Land  Companies.  After  the  treaty  at  Fort
Stanwix  (which  see),  the  banks  of  tbe  Kenawha,
flowing  north  at  the  foot  of  the  great  Alleghany
ridge  into  the  Ohio,  began  to  attract  settlers,
and  application  was  soon  made  to  the  British
government  by  a  company,  of  which  Dr.  Frank-
lin, Sir  William  Johnsoii,  Walpole  (a  wealthy
London  banker),  and  others  were  members,  for
that  part  of  the  newly  acquired  tenitory  north
of  the  Kenawha,  and  thence  to  the  npper  Ohio.
They  offered  to  refund  the  whole  amount  (about
$50,000)  which  tbe  government  bad  paid  the  In-
dians (see  Fo7-t  titanwix,  Treaty  nt),  and  proposed
the  estiililibhment  of  a  new  and  separat*  colony
there.  This  project  was  approved  by  Lord  Hills-
borough, Secretary  of  State  for  the  colonies,  and
the  ministry  finally  agreed  to  it,  but  the  tronbles
between  the  parent  government  and  her  children


in  America,  then  rapidly  tending  towards  open
war,  prevented  a  completion  of  the  scheme.  Such
was  the  origin  of  the  "  Walpole,"  or  "  Ohio  Com-
pany," the  "  Vandalia  Company,"  and  the  "  Indi-
ana Company,"  founded  on  a  cession  said  to  have
been  made  by  the  Indians  at  the  Treaty  of  Fort
Stanwix.  These  schemes  of  land  speculators
were  dissipated  by  the  same  cause  that  airested
the  completion  of  the  Walpole  scheme.
