Three miles and a half below Fishing creek, we left Peyton’s island on the left. It is about a mile and a half long, and is cultivated and inhabited.—From hence, the Long reach in its whole length of eighteen miles, the islands on the left, the projecting points on the right, and the forest covered and unequal hills on each side, form a most beautiful coup d’œil.
Four miles and a half lower, we had passed Williamson’s island, which is above two miles long, and we stopped just below it on the left bank, at Charles Wells’s, the sign of the buck. He is father to John Wells, at whose house we had supped last night: He has a fine farm, good buildings and a large tract of land which he bought from a Mr. Caldwell two or three years ago. We here got a good dinner, the charge was reasonable, and the family obliging.
Mr. Wells shewed us a remarkable petrifaction of part of a beech tree, found about twenty miles from his house, at the other side of the river in the state of Ohio, in a northerly direction. The tree was found torn up by the root, which with part of the trunk, was covered by a pool of stagnate water, and completely petrified, while the part of the trunk and the limbs which were out of the water, were still in their original state of wood, but dry, and partly rotten. We wished to purchase this petrification from Mr. Wells, but he was too much of a naturalist himself to part {103} with such a curiosity for a sum which would have been a temptation to a person of a different taste.[82]
Passing Pursley’s, Wilson’s and Williamson’s islands, none of them exceeding a mile in length, we came to the end of Long reach, eleven miles below Wells’s, where in a charming situation on the left, is {104} a fine settlement, commanding a view of the reach and its islands upwards.[83]
Little and Rat islands joined by a sand bar, are only half a mile long each, and just below them, and three miles from Long reach, is the beginning of Middle island, which is two miles and a half long, with three families settled on it. Middle island creek, after running some distance from its source in Virginia, turns some mills and falls into the Ohio at the back of the island. We went to the right of those islands, and two miles below Middle island, we landed at squire Green’s tavern on the right, and got supper and beds.
The squire who derives his title from being a magistrate, came here from Rhode Island about nine years ago. He has a fine farm, on an extensive bottom, and he has two sons settled about a mile back from the river, where they have a horse-mill and a distillery. Two younger sons and a daughter, a sensible pleasing young woman, live at home with their parents. One of the sons was suffering under a fever and ague, the first time it had been known in the family—a proof of the salubrity of the situation, the bottoms and flats throughout this country being generally subject to this harassing and enfeebling disorder, which however diminishes in proportion as the lands are cleared. I recommended a plentiful use of calomel occasionally, and a strong decoction of Peruvian bark, snake root and ginseng, during all the intermissions.
On Thursday 23d July, we proceeded down the river at five A. M. passing three small islands called the Three Brothers, between a mile and two miles and a half below squire Green’s, the two first of which are rather low, but the third is partly cultivated.—The river, its banks and islands are very beautiful hereabouts; the hills having gradually lessened from the south end of the Long reach, there are none but {105} very moderate risings to be seen from the river, at twelve miles below squire Green’s, where I observed on the left a saw for ship plank. Two miles further, at half past nine, we passed Little Muskingum river on the right. It is about twenty-five yards wide, and has a handsome Chinese bridge over it. Dewal’s island extends from hence two miles and a half to Marietta, where we landed on the right at eleven o’clock.
This town is finely situated on both banks of the Muskingum, at the confluence of that river with the Ohio. It is principally built on the left bank, where there are ninety-seven houses, including a court-house, a market-house, an academy, and a post-office. There are about thirty houses on the opposite bank, the former scite of Fort Harmar, which was a United States’ garrison during the Indian wars, but of which no vestige now remains. Some of the houses are of brick, some of stone, but they are chiefly of wood, many of them large, and having a certain air of taste. There are two rope-walks, and there were on the stocks two ships, two brigs, and a schooner. A bank is established here, which began to issue notes on the 20th inst. Its capital is one hundred thousand dollars, in one thousand shares: Mr. Rufus Putnam is the president.[84]
The land on which Marietta is built, was purchased during the Indian war, from the United States, by some New England land speculators, who named themselves the Ohio Company. They chose the land facing the Ohio, with a depth from the river of only from twenty to thirty miles to the northward, thinking the proximity of the river would add to its value, but since the state of Ohio has began to be generally settled, the rich levels in the interior have been preferred, but not before the company had made large sales, particularly to settlers from New England, notwithstanding the greatest part of the tract {106} was broken and hilly, and the hills mostly poor, compared with those farther to the westward, on both sides of the river.
Marietta is principally inhabited by New Englanders, which accounts for the neat and handsome style of building displayed in it.