Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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State of Ohio,

Was first explored by La Salle about 1680, his object being trade and not settlement. Conflicting claims to territory in that region led to the French and Indian War (q. v.). The [9] French held possession of the region north of the Ohio River until the conquest of Canada in 1760 and the surrender of vast territory by the French to the English in 1763. After the Revolution disputes arose

Seal of the State of Ohio.

between several States as to their respective rights to the soil in that region. These were settled by the cession of the territory to the United States by the respective States, Virginia reserving 3,709,848 acres near the rapids of the Ohio, and Connecticut a tract of 3,666,921 acres near Lake Erie. In 1800 jurisdiction over these tracts was relinquished to the national government, the States retaining the right to the soil, while the Indian titles to the rest of the State were bought up by the national government.

In the autumn of 1785 United States troops began the erection of a fort on the right bank of the Muskingum, at its mouth. The commander of the troops was Maj. John Doughty, and he named it Fort Harmar, in honor of his commander, Col. Josiah Harmar. It was the first military post of the kind built in Ohio. The outlines formed a regular pentagon, embracing three-fourths of an acre. United States troops occupied Fort Harmar until 1790, when they left it to construct Fort Washington, on the site of Cincinnati. After the treaty of Greenville it was abandoned.

In 1788 Gen. Rufus Putnam, at the head of a colony from Massachusetts, founded a settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum River, and named it Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of Louis XVI. of France. A stockade fort was immediately built as a protection against hostile Indians, and named Campus Martius. In the autumn of the same

Fort Harmar.

[10]

Campus Martius.

year a party of settlers seated themselves upon Symmes's purchase (q. v.), and founded Columbus, near the mouth of the Little Miami. Fort Washington was soon afterwards built, a little below, on the site of Cincinnati.

Ohio was soon afterwards organized into a separate territorial government. The settlers were annoyed by hostile Indians until Wayne's victories in 1794 and the treaty at Greenville gave peace to that region. In 1799 the first territorial legislature assembled, and Ohio was admitted into the Union as a State April 30, 1802. From 1800 to 1810 the seat of government was at Chillicothe. For a while it was at Zanesville, then again at Chillicothe, and finally, in 1816, Columbus was made the permanent seat of the State government.

Its people were active on the frontiers in the War of 1812. The President called on Gov. R. J. Meigs for 1,200 militia to be prepared to march to Detroit. Gov. William Hull, of Michigan, was persuaded to accept the commission of brigadier-general and take command of them. Governor Meigs's call was generously responded to, and at the mouth of the Mad River, near Dayton, O., the full number had assembled at the close of April, 1812. They were organized into three regiments, and elected their field-officers before the arrival of Hull. The colonels of the respective regiments were Duncan McArthur, James Findlay, and Lewis Cass. The 4th Regiment of regulars, stationed at Vincennes, under Lieut.-Col. James Miller, had been ordered to join the militia at Dayton. The command of the troops was surrendered to Hull by Governor Meigs on May 25, 1812. They began their march northward June

Seat of government at Chillicothe in 1800.

1; and at Urbana they were joined by Miller's 4th Regiment, which, under Colonel Boyd, had participated in the battle of Tippecanoe (q. v.). They encountered [11] heavy rains and terrible fatigue all the way to Detroit, their destination. See Hull, William.

In March, 1851, a convention revised the

The State Capitol, Columbus.

State constitution, and it was ratified in June; but a new constitution, framed by a convention in 1873, was rejected by the people at an election in 1874.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the governor of Ohio, William Dennison, Jr., was an avowed opponent of the slave system. The legislature met on Jan. 7, 1861. In his message the governor explained his refusal to surrender alleged fugitive slaves on the requisition of the authorities of Kentucky and Tennessee; denied the right of secession; affirmed the loyalty of his State; suggested the repeal of the fugitive slave law as the most effectual way of procuring the repeal of the personal liberty acts; and called for the repeal of the laws of the Southern States which interfered with the constitional rights of the citizens of the freelabor States. “Determined to do no wrong,” he said, “we will not contentedly submit to wrong.” The legislature denounced (Jan. 12) the secession movements; promised for the people of Ohio their firm support of the national government; and, on the 14th, pledged “the entire power and resources of the State for a strict maintenance of the Constitution and laws of the general government by whomsoever administered.” These promises and pledges were fulfilled to the utmost, the State furnishing to the National army during the war 317,133 soldiers. Population in 1890, 3,672,316; in 1900, 4,157,545. See United States, Ohio, in vol. IX.

