Ohio River Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===={{anchor|John Howard and John Peter Salling, 1742}}John Howard and John Peter Salling (1742)==== John Howard, a pioneer from Virginia, led a party of five—[[John Peter Salling]] (a Pennsylvania German),<ref name=draper>{{cite book |last=Draper |first=Lyman C. |title=Life of Daniel Boone |url={{google books|6npr_LGJH-cC|plainurl=yes|page=47}} |publisher=Stackpole Books |location=Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania |date=1998 |isbn=978-0-8117-0979-8}}</ref> Josiah Howard (John's son), Charles Sinclair, and John Poteet (Vizt)—from the Virginia mountains to the Mississippi River.<ref>{{cite book |last=Durret |first=Reuben Thomas |title=John Filson, The First Historian of Kentucky |url={{google books|xrYUAAAAYAAJ|plainurl=yes|page=31}} |publisher=John P. Morton & Co |page=31 |date=1884 |location=Louisville, Kentucky}}</ref> The elder Howard had a promised reward of {{convert|10,000|acre|ha}} of land for a successful expedition from the Virginia Royal Governor's Council to reinforce British claims in the west. Howard offered equal shares of the 10,000 acres to the four other members of his expedition. The party of five left John Peter Salling's house in August County on March 16, 1742, and traveled west to [[Cedar Creek (North Fork Shenandoah River tributary)|Cedar Creek]] (near the Natural Bridge), crossing [[Greenbrier River]] and landing at the [[New River (Kanawha River tributary)|New River]]. At New River, the Virginia explorers built a large [[bull boat]] frame and covered it with five buffalo skins. The first Englishmen to explore the region then followed the New River for {{convert|250|mi|km}}, until it became too dangerous to navigate. At a large waterfall, they traveled overland to the [[Coal River (West Virginia)|Coal River]]. Following the [[Kanawha River]], they entered the Ohio River {{convert|444|mi|km}} above the falls. The Virginia pioneers traced the northern boundary of Kentucky for {{convert|500|mi|km|spell=in}}, reaching the [[Mississippi River]] on June 7.<ref name="harrison">{{cite book|last1=Harrison|first1=Lowell H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63GqvIN3l3wC|title=A New History of Kentucky|last2=Klotter|first2=James C.|date=1997|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington|pages=7–8|isbn=9780813120089 |author-link1=Lowell H. Harrison|author-link2=James C. Klotter|access-date=May 30, 2015|archive-date=July 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714233118/https://books.google.com/books?id=63GqvIN3l3wC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=forbes>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Forbes |first=Harold Malcolm |title=John Peter Salling |encyclopedia=The West Virginia Encyclopedia |edition=online |date=October 29, 2010 |url=http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/167 |publisher=West Virginia Humanities Council |access-date=May 7, 2023 |archive-date=May 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528032520/https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/167 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Batman |first=Richard |title=The Odyssey of John Peter Salley |journal=Virginia Cavalcade |date=Summer 1981 |volume=31 |issue=1 |url=https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/cavalcade/volumes/v31_40/sum81.htm |url-access=subscription |access-date=May 7, 2023 |archive-date=May 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230507224205/https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/cavalcade/volumes/v31_40/sum81.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Harrison |first=Fairfax |title=The Virginians on the Ohio and the Mississippi in 1742 |journal=Virginia Magazine of History and Biography |date=April 1922 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=203–222 |publisher=Virginia Historical Society |jstor=4243878}}</ref><ref name=rice>{{cite book |last=Rice |first=Otis K. |title=Frontier Kentucky |url={{google books|EsoeBgAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes|page=7}} |page=7 |date=1993 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=978-0-8131-1840-6}}</ref> They descended just below the mouth of the [[Arkansas River]], where they were ambushed by a large company of Native Americans, Blacks and Frenchmen on July 2, 1742; one or two of Howard's men were killed.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Simon |editor-first=Kevin F. |title=The WPA Guide to Kentucky |url={{google books|e6YfBgAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes|page=36}} |page=36 |date=1996 |orig-year=1939 |edition=reprint |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=978-0-8131-5869-3}}</ref> The rest were brought to [[New Orleans]] and imprisoned as spies.<ref name=draper/> After two years in prison, Salling escaped on October 25, 1744, and returned on a southern route to his home in [[Augusta County, Virginia]], in May 1745. John Howard was extradited to France to stand trial. His ship was intercepted by the English and, as a free man, he reported his adventures after landing in London; however, his account has been lost.<ref name=harrison/><ref name=rice/> Salling's detailed account of Virginia's adjacent lands was used in Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson's 1751 map.