Where the strong working hand makes strong the working brain.”
C. C. Baldwin
A DESCRIPTION OF FORT HARMAR.
In the autumn of 1785 General Richard Butler passed down the Ohio on his way to attend the treaty with the Indians at the mouth of the Little Miami. He kept a record of his journey, and his journal gives much interesting information, among other things the location of Fort Harmar. In Virginia and Kentucky measures had been taken for what would have been, really, an irresponsible invasion of the Indian country. This action, which threatened to precipitate a disastrous war, hastened in all probability the action of the confederation in taking measures for the effectual strengthening of the frontier. It was determined to establish several posts northwest of the Ohio. Fort Laurens had been built in 1778 upon the Tuscarawas, near the old Indian town of Tuscarawas and one mile south of the site of the present village of Bolivar. It was injudiciously located, and was abandoned one year after its erection. General Butler, while on his journey in 1785, chose the site for Fort Harmar. Before leaving Fort McIntosh he had prepared and left with Colonel Harmar, the commandant of the post, a paper in which he expressed the opinion that “the mouth of the Muskingum would be a proper place for a post to cover the frontier inhabitants, prevent intruding settlers on the land of the United States, and secure the surveys.” In his journal, under date of Saturday, October 8th, he writes:
Sent Lieutenant Doyle and some men to burn the houses of the settlers on the north side and put up proclamations.
Went on very well to the mouth of the Muskingum and found it low. I went on shore to examine the ground most proper to establish a post on; find it too low, but the most eligible is in the point on the Ohio side. Wrote to Major Doughty and recommended this place with my opinion of the kind of work most proper. Left the letter, which contained other remarks on the fort, fixed to a locust tree.
A few days later the general instructed a man whom he met ascending the Ohio to take the letter from the mouth of the Muskingum to Major Doughty.
A short time later Major Doughty, with a detachment of United States troops under his command, arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum and began the erection of a post, which was not fully completed until the spring of 1786.
