The first Americans who are known to have visited the Western country, were James M'Bride, and several others, who in the year 1754 descended the Ohio river, as far as the mouth of Kentucky river.
In 1769, Colonel Daniel Boon, and a few others, undertook to explore this vast wilderness, then so little known. After many hardships and fatigues, they reached the neighbourhood of Lexington, where they remained until 1771.
In 1775, Colonel Boon, with a party of soldiers and emigrants, built fort Boonsborough, which was the first settlement made in the state of Kentucky.
Notwithstanding many obstacles, the inhabitants of Kentucky were estimated, in 1784, at 12,000 souls.—No settlements were made north of the Ohio, until three or four years afterwards.
On the 1st of March, 1786, the "Ohio Company" was formed at Boston, consisting of officers and soldiers of the Revolution, who, by an act of Congress, were entitled to a military grant of land, in the territory northwest of the Ohio. This company completed a contract with Congress for one million five hundred thousand acres, on the 27th of Nov. 1787. An association of 46 men, under Gen. Rufus Putnam, proceeded to take possession of the purchase; and on the 7th April following, they pitched their camp and cleared the ground where Marietta now stands.
In 1788, Congress passed an ordinance establishing a colonial government over the Northwest Territory. Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor.
Cincinnati was first called Losantiville, but Governor St. Clair, in 1790, altered its name. In 1789, the population of this place consisted of only eleven families.
In 1792, a Presbyterian church was erected at Cincinnati; and the citizens were compelled by law, to take their fire arms with them, when they attended church. The first school was also established this year, and consisted of about 30 scholars.
In 1792, the small pox broke out among the soldiers at Fort Washington, and one third of the citizens and soldiers fell victims to its ravages.—[This was the same year it spread throughout Boston.]
Since the above period, the western country has increased in a ratio "truly astonishing."