like many of the others in the western country, {105} have bells on the house-tops, which are rung at meals.

A traveller has just returned from attending the sales of public lands in the Missouri country.—They are exposed by auction, in quarter sections of 160 acres each. A considerable part of them sold at from three to six dollars per acre. Lots, not sold at auction, may be subsequently bought at the land-office for two dollars per acre, on paying half a dollar in ready money, and the remainder within five years. Land dealers are very vigilant in securing for themselves great quantities of the best land. It is not uncommon for reconnoitring partiesof them to lodge in the woods for a whole week. By such means much of the best land, mill-seats, and other local advantages, are withdrawn from the market at the first public sales. This gentleman describes the Missouri country as one possessing a fine climate, and containing many extensive prairies of a rich soil, but destitute of timber and stone. The most advantageous purchases are considered to be those on the edges of prairies, with a part of the open land, and a part of the woods. Many of the settlers that I have seen by the river, and elsewhere, were on their way for the Missouri territory. The Illinois country, according to the account given by this traveller, is a very unhealthy one. He travelled twenty days in that State, and on his return home, found that many of the people were afflicted with bilious fevers and agues. He affirmed that he had seen more sick people during these twenty days than during the whole of his preceding life in Kentucky. Other reports corroborate his statement, so that there can be no doubt that the autumn has been a sickly one in that low country.

{106} The best taverns in town charge higher than those in the country, where accommodation is inferior. At Paris I paid 621/2cents (2s. 93/4d. English) for supper and lodgings.

In this western country there is a great diversity of paper money.[64]Small bills are in circulation of a half, a fourth, an eighth, and even a sixteenth part of a dollar. These small rags are not current at a great distance fromthe places of their nativity. A considerable proportion of the little specie to be seen is of what is called cut money.—Dollars cut into two, four, eight, or sixteen pieces. This practice prevents such money from being received in banks, or sent out of the country in the character of coin, and would be highly commendable were it not for the frauds committed by those who clip the pieces in reserving a part of the metal for themselves.

November 28.To-day I have crossed several flooded creeks: one by a tree which has accidentally fallen across it, and one has a tree that has been felled intentionally for a bridge; one I crossed on an accumulated heap of driftwood; andonceby a horse, where a farmer allows a Negro boy to derive a perquisite from carrying over travellers.—Goods are now carried from Limestone to Lexington for a dollar per hundred pounds weight.—This is somewhat lower than the usual rate. Waggoners are occasionally interrupted by flooded streams.

Between the river Ohio and Lexington, limestone is the only rock which I have observed. Like that noticed in Ohio State, it is crowded with organic remains. The variety of the surface, in this part of the country, is pleasant. The eminences are gentle swells rather than hills, and the intervals between them are smooth, rich, and dry {107} ground. Marshy land is scarcely to be seen.—These are convincing marks of the excellence of the subsoil.

