ack into line and
dismissed. Militia day was a day of drunkenness and fighting. No
wonder that years passed without muster. Such was the military
condition of the United States when the War of the Rebellion sounded
the tocsin of alarm, and our generation was called upon to meet
the gravest struggle in American history.
CHAPTER III.
OHIO, ITS HISTORY AND RESOURCES.
Occupation by the Indians--Washington's Expedition to the Head of
the Ohio River--Commencement of the History of the State--Topography,
Characteristics, etc., in 1787--Arrival of the First Pioneers--The
Treaty of Greenville--Census of 1802 Showed a Population of 45,028
Persons--Occupation of the "Connecticut Reserve"--Era of Internal
Improvement--Value of Manufactures in 1890--Vast Resources of the
Buckeye State--Love of the "Ohio Man" for His Native State.
The life of a man is greatly influenced by the place of his birth,
the surroundings of his boyhood, and the habits and customs of the
community in which he lived. As I have been all my life a resident
of Ohio, and for more than forty years have been one of its
representatives in Congress, or the Cabinet, I feel that a brief
sketch of the history and resources of the state may not be out of
place in this biography. No adequate history of the state has been
written, though many works have given general outlines. The
materials are copious, but I can only state a few events that mark
the changes in its civilization. That it was once occupied by a
race now entirely extinct is evidenced by numerous mounds, earthworks
and lines of fortifications so extensive as to have required to
construct them a dense population with a knowledge of mathematics
far beyond that of any tribe or race existing on the American
continent, when discovered by Columbus. The works of the mound
builders can be seen, and have been described, but no ray of light
has been cast upon, or plausible suggestion made to account for,
the origin, existence or disappearance of this race.
Long after the settlement on the Atlantic Coast of the Thirteen
Colonies, the territory now included in the State of Ohio was part
of a vast unknown region north and west of the Ohio River. It was
roamed over by numerous tribes of Indians living in tents of bark
or skins, whose residence was generally as transitory as that of
the wandering tribes of Arabia. Many of these Indian tribes were
composed of a few families under the domination of a chief w
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