"Hey, Chief, How Do You Get to Ohiyo?" -- Mapping Ohio History

I doubt if few local students have a clue that our area is so rich in history. Cartography is the creation and the study of maps and charts - the difference being that maps apply to land and charts are for marine areas. Tied to geography, cartography has a long tradition going back at least 4000 years.

This study is a valuable source for a wide range of academic disciplines. It stands on its own as raw data, but it can also tell you much about the people who compiled the map. Why was it compiled? How was it drawn? What was the motive for compiling it? Has it been embellished, and how? 

Early maps of Ohio reveal interesting detail about the natives and early explorations of our locale. Because of their dated geographical content and their print limitations, historians can overlook the significance of old maps. Suffice it to say that the Ohio and Scioto river valleys, from the beginning of their exploration and survey, became very important regions in the western settlement of America.

Let's explore some very old maps and establish their relevance to researching our past. I believe you will find the information these designs reveal is fascinating.

Map of Indian Villages and Trails in Ohio. 

Andrew Feight, Ph.D. This file appears in: William Crawford & the Destruction of Salt-Lick Town https://sciotohistorical.org/files/show/8

Several major aboriginal trails crossed the Scioto County. Depending upon the geography, they ranged in width from a few feet to a mere trace. (See Map) These trails were important to the settlement and development of Ohio. Along these trails, natives traveled from one part of the state to another whether engaged in warfare, trade and barter, or migration. Trails throughout the county connected to other trails and villages in Ohio such as Lower Shawnee Town (now Portsmouth), Hurricane Tom's Town (now Piketon), Chillicothe.

Later the trails served, together with navigable streams, as the only means of entrance for the white traders and settlers who pushed their way into the country west and north of the Ohio River.
Three trails transversed Scioto County. Here are the major trails in our immediate area:

I offer these two blog entries to further illustrated the rich history of the traces and paths. Click: http://allthingswildlyconsidered.blogspot.com/2017/07/native-americans-in-scioto-trails-towns.html and http://allthingswildlyconsidered.blogspot.com/2018/04/scioto-trail-what-do-you-know-of-this.html

1750 – Map of La Louisiane

CARTE DE LA LOUISIANE..., Par le Sr. Bellin Ingr. ordre. de la Marine. 1750. (McCorkle #750.1, 755.3; Sellers & van Ee #74, 75, 90, 91) This map shows the eastern United States west to beyond the Mississippi. It appeared in Remarques sur la carte de l'Amerique Septentrionale published in 1755 and possibly as a separate sheet. This image is from the Library of Congress.

This map of "la Louisiane" was published by French geographer Guillaume de l’Isle. It is the first detailed map of the Gulf Coast region and the Mississippi River, as well as the first printed map to show Texas (identified as "Mission de los Teijas etablie en 1716"). The map is also the first to identify New Orleans, founded in 1718 (see the inset detail of the mouth of the St. Louis River). De l’Isle obtained most data from French explorers and fur-traders traveling through North America.

A close examination of the map reveals the land routes of early explorers in North America. Each route is mapped out and identified with the explorer’s name and year of travel. The map represents the travels of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in Florida and the southeast in 1539–1542, Alonso de Leon in 1689, and French Canadian explorer Saint Denis in 1713 and 1716, among others. De l’Isle accurately identified the location of many Native American tribes, marked by a small hut symbol and a name.

De l’Isle’s map provoked outrage among the English for extending French claim over British-controlled areas and reducing the size of the English coastal colonies. He further angered the British by stating on the map that Carolina was named after French King Charles IX, instead of after Charles I, King of England, and by identifying Charles Town (Charleston) as "nommé par les Francois," although Charleston was actually named after Charles II of England.

Part of the Ohio River, showing the falls, the Great Conhaway alias Wood's alias New River, Monongaly River, Shurtees Creek, Fort Du Quesne, part of Lake Erie, etc. and the courses of Christopher Gist's first and second tours. Other title: Map of Christopher Gist's tours of western Pennsylvania. Manuscript Map. Copied by James A. Burt from the original in the Public Record Office, London [Board of Trade Maps Vol. 12, No. 6] for W. M. Darlington Esqr., April, 1882. Relief shown pictorially; Hand colored.

1752 – John Mercer and Christopher Gist Map

PART OF THE OHIO RIVER, SHOWING THE FALLS. This title is given to a manuscript map facsimile in the Darlington Library dated circa 1752. It also has the title "Part of the Ohio River, showing the falls, the Great Conhaway alias Wood's alias New River, Monongaly River, Shurtees Creek, Fort Du Quesne, part of Lake Erie, etc. and the courses of Christopher Gist's first and second tours;" and is also called "Map of Christopher Gist's first and second tours." The original is in the Public Record Office (or National Archives), London, in Board of Trade Maps Vol. 12, No. 6. It shows Gist's record of his travels into the Pittsburgh region and the Ohio country.

Christopher Gist was a Maryland surveyor and Indian trader who became an agent of the Ohio Company of Virginia in 1749. He made three important trips, of which he kept careful journals, which have proved of great value to historians of later years. Two of these trips were as an explorer in the interest of the Ohio Company, and one was as a guide to the youthful and inexperienced Washington, then only twenty-one years of age.

