How Ohio Got It’s Nickname, the Marietta Connection

      How did a poisonous tree nut that's hard as a rock yet renowned as a good luck charm and cure for rheumatism become Ohio's nickname? "It just turned out that way," an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (“ODNR”) brochure says. Hardly a definitive answer, but there is a Marietta connection.

     The buckeye tree was common in Ohio's original forests, growing along streams and fertile bottom lands. The trees are medium sized, growing to 60 feet. There were many practical uses for early pioneers, according to ODNR:

- Cabin Building: Because the trees were easy to clear and the wood was soft and light, buckeye logs were used to build early cabins.

- Household Items: The wood was easy to work. Pioneers carved necessities like spoons, bowls, troughs, and cradles.

- Prosthetic Limbs: Due to its light weight and resistance to splitting, the wood was used in the manufacture of artificial limbs.

- Good Luck Charm: Pioneers believed that carrying a buckeye nut in their pocket would ward off rheumatism and bring good luck.

                          Buckeye Tree. It’s one of the first to leaf out in spring. Photo by author.

     The Marietta Connection: Respected historian Samuel Hildreth stated that the local Indians called the first sheriff Ebenezer Sproat "Hetuck, " meaning "Big Buckeye," because of his towering 6' 4" frame. It was an expression of respect; they’d seen him lead a ceremonial procession in September, 1788. Sproat became known as Big Buckeye, the story goes, and the nickname eventually spread to include all Ohioans. It’s a believable tale, and it connects Marietta to the Buckeye tradition.

     Some historians, including Raymond Irwin, question the Sproat Big Buckeye story: First, though a popular narrative, the story does not appear until Hildreth's Memoirs publication in 1852, 64 years after the event. Irwin says it's not mentioned in any other records in the 1700s. Second, linguists find no Native American word "Hetuck," meaning "eye of the buck." But wait, there was a contemporary mention of Hetuck. “Joseph Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio” is an early history compiled from Barker’s own records. About Sproat, Barker wrote: “He was a fine Martial figure, his Physical Capasity occupied more room than any Man in the County. The Indians named him Old Hetuck, the Big Buckeye.” (Emphasis added, spelling and punctuation from the document). Could editors have inserted this later from Hildreth’s reference? Maybe, but the punctuation and spelling give it credibility to me. I’m an Ebenezer Sproat-Big Buckeye believer. It’s official. 

     The “buckeye” term, though, had a decidedly negative meaning in the early 1800s, referring to an inept or uneducated backwoods person. 1840 was the year that buckeye and Ohio became synonymous. William Henry Harrison, a popular Ohioan, was the Whig candidate for President. An opposition newspaper commented that Harrison “was better fitted to sit in a log cabin and drink hard cider than rule in the White House.” Harrison alertly adopted that very log cabin persona, emphasizing his humble beginnings. He was thereafter pictured in front of a cabin with a barrel of hard cider. On the cabin walls were coonskin caps and…. strings of buckeyes. His campaign went viral in 1840. Wagons with replica cabins were at every rally. The formerly disrespected Buckeye stereotype became the proud symbol of all Ohioans. Canes made of buckeye wood were a fad, sold for souvenirs along National Road – today’s U S 40. At a rally in Pennsylvania, in one two-mile long procession of 1,500 people, 1,497 carried buckeye canes. William Henry Harrison was elected but sadly died with weeks of being inaugurated.  

Image of 1940 campaign buckeye wood cane (top) and close-up (bottom) showing “hard cider” cask on top of handle.    From americanhistory.si.edu

    The Harrison campaign was probably most influential in the Buckeye story. But Washington Countians can proudly say “It started here in 1788.” Probably.

     I was backpacking once in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The first night, there was a periodic loud clank on the metal shelter roof. The culprits were falling buckeyes. Buckeyes in Tennessee, imagine that. I felt right at home. Only later did I discover that those were yellow buckeyes, not THE official Ohio buckeyes. Oh, well.

 

 

 

Smallpox, pioneer scourge

Smallpox. Among the many hardships that the early Washington County pioneers endured was illness, often severe and sometimes fatal. There was bilious fever, scarlet fever, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and .....smallpox. I read about smallpox often in stories of early settlers. It was only when I saw this photo that the devastation of the disease sank in. 

Young girl in Bangladesh with smallpox, from Wikipedia.

Smallpox has been around for centuries. The first evidence of the disease was from Egyptian mummies dating from the third century BCE. Smallpox occurred in outbreaks all over the world. An estimated 200 million died in the twentieth century alone; many survivors suffered blindness and severe scarring.

Your author was surprised to learn that immunization techniques for smallpox were developed several centuries ago, likely in Asia. Tissue from smallpox sufferers was rubbed or inserted into a scratch in the skin of the person to be immunized. That person would contract smallpox, usually in a less severe form, and thereafter would be immune. This treatment, referred to as variolization, was imported into Europe around 1720. It was a crude and not always successful form of immunization which preceded more modern vaccination techniques. It was widely used in the 1700’s, including at Marietta. 

Yet smallpox remained a scourge which impacted pioneer settlers. Many contracted the disease. Dozens died. Survivors could be blind or disfigured by scars. Courageous doctors and caregivers risked their lives to treat those infected.

Reverend Manasseh Cutler treated smallpox patients in his native Massachusetts. There was an outbreak of the disease in 1772 at Marblehead, MA. Patients were to be admitted to a hospital at Cat Island where Cutler visited. Local residents panicked fearing that the influx of infected patients would spread the disease. They burned down the hospital. The specter of smallpox appeared again in early 1779. Cutler by then had become a physician after training during the previous year. He inoculated and treated 40 or more patients during that period.