FOOTNOTES:[55]Piketown, first settled about 1796 by pioneers from Pennsylvania and Virginia, and laid out about 1814, is on the Scioto River sixty-four miles south of Columbus, and about thirty miles from the Ohio.—Ed.[56]Paint Creek, a stream about sixty miles long, empties into the Scioto from the west, five miles below Chillicothe.—Ed.[57]For a brief description of Chillicothe, see F. A. Michaux’sTravels, volume iii of our series, note 35.—Ed.[58]Flint travelled from Chillicothe to Limestone over Zane’s Trace. For an account of this road, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 135.—Ed.[59]The Virginia Military District, reserved by that state when she ceded her possessions north of the Ohio River to the United States Government, was a triangular tract, with the Ohio River shore between Little Miami and Scioto rivers as its base, and the apex at the sources of the Huron River. Large portions were given as bounty lands to Virginia soldiers of the Revolution; the remainder was ceded to the Federal Government in 1852. In 1871 the government retroceded this district to the state of Ohio, which, in turn, donated it to Ohio State University. See Hinsdale,Old Northwest(New York, 1888), p. 292.—Ed.[60]For a brief account of the battle of Tippecanoe, see Evans’sTour, volume viii of our series, note 131.—Ed.[61]Dr. Daniel Drake, a native of Plainfield, New Jersey, whose boyhood was spent in Kentucky, came to Cincinnati in 1800 to study medicine. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1816, he interested himself in establishing the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, and became its first president. From that time until his death in 1852, he was connected with some medical college, either in Ohio or Kentucky. In addition to his writings on medical subjects, he published (1815) the book several times mentioned by Flint,Pictures of Cincinnati and the Miami Country.—Ed.[62]The remains of the mound-building Indians on Paint Creek, near Bainbridge, are among “the largest works in the Scioto valley.” See Fowke,Archæological History of Ohio(Columbus, 1902), p. 206; see also Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 76.—Ed.[63]For notes on the following places, see A. Michaux’sTravels, volume iii of our series: Limestone, note 23; Paris, note 29. F. A. Michaux’sTravels, volume iii of our series: Washington, note 37; May’s Lick, note 38; Millersburg, note 38. Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series: Blue Licks, note 117.—Ed.[64]The supply of specie in the Western country had always been inadequate. Until the numerous state banks began to flood the country with paper money, about the second decade of the century, barter was regularly employed. Flint was in the West when the financial stringency that followed the War of 1812-15 was beginning to be felt in that region, and the reaction against the worthless state banks had set in. Seepost; also McMaster,History of the United States, iv, pp. 484-487.—Ed.

[55]Piketown, first settled about 1796 by pioneers from Pennsylvania and Virginia, and laid out about 1814, is on the Scioto River sixty-four miles south of Columbus, and about thirty miles from the Ohio.—Ed.

[56]Paint Creek, a stream about sixty miles long, empties into the Scioto from the west, five miles below Chillicothe.—Ed.

[57]For a brief description of Chillicothe, see F. A. Michaux’sTravels, volume iii of our series, note 35.—Ed.

[58]Flint travelled from Chillicothe to Limestone over Zane’s Trace. For an account of this road, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 135.—Ed.

[59]The Virginia Military District, reserved by that state when she ceded her possessions north of the Ohio River to the United States Government, was a triangular tract, with the Ohio River shore between Little Miami and Scioto rivers as its base, and the apex at the sources of the Huron River. Large portions were given as bounty lands to Virginia soldiers of the Revolution; the remainder was ceded to the Federal Government in 1852. In 1871 the government retroceded this district to the state of Ohio, which, in turn, donated it to Ohio State University. See Hinsdale,Old Northwest(New York, 1888), p. 292.—Ed.

[60]For a brief account of the battle of Tippecanoe, see Evans’sTour, volume viii of our series, note 131.—Ed.

[61]Dr. Daniel Drake, a native of Plainfield, New Jersey, whose boyhood was spent in Kentucky, came to Cincinnati in 1800 to study medicine. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1816, he interested himself in establishing the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, and became its first president. From that time until his death in 1852, he was connected with some medical college, either in Ohio or Kentucky. In addition to his writings on medical subjects, he published (1815) the book several times mentioned by Flint,Pictures of Cincinnati and the Miami Country.—Ed.

[62]The remains of the mound-building Indians on Paint Creek, near Bainbridge, are among “the largest works in the Scioto valley.” See Fowke,Archæological History of Ohio(Columbus, 1902), p. 206; see also Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 76.—Ed.

[63]For notes on the following places, see A. Michaux’sTravels, volume iii of our series: Limestone, note 23; Paris, note 29. F. A. Michaux’sTravels, volume iii of our series: Washington, note 37; May’s Lick, note 38; Millersburg, note 38. Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series: Blue Licks, note 117.—Ed.

[64]The supply of specie in the Western country had always been inadequate. Until the numerous state banks began to flood the country with paper money, about the second decade of the century, barter was regularly employed. Flint was in the West when the financial stringency that followed the War of 1812-15 was beginning to be felt in that region, and the reaction against the worthless state banks had set in. Seepost; also McMaster,History of the United States, iv, pp. 484-487.—Ed.

Back to Index Next