Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the Three Great European Powers, Spain, France and Great Britain, and the Subsequent Occupation, Settlement, and Extension of Civil Government by the United States, Until the Year 1846, in two volumes, Volume II . New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1846. [format: book], [genre: history]. Permission: Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, Aurora University
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=monette2.html

River to the Great Miami, was designated as the "county of Hamilton," in honor of the Secretary of the Treasury. Cincinnati was declared to be the seat of justice for this extensive county. On the 2d day of January the governor and executive committee completed the civil organization of Hamilton county, which, like that of Washington, comprised three justices of the peace, four captains of militia, four lieutenants, and four ensigns, a court of quarter sessions, constituted of three associate justices, a clerk, and a sheriff. The regular meetings of the Court of Quarter Sessions was fixed by law, ordained and enacted January 5th, to be holden on the first Tuesdays in February, May, August, and November. ²⁷²

Cincinnati, being the seat of justice for Hamilton county, as well as headquarters of the army, began to assume a degree of importance unknown to similar towns which had recently sprung up in the wilderness. It became the center of fashion and refinement, and soon attracted many persons of intelligence and enterprise. Frame houses began to appear, and during the following summer nearly forty log cabins were added as the dwellings of so many new families.

A new settlement was made about this time on the Great Miami, seventeen miles north from Cincinnati. This was the settlement of Colerain where a number of families united and erected a stockade for mutual protection and defense. Such was the exposed situation of this advanced settlement, while the incursions of the savages were becoming more frequent and daring, that a small detachment of United States troops, under the command of Lieutenant Kingsbury, with one piece of artillery, was ordered to take post in the station for its defense. ²⁷³

Governor St. Clair was ever active. No sooner had he completed his public duties in organizing the civil government of Hamilton county, than he set off for the "Falls of the Ohio,"

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