[Trade Journal]
Publication: Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio
Cincinnati, OH, United States
vol. 11, no. 1, p. 13-18, col. 1
THE BATES PAPERS AND EARLY CINCINNATI
EDITED BY WILLIAM S. WABNITZ
I
Among the adventurers who figure in the settlement and growth of Losantiville and neighboring sections of the Symmes Purchase were three brothers of the name of Bates Isaac, Clark, and Joseph, Jr. — from Mendon, Mass. A collection of letters, warrants, receipts, account books, inventories, and other documents descended from these brothers was discovered not long ago by Miss Mary Bates in the attic of her house on Resor Avenue, packed away in two ancient portmanteaus. The papers, acquired through the generosity of Mrs. Robert Flynt, another member of the Bates family, afford a view of activities in Cincinnati from the time of its beginning — the distribution and sale of lots, the settling of Millcreek township, early shipping on the Ohio and the Mississippi, poor relief, the indenture of impoverished children, transactions of the Miami Sheep Company, the Bark Works, the Cincinnati Manufacturing Company, and the Miami Exporting Company (Cincinnati’s first bank), and so on. Here also is the record of the establishment and rise of two hardy and respected pioneers.
The romantic davor of the word adventurers is somewhat due to time. Governor St. Clair, in controversy with Judge Symmes over the selling of land to settlers supposedly beyond his line, refers to the duty that he, as governor, owes "to the adventurers and to the United States,"¹ and the record of the distribution and sale of lots at Losantiville begins thus:
The first thirty town and out lots to so many of the most early adventurers shall be given by the proprietors, Messrs. Denman, Patterson, and Ludlow, who for their part do agree, etc. . . . ²
In both instances. the word seems to carry a strong sense of "comers-to"; and it is their advent, rather than the peril or the profit, that becomes the basic image.
The Bates Families Had Extensive Holdings in the Millcreek Valley.
Isaac Bates was one of these first comers, although not of the first thirty whose names make up the roster on Page 3 of the original record. When the drawing for donation lots took place, each of the thirty was assigned an in-lot of one half acre and an out-lot of four acres — land that was all still clothed in primeval forest. This drawing was held on the spot on January 7, 1789. The settlers, having started from Maysville the day after Christmas and come down the icy waters of the Ohio, had made their landing on December 28; and in the ensuing ten days Israel Ludlow and Noah Badgley had run the lines of the streets and marked them roughly with notches in the trees. ³
On a second list, which is headed "Lots given by the proprietors on the same conditions as the first thirty donation lots," Isaac Bates’ name appears. He receives in-lot 60. Although later entries on this list are dated May, 1789, the first twenty names, including that of Isaac Bates, follow immediately after the original thirty — on a fresh page but with no new date inscribed.
Thus we may say that Isaac Bates, having left his home in Mendon in the fall of 1788 (probably with Jonathan Fitts from a neighboring town), came down the Ohio in the winter or early spring of 1789. A young man of 26, he had served for a short period in the Revolution. In 1778 the town meeting of Mendon, seeking to equalize the burdens of war, had voted that "all men sent for in future and ordered into the service as the Town's quota of soldiers should be hired at the expense of the Town."⁴
It was left to the discretion of a Committee of Sixteen for hiring soldiers "how much to give or engage to give in Paper, Silver or Produce as they can agree with a soldier." In 1781 when the committee was enlarged by 32 men, Joseph Bates, Isaac's father — who later served as selectman — was one of the 32. On July 17 Isaac enlisted. He was just past 18 and the oldest of five sons. His company arrived at West Point on August 1. The surrender of Cornwallis in October marked the end of the fighting and, shortly after, Isaac was discharged from the army, having served three months and 22 days.
From the time of his arrival in Losantiville and long before he and his brother Clark acquired the first of their holdings along Mill Creek, Isaac had dealings in in-lots and out-lots in the new settlement.
His donation lot of 1789, which extends along the north side of Third street from Sycamore to Hammond, is now occupied by tenements and various wholesale concerns. On it there was once a 'draw-well' the rights to which were shared by four neighbors — William McFarland, Isaac Vanning, John Abbott and Alexander King. For this each paid the sum of $10, according to deeds made in 1801. In 1795 this lot had been conveyed by Judge Symmes to James Gillespie, the first owner whose name is recorded in the deed-books of Hamilton County. Gillespie paid $2 for it. Values were rising rapidly. Two years later James Bill bought it for $160. In 1813 when James Bill’s widow had the lot — with whatever improvements were in it — put up for auction it brought $1550.75. When or for what sum Isaac had given up his donation rights does not appear.
The half acre directly north of Isaac Bates (where the Koch House now Stands) was donated to Jonathan Fitts, a youth from Sutton, Mass., who figures briefly in this story. The earliest bit of writing in the Bates collection is a barter arrangement which reads:
Rec’d Note of Hand of Jonathan Fitts for four Bushels & a
Half of Corn which note I promise to return, or pay him or
order Nine Shillings Pennsylvania currency on demand.
May 4th, 1789 (Signed) Oliver Rice
With the Shilling reckoned at 13 1/3 cents, ⁵ the corn would have been worth about 27 cents a bushel. Since this note was given before the harvesting of the first crop on the out-lots of Losantiville or on Turkey Bottoms, the corn if procured would no doubt have come "from the Kentucky settlements, down the Licking." ⁶
ISAAC BATES
Oil Painting in the Possession of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio
Late in 1791 or early in 1792 Jonathan Fitts died and Isaac, returning to Mendon in the winter of 1792-93, secured from Jonathan’s father for £90 the title to all the property of the deceased. Jonathan had reserved an in-lot for 30 Shillings — which remained unpaid; later Isaac got the lot for 28/6. This lot, which lies along the north side of Pearl street west of Sycamore was later owned by Charles Vattier, whose trial for the theft of public money from the coffers of General James Findlay was one of the sensational events of early Cincinnati history. The block today is solidly lined with commission houses.
The title to Jonathan's donation lot, mentioned above, passed to names famous in Cincinnati history — Isaac Van Nuys, John Whetstone, Josiah Halley, Oliver Spencer, John H. Piatt, Bellamy Storer, Nicholas Longworth. A part of it in mid-nineteenth Century was leased for the Gray and Hemingray glass works.
On January 6, 1790, Isaac's name was entered for the two in-lots at the northwest corner of Fourth and Race streets for 37/6 and 30 Shillings respectively, but these entries were cancelled. However, for the out-lot bounded by Twelfth, Vine, Thirteenth and Walnut streets he paid, according to the record, 25 Shillings. Again there is nothing to show when or how he relinquished his ownership. This square of land, deeded by Judge Symmes to Thomas Goudy in 1795, was joined in 1808 to a larger tract owned by Arthur St. Clair, whose father — the general — had been governor of the Northwest Territory.
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¹ St. Clair to Hamilton, May 25, 1791. St. Clair Papers, Vol. II, p. 209.
² Record of the Distribution and Sale of Lots in Losantiville (now Cincinnati, 1789. This document, the gift of Israel Garrard in 1880, is in the archives of the Historical Society.
³ John Filson had probably started the survey before his disappearance the Previous September, when the proprietors and Judge Symmes visited the site. See Greve, Cent. Hist, of Cincinnati, Vol. I, p. 163.
⁴ Metcalf, Annals of the Town of Mendon, pp. 375 et seq.
⁵ The value of the Shilling differed in different states according to the degree of depreciation of the colonial bills of credit.
⁶ See Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, 1845, Vol. 1, p. 100.
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