Clark County, Ohio

History and Genealogy



Arthur St. Clair


From 20th Century History of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio by Hon. William A. Rockel
Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1908


Shortly after the adoption of the ordinance Congress elected as the first governor of this great territory a young military officer who had shown both patriotism and military talent.

The following beautiful and pathetic statement in reference to that distinguished man is taken from Governor Nash's address at the Ohio Centennial.

"Fellow-citizens, I have a story that I desire to tell you. It is a story of patriotic effort and yet it seems to me that it furnished the best example of the ingratitude of republics of any that has come within mv knowledge.

"In 1758 there was a young Scotchman about to leave his home. He was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He was thoroughly educated, he was tall, handsome and twenty-three years of age. He enlisted in the army of the king of Great Britain and became an ensign in one of his regiments. He left his home in Scotland and came to America under Amherst. In the French-English War he served faithfully and bravely before the walls of Louisburg. For gallantry in that action he was promoted to the position of second lieutenant in his company. Then a few years later he was joined to the command of the great and gallant Wolfe in the final struggle between the French and English, for the possession of Canada. Upon the plains of Abraham, in the attack upon Quebec, he was one of the brave soldiers who followed the gallant Wolfe, who fell upon that bloody field. One of the color bearers fell, bearing down with him the colors of his regiment. This lieutenant seized those colors covered with blood and carried them bravely until the end of that conflict, which has been told in history and sung in song for nearly one hundred and fifty years.

"That brave Scotchman was Arthur St. Clair the first governor of the Northwest Territory. He resigned from the English army; he became the husband of a loved wife; he was endowed with ample fortune, and in 1766 he went to western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg, and settled among her beautiful hills and became one of the leading pioneers of this western country.

"Time went by; the Revolution for our freedom commenced and St. Clair was called upon by John Hancock in 1775 to raise a regiment to engage in our great struggle for liberty. He responded as a patriotic man always responds. At this time he wrote to an intimate friend: 'I hold that no man has a right to withhold his services when his country needs them. Be the sacrifice ever so great, it must be yielded upon the altar of patriotism.'

"He raised a regiment of Pennsylvanians. He joined in the expedition of Arnold against Montreal for the capture of Canada. He was there barely in time to save the army of Arnold from utter rout. Then he was called by Washington to New Jersey. He was then made a major general in the Revolutionary army. He engaged with Washington in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. There he gave advice to our gallant chief which was esteemed most highly. After those victories he returned to the northern territory and with his command sought to stay the invasion of Burgoyne. He was through all those conflicts which finally resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne and his army. Then he joined Washington, again became his faithful adviser, was a favorite of Alexander Hamilton, was a friend of LaFayette, the brave Frenchman who came to our rescue. By them all he was esteemed and honored. At Valley Forge, Washington called upon this brave general, with his fortune to come to the rescue of his army. With his own money he assisted in feeding Washington's soldiers; with his own money he partially clothed them; by his patriotism he impoverished himself.

"Later, when the war was over, he became president of the Continental Congress. He was its president when the Ordinance of 1787 was framed. In the making of its provisions he took an active part. That ordinance became the law of this territory. Then the Continental Congress saw fit to elect Arthur St. Clair as the governor of the territory, whose ordinance he helped to frame. For fourteen years he remained here as the governor of the Northwest Territory. His labors, were very irksome. The value of what he did for our pioneers can never be over-estimated. At length there came the time in 1802 when he must retire from office. He went back to his beloved Pennsylvania hills.

"He was an old man, yet he sought to recuperate the fortune which he had lost. He pleaded with Congress to restore the money to him which he had expended upon the army that gave us our liberties; but that Congress, poor and impoverished, too, made the lame excuse that St. Clair's claims were outlawed, and they were not paid.

"He went back to his home in Pennsylvania and lived in a hovel with his widowed daughter. At last one day, with some truck that might give him the sustenance of life, he started with his pony and cart to a nearby town and on the way a wheel fell into a rut. The aged general was thrown from the cart upon the stony ground and severely injured. There he lay nearly a day before he was discovered and rescued. In a few days he died. He was by his Masonic brothers buried in a little country graveyard at Greensburg. They erected a plain, brown sandstone monument over his tomb and inscribed upon it these words:

"The earthly remains of General Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath this humble monument: which is erected to supply the place of a nobler one, due from his country.

"It is too late to do justice to St. Clair, but we can honor his memory by erecting over that lonely grave till monument which is due from his country.







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