The original work party headed to Marietta in 1788 was slowed by smallpox. A group under Major White struggled west from Massachusetts over rough Pennsylvania terrain. In February 1788 they arrived at Simrill’s Ferry on the Youghiogheny River to build boats for the trip down the Ohio River to Marietta. The boat building was delayed by, among other things, smallpox which afflicted five of the party.

The initial outbreak of smallpox at Marietta began in January, 1790. A boat bound for Kentucky stopped at Marietta with a sick passenger, a Mr. Welch, and his family. He was taken to the home of James and Mary Gardner Owen. His disease was the dreaded smallpox. Residents met and decided to build a “pest house” (a building for quarantine and treatment of contagious disease patients, including smallpox) near where Marietta College is now. Mr. Welch was moved there but died a few days later. Mrs. Owen became ill with the disease but later recovered. 

London Pest House image, from Wikipedia. Pest houses originated for epidemics in Europe, such as bubonic plague. Some buildings were quite large. Burial grounds (the “plague pit” in this image caption) were often near the pest house, away from public areas.

Residents were concerned about contagion because of living in close quarters at Campus Martius. There was a town meeting at the northwest blockhouse at Campus Martius. They decided to build more pest houses and to have everyone “inoculated” (using the variolization technique described above). Several of these houses were built “on the plain,” probably in area where Fifth Street and Marietta College are now. One house held 23 patients; another occupied by Colonel Stacy and his family had 20 people. Of the hundred plus people inoculated, only two died. Six people died who became sick by contagion. Doctors Jabez True and Thomas Farley cared for the sick.

Apparently some pest houses were quite small and the quarters cramped. Master builder Joseph Barker stayed in one for a while. He and his wife Elizabeth Dana Barker moved to Marietta in 1789. When the January 1790 smallpox outbreak occurred, Mrs. Barker moved to Belpre to live with her parents until the danger passed. Joseph Barker remained in Marietta and was inoculated with smallpox and moved into a pest house. He rather cheerily described it in a letter to his wife: “I am living in a little clean log cabin that is six feet wide, seven feet long and four and a half high.” He could sit up but not stand up. “We lodge very well.” He survived the sickness and was reunited with his wife and infant son Joseph Jr. a few weeks later.

Mary Bird Lake provided invaluable assistance in this smallpox outbreak. She was a native of England who married Archibald Lake and emigrated to the colonies. She served as a matron of two hospitals caring for wounded and sick Revolutionary War soldiers, including those with smallpox. She received personal thanks from George Washington for her work. Washington commented in 1777 that smallpox was a potentially greater threat than “the sword....of the enemy.”

The Lakes moved to Marietta in 1789 with their eight children. Williams’ History of Washington County Ohio (hereafter, “William’ History”): "The spring after their arrival the small pox broke out, and during the terrible pestilence Mrs. Lake served a crucial role as nurse." She was familiar with the inoculation technique and guided the physicians who had no experience with smallpox treatment. 

1793 brought an extensive smallpox outbreak in Washington County. In August, scarlet fever and then smallpox appeared in Marietta at Picketed Point, spread from militia soldiers in Colonel Haskell’s command. The Court of Quarter Sessions met on August 7 and ordered removal of the infected persons to Mixer’s spring. The Court met again August 9 and ordered the sick relocated to Devol’s Island, presumably a more isolated location, on the Muskingum River.

Smallpox broke out in September 1793 at the beleaguered Belpre community, which had endured famine, Indian threats, and scarlet fever in recent times. A scout named Benjamin Patterson brought the disease; he had been inoculated in Marietta. The Belpre community initiated “heroic measures,” knowing of the contagion risk of living in close quarters. They sent for Dr. Jabez True from Marietta to inoculate the entire community at Farmer’s Castle (the fortified enclosure at Belpre), which became “one great hospital.” Dr. Samuel Barnes also cared for smallpox patients at Belpre. 

The immunization effort protected the community from devastation. About a hundred were inoculated. Most survived the resulting mild form of smallpox. Five people died, though, testimony to the imperfect inoculation method. 

The family of Simon Deming moved to Rainbow on a donation tract in 1796. They erected a cabin there and cleared an area for farming. Williams’ History has a curious commentary: “During the following season an epidemic of smallpox spread across the county, and the young men of the neighborhood made the Deming cabin a pest house.” Several families of the Deming clan were “confined within this one cabin, where they were waited on by a physician from Virginia.” Who were the “young men”? Were they providing a needed community service or enforcing a quarantine vigilante style? And were the Demings forced to stay in this cabin?

Early physicians were often called on to minister to smallpox patients, in addition to other illnesses. Dr. Jabez True “was many times exposed to the attacks of the Indians, as he passed up and down the Ohio (River) in his visits to Belpre and still lower on the river, to minister to the sick...., numerous trips were made in a canoe, accompanied, generally, by two men.” 

Settlers in Washington County endured much the first few years. Williams’ History captured the essence of what they suffered: ...the terrible scourge had been prevented from doing its worst. Though sorely tried, (they) were destined to neither succumb to the Indian, to famine, to fever, nor to pestilence.”

In 1796 English surgeon Edward Jenner developed an improved vaccine using cowpox virus. Persons vaccinated could be immunized from smallpox without being sickened by it. Jenner had noticed during his surgeon apprenticeship that milk maids and dairy farmers who had suffered from the less virulent cowpox were immune from smallpox. Dr. Jenner devised a vaccine and inoculated an eight year old boy who proved immune from smallpox. Jenner presented his findings; years of suspicion and controversy followed. Finally, in 1800, his method was widely adopted.

Dr Edward Jenner performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of age 8. 14 May 1796. Painting by Ernest Board (early 20th century). He noticed that milk maids who had been sick with cowpox were immune from smallpox and developed a vaccination

 process using cowpox.

Millions of people were saved from smallpox, yet millions of the unvaccinated died into the twentieth century. With improved vaccine and wider distribution, smallpox was finally eliminated as a health hazard. The last reported case was in 1977.