<ref name=harrison/><ref name=rice/> In 1749, the [[Ohio Company]] was established in [[Virginia Colony]] to settle and trade in the Ohio River region. Exploration of the territory and trade with the Indians in the region near the [[Forks of the Ohio|Forks]] brought white colonists from both [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]] and Virginia across the mountains, and both colonies claimed the territory. The movement across the Allegheny Mountains of Anglo-American settlers and the claims of the area near modern-day Pittsburgh led to conflict with the French, who had forts in the [[Ohio Country|Ohio River Valley]]. This conflict was called the [[French and Indian War]], and would merge into the global Anglo-French struggle, the [[Seven Years' War]]. In 1763, following its defeat in the war, France ceded its area east of the Mississippi River to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]] and its area west of the Mississippi River to [[Spain]] in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|1763 Treaty of Paris]]. The 1768 [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix]] with several tribes opened Kentucky to colonial settlement and established the Ohio River as a southern boundary for American Indian territory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan |title=The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution |year=2006 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-679-45471-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dividedgroundind0000tayl/page/44 44, see map on 39] |url=https://archive.org/details/dividedgroundind0000tayl/page/44 }}</ref> In 1774 the [[Quebec Act]] restored the land east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River to [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Quebec]], in effect making the Ohio the southern boundary of [[Canada]]. This appeased [[French Canadians]] in Quebec but angered the colonists of the [[Thirteen Colonies]]. [[Lord Dunmore's War]] south of the Ohio river also contributed to cession of land north to Quebec to prevent colonial expansion onto Native American territory. During the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]. in 1776 the British military engineer [[John Montrésor]] created a map of the river showing the strategic location of [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]], including specific navigational information about the Ohio River's rapids and tributaries in that area.<ref>{{cite web |last=Montrésor |first=John |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9581/ |year=1776 |title=Map of the Ohio River from Fort Pitt |work=[[World Digital Library]] |location=Pennsylvania |access-date=July 1, 2013 |archive-date=July 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130715005545/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9581/ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|1783 Treaty of Paris]] gave the entire Ohio Valley to the [[United States]], and numerous white settlers entered the region. [[File:Wheeling Suspension Bridge Lithograph.jpg|thumb|Built between 1847 and 1849, the [[Wheeling Suspension Bridge]] was the first bridge across the river and a crucial part of the National Road.]] The economic connection of the [[Ohio Country]] to the [[East Coast of the United States|East]] was significantly increased in 1818 when the [[National Road]] being built westward from [[Cumberland, Maryland]], reached [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling, Virginia]], (now [[West Virginia]]), providing an easier overland connection from the [[Potomac River]] to the Ohio River.<ref name="WDL2">{{cite web |last=Fowler |first=Thaddeus Mortimer |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11374/ |title=Bird's Eye View of Cumberland, Maryland 1906 |website=[[World Digital Library]] |year=1906 |access-date=July 22, 2013 |archive-date=October 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003004014/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11374/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Wheeling Suspension Bridge]] was built over the river at Wheeling from 1847 to 1849, making the trip west easier. For a brief time, until 1851, it was the world's largest suspension bridge. The bridge survived the [[American Civil War]], after having been improved in 1859. It was renovated again in 1872, and remains in use as the oldest vehicular suspension bridge in the U.S. [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]] was founded in 1778 as a military encampment on [[Corn Island (Kentucky)|Corn Island]] (now submerged) by General George Rogers Clark at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the [[Falls of the Ohio]]. The Falls were a series of rapids where the river dropped {{convert|26|ft|sp=us}} in a stretch of about {{convert|2|mi|sp=us}}. In this area, the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of [[limestone]]. The outpost was moved that same year to the south shore where [[Fort-on-Shore]] was constructed. It proved insufficient within 3 years, and the mighty [[Fort Nelson (Kentucky)|Fort Nelson]] was constructed upriver. The town of Louisville was chartered in 1780, in honor of King Louis XVI of France. The first [[Lock (water transport)|locks]] on the river {{ndash}} the [[Louisville and Portland Canal]] {{ndash}} were built between 1825 and 1830 to circumnavigate the falls. Fears that Louisville's transshipment industry would collapse proved ill-founded: but the increasing size of steamships and barges on the river meant that the outdated locks could serve only the smallest vessels until well after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] when improvements were made. The [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] improvements were expanded again in the 1960s, forming the present-day [[McAlpine Locks and Dam]]. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page