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With the termination of Indian title to a large part of the territory within the limits of Ohio, it was necessary for the United States Congress to pass legislation authorizing settlement. Based on the treaties just made with the Indians, and as enacted by Congress, all citizens of the United States were prohibited settling on the lands of the Indians, as well as on those of the United States -- prior to Congressional authorization. Subsequently, ordinances were made by Congress for the government of the Northwest Territory, and for the survey and sale of portions of lands to which the Indian title had been given up.
The most important of these ordinances -- the Ordinance of 1787 -- was adapted by Congress on 13 July 1787. For three years, various plans for the government of the territory had been brought forward. On 11 July, a committee, of which Natan Dane of Massachusetts was chairman, reported an ordinance for the government for the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River. On the 12th, a clause forbidding slavery in the territory was added as an amendment; and the next day the bill became law.
In May 1785, Congress already had passed an ordinance that defined how these lands were to be sold. Under that ordinance, the first seven ranges, bounded on the east by Pennsylvania, and on the south by the Ohio River, were surveyed. In 1787, sales of some of these were made at New York, with proceeds amounting to $72,974; and in 1798, sales of other parts of this area were made at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The sales made at Pittsburgh amounted to $43,446, and at Philadelphia, $5,120. A portion of these lands were located under United States military land warrants. No further sales were made in that area until the Land Office was opened at Steubenville, Ohio, in July 1801.
On 27 October 1787, a written contract was entered into between the Board of Treasury for the United States of America -- party of the first part -- and Manassah Cutler and Winthrop Sargeant, as agents for the directors of the New England Ohio Company of associates -- parties of the second part. This 1787 contract sold a tract of land to the New England Ohio Company. The tract is defined as: bounded by the Ohio River, from the mouth of the Scioto River to the intersection of the western boundary of the seventh range of townships then being surveyed; and from there by said boundary to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio River; from there due west to the Scioto River; and from there along the Scioto River to the beginning. These boundaries were later adjusted in 1792. In the spring of 1788, settlement of this purchase began at Marietta, Ohio, at the mouth of the Muskingum River. This was the first settlement formed within the limits of Ohio.
In April 1785, four families from Redstone, Pennsylvania, had attempted to establish a settlement within the boundary of Ohio at the mouth of the Scioto River, on the current site of Portsmouth; but difficulties with the Indians caused the settlement to be abandoned.
In October 1787, Congress appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, a former officer of the Revolutionary War, to be Governor of the territory. Winthrop Sargeant was appointed Secretary; and the Hon. Samuel Holden Parsons and James Mitchell Varnum were appointed Judges, in, and over the territory. The territorial government was organized, and various laws were made or adopted by the Governor and Judges Parsons and Varnum. In 1788 John Cleves Symmes was also appointed judge. The first county was established by proclamation of the Governor. This county was Washington, which extended west to the Scioto River, and north to Lake Erie, covering about half the territory within the current state.
On 15 October 1788, John Cleves Symmes, in behalf of himself and his associates, contracted with the Board of Treasury for the purchase of a large tract of land situated between the Great and Little Miami rivers. The first settlement within the limits of that purchase, and the second in Ohio, was started in November 1788, at Columbia -- at the mouth of the Little Miami, five miles above the site of Cincinnati.
"A short time after the settlement at Marietta had commenced, an association was formed under the name of the Scioto Land Company. A contract was made for the purchase of a part of the lands included in the Ohio Company's purchases. Plats and descriptions of the land contracted for, were, however, made out, and Joel Barlow was sent as an agent to Europe to make sales of the lands for the benefit of the company; and sales were effected of parts thereof to companies and individuals in France. On 19 February 1791, two hundred and eighteen of these purchasers left Havre de Grace, in France, and arrived in Alexandria, D.C., on 3 May 1792. During their passage, two were added to their number. On their arrival, they were told that the Scioto Company owned no land. The agent insisted that they did, and promised to secure to them good titles thereto, which he did, at Winchester, Brownsville, and Charleston (now Wellsburg). When they arrived at Marietta, about fifty of them landed. The rest of the company proceeded to Gallipolis, which was laid out about that time, and were assured by the agent that the place lay within their purchase. Every effort to secure titles to the lands they had purchased having failed, an application was made to Congress, and in June 1798, a grant was made to them of a tract of land on the Ohio River, above the mouth of the Scioto river, which is called the 'French Grant.'"
The Legislature of Connecticut, in May 1795, appointed a committee to receive proposals and make sale of the lands it had reserved in Ohio. This committee sold the lands to various citizens of Connecticut and other states, and, in September 1795, conveyed deeds to several purchasers. The purchasers subsequently surveyed the area lying east of the Cuyahoga River -- creating townships five miles square. Land in the townships was distributed to purchasers, and settlements began to form in many of the townships. By 21 March 1800, about one thousand inhabitants occupied these townships. A number of mills had been built, and roads totaling 700 miles had been cut out in various directions.
During the Revolutionary War, as an aid in recruiting soldiers, land grants had been promised those who served in the war. The location of the lands appropriate for satisfying military land bounty warrants began on 13 March 1800. Also, as a result of the war, there were numerous Canadian and Nova Scotia refugees. Land was distributed to these refugees beginning 13 February 1802. The lands east of the Scioto River, south of the military bounty lands, and west of the fifteenth range of townships, were first brought into market, and offered for sale, by the United States on the first Monday of May 1801.
The state of Virginia, at an early stage of the Revolutionary War, had raised two categories of troops -- State and Continental. It had promised land bounties to both these categories. Lands within the original limits of Virginia's colonial charter -- situated both northwest of the Ohio River as well as southeast of the Ohio -- along the Cumberland River, and between the Green and Tennessee rivers -- were appropriated for these military bounties. Upon the recommendation of Congress, Virginia ceded her lands north of the Ohio River to the United States -- on certain conditions, one of which was that if lands south of Ohio River were not sufficient for the bounties to its troops, the deficiency would be made up from lands north of the Ohio River -- land located between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers.
In 1783, the Legislature of Virginia authorized the appointment of superintendents to regulate the survey of the promised bounty lands. Richard C. Anderson was appointed principal surveyor of the lands for the Continental troops. An office for the reception of locations and surveys was opened at Louisville, Kentucky, on 1 August 1784. On 1 August 1787, an office for this purpose was established on the north side of the Ohio.
On 9 January 1789, a treaty was made at Fort Harmar, between Governor St. Clair and the Sachems and warriors of the Wyandot, Chippewa, Potawatomie, and Sac nations, in which the treaty at Fort McIntosh was renewed and confirmed. It did not, however, produce favorable results. The Indians became increasingly hostile, and were seen hovering round the infant settlements near the mouth of the Muskingum River and between the Miamies -- and nine persons were killed within the bounds of Symmes' purchase. The new settlers became alarmed and erected block-houses in each of the new settlements. In June 1789, Major Doughty, with 140 men from Fort Harmar, began building Fort Washington on a spot now within the present limits of Cincinnati. A few months later, Gen. Harmar arrived with 300 men, and took command of the fort.
Negotiations with the Indians failed to establish peace. Hence, Gen. Harmar was directed to attack their towns. In accordance with his instructions he marched from Cincinnati, in September 1790, with 1,300 men -- of whom less than one-fourth were regulars. When near the Indian villages, in the vicinity of what is now Fort Wayne, an advanced detachment of 310 -- consisting chiefly of militia -- fell into an ambush and suffered severe losses. Gen. Harmar, however, succeeded in burning the Indian villages and destroying their standing corn crop.
Having achieved these results, the army began its march back to Cincinnati. They had not gone far when Harmar received news that the Indians had returned to their ruined towns. He immediately detached about one-third of his remaining force -- under the command of Col. Hardin -- with orders to bring the Indians "to an engagement." Col. Hardin succeeded in this early the next morning. The Indians fought with great fury, and the militia and the regulars alike fought bravely. More than one hundred of the militia, and all the regulars except nine, were killed; and the rest were driven back to the main body. Dispirited by this severe defeat, Harmar immediately marched to Cincinnati. The expedition totally failed to achieve its purpose -- intimidation of the Indians.
Since the Indians continued hostile, a new army, superior to the former, was raised at Cincinnati under the command of Gov. St. Clair. The regular force amounted to 2,300 men; and the militia numbered about 600. With this army, St. Clair marched towards the Indian towns on the Maumee River.
Two forts, Hamilton and Jefferson, were established and garrisoned on the route, about forty miles from each other. Misfortune attended the expedition almost from the start. Soon after leaving Fort Jefferson, a considerable portion of the militia deserted in a body. The first regiment, under Major Hamtramck, was ordered to pursue them and to secure the advancing convoys of supplies and provisions, which it was feared they planned to plunder. Thus weakened by desertion and division, St. Clair's remaining troops approached the Indian villages.
On 3 November 1791, at what is now the line of Darke and Mercer counties, St. Clair halted his advance, intending to throw up some temporary fortification for the protection of baggage and to await the return of the absent regiment. On the following morning, however, about half an hour before sunrise, the American army was attacked with great fury by the whole disposable force of the northwest tribes. The Americans were totally defeated. Gen. Butler and upwards of six hundred men were killed. Indian outrages of every kind spread and increased in frequency, causing white emigration into the region to decline dramatically.
President Washington now urged forward the vigorous prosecution of the war for the protection of the Northwest Territory. However, various obstacles retarded the enlistment and organization of a new army. Finally, in the spring of 1794 the American army assembled at Greenville, in Darke County, under the command of Gen. Anthony Wayne, a bold, energetic, and experienced officer of the Revolution. His force consisted of about two thousand regular troops, and fifteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky.
The Indians had collected their force, amounting to about two thousand men, near a British fort, which had been erected since the Treaty of 1783 -- in violation of its obligations -- at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee River. On 20 August 1794, Gen. Wayne encountered the enemy, and after a short and deadly conflict, the Indians fled in the greatest confusion. The Indians fled to the protection of the guns at the British fort. After destroying all the houses and cornfields above and below the British fort on the Maumee, the victorious army returned to the mouth of the Au Glaize River, where Wayne erected Fort Defiance. Prior to this action, various fruitless attempts had been made to bring the Indians to peace. Some of the messengers that had been sent among the Indians for that object had been murdered.
The victory of Gen. Wayne did not at first force the Indians to submission. Their country was laid waste, and forts were erected in the heart of their territory before they could be entirely subdued. At length, however, they became thoroughly convinced of their inability to resist the American arms and sued for peace. A grand council was held at Greenville, where eleven of the most powerful northwestern tribes were represented, to whom Gen. Wayne dictated the terms of pacification.
The boundary established by the treaty at Fort McIntosh was confirmed and extended westward from Loramie's to Fort Recovery, and then southwest to the mouth of the Kentucky River. The Indians agreed to acknowledge the United States as their sole protector, and never to sell their lands to any other power. Based on these and other conditions, the United States received the Indian nations into its protection. A large quantity of goods was delivered to the Indians on the spot, and perpetual annuities, payable partly in merchandise, were promised to each tribe that became a party to the treaty.
While the war with the Indians continued, settlement in the west slowed considerably.
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source: http://www.strattonhouse.com/index.php?section=history&content=31135002