SOURCES:

Andrews, Martin R., History of Marietta and Washington County and Representative Citizens, Chicago, Biographical Publishing Company, 1902

Cutler, William Parker and Julia Perkins, Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L.L.D. Cincinnati, Robert Clarke & Co, 1888

Hildreth, Samuel P., Pioneer History: Being an Account of the First Examinations of the Ohio Valley and the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory, Cincinnati, H. W. Derby & Co., 1848,

Hildreth, Samuel, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, Cincinnati, H. W. Derby & Co., 1852

Ridiel, Stefan, M.D., Ph D., “Edward Jenner and the History of Smallpox Vaccination,” Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, National Center for Biothechnology Information, viewed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/

Waller, A. E., “Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth 1783-1863,” Ohio History Journal, Vol 53

Wikipedia.com, Smallpox, Smallpox Vaccination, Smallpox Variolization

Williams, H. Z., History of Washington County Ohio, Cleveland, H. Z. Williams and Bro, 1881

Brickmaking in Marietta: The Captain, The Doctor, and Miss Lillian

Brick streets and stately brick buildings are one of Marietta's defining characteristics. Brickmaking began in 1788 and continued almost without interruption until the 1930's. Native clay soil made the area a natural for brickmaking. The Ohio Company in 1788 authorized purchase of supplies, including bricks, for the block houses at the Campus Martius fortified stockade in Marietta. Bricks were used to build chimneys and beautiful homes as the new settlement grew. We'll explore the history of brickmaking in Marietta and some of the fascinating personalities involved. Brick streets will be discussed in a later blog post.

The first bricks were "burned" by The Captain, Captain William Dana in 1788. Dana was a Revolutionary War officer who served with the Minutemen at Lexington in 1775 and commanded an artillery company. He suffered a financial loss due to the devaluation of continental currency and eventually relocated to Marietta in May of 1788 with his two sons. He was given permission to build a cabin near what is now Putnam and Front Streets. Captain Dana's son-in-law Joseph Barker paints the picture in his Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio: "As it was too late to plant, he & the boys cleared a small piece...and made a small Kiln of Bricks which were probably the first Kiln of Bricks burnt in Ohio." Barker used the bricks to build a chimney for Captain Dana in Belpre and later transported some of the same bricks to build his own home up the Muskingum River at Wiseman's Bottom in 1795. Major Ezra Lunt also made bricks in the same location in 1789 and 1790.

The Doctor was Nathan McIntosh was another adventuresome early leader with a connection to brickmaking. He was trained as a doctor in Boston and admitted to practice in 1786. In 1788 he decided to head west and set off for Marietta on horseback, only to fall ill with smallpox in Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine at Waterford, then Clarksburg, VA (now WV). The trip to Clarksburg was a challenge. The doctor travelled there with his wife and infant son, escorted by 15 militiamen. There were no roads or inns along the way, so they had to camp out at night. To keep the baby's crying from attracting Indians, it was dosed with paregoric and muffled with a handkerchief to suppress its cries.

Dr. McIntosh built a large practice there and also embarked on a business venture to build a bridge across the Monongahela River. Soon after completion, the bridge was swept away in a flood, resulting in a large financial loss. He returned to Marietta and continued practicing medicine. He was renowned for his caring manner and surgical skill. He was also held strong religious views which he expressed in lectures and writing. In 1806 he started a brickyard and building brick houses.

Dr. McIntosh's baby son - the one sheltered from the Indians - was named Enoch. He was born in 1793 and began working as a laborer in the brickyard at age nine and at age twelve began laying brick. Williams' History of Washington County, Ohio noted that "He thus early began a life of severe and unremitting toil, which occupied all his time until fortune rewarded his labors." and that "his capacity for work....was phenomenal." He built many beautiful brick homes in the area, including for Benjamin Putnam and Colonel John Mills in Marietta, Benjamin Dana, and Dr. John Baptiste Regnier. Regnier was one of the French immigrants who first settled at Gallipolis and later became a prominent doctor in Marietta.

Image of Enoch S. McIntosh copied from H. Z. Williams' History of Washington County, Ohio

Enoch McIntosh left the brick trade in 1813 and became a successful businessman in the Beverly-Waterford area, operating a store, mill, and founding The First National Bank of Beverly. He lived to age 96 and was characterized in Williams' History as a "man of strong vital and moral force.......strong, robust......(who) in all his years never tasted intoxicating liquor or tobacco in any form." Brickmaking was apparently a good foundation, so to speak, for a long and productive life.

Brickmakers in the mid-1800's are not well documented. But there was one infamous brick-related episode in the mid-1850's involving the Sacra Via Hopewell earthworks. Sacra Via (Latin for Sacred Way) is the graded pathway from Quadranaou platform mound to the Muskingum River. It was to be protected..."never to be disturbed or defaced, as common ground, not to be enclosed." But the dramatic boundary walls were destroyed due to a regrettable lapse in governance. A city council member, who was a brickmaker, talked the city council into selling the earthen walls to him for bricks. The bricks were used in the construction of the Unitarian Church. If those bricks could talk......

Political song writer John Greiner of Zanesville spoke to the Oddfellows Lodge in Marietta on May 12, 1869, and sang a song he composed for the occasion. I was surprised to find a verse which laments the desecration of Sacra Via:

Proudly thought the ancient builders

Of these Mounds and Way and Plain

Monuments of skill and labor

Should forever here remain.

Vain! - for hands so sacrilegious, 

Clay upheaved so long ago,

Make the bricks for Marietta,

On the river Ohio.