He accompanied Washington on his journey to Fort LeBoeuf in 1753. The fort was on the southern end of the portage road between Lake Erie and French Creek in present-day Lorain County. Gist is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain's colonists.

Christopher Gist was a remarkable character of the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers. He was capable, resourceful, and loyal, and was always just in his dealings with the natives. On each of these journeys he penetrated western Pennsylvania.

John Mercer’s manuscript map of Ohio Company lands made before November 6, 1752 shows Christopher Gist’s first and second exploring expeditions, the natural boundaries for the Ohio Company land grant, and the road from Wills Creek to a landing on the Monongahela River. Mercer created his map most likely after a manuscript map drawn by frontiersman Christopher Gist during his exploring expeditions into the Ohio Country in 1750 and 1751 for the Ohio Company. John Mercer was a founding member, secretary and general counsel of the Ohio Company of Virginia, a colonial land speculation company.

Christopher Gist's Journal – January 29, 1751

“The lower Shawanese Town was situated where the present town of Alexandria, opposite Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto, now stands, and also on the south shore of the Ohio River, directly opposite, (In the present Green County, Kentucky.) to which the Shawanese on the north side were compelled to remove, within a few years after Gist's visit, in consequence of a great flood in the Scioto destroying the town at its mouth. George Croghan was there at the time; the water was near fifty feet above the ordinary level. (Croghan's Journal, in Appendix to "Butler's History of Kentucky," Second Appendix, p. 462.) This town was a noted place for Indian trade. ("Evans' Analysis of Map of 1755," p. 30.)

"One large store House on the Ohio opposite to the mouth of the River Scioto where the Shawanese had built their new Town called the Lower Shawanese Town, which House we learn by the Indians is now in the possession of a French Trader £200."

“The Shawanese removed to the plains of Scioto in 1758 and sent for those of their tribe, at Logstown, to join them. (Post's Journal." Dr. Franklin's Tract. "The Walpole Grant: or, Ohio Settlement, 1772," original edition, p 22.) On Hutchins' large Map of 1778 the town at the mouth of the Scioto is marked "Old Lower Shawnee Town," and the place to which they removed is laid down "Lower Shawnee Town," situated on both sides of the Scioto, on the "Plains." There it became known as Upper Chillicothe, or Old Chillicothe and "Pluggy's Town," four miles below Circleville, on the west side of the river. (Pownall's Map 1776. Evans' ditto, 1775. Dr. Mitchell's ditto. Note in Appendix to Colonel Smith's Narrative.) 

“Some of the log cabins and stone chimneys of the town, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, were standing in June, 1773, when Captain Bullit and the McAfee Company passed down the Ohio. (Note on p. 53, Davidson's "History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky.") Dr. Davidson mentions it as a French village.” (Evans' Analysis of Map of 1755," p. 30.) Traces of this town were visible in 182o. (See Collins "History of Kentucky, 1874." Palmer's "Travels in the United States and Canada, 1817." p. 65.)

CAPTAIN SNOW'S SCETCH OF THE COUNTRY BY HIMSELF, AND THE BEST ACCOUNTS HE COULD RECEIVE FROM THE INDIAN TRADERS. 1754. This is a manuscript map of western Pennsylvania with parts of Maryland and Virginia. The Library of Congress, from where this image comes, also has the manuscript draft of this more polished map; both are illustrated in Brown #20-21. Sellers & van Ee #1301-2.

1754 – Captain Snow's Map

Scale ca. 1:6,300,000. Hand colored. LC copy imperfect: Portion of upper left corner missing and margins have been trimmed. Relief shown pictorially. "Engraved for Guthries new system of geography." Shows provincial boundaries, Indian villages and tribal territory, rivers and lakes, a few forts and place-names. LC Maps of North America, 1750-1789, 748 Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster ... Contributor: Darton, William - Guthrie, William. Date: 1783.

Sometime around 1754 Captain Snow made this sketch of Western Pennsylvania and Maryland that details the locations of French forts, British forts and has some historical notes. For instance, it notes at Logstown, “Treaty with Indians by [British] Col. Lomax, Fry, and Patton” in 1752. It also shows where the French carried their canoes from Lake Erie to French Creek. The map is not drawn to scale; however, it is useful for understanding the layout and activities on the western Pennsylvania frontier.

I am making an educated guess that the cartographer referred to as “Snow” is Nathan Snow (1725-1803). He was born and died in Massachusetts. Snow was a Revolutionary War veteran.

1783 – Russell and Darton's Map

A Map of the United States of America Agreeable to the Peace of 1783. This map was drawn by John Russell and engraved in Tottenham (north London) by William Darton for the 1785 edition of Guthrie's New System of Geography. Russell's name does not appear on the map. Stylistically this map is far ahead of its time presaging the early 19th century work of Cary, Pinkerton, and Thomson.

