Congress Green Cemetery / The Miami Purchase

Congress Green Cemetery, also, The Miami Purchase. William Henry Harrison Memorial Trail. , Congress Green Cemetery , John Cleves Symmes had grand ambitions. He planned to build a large city here, making it the hub of the Northwest Territory. This very spot would be the middle of a bustling town square., Things worked out differently. The thriving city of Symmes never came to be. Instead, there is just a narrow road and the Congress Green Cemetery, the final resting place of John Cleves Symmes., Congress Green Cemetery was used until 1884. Settlers and soldiers from both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War are buried here, some in unmarked graves. This is also the resting place of many members of President William Henry Harrison's family., The Harrison Horror , When funeral ceremonies were held for John Scott Harrison at Congress Green in 1878, mourners were dismayed to find that a nearby grave had been dug up, its contents stolen. A hunt for the missing corpse was organized. John Harrison Jr. was in charge., The trail led to the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati. Searching the place, John Jr. discovered a naked body hidden in a narrow shaft. Thinking he was about to find the missing corpse, John Jr. was horrified to find his own father, John Scott Harrison, who had been buried just twenty-four hours earlier!, During the 1800's, cadavers were used in many schools to train medical students. Though common, the practice was illegal. Fresh corpses were in such high demand that people would rob graves by night, selling their spoils to medical schools., The body of John Scott Harrison was brought back to Congress Green Cemetery and reinterred in the Harrison tomb., According to legend the first person buried in Congress Green was a settler killed in a tavern brawl., Pasture Graveyard was renamed Congress Green around the Civil War, in honor of John Cleves Symmes' original plans., John Scott Harrison is the only person to be both son to one president (William Henry Harrison) and father to another (Benjamin Harrison)., The Miami Purchase , You are standing in the middle of an important real estate deal., It was known as the Miami Purchase. To collect money for the young nation, the United States Congress made this land and other large tracts of the Northwest Territory available to speculators. In 1791 President George Washington approved the sale of the Miami Purchase to Judge John Cleves Symmes., At the time the government had not yet mapped this territory. Dark forests grew to the edge of the river. Conflict between settlers and the Miami and Shawnee Indians were reported back east., Despite the risks, American settlers steadily pushed westward. And Symmes knew there was money to be made in selling small parcels of land to these new settlers. In 1789 he led a group of thirty to the Miami Purchase, establishing North Bend at this site., The Purchase , The Miami Purchase consisted of 330,000 acres of land between the Great Miami and the Little Miami rivers. It stretched from the Ohio River Into what are now Hamilton, Butler, and Warren counties. John Cleves Symmes purchased the land from the United States Congress in 1791, paying 674 an acre., George Washington approved the Miami Purchase in 1791., John Cleves Symmes was a New Jersey judge and served in the Continental! Congress before he moved to North Bend.