Brickmaking became a boom industry in the late 1800's. Brick possessed much more strength and durability than other construction materials available at the time - and was fireproof. Demand surged for brick construction for residential, institutional, public works, and industrial buildings. A single large building could require a "ton of bricks." Construction of the state mental hospital in Athens, Ohio, for example, required 12 million bricks. In 1893, about 44 brick plants in Ohio alone were making 290 Million bricks per year.

By 1900, there were several brick plants in Marietta, making that industry the area's largest employer. The Century Review Board of Trade Edition lists four brick companies:

• Thomas Cisler and Son located where the Frontier Shopping Center is today, just beyond the intersection of Seventh and Putnam Streets.
• Sterling Brick spread out along Montgomery Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets.
• Acme Brick in Norwood, along Acme Street near the rail line
• City Brick Co., at Montgomery and Sixth Streets 

The City Directories in the 1890's also listed brick makers Simon Zoller at Second and Montgomery Streets, L. W. Phillips at Eighth and Warren Streets, and James Cameron on Lord Street in Harmar. All except Zoller appear on the 1902 Atlas of the City of Marietta, Cram and Roe.

More is written about Cisler than the others. Thomas Cisler was a first generation immigrant from Germany; the family name of Zeissler was later Americanized to Cisler for convenience. He started the brick works in 1856, and it grew into the city's largest by 1900. The expansive yard was spread over 25 acres. 

Cisler Brick complex copied by author from Century Review of Marietta, Ohio, Marietta, Ohio, Marietta Board of Trade, 1900. The Cisler home is in the background.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

He built an iconic home in 1886, which remains today, on a knoll overlooking the former site of the brick plant. The home featured terraced grounds, intricate woodworking, and ten rooms. It was the first in the area to have indoor plumbing and gas lighting. Click here to read an early account about the home just after it was built.

Cisler Terrace home as it appears today, viewed at https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cisler_Terrace.jpg

Thomas Cisler was interviewed by the Marietta Times in 1890, just after he had installed a pressed brick machine. This machine compressed the bricks under 300 tons of pressure before they were placed for firing in the kiln. Clay for the bricks was taken from "College Hill" (site of the current middle school) which he had recently purchased from Marietta College.

The 1902 tornado destroyed most of the Cisler brickworks (and Acme Brick in Norwood), though it apparently rebuilt the operation. The company closed for good the 1930's, after having been re-opened to make bricks for the "new" Marietta High School. It was built on the hill which also supplied the bricks for its construction.

Thomas's son, Thomas Henry, also lived in the family home and had three children, one of whom was Miss Lillian E. Cisler. Miss Lillian was an eccentric spinster who lived in the home after her father's passing in 1950. She wore all-black clothing all the time as a sign of mourning for her late father, lived in spartan conditions (no car, no phone, utilities sometimes shut off) because of poor money management, was obsessive about continuing the traditions of her father - including an annual Bach music festival at the home, and became legendary for brazenly jumping into cars of people she knew while they were stopped in traffic and "asking" them to take her home. But she had a softer side, was intelligent and deeply religious. More about Miss Lillian in a future post.

Sterling Brick was incorporated in 1899, owned by Marietta investors. It claimed a capacity of 30,000 bricks per day. Directors included D. R. Rood, T. H. Sugden. C. W. Sugden, F. P. Morse, C. L. Flanders, and Wm Morse.

Sterling Brick, along with narrative from, copied by author from Century Review of Marietta, Ohio, Marietta, Ohio, Marietta Board of Trade, 1900

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Acme Brick was given the longest write-up of the brick plants in the 1900 Century Review Board of Trade Edition. It was not yet in full operation at the time, but claimed capital stock of $50,000 ($1.2 Million in today's dollars), the latest equipment, and "indefinite" supply of shale and clay from soil at the site, a daily capacity of 30,000 brick and 25,000 shale shingles for roof tiles, and "six, tunnel dry houses...which will make.....production a success in rainy weather as well as sunshine." The roof shingles were superlatively described as "the most economical and as well as ornamental roofing that has been bought to us in modern times. The ruins of Pompeii is said to have disclosed it as a revival of a lost art." It's not clear whether the roof tiles and bricks lived up to the hype.

Acme Brick: Symbols on the map show its location along Acme Street, which is not named on the Atlas map. Could it later have been named after Acme Brick or was Acme Brick named after the Street? 1902 Atlas map viewed at: 

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/63745/Plate+003/Marietta+-+Ohio+and+Williamstown+-+West+Virginia+1902/Ohio/
CLICK TO ENLARGE

L. W. Phillips operated a brick plant at Eighth and Warren Streets. His facility was not listed in the Board of Trade publication - maybe because he was not a member of the Board of Trade (predecessor organization to the Chamber of Commerce). But he did make the April 12, 1894 Marietta Register newspaper under the unflattering headline of "Geo. Phillips Imbibes too Freely and Raises Trouble Around His Father's House." 

George Phillips was the 23 year old son of brick operator Lyman Phillips. George got drunk and set fire to several buildings at the home and brickyard. His rampage continued into the family home where he tried to destroy more property; he was subdued by "a number of men." The Register reported solemnly that "George Phillips is not known as a vicious or ugly man when sober, and the above occurrence is due solely to an over indulgence in liquor. It is an unfortunate affair." It was an observation as true today as then.

Brickmaking declined from its peak in the early 1900s as better alternative construction materials – such as steel – became available. The brick plants were all closed by 1930. Jobs and businesses supported by brickmaking soon faded away. Few remnants remain, having been removed by successor owners. The last feature at the Cisler plant, a stack for one of the kilns, came down more than 50 years ago when the Frontier Center was built. But thousands of local bricks remain in dozens of area homes and buildings, testimony to the once thriving brick industry. If those bricks could talk, they’d have many more stories to tell about the people who made them and used them.

Sources: (most of these were viewed in websites or digital editions)

Atlas of the City of Marietta, Washington County, Ohio etc., Fred'k B. Roe, C. E., Supervisor, Chicago, IL, Geo. F. Cram & Co., 1902, viewed at historicmapworks.com.

