OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio and The Underground Railway-- Pt 2
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
December 9, 1999
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Historical Collections of Ohio
Diaries of S. J. Kelly
Plains Dealer
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
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Ohio and the Underground Railway-pt 2

The Beginnings--

Manasseh Cutler was born in Killingly, Conn., May 3rd, 1742 and died in
Hamilton, Mass., July 28,1823. He worked on his father's farm and
studied for college under Rev. Aaron Brown, before entering Yale, from
which he grduated with honors in 1765. The following year he married
Mary Balch of Dedham, Mass. After studing law, he was admitted to
practice in Massachusetts courts in 1767. The next year he was licensed
to preach at Hamlet parish, ( then a part of Ipswich and afterwards part
of Hamilton), During the American Revolutionary War, he served as
chaplain in Col. Ebenezer Francis's 11th Massacusetts Regiment.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, he returned to preaching at
Hamlet parish and soon began to study medicine. He was then able to
attend to both the spiritual and physical welfare of his congregation.
Not withstanding the many duties of his active life, he continued his
habits of study and found time for research of astronomy, meteorology,
botany and kindred sciences. He was the first to scientifically examine
the flora of New England and over 359 species were examined by him and
classifid according to the Linnaean system. As a scientist, he was
second only to Benjamin Frankin.

When the association of Revoluntionary officers was organized for the
purpose of locating and settling on bounty lands in the West (Northwest
Territory ). Dr. Cutler took and active interest in the movement. He was
one of five officers appointed to draft a plan for the planned Ohio
Company. In 1787, he was appointed by the directors of the Ohio Company
as its agent to make the purchase of lands upon the Muskingum ( river in
Ohio ). During  this period he met and became friends with Ben Franklin
since their tastes  and pursuits were very similar.

While Dr. Cutler's mission to Congress was to purchase land for the Ohio
Co., the purchase was very much dependant upon the form of government
that the territory adopted. He therefore became engaged in the writing
of certain provision for the Northwest Ordinance that was before the
U.S. Congress, concerning the nature of the goverment of the Northwest
Territory. He was successful in uniting the discordant political
elements and made possible the enacting of ( article 6) in the Northwest
Ordinance which forbade slavery in the Northwest Territory.

In December,1787, the first company of men under General Rufus Putnam,
left Ipswich, Conn. and set out for the Muskingum, arriving at Marietta,
Washington County ( Ohio) on April 7, 1788.

The following year, Dr. Cutler started a twenty-nine day, 750 mile
journey in his sulky, to visit the new settlement. He arrived in
Marietta on August 19th, 1789. Dr Cutler was present at the opening of
the first court in the Northwest Territory and marveled at the ancient
Indian earthworks in the vicinity of Marietta. After a short visit with
his son, Jervis, he returned to New England. For a while he contemplated
removