TheOhio Company, formally known as theOhio Company of Virginia, was aland speculation company organized for the settlement byVirginians of theOhio Country (approximately the presentU.S. state ofOhio) and to trade with theNative Americans. The company had aland grant from Britain and a treaty with Indians, butFrance also claimed the area, and the conflict helped provoke the outbreak of theFrench and Indian War.[1]
Virginian explorers recognized the potential of the Ohio region for colonization and moved to capitalize on it,[2] as well as to blockFrench expansion into the territory.[1] In 1748,[2]Thomas Lee and brothersLawrence andAugustine Washington organized the Ohio Company to represent the prospecting and trading interests of Virginian investors includingRobert Dinwiddie;George Washington;George Mason;John Mercer (colonial lawyer) and sonsGeorge Mercer,James Mercer &John Francis Mercer;Richard "Squire" Lee;Thomas Ludwell Lee;Phillip Ludwell Lee;Robert Carter III of Nomoni;John Tayloe II ofMount Airy; andGawin Corbin, son ofHenry Corbin (colonist).[3][4]
In addition to the mandate and investment of Virginia Royal GovernorRobert Dinwiddie,[5] other original members included John Hanbury, ColonelThomas Cresap,George Mercer,John Mercer, and "all of His Majesty's Colony of Virginia." In that same year, George Mercer petitionedKing George for land in the Ohio country,[5] and in 1749, theBritish Crown granted the company 500,000 acres in the Ohio Valley between theKanawha River and theMonongahela.[6] The grant was in two parts: the first 200,000 acres were promised, and the following 300,000 acres were to be granted if the Ohio Company successfully settled one hundred families within seven years.[7] Furthermore, the Ohio Company was required to construct a fort and provide a garrison to protect the settlement at their own expense. But the land grant was rent and tax free for ten years to facilitate settlement.[8]
The organizers signed atreaty of friendship and permission at Logstown with the main tribes in the region in 1752 .[8] A rival group of land speculators from Virginia, theLoyal Company of Virginia, was organized about the same time, and included influential Virginians such asThomas Walker,William Cabell andPeter Jefferson (father ofThomas Jefferson).
In 1752George Mason, later to become a major founding father, became treasurer of the Ohio Company, a post he held for forty years until his death in 1792.
In 1748–1750, the Ohio Company hiredThomas Cresap, who had opened a series oftrading posts along thePotomac River at Long Meadow,Oldtown andWill's Creek (on the foot of the eastern climb up theCumberland Narrows along what was soon to be called theNemacolin Trail). Cresap contracted to blaze a small road over theAppalachian Mountains to theMonongahela River, and then to start widening this road into a wagon road. Though not known at the time, that route was one of only three mid-mountain-range crossings of theAppalachian Ridge and Valley system between the northern Hudson-Great Lakes route, and the southern Georgia-Mississippi-Western Tennessee plains route.
In 1750, the Ohio Company established a fortified storehouse at what becameRidgeley, Virginia across thePotomac River from the Will's Creek trading post. That year the Ohio Company also hiredChristopher Gist, a skillful woodsman and surveyor, to explore the Ohio Valley in order to identify lands for potential settlement. He surveyed and estimated the area drained by theKanawha River as well as that drained by other tributaries of theOhio River, and returned in 1751 and 1753. His journals provide valuable insights of the greater Ohio Valley as well as theAlleghenies. Gist travelled as far west as theMiami Indian village ofPickawillany (near presentPiqua, Ohio). Relying on his report, the Ohio Company began selling land in what later becameWestern Pennsylvania and present-dayWest Virginia. Gist and Cresap both received sizable land grants west of the Appalachians. In 1752 the company had a pathway blazed between the small fortified posts at Wills Creek (that becameCumberland, Maryland), andRedstone Old Fort (that becameBrownsville, Pennsylvania). Cresap and his scoutNemacolin had established the latter location in 1750, which overlookedRedstone Creek and the longstanding Monongahela Riverford.
Conflicting land claims complicated settlement efforts. The Ohio Country tract ceded by the King through Virginia's Governor Dinwiddie included, in Dinwiddie's opinion, the "forks of the Monongahela," present-dayPittsburgh. The Pennsylvania colonial government also claimed much of this territory (though Maryland's charter ended at theAppalachian divide, and while the charter of Virginia set no western boundary, Pennsylvania's grant was for 5 degrees of longitude from the Delaware River, a SW point not determined until after the Mason Dixon survey). Moreover, France also claimed land in North America, including everything drained by theMississippi River (the Ohio River being one of the great river's tributaries). Not only did French traders compete with those of the Ohio Company and agents of other British-chartered entities, France had also sent soldiers, who were fighting for their kingdom's right to occupy the Ohio Valley, most notably atFort Duquesne.[8] Dinwiddie responded by sending a military unit under the command of George Washington to the region,[9] which led to the outbreak of theFrench and Indian War.
In 1763, the Ohio Company sent a representative to petition the British Crown for a grant renewal. The plans for settlement and military development continued, withHenry Bouquet's 1764 plans to construct military posts around prospective western settlements.[10] However, followingPontiac's War, land claims west of the Appalachian Mountains were forfeited to theNative American tribes in theProclamation of 1763, requiring them to be re-purchased throughKing George III.[11]
In 1768, the British government authorizedSir William Johnson to make theTreaty of Fort Stanwix, purchasing land rights from theIroquois, in accordance with the Proclamation of 1763.[12][13]Samuel Wharton andWilliam Trent applied for a "despoiled traders" (frontiersmen who had been aggrieved by the various Indian raids during and after the French and Indian Wars) land grant in 1768. In order to get approved by theBritish Crown, they joined with a number of other land speculators to form the Walpole Company,[10] named for Thomas Walpole, a British lawyer involved in the endeavor.[7] The company wanted to acquire 2.5 million acres of Ohio Country land. PennsylvanianBenjamin Franklin was one of the seventy-two shareholders, as well as included Franklin's sonWilliam (then Royal Governor of New Jersey),George Croghan and Sir William Johnson, as well as Franklin's perennial London alliesWilliam Strahan andRichard Jackson. The Walpole Company,Indiana Company, and members of the Ohio Company reorganized, and on December 22, 1769, formed theGrand Ohio Company.[14] In 1772, the Grand Ohio Company received from the British government a grant of a large tract lying along the southern bank of the Ohio as far west as the mouth of theScioto River.[15] A colony to be called"Vandalia" was planned. However, the outbreak of theAmerican Revolutionary War interrupted colonization and nothing was accomplished. The London-based company ceased operations in 1776.
TheOhio Company of Associates was organized in 1786, composed largely of New England veterans who had certificates for land from Congress for their services during the Revolution.[16]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ohio Company".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 31–32.| Counties |
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