Baker, David B., "Marietta Earthworks," earlymarietta blog, February 18, 2016, viewed at http://earlymarietta.blogspot.com/2016/02/marietta-earthworks.html

Barker, Joseph, Recollections of the First Settlement in Ohio, George Jordan Blazier, editor, Marietta, Ohio, Marietta College, 1958, pages 44-45

Century Review of Marietta, Marietta Board of Trade, 1900, page 80-82

"Cisler Terrace a Gem in Downtown Marietta," The Marietta Times, April 10, 2015.

Devol, Jerry Barker, "Lillian E. Cisler, Last of a Long Line," Tallow Light, Volume 23, No. 2, Page 60

Keith930, "What Likes Beneath our Cities' Asphalt Jungles? A Mosaic of Brick," dailykos.com website, January 5, 2012

Marietta College Historical Collections, Volume 1, "The Records of the Original Proceedings of the Ohio Company, 1917, Marietta, Ohio, Marietta Historical Commission, pages ci and 61, viewed at https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Records_of_the_Original_Proceedings.html?id=3x8mAAAAMAAJ

Marietta Register, "New Residence, Cisler House," April 23, 1886, viewed at HistoricalMarietta.blogspot.com

Marietta Register, "Running Cisler's Brick Plant to Its Full Capacity," November 27, 1890, viewed at HistoricalMarietta.blogspot.com

Marietta Register, "Too Much Whiskey," April 12, 1894, viewed at HistoricalMarietta.blogspot.com

Marietta Times, "John Greiner Song," May 20, 1869, viewed at HistoricalMarietta.blogspot.com

Marietta Times, "Cisler Brick Works: Industrial Center of City Now Site of City’s Frontier Shopping Center," April 8, 2013

Pritchard, Joan, "Local Brickmaking - A Business That Hit It Big But No Longer Exists," Tallow Light, Vol 22, No. 2, pages 68-69

Wikitree, Captain William Dana, viewed at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dana-306

Williams, H. Z., History of Washington County Ohio, H. Z. Williams and Bro., Cleveland OH, 1881, pages 544, 407-408

Burr Conspiracy and the Battle of the Muskingum

Two shots rang out in the early morning mist above the towering Palisades on the Heights of Weehawken NJ. It was July 11, 1804. Alexander Hamilton lay mortally wounded, shot by Aaron Burr in a duel. Hamilton died the next day. The aftermath of the duel would soon be felt in the Ohio Valley.

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Aaron Burr Portrait, from wikipedia

Burr the enigma

Aaron Burr was then the sitting Vice President of the United States. The duel brought his already fading political future to an end. He finished his term as Vice President in early 1805. After leaving Washington, Aaron Burr redirected his energy to seeking fame and fortune in the West (then considered to be any land west of the Appalachian Mountains). His controversial efforts would involve many in the Marietta community and thrust the area into the national spotlight.

Aaron Burr was an enigma -intelligent, accomplished, and well-connected - but with a dark side. He was a successful lawyer, served with distinction in the Revolutionary War, and a prominent politician. In politics, Burr was a chameleon, changing views and making deals according to his own benefit. Most distrusted him. He was called the "modern Machiavelli."

"Glory and Fortune"

The details of Burr's "Conspiracy" were never fully disclosed. But he was thinking big, and seeking "glory and fortune" that he mentions in a letter. The primary goal was the creation of a new republic in the western territories or Mexico, instigated by war with Spain or a paramilitary invasion. His campaign played out over two years, culminating in his arrest and trial for treason in early 1807. 

In early 1804 General James Wilkinson, then head of all U. S. Army forces, met secretly with Burr. What they discussed is not known, though Wilkinson had a long history of interest in military interventions in the Mississippi Valley.

Soon after, Burr contacted England's ambassador Anthony Merry offering to help England "effect a separation of the Western part of the United States" from the eastern states. He was short on details but long on promises of benefits to England. Merry notified the English foreign office via an encrypted message and marked "Most Secret." This was the first documentation of what Burr said he intended to do. 

In the spring of 1805, Burr embarked on a fact-finding tour of western territories. He wanted to learn the attitudes of locals and recruit people to his cause. He would promise prosperity and independence for citizens in the western territories to potential recruits. He made it all sound legitimate and patriotic. 

Starting Westward - Marietta connections

On April 30, 1805, Burr and assistant Gabriel Shaw started down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh in an elaborate 60 foot long houseboat. It was equipped with a dining room, kitchen with fireplace, and two bedrooms. He would visit people at Pittsburgh, Marietta, the Harman Blennerhassett estate, Cincinnati, Nashville, and Louisville before continuing down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

He reached Marietta on May 5, 1805. Aaron Burr records notes from the visit in his journal:

On the morning of the 5th reached Marietta...containing about 80 houses; some that would be called handsome in any village on the continent. After breakfast...came in several gentlemen of the town to offer me civilities and hospitalities. We have been walking several miles to see the mounds, parapets, squares, and other remains of unknown antiquity which are found in this neighborhood. I am astonished and confounded....

He was impressed with the Marietta earthworks, a topic somewhat removed from his intelligence gathering mission. 

Just below Marietta, Burr stopped to see Harman Blennerhassett at his idyllic island estate. He was away at the time. Blennerhassett was a wealthy immigrant from England who settled with his wife Margaret in 1798 on Belpre (later Blennerhassett) Island in the Ohio River. This contact would bring Burr's conspiracy directly to Marietta.

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Blennerhassett Mansion circa 1800, from the book Historic Blennerhassett Island Home, by

Alvaro F. Gibbons

Burr continued his trip, meeting with prominent people, listening to local attitudes, and promoting his plans. At Cincinnati he met with Senator John Smith and Jonathan Dayton, former senator and friend. He detoured over land to Nashville to meet future president Andrew Jackson, then a major general of the Tennessee militia.

