Fort Finney was a fort built in Oct. 1785 at the mouth of the
Great Miami River
The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accesse ...
near the modern city of
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
and named for Major Walter Finney who built the fort. The site was chosen to be midway between
Falls of the Ohio
The Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area is a national, bi-state area on the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky in the United States, administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Federal status was awarded in 1981. The fal ...
and Limestone (
Maysville), two early settlements on the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
. Earlier,
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
had commissioned Generals
George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Ame ...
,
Richard Butler and
Samuel Parsons
Samuel Bowne Parsons Jr. (8 February 1844 – 3 February 1923), was an American landscape architect. He is remembered as being a founder of the American Society of Landscape Architects, helping to establish the profession.
Early years
Parsons wa ...
to make a peace treaty with the
Shawnee Indians
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky an ...
, and a fort was needed to secure the territory. A company under Major Finney was dispatched in fall, 1785 from
Fort Pitt to build the fort.
The fort was abandoned sometime before the
Symmes Purchase
The Symmes Purchase, also known as the Miami Purchase, was an area of land totaling roughly in what is now Hamilton, Butler, and Warren counties of southwestern Ohio, purchased by Judge John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey in 1788 from the Contine ...
in 1788. Today, the site is the coal yard of the
Miami Fort Power Station
The Miami Fort Generating Station is a dual-fuel power generating facility. It is a major coal-fired electrical power station, supplemented with a small oil-fired facility. Miami Fort is located in Miami Township, Hamilton County, immediately e ...
.
Treaty of Fort Finney
The Treaty of Fort Finney, also known as the Treaty at the Mouth of the Great Miami, was signed on January 31, 1786 at Fort Finney near modern day Cincinnati between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
leaders after the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, ceding parts of the
Ohio country to the United States. The treaty was reluctantly signed by the Shawnees, and later renounced by other Shawnee leaders. The
Northwest Indian War
The Northwest Indian War (1786–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwestern ...
soon followed.
Image:George Rogers Clark.jpg, Treaty Signer
Image:Shawnee lang.png, Shawnee distribution around 1755
See also
*
Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty finalized on October 22, 1784, between the United States and Native Americans from the six nations of the Iroquois League. It was signed at Fort Stanwix, in present-day Rome, New York, and was the first ...
*
Treaty of Fort McIntosh
The Treaty of Fort McIntosh was a treaty between the United States government and representatives of the Wyandotte, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa nations of Native Americans. The treaty was signed at Fort McIntosh (present Beaver, Pennsylvania) ...
External links
"Treaty of Fort Finney (1786)" Ohio Historical Society
Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...
. ''Ohio History Central: An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History'', 2005.
*http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=447
*http://www.graphicenterprises.net/html/shawnee_lookout_05.html
*http://www.graphicenterprises.net/html/shawnee_lookout_06.html
1786 in the United States
Northwest Indian War
Shawnee history
Fort Finney
Fort Finney
Fort Finney
1785 establishments in the United States
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