Check out a new beta version of this site

Primary tabs

Guide to the Ohio Company Papers, 1736-1813 DAR.1925.02

Arrangement

Metadata Details

Title
Records of the Ohio Company, 1736-1813, Ohio Company records, 1736-1813
Subject
Crawford, William, 1730-1814, Crawford, William, 1732-1782, Mason, George, 1725-1792, Mercer, George, 1733-1784, Mercer, James, Mercer, John, 1704-1768, Croghan, George, 1720?-1782, Stephen, Adam, ca.1721-1791, Cresap, Thomas, 1702-1790, Craik, James, 1730-1814, Gist, Christopher, ca.1720-1782, Gooch, William, Sir, 1681-1751, Ohio Company (1747-1779), Great Britain. Board of Trade., Real estate development--United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775, Indians of North America--Ohio River Valley--Social life and customs, Indian traders--Ohio River Valley, Anglo-French War, 1755-1763, Land speculation--Ohio River Valley, Ohio River Valley--History--Sources, Loggstown (Pa.)--History
Description
Manuscripts used by George Mercer to prepare his Case of the Ohio Company, which documented the Company's actions in the Ohio territory are the highlight of the collection. The Case of the Ohio Company was published by George Mercer in 1769 in pamphlet form, but the manuscript copy of the Case in this collection is distinct from the published version in many respects. For a thorough critique of the difference, see Mulkearn's George Mercer Papers. This collection includes the only known manuscript copy of the Case of the Ohio Company . The journals kept by Christopher Gist, recorded during his two scouting missions into the Ohio territory in the 1750s as a field agent of the company, are part of both the published Case reproduced in Mulkearn's book, and the manuscript Case in this collection. The collection includes two manuscript copies of the diary used by William M. Darlington to publish his 1893 book on the subject. The collection also includes debt notes and correspondence related to business conducted by the Ohio Company in Virginia, Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania. The notes include the name and residence of the debtor and the debt holder, the date that the debt was entered into the public record through the county clerk, and the amount. These materials are often annotated to document subsequent legal action, most commonly, the passage of the debt to a third party. In the contents list, accounts indicate an itemized list of goods for which a debt is owed, and a debt or more informal promise to repay simply document an amount. Also present are materials related to various legal cases brought against debtors. Full names are given when present and legible, and bracketed items indicate that the name was difficult to read. The interpretation of spelling may be incorrect because many of the names are the result of non-standardized spelling. Additionally, page numbers in brackets indicate the location of the transcription in Mulkearn's George Mercer Papers (example: LM p237 indicates that this document is transcribed on page 237 of Lois Mulkearn's book.), Papers of the Ohio Company, 1736-1813, DAR 1925:02, Darlington Memorial Library, University of Pittsburgh., Gift of the Darlington family, 1925., The Ohio Company, founded in 1747, represented the trading and land prospecting interests of a handful of Virginia planters. Thomas Lee was appointed president, Nathaniel Chapman served as treasurer, and John Mercer was both secretary and general council. In that year, John Mercer's son, George Mercer, was appointed the company's representative in England. In 1748 the British Crown approved a land grant to the company to be administered by the Colony of Virginia. The grant covered the Ohio territory, a colloquial term for what is now modern day West Virginia, much of Ohio, western Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland. Governor Robert Dinwiddie, a member of company, required that the company develop trade with the Indians, erect forts, and settle one hundred families to secure the grant. The company employed frontiersman Christopher Gist to survey the area of the grant in 1750. Two years later, Iroquois leaders signed a treaty at Loggstown, Pennsylvania, a large Native American settlement on the Ohio near the forks. Gist was representative of the Ohio Company and Colonel Joshua Fry represented the colony of Virginia at the negotiations. The Ohio territory was also claimed by the French, who began erecting forts in the Ohio Valley in reaction to the Treaty at Loggstown and other factors. By the beginning of the French and Indian War in 1754, the Ohio Company's efforts were largely stymied, despite its continued existence until its formal dissolution in 1779. Other members of the company included Virginians George Mason, brothers Lawrence, Augustine, and George Washington, Governor Robert Dinwiddie, and British merchant John Hanbury. The Ohio Company and Pennsylvania frontier history was of great interest to a handful of late nineteenth century American scholars, among them William M. Darlington. Darlington acquired the papers in this collection in the 1870s, and published a volume of Christopher Gist's journals. Multiple copies of the Gist journals have been published, the earliest as an appendix to Thomas Pownall's 1776 A Topographical Description of North America. In the 1950s, there was a second upsurge of interest in the frontier history of the eastern United States. In the 1940s and 1950s, Lois Mulkearn, the first Darlington Memorial Librarian, took up an extensive study of the Ohio Company papers collected by William Darlington. Mulkearn wrote the George Mercer Papers, the authoritative volume on the Ohio Company Papers, particularly the Case of the Ohio Company compiled by George Mercer., Finding aid Available in repository and on Internet; Folder level control; http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?type=simple;c=ascead;view=text;subview=outline;didno=US-PPiU-dar192502
Contributor
Ohio Company (1747-1779), University of Pittsburgh (depositor)
Date
1736-1813
Type
Collection, Correspondence., Invoices., Copybooks.
Format
3.26 (3 1
Identifier
oclc:ocn310982362, oclc:310982362, pitt:US-PPiU-dar192502
Language
eng
Relation
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?type=simple;c=ascead;view=text;subview=outline;didno=US-PPiU-dar192502
Coverage
United States, Ohio River Valley, Ohio River Valley, Ohio River Valley, Ohio River Valley, Pennsylvania, Western, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Western, Loggstown (Pa.)
Rights
Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
(1 - 20 of 274)

Pages

Pages