Burr continued on to New Orleans where he was feted by local dignitaries. He met with the Mexican Association, a group who sought emancipation of Mexico from Spain, and planted seeds that separation from eastern states was part of the Mexican campaign.

Reports about Burr's activity went viral across the region. Daniel Clark, a New Orleans merchant, wrote Wilkinson that "Many absurd and wild reports are circulated here and have reached the ears of the officers of the late Spanish government regarding (Burr)...." The Gazette of the United States featured stories circulating about Burr's plans - expressed as rhetorical questions. Some are listed below. With this kind of publicity, Burr's intentions were no longer secret.

• How long will it be before we hear of Colonel Burr being at the head of a revolutionary party on the Western waters?
• How soon will all of the forts and magazines and all the military posts at New Orleans and on the Mississippi be in the hands of Colonel Burr's revolutionary party?
• How soon will Colonel Burr engage in the reduction of Mexico by granting liberty to its inhabitants, and seizing on its treasures, aided by British ships and forces?

On his return trip from New Orleans, he again stopped in Marietta in late October, 1805. He met with local dignitaries including Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. and Edward Tupper who was clerk of the common pleas court, a boat builder, and mercantile store owner. After Burr left, Tupper wrote him requesting a command in the army if war with Spain occurred. Burr wrote back in January of 1806 assuring Tupper that he would be invited and asked him to recruit others. He also mentioned  that ..."I have lately procured for a few of my friends a few copies of The Duty of A Soldier and Decipline of the Infantry as now practiced by the French Army....and have reserved a sett for you." (spelling as noted in the document quoted). The book was delivered to Marietta by Major Davis Floyd, an ally of Aaron Burr. This was a fascinating example of Burr's attention to detail. 

The Blennerhassett connection

In December of 1805, Burr wrote a letter to Harman Blennerhassett inviting him join in Burr's grandiose plan - with the opportunity for wealth and prominence. Blennerhassett responded on December 21, 1805, effusively offering help in Burr's adventure, "...I should be honored in being associated with you in any contemplated you would permit me to participate in." Blennerhassett was characterized by his friends as a decent person but "having every kind of sense except common sense." He had no business, military, or political experience, yet Burr relied heavily on him for needed logistics (through Marietta connections) and financial support.

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Harman Blennerhassett from Ohio History Central viewed at ohiohistorycentral.org

Seeking money, men, and armor

Burr's planning went forward in late 1805 into 1806. Efforts to obtain help from England then Spain (by trying to play one against the other) were unsuccessful. Burr continued promoting his plan to others, including Wilkinson, Thomas Truxton, and William Eaton. The latter two were disgruntled military officers. He offered them commands in his expeditionary force. Burr boasted to Eaton that he would effectively take over the U. S. government. This prompted Eaton to meet in person with President Jefferson in April of 1806, stating that "Colonel Burr should be removed from the country" because of his treasonous intentions.

The cipher letter: "I have commenced the enterprise"

Burr sent an encrypted message in July 1806 to Wilkinson using a code in which numerals are substituted for letters. His use of code is amusing since most of the country and the President already knew of Burr's intentions. The letter announced that Burr had "commenced the enterprise" and that "detachments from different points and under different pretences will rendezvous on the Ohio (River)" on November 1. He also said that troops would be at Natchez in early December to meet Wilkinson. "The gods invite to glory and fortune," Burr exclaimed. The letter was cited as evidence in Burr's trial. 

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Beginning of cipher letter from Burr to Wilkinson dated July 1806, from "Burr's cipher, sir: The 1807 treason case that featured in the Apple/FBI conflict," macworld.com

Preparing for the mission

In August 1806 Burr began another trip down the Ohio River to set his plans in motion. His first stop was to see his friend, Colonel George Morgan, in Cannonsburg, PA, believing Morgan to be sympathetic to his views. Colonel Morgan was shocked when Burr suggested that the western states would soon be separated from eastern states. Colonel Morgan and his sons were alarmed at Burr's rebellious talk and wrote a letter of warning to President Thomas Jefferson. 

Burr next stopped at Marietta. Again he met with local dignitaries and even led the militia a few drill exercises. This allowed him show off to locals and attract a few recruits in the process. He also met with Harman Blennerhassett, Dudley Woodbridge, Jr., and others to work out logistics for the expeditionary force.

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Image of Aaron Burr exhorting his followers at Blennerhassett Island, 1806, from Granger Collection/NYC, viewed at appalachianhistory.net

Blennerhassett arranged for the construction of 15 boats to transport Burr's expeditionary force downriver to New Orleans. Dudley Woodbridge, Jr. was a businessman and good friend of Blennerhassett. He hired Joseph Barker, a master builder (who built the Blennerhassett mansion), to build the boats near his home about 7 miles up the Muskingum River. Ten of the boats were to be 40 ft long and 10 ft wide; 5 would be 50 ft long. They were to be ready for delivery by December 9th. At least one would have separate rooms for the Blennerhassetts. 

Blennerhassett Island became the mission's operational center. Provisions, including pork, flour, whiskey, bacon and kiln-dried corn meal were ordered for the mission. Corn was dried in a kiln there, bullets molded, weapons gathered. Boats were to assemble and embark from there.

The plan was to set off from Blennerhassett Island in early December, rendezvous with other forces near Louisville, then proceed down the Mississippi River where hoped for troops would assemble. Burr still believed that the mission, though by that time hopelessly unrealistic, was alive and well supported. He counted on military help from General Wilkinson, General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, and General William Henry Harrison (both future presidents) of the Northwest Territory. 

