Scioto Company.
Soon after the settlement of
Marietta was commenced (see
Ohio Company), an association was formed called The Scioto Land Company.
The history of that company is involved
[
95]
in some obscurity.
Col. William Duer, of New York, was an active member.
It was founded in the
East.
They, at first, purchased lands of the Ohio Company, and appointed
Joel Barlow their agent in
Europe to make sales of them.
Barlow had been sent to
England by the Ohio Company for the same purpose.
He distributed proposals in
Paris in 1789, and sales were effected to companies and individuals in
France.
On Feb. 19, 1790, 218 emigrants sailed from
Havre to settle on these lands.
They arrived at
Alexandria, Va., on May 3, crossed over to the
Ohio River, and went down to
Marietta, where about fifty of them settled, and the remainder went to another point below, opposite the mouth of the
Great Kanawha, where they formed a settlement called
Gallipolis (town of the
French). These emigrants were to be furnished with supplies for a specified time, but the company failed to keep their promises.
They suffered much.
They failed, also, in getting clear titles to their lands, and the company was charged with swindling operations.
The settlers, through the good offices of
Peter S. Duponceau, of
Philadelphia, obtained a grant from Congress of 25,000 acres opposite the Little Sandy.
It was ever afterwards known as “The
French Grant.”
Each inhabitant had 217 acres. The aims of the Scioto Company seem to have been simply land speculation, not founding actual settlements.
“It comprised,”
Dr. Cutter says, “some of the first characters in
America.”
They undoubtedly expected to purchase public securities at their then greatly depreciated values, and with them pay for the lands bought of the government; but the adoption of the national Constitution caused a sudden rise in the value of these securities, and blasted the hopes of the company.
Colonel Duer, who seems to have been the originator of the scheme, suffered the unjust imputation of being a swindler, because the company did not (for it could not) meet its obligations.
