the lake than the river, at an elevation
above the sea of from 1,000 to 1,300 feet. The shed on either side
is penetrated by rivers of clear, pure water, in valleys of great
fertility, and usually with hillsides of a gentle slope and fertile
soil.

In 1787 it was an unbroken wilderness covered with great forests
and sparsely inhabited by savage tribes of Indians, only here and
there tempered by the civilizing teachings of the missionary. One
of the earliest descriptions I find of the famous Miami Valley is
as follows:

"The land beyond the Scioto, except the first twenty miles, is rich
and level, bearing walnut trees of huge size, the maple, the wild
cherry and the ash; full of little streams and rivulets; variegated
by beautiful natural prairies, covered with wild rye, blue grass
and white clover. Turkeys abounded, and deer and elks, and most
sorts of game; of buffaloes, thirty or forty were frequently seen
feeding in one meadow. Nothing is wanting but cultivation to make
this a most delightful country."

This favored land was thrown open for settlement at a time when
the people of the states had been impoverished by the war, when
there was neither money, credit nor commerce, when the government
of the Continental Congress had fallen into contempt, and the new
government was passing the ordeal of a vote in states jealous of
each other. It was the only land subject to sale by the United
States, for Kentucky was covered by Virginia grants, Western New
York was the property of land companies, and all beyond was a _terra
incognita_. There was a struggle for Ohio land among all the
northern states, including Virginia and Maryland. Companies were
formed, composed mostly of officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary
War, to secure from Congress favorable land grants. Virginia and
Connecticut had their ample reserves, New York had a large unoccupied
region in her territory, and the other northern states demanded
their shares in the common property of the United States. The
result was that all the states established settlements in Ohio,
and, for the first time in our history, the descendants of the
Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, the Germans and
Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, the Jersey Blues, the Catholics of
Maryland, the Cavaliers of Virginia and the loyal refugees of Canada
united their blood and fortunes in establishing a purely American
state on the soil of Ohio.

Among these early settlers