John Russell (c. 1750 - 1829) was a British cartographer active in London during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Russell apprenticed as a goldsmith before turning to engraving and printing. He drew maps and engraved for several major publishers of his period including Alexander Dalrymple, Benjamin Henry, Robert Sayer, John Moore, and William Guthrie. Russell's apprentices included such prominent cartographers as Alexander Findlay and Samuel Clapp.

William Darton (February 2, 1781 - July 28, 1854) was an English publisher and engraver active in Tottenham London during the early part of the 19th century. Darton was the eldest son of William Darton Sr., himself a printer and publisher who co-owned the firm of Harvey and Darton. Darton, a Quaker, was educated at the Friends School in Clerkenwell, London and the Ackworth School in Yorkshire. Afterwards Darton apprenticed to his father where he mastered the part of printing and engraving. 

Around 1804 Darton opened his own shop, the "Repertory of Genius", specializing in maps, prints, children's books, educational publications, and other "works of merit" at 50 Holborn Hill, London. Cartographically Darton's most significant contribution is his 1823 publication, along with engraver W. R Gardner, of the first composite comparative mountains and rivers chart. Darton also published various maps for the 1802 Atlas to Walker's Geography and his own 1813 Union Atlas. Darton retired in 1851 leaving his business to his son, John Maw Darton, who partnered with Samuel Clark and published as "Darton and Clark".

An unusual c. 1783 John Russell map of the United States issued shortly after the American Revolutionary War. The map depicts the United States according to the 1783 Treaty of Paris that formally ended the War. These borders extended from the middle of the Great Lakes (sans Michigan) south to West Florida and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic.

Recognizable states are confined to those lands to the east of the Appalachian Mountains; however most are presented in an unusual and inexact early configuration. Vermont is shown as part of New York, usual at this juncture, and Pennsylvania controls most of western New York from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. Florida at this time was fully under Spanish control having been ceded to Spain by the British as a reward for staying neutral throughout the conflict. Louisiana, following Franco-Hispanic treaties dating to 1762 is also, at this point, a Spanish possession.

In northern Maine Russell adds the additional territory of Sagahadok. Sagahadok or Sagahadoc, is the legacy of an early 17th British effort to colonize North America. Technically Sagahadoc refers to the territory between the Kennebec River and Nova Scotia. In the few mid-18th century maps that actually show Sagahadoc, such as the present example, the region is depicted as a territory attached to the Massachusetts Colony. However, by this time it has been fully separated from Massachusetts and is drawn as a separate colony. The appearance of Sagahadoc may be related to a post-Revolutionary War British attempt to add this part of northern Maine to their Nova Scotia Colony, referencing an early claim to the territory dating from its original failed 1620 colonization attempt. Similarly, Vermont, through clearly identified in its present location, is here added to British controlled Canada.

The United States thus seen here lays claim to a vast stretch of unnamed Indian lands between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains and from the Great Lakes to West Florida. Throughout these lands various American Indian groups and villages are identified as well as river systems, trading posts, and former British fortifications. Curiously many of the states and territories that were created during the war are not present - including Kentucky and Vermont. Many other later maps did not include these states, but few went so far as to terminate the western borders of the former colonies at the Appalachian Mountains. We can think of only a few reasons why this may have occurred. One is that the cartographer was following earlier French issued colonial era maps dating to the French and Indian War, in which the French used similar borders to increase presumed French territory in Louisiana vs. British territories along the eastern seaboard. Perhaps Guthrie is in here advocating for certain European interests which may or may not have included sustained British or French interest in these lands.



Four fictive islands appear just south of the U.S.-Canada border in Lake Superior: Philippeux, Pontchartrain, Maurepas, and St. Anne. These islands were invented half a century earlier by the French historian and traveler Charlevoix, then subsequently immortalized by the cartographer Jacques-Nicholas Bellin. 

The islands were intended to honor Charlevoix' s personal patron, the Count of Maurepas, Jean-Frederic Phelypeaux. The largest of the three islands, Philippeaux, is named directly after the count. The second largest island, Pontchartrain, refers to Phelypeaux's family estate. The third island, which may in fact be a mismapping of the factual State Islands, is named after the count's seat, Maurepas. The fourth and smallest of the islands, St. Anne, references the count's patron saint. Charlevoix described the islands as being rich in minerals leading numerous explorers to search for them in vain. 

Bellin dutifully introduced the four islands to his map, and such was his influence that they were subsequently copied by most subsequent cartographers, including John Mitchell in his seminal 1755 wall map of North America. The highly regarded Mitchell map was used in negotiating the 1783 Treaty of Paris that formally concluded the American Revolutionary War. Therein, the apocryphal Philippeaux was assigned as a marker for the new United States - British America border, as seen here, thus setting the stage for later political strife.

1901 - Cram Map of Scioto County

George F. Cram (1842-1928), served in the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. After the war ended, Cram joined his uncle Rufus Blanchard's Evanston map business in 1867. Two years later, he became sole proprietor of the firm and renamed it the George F. Cram Co. which became a leading map firm and first American firm to publish a world atlas. It employed a relief process.

Notice the plethora of local locations and the turn-of-the-century names that existed for these places.