The lands on the banks of the Ohio were then considered the most fertile in America,--the best for farming purposes, the cultivation of grain, and the raising of cattle.

The first settlement in this region was made by the Ohio Company, an association formed in Virginia and London, about the middle of the century, by Thomas Lee, together with Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washington.

The lands lay on the south side of the Ohio, between the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers.

These lands were known as "Washington's bottom lands." In this neighborhood Gallatin determined to purchase two or three thousand acres, and prepare for that ideal country home which had been the dream of his college days.

Land here was worth from thirty cents to four dollars an acre.