reached itself. It is said that when the party arrived at Wheeling, on their way to the settlement, they met with Ebenezer Zane, afterward the proprietor of Zanesville, and at that time familiar with the Ohio country. They asked his opinion as to the best place of location, and he, in honest simplicity, named several, either of which would have verified his recommendation. He did not, however, mention the tract about the mouth of the Muskingum. What could be the reason? Possibly he had an eye to it himself, and, if so, it must be the best. The party at once took up their line of march, and, without looking further, planted themselves there."

Thus, according to this writer, securing the region coveted because old Zane had not mentioned it.

This anecdote is quite incredible, for the palpable reason that the location had been decided upon, and even the plan for a city at the mouth of the Muskingum adopted, before the party left New England, or ever met Col. Zane.

Another version is given of Col. Zane's possible influence in fixing the location. General Samuel H. Parsons, one of the Ohio Company's directors, who strongly urged the location between the Muskingum and Scioto, had been appointed by the old congress a commissioner to treat with the Indian tribes of the west, and in the discharge of this duty, visited that country in 1785 and '6. A writer in the North American Review (vol. 47), who states that his information was received direct from Gen. Putnam, says:

"After Gen. Parsons had examined the country immediately about the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio, he proceeded up the valley of the former that he might have a view of the interior. Having gone many miles, he met one of the Zanes, four of which family were among the most noted of the frontier rangers. Zane was probably engaged in salt making, at Salt creek, which runs into the Muskingum about ten miles below the present town of Zanesville. Parsons, well knowing that the man he had chanced upon knew, from an acquaintance of fifteen years or more, the whole of what now forms the state of Ohio, asked his advice touching the location of the purchase which the Ohio Company proposed to make. Zane, having pondered 'the matter, and consulted with some of the old Delaware Indians that lived thereabout, recommended. the General to choose either the Miami country or the valley of the Scioto, in preference to that which he was then examining. What it was that made Parsons doubt the good faith of the pioneer, we know not; but he came to the conclusion that Zane really preferred the Muskingum to any other point, and wished to purchase it himself, when the sales should begin, in a few months. This impression did away what little doubt still remained in his mind; and returning to the east, he laid his proposal to contract with Congress for all the land along the Ohio, between the seventh range of townships and the Scioto, and running back as might be afterward agreed upon, before the directors of the Company of Associates."

There may be some foundation for this anecdote, thus reiterated, but it appears doubtful.

After all, the location was not the worst that might

have been made. The purchase undoubtedly included

1

And

a large amount of rough and broken land; but it also included many tracts of beautiful farming country, well watered, well timbered, healthful, and fertile. whatever reasons were wanting fifty years ago to justify the wisdom of the location, have been furnished in later days by the solid agricultural growth of the counties included in the purchase, and by their great and rapidly developing mineral wealth. Agricultural interests are ever the earliest to be developed; but, in the long run, the mineral resources of a country are equally important to its wealth and supporting power. The vast deposits of coal and iron in Athens county and adjacent regions, are but just beginning to be utilized, and the time may yet come when the "Ohio Company's Purchase," which they were laughed at for selecting, and which, in later years, has been stigmatized as the "Huckleberry Knobs," will support a swarming population. Those hills will some day smoke with forges, foundries, and manufactories of iron. They will be honey-combed with innumerable tunnels, from which will be taken the precious deposits of coal there concealed, and a million freemen may yet inhabit those counties, which, while their wealth lay hidden, were disregarded for more fertile parts, but which, when developed, will furnish forth the wealth of an empire.

CHAPTER III.

From 1787 to 1796.

'HEIR purchase being now fully consummated

TH

and the Company having been put in immediate possession of seven hundred and fifty thousand acres, they at once began to arrange details and prepare for emigration. A meeting of the directors and agents of the Company was held at Brackett's Tavern, in Boston, on the 21st of November, 1787, at which it was

"Resolved, That the lands of the Ohio Company may be alloted and divided in the following manner, anything to the contrary in former resolutions notwithstanding, viz: four thousand acres near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers for a city and commons, and, contiguous to this, one thousand lots of eight acres each, amounting to eight thousand acres.

Upon the Ohio, in fractional townships, one thousand lots of one hundred and sixteen acres and, amounting to one hundred and sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty acres.

In the townships on the navigable rivers, one thousand lots of three hundred and twenty acres each, amounting to three hundred and twenty thousand acres.

And in the inland towns, one thousand lots of nine hundred and ninety-two acres each, amounting to nine hundred and ninety-two thousand acres, to be divided and allotted as the agents shall hereafter direct.

Resolved, further, That there be the following reservations, viz: one township at the falls of the Great Hockhocking river; one township at the mouth of the Great or Little river of that name; and one township opposite to the mouth of the Great Kanawha river; which reservations may hereafter be allotted and divided as the directors and agents shall see fit.

Resolved, That the army bounty rights be considered in part payment of the shares of military associates in the ratio of one dollar to every acre to which they are entitled; and that this rule be observed by the agents of the subscribers in rendering their returns, and by the agents appointed by the directors for the second payment to the Board of Treasury.

Resolved, That no further subscriptions be admitted after the 1st day of January next, and that all interest arising on sums paid since the payment of the first half million to the Board of Treasury, until the second payment be completed, shall accrue to the benefit of the Company's funds; and that the agents pay all the money they may have in their possession into the treasury of the Company by the 1st day of March next.

Resolved, That the eight-acre lots be surveyed and a plat or map thereof be made, with each lot numbered thereon, by the first Wednesday in March next, and that a copy thereof be immediately forwarded to the secretary and the original retained by the Company's superintendent; that the agents meet on the same Wednesday in March, at Rice's Tavern, in Providence, State of Rhode Island, to draw for said lots in numbers as the same shall be stated upon the plat; that a list of the drawings be