Fault lines develop

However, despite public excitement, circumstances were shifting against Burr. General Wilkinson turned against Burr without telling him. He disclosed Burr's plans and broadcast exaggerated warnings to cover up Wilkinson's own deep involvement in the plan. President Jefferson was well aware of Burr's intentions and monitored the situation carefully. Without help from France or Spain, available resources were not adequate to execute his plan.

On October 6, 1806, citizens of Wood County, Virginia (now West Virginia) which had jurisdiction over Blennerhassett Island, held a mass meeting. They condemned Burr's plan, declared their loyalty to the President of the United States, and ordered that a militia be mustered in case of emergency.

President Jefferson and his cabinet reviewed Burr's actions. Jefferson seemed oddly reluctant to pursue Burr despite numerous warnings. The cabinet approved specific defensive measures on October 22, only to rescind them a few days later. 

On November 4, Joseph Daviess, district attorney for the federal district of Kentucky, cited Aaron Burr into court in Frankfort for crimes against the United States. Daviess had actively worked for months to expose Burr's plan, having written a letter of warning to President Jefferson in January of 1806.

Burr surprised Daviess by voluntarily cooperating. When court convened November 12, Daviess announced that a key witness could not be there and asked for a postponement. The packed courtroom of Burr sympathizers erupted in laughter and catcalls. An embarrassed Daviess was forced to dismiss the grand jury. Burr rose and gave an eloquent speech and left the court in triumph. Another court citation by Daviess in late November had a similar outcome.

The beginning of the end

In early November, President Jefferson sent forth John Graham, Territorial Governor of the Orleans Territory, to spy on Burr with ..."confidential authority to inquire into Burr's movements, put the Governors, etc. on their guard, to provide for his arrest if necessary." 

Graham had to go no further than Marietta to learn the full details of Burr's plan. There he interviewed Harman Blennerhassett who mistakenly believed that Graham was a participant in Burr's mission. He willingly gave Graham full details of the plan. Graham tried to discourage Blennerhassett, whom he believed was sadly deluded as to the prospects for Burr's plan. He then hurried on to Chillicothe, then the state capital of Ohio, to speak urgently with Governor Edward Tiffin. 

President Jefferson was finally goaded to action in late November by further alarming reports of Burr's intended actions. The cabinet convened in haste on November 25. Instructions were issued to authorities from Pittsburgh to New Orleans to thwart the expedition. Included was a directive to seize the boats being built at Marietta. 

Jefferson wrote in his notes from the cabinet meeting: "....Marietta, Mr. Gallatin is to write to the (local officials) to proceed to seize the gunboats building in that neighborhood and suspected to be destined for this enterprise and to call in the aid of the militia." There were further orders the next day for Marietta to station the militia along the river to prevent passage of the "gunboats."

Jefferson issued a public proclamation on November 27 titled "Proclamation on Spanish Dominion Expeditions." The document was a rambling notice about a conspiracy for a ..."military expedition against the dominions of Spain..." It commanded anyone involved to cease and desist and "enjoined and required" authorities everywhere to take any action required to stop the effort.

Graham met with Governor Tiffin on November 28 who in turn submitted a message about Burr's conspiracy to the Ohio legislature which they received on December 2. The legislature passed a law "An Act to Prevent certain Acts hostile to the Peace and Tranquillity of the United States within the Jurisdiction of the State of Ohio."  Tiffin then sent an order to Judge Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. and Major General Joseph Buell in Marietta to seize the boats and gather evidence.  

At this point, the reality of Burr's situation and public perception diverged wildly. Rumors abounded that Burr might have thousands of armed men poised to strike who knows where. The reality was that Burr's expedition was now a ragtag group of a few dozen men with small arms, a dozen wooden riverboats, limited provisions, no military support, and no element of surprise. This "reality gap" persisted for weeks until Burr's capture. Elements of farce began playing out behind the public facade.

The militia in Ohio seized ten of the boats at Marietta on December 9 and guarded the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers. The process was, at best, disorganized. The boats were seized at night and floated down the Muskingum River. Clark Green, blind in one eye, controlled two of the boats. Two of his sons, aged 11 and 12, guided another. The boats when finally secured were tied up near Goose Run along the Muskingum River. There were strict orders to carefully guard the boats from being taken by Burr's men. 

Adventuresome young Burr recruits from Belpre heard that the boats had been seized. They tried to capture the boats themselves and nearly succeeded. They advanced unseen in darkness to the Muskingum River and began untying the boats. The group was detected and a melee' ensued. The Belpreans slipped away with one of the boats and took it to Blennerhassett Island; the other boats were secured.

The militia were not a disciplined military force. Historian James Parton describes them "as rude and undisciplined backwoodsmen..." The militia posted along the Muskingum River had little to do and amused themselves with drinking whiskey and devising clever pranks. One night someone set a barrel on fire and floated it downstream. Sentinels below shouted at and then fired at the phantom "boat." When the boat refused their commands, they plunged into the water to stop it, surprised and enraged to learn that they had been duped.

There was apprehension that Comfort Tyler, one of Burr's agents, would try to recapture the seized boats. A party of sentinels opposite the tied up boats decided to trick the guards near the boats. The instigators buried a sack filled with gun powder connected with a fuse. At midnight, when the guards were "resting" after an attack on "whiskey and brandy," a huge explosion shook the earth. The shaken guards scattered in panic. The farce is captured in Edward Tupper's satirical poem "The Battle of Muskingum or Defeat of the Burrites."

General Joseph Buell, militia commander, declared martial law in the area. Sentinels were posted at a guard house on Ohio Street just above "Boiler Corner" at Front and Greene Streets. All boats passing were stopped for inspection. A cannon was placed on the Ohio River bank.

Colonel Hugh Phelps of Parkersburg called out the militia of Wood County, Virginia. Harman Blennerhassett learned that they intended to visit the Island the following day, on December 11, to capture persons and supplies involved with the mission. 