Territorial governors

Name.	Term Began	Term expired.	Politics.
Arthur St. Clair	1788	1802	....
Charles W. Byrd	1802	1803	....

State governors.

Edward Tiffin	1803	1807	....
Thomas Kirker	1807	1808	....
Samuel Huntington	1808	1810	....
Return Jonathan Meigs	1810	1814	....
Othniel Looker	1814	1814	....
Thomas Worthington	1814	1818	....
Ethan Allen Brown	1818	1822	...
Allen Trimble	1822	1822	....
Jeremiah Morrow	1822	1826	....
Allen Trimble	1826	1830	....
Duncan McArthur	1830	1832	....
Robert Lucas	1832	1836	Democrat.
Joseph Vance	1836	1838	Whig.
Wilson Shannon	1838	1840	Democrat.
Thomas Corwin	1840	1842	Whig.
Wilson Shannon	1842	1844	Democrat.
Thomas W. Bartley	1844	1844	....
Mordecai Bartley	1844	1846	Whig.
William Bebb	1846	1849	Whig
Seabury Ford	1849	1850	Whig
Reuben Wood	1850	1853	Democrat.
William Medill	1853	1854	Democrat
“”	1854	1856	Democrat
Salmon P. Chase	1856	1860	Republican.
William Dennison	1860	1862	Republican.
David Tod	1862	1864	Republican.
John Brough	1864	1865	Republican.
Charles Anderson	1865	1866	Republican.
Jacob Dolson Cox	1866	1868	Republican.
Rutherford B. Hayes	1868	1872	Republican.
Edward F. Noyes	1872	1874	Republican.
William Allen	1874	1876	Democrat.
Rutherford B. Hayes	1876	1878	Republican
Richard M. Bishop	1878	1880	Democrat.
Charles Foster	1880	1884	Republican
George Hoadley	1884	1886	Democrat.
Joseph B. Foraker	1886	1890	Republican.
James E. Campbell	1890	1892	Democrat.
William McKinley, Jr	1892	1896	Republican.
Asa S. Bushnell	1896	1900	Republican.
George K. Nash	1900	——	Republican.

[12]

United States Senators.

Name.	No. of Congress.	Term.
John Smith	8th to 10th	1803 to 1808
Thomas Worthington	8th to 10th	1803 to 1807
Return Jonathan Meigs.	10th to 11th	1809 to 1810
Edward Tiffin	10th to 11th	1807 to 1809
Stanley Griswold	11th	1809
Alexander Campbell	11th to 13th	1810 to 1813
Thomas Worthington	11th to 13th	1811 to 1814
Joseph Kerr	13th to 14th	1814 to 1815
Jeremiah Morrow	13th to 16th	1813 to 1819
Benjamin Ruggles	14th to 23d	1815 to 1833
William A. Trimble	16th to17th	1819 to 1821
Ethan Allen Brown	17th to 19th	1822 to 1825
William Henry Harrison.	19th to 20th	1825 to 1828
Jacob Burnett	20th to 23d	1828 to 1831
Thomas Ewing	22d to 25th	1831 to 1837
Thomas Morris	23d to 26th	1833 to 1839
William Allen	25th to 31st	1837 to 1849
Benjamin Tappan	26th to 29th	1839 to 1845
Thomas Corwin	29th to 31st	1845 to 1850
Thomas Ewing	31st	1850
Salmon P. Chase	31st to 34th	1849 to 1855
Benjamin F. Wade	32d to 41st	1851 to 1869
George E. Pugh	34th to 37th	1855 to 1861
Salmon P. Chase	37th	1861
John Sherman	37th to 45th	1861 to 1877
Allen G. Thurman	41st to 47th	1869 to1880
Stanley Matthews	45th to 46th	1877 to 1879
George H. Pendleton	46th to 49th	1879 to 1885
James A. Garfield	47th	1880
John Sherman	47th to 54th	1881 to 1897
Henry B. Payne	49th to 52d	1885 to 1891
Calvin C. Brice	52d to 55th	1891 to 1896
Joseph B. Foraker	55th to ——	1897 to ——
Marcus A. Hanna	55th to ——	1897 to ——