John Cleves Symmes and Colonel Robert Patterson…

John Cleves Symmes and Colonel Robert Patterson had been founded a settlement 1788 on the site of present Cincinnati, Ohio.

Surveyor John Filson (also the author of The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone) had named it "Losantiville" from four terms, each of a different language, meaning "the city opposite the mouth of the Licking River".

Ville is French for "city", anti is Greek for "opposite", os is Latin for "mouth", and "L" was all that was included of "Licking River".

Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, had which created the Northwest Territory, General Arthur St. Clair had been appointed governor of what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, along with parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

He renames the settlement Cincinnati after the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he is a member, and it is here that he established his home.

The Society honors General George Washington, who is considered a latter day Cincinnatus, the Roman farmer who was called to serve Rome as dictator, an office which he resigned after completing his task of defeating the Aequians in no less than sixteen days, and was considered the role model dictator.

Josiah Harmar directs the construction in 1789 of Fort Washington, built to protect the settlements in the Northwest Territory, and named in honor of the President.

As Governor, St. Clair formulates Maxwell's Code (named after its printer, William Maxwell), the first written laws of the territory.

He also seeks to end Native American claims to Ohio land and clear the way for white settlement.