How Cincinnati, almost named Cincinnata, had roots in the American Revolution

John Cleves Symmes, like many early settlers in the Cincinnati region, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

As a patriot in New Jersey, he was a colonel in the Sussex County militia from 1777 to 1780, leading his own regiment. He saw action alongside the Continental Army in battles at Monmouth, Short Hills, Long Island and Staten Island.

His military service and his involvement in politics during the nation’s first years gave him the opportunity to make what is known as the Symmes Purchase or Miami Purchase. That acquisition of land set the foundation for planting Cincinnati as the first U.S. city founded after the American Revolution.

Symmes, born in 1742 in New York, which was then a British colony, was the fifth generation of his family in America.

Trained as a lawyer, he served on the New Jersey Supreme Court. From 1785-1786, Symmes represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress, which was similar to the U.S. Congress during the eight years the Articles of Confederation were in force before the Constitution went into effect in 1789.

Two ordinances passed by the Continental Congress made westward expansion possible. One created the Northwest Territory (what became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota). The other allowed settlers to purchase undeveloped land in exchange for federal certificates and land warrants given to war veterans.

Since the certificate holders were unlikely to exchange them for their full value, the best deal they could get was in trade for land from the government.

Our History: That other John Cleves Symmes and his ‘Hollow Earth’ theory

Symmes Purchase was first phase of westward expansion

Benjamin Stites was on a trading expedition in Kentucky in 1786 when he stumbled upon the fertile land near the Great Miami River – perfect for new settlements. While this was the territory of the Shawnee and Miami tribes, white pioneers considered it undeveloped land and had the legal backing of the government.

Stites found a kindred spirit in Symmes, who had the political connections and resources to invest in the west.

On Oct. 17, 1788, Symmes contracted with Congress to purchase 1 million acres between the Great Miami and Little Miami rivers – much of what is now Hamilton, Butler and Warren counties – for the price of 66 2/3 cents per acre (about $23.50 today).

The deal was reduced to 311,682 acres, with Symmes paying $225,000 ($7.9 million now) in debt certificates and land warrants.

Symmes began selling parcels of the land to settlers before the deal was even finalized, which annoyed Congress.

He sold 20,000 acres to Stites, who founded Columbia (now Cincinnati’s Columbia Tusculum neighborhood) in November 1788.

Symmes also sold 800 acres to Matthias Denman, Robert Patterson and John Filson for the settlement called Losantiville. Filson disappeared in the wilderness while surveying for Symmes and was presumed killed by Shawnee, so Israel Ludlow replaced him. The settlers arrived at Losantiville on Dec. 28, 1788.

Symmes himself founded North Bend, the third settlement in the region, arriving in February 1789.

“I was … determined to make my first lodgement in the most northerly bend of the river where the distance is the least, and the lands lowest over to the Miami,” he wrote in a letter.

Symmes expected prospective settlers to pay for their own surveys. This led to wide inaccuracies, with contradicting boundaries and, in some cases, Symmes selling land he did not own. He spent years in litigation fighting lawsuits.

The Symmes Purchase was so poorly managed Congress stopped handling land deals.

Despite Symmes’ high hopes for North Bend, the government chose to build Fort Washington in Losantiville as protection against Native American raids, making it the premier settlement. Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, visited Losantiville in January 1790 and established the new county.

Symmes wrote in a Jan. 9 letter, “His Excellency complimented me with the honor of naming the County – I called it Hamilton County after the secretary of the treasury.” He may have hoped to sway Alexander Hamilton to his side in the Symmes Purchase disputes.

Cincinnati or Cincinnata?

Symmes recorded another historic moment: “The Governor has made Losantiville the County town by the name of Cincinnata, so that Losantiville will become extinct.”

His spelling of Cincinnati with an “a” was his own preference, as Symmes explained in a letter from June 19, 1791. For some reason, Symmes then took credit for the name and asked a friend about the proper spelling.

“I beg, sir, you will enquire of the literati in Jersey whether Cincinnata or Cincinnati be most proper? The design I had in giving that name to the place was in honor of the order of the Cincinnati, & to denote the chief place of their residence.”

He argued that town names should take the feminine form.

“I have frequent combats in this country on the subject, because most men spell the place with ti when I always do with ta. Please to set me right if I am wrong.”

Evidently, Symmes was set right.

Another historical note about Symmes: His daughter Anna married William Henry Harrison, of North Bend, which makes Symmes the father-in-law of one president, and great-grandfather of another, Benjamin Harrison.

Symmes died in 1814 and is buried in Congress Green Cemetery in North Bend.

Sources: “The Correspondence of John Cleves Symmes,” “A History of the Rectangular Survey System” by C. Albert White, Wikipedia, Hamilton County Recorder’s Office.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Cincinnati became first US city founded after American Revolution