Blennerhassett thought himself immune from Ohio's authority since his island was in Virginia. He realized that the impending Virginia militia action would force him to leave the island that very night, December 10. There was a flurry of activity. Mrs. Blennerhassett rallied the group, especially her downcast husband, who seemed to realize the futility of the mission. There were four boats and a few dozen men. 

That evening after dark, Edward Tupper, appeared on the island. Versions as to what happened during his visit vary. Historian William Saffer (The Blennerhassett Papers...) and Jacob Allbright who testified the trial reported that Tupper tried to arrest Blennerhassett. They said that Tupper, a general in the Ohio Militia, clapped his hand on Blennerhassett's shoulder and said that he was arresting him by the authority of the state of Ohio. Instantly, several muskets of the expedition's men standing nearby were thrust at Tupper. He protested, "Forbear, men! Forbear! Would you act so rashly?" One man close to Tupper growled "I'd as lieve as not." Tupper backed off and encouraged Blennerhassett to turn himself in to Ohio authorities rather than place himself in great personal danger as a fugitive. Edward Tupper stated in a deposition for the trial that he visited Blennerhassett at the latter's request, went there to collect debts owned him, and encouraged him to surrender. Tupper denied making an arrest attempt or appearing in any official capacity.

The expedition begins and ends

Shortly after midnight, Harman Blennerhassett and his group with four boats and a couple dozen men departed. It was cold, dark, snowy, and the river was swift. He was leaving his family behind for an uncertain future. He faced a dangerous, uncomfortable prospect in setting out on the Ohio River in these circumstances.

Later that day, December 11, the Virginia militia landed on the island and quickly discovered that the Blennerhassett and his men were gone. Phelps left a small group on the island and sent the rest of his force overland to the Great Kanawha River to intercept the Blennerhassett flotilla. Neither group performed well. 

At the Great Kanawha (near present day Point Pleasant WV) sentinels "kept the spirits up by pouring spirits down" and were soon oblivious to their duty. The fugitive's flotilla glided silently past as the militia slept. Back at Blennerhassett Island, the militia with little to do "invaded" the wine cellar and vandalized the mansion and grounds. Colonel Phelps later castigated his men for their rude, incompetent behavior.

Margaret Blennerhassett and her two children departed several days later down river in another boat which had arrived from Pittsburgh. It was a sad end to the Blennerhassett saga at the island "Eden on the River."

The party continued down the Ohio River. Though his contingent was pathetically small, news of his "escape" generated panic along the river valley. At Cincinnati, three anchored boats thought to be Burr's sparked fear that the city would be attacked. A prankster set off a bomb and the assault was thought to have started. Local Militia were called out. The next day the boats were discovered to be merchant vessels. Locals were embarrassed at their overreaction. Another example of hyped up rumors: The Western Spy newspaper reported that Blennerhassett had passed Cincinnati in boats loaded with military stores, many boats were being built, Mexico was to be attacked, and 20,000 men were involved. 

Near the Falls of the Ohio near Louisville KY, the Blennerhassett party met up with another group headed by Davis Floyd with three boats and thirty men. At the Cumberland River, Burr with two boats and a few men and some horses, joined the others. The entire flotilla included about nine boats and sixty men. Burr ordered some additional corn and farming implements. From the latter action, it seems likely that Burr had discarded any plan for military action and was resigned to merely settling on land he owned in Louisiana. This was a far cry from the public perception of a vast military campaign afoot.

In late January, Aaron Burr and Blennerhassett were apprehended by civil authorities after the flotilla landed at Bayou Pierre on the Mississippi River. Burr was eventually tried and acquitted on treason charges in the fall of 1807. Blennerhassett was imprisoned but released when Burr was acquitted. Both tried to reestablish their lives and reputations, mostly without success, after their failed attempt at "glory and fortune."

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Scene from Aaron Burr treason trial

http://potus-geeks.livejournal.com/516176.html

Several Mariettans were deposed or appeared as witnesses in Richmond for the Burr trial. Soon after, the Burr episode faded into historical obscurity, perhaps to the benefit of the Marietta area's reputation.

The Blennerhassetts never returned to the island and eventually were forced by financial stress to return to Europe. The mansion burned in 1809.


Sources:

Note: most of these references were viewed in digital editions on line.

David, Matthew L., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1855

Fisher, Louis, "Jefferson and the Burr Conspiracy: Executive Power Against the Law," Presidential Studies Quarterly, March 2015, accessed at loufisher.org

Henshaw, Leslie, Editor, "Burr-Blennerhassett Documents," Quarterly Publication of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Vol IX, Nos. 1 & 2.

Henshaw, Leslie, "The Aaron Burr Conspiracy in the Ohio Valley," Columbus, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, 1915, digital edition viewed at archive.org.

Map, Alf J., Jr., Thomas Jefferson Passionate Pilgrim, New York, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inv., 1991

McCaleb, Walter Flavius, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, New York, Dodd Mead and Company, 1903

Melton, Buckner F., Aaron Burr: The Rise and Fall of an American Politician, New York, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004

Parton, James, Life and Times of Aaron Burr, Volume II, Boston, Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1888

Robertson, David, Reports of the Trials of Aaron Burr, etc., Philadelphia, Hopkins and Earle, 1808

Safford, William, The Blennerhassett Papers, Cincinnati, Moore, Wilstach, & Baldwin, 1864

Tabler, Dave, "Blennerhassett Island - staging ground for high treason," viewed at appalachianhistory.net, July 12, 2015.

Wiley, Edwin, Editor, The United States: its beginnings, progress, and modern development, Volume 5,New York, American Educational Alliance, 1912

Williams, H. Z., History of Washington County Ohio, Cleveland, H. Z. Williams and Bro, 1881