Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1896-02-01
THE TOOTH OF TIME.
In a Country Like Ours It Works
Great Changes.
Some Things 1t Destroys. Others 1t Shapes
and Grinds Into Beautiful Forms-The
Village of Hamburg and tho
Nations Capital.
Special washington Letter.

There Is popular quotation that
slime makes all things even," but, as
n matter of fact, in some directions at
least, it may be said that time makes
many things uneven. The streams,
forests, plains, mountains and coasts
of the new world have been changed by
time and altered by man until they
bear no semblance of their original
condition in many places. Progress
and improvement have turned things
topsy turvy. One of the handsomest
eminences in the world, overlooking n
river of splendid proportions and re-
mar<able meanderings through n coun-
try of boundless fertility and beauty,
was formerly the home of the proud
and peerless Analostan Indians, and
from it's heights the front ranks VI the
invading Susquehannas were driven
in defeat when they undertook the con-
quest of the south. The hill remains
where it was reared by omnipotence,
but it is no longer the thing of grandeur
and beauty which nature created. For
many years the naval observatory was
located there, and therefore it retains
and will ever retain the name of OBJ
servatory hill, although the original
owners called it Analostan castle in a
cultural tongue which is now extinct.
Long before the most poetic dreamer
of state craft or prognosticator of the
future of the new world conceived the
idea of an independent republic, and
many years before George Washington
had selected the site of the capital city
of the new nation which grew from the
point of his puissant sword, little
village of Indian traders was located on
the river front below Analostan castle
1t was called Hamburg, and was at the
headwaters of the "Powtowmacl;
river" 1t was at this point that Gen.
Braddock landed his troops, and upon
this hill that he organized his forces
for that disastrous march towards Fort
DuQuesne, where Pittsburgh, Pa, is
now located. Braddock and the ma
jorty of his men fell before the allied
French and Indians; and Col. George
Washington saved the little remnant Of
the misguided and unfortunate eXpedi-
tion. The so-called western frontier"
has gradually moved towards the SET
ting sun since that day, until at last
there is no western frontier; and the
war department has recognized that
fact by recently abolishing many of the
forts and barracks in the western Sec
ton of our country.
One of the earliest settlers upon the
ground which is now the national cap
ital was Fleet, an English fur trader,
w1-o grew very rich out of his traffic
with the Analostans and other Indian
tribes. He kept a journal, or diary.
and it contains the first description of
the virgin state of the wonderful and
beautiful city of Washington. Fleet
wrote: Monday, June c5, 1871. This
place, without all question, is the most
pleasant and healthful place in all the
country, and most convenient for hab-
itation. The 27th of June manned my
shallop. We had not rowed above three
miles, but we might hear the falls to
roar about six miles distant. The In
dians occupying this territory in the
delta of the two rivers were called Ma
costines or Anocostians The river
aboundeth with all manner of fish. The
Indians in one night commonly will
catch 30 sturgeon in a place where
| the river is not above 12 fa athoms broad
And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, tur-
keys, the woods do swarm with them"
One mile from Analostan castle was
little stream which also abounded
with fish. 1t was called Goose creek
by the people who came here during
the century following the advent of
Fleet. And when the capital city v as
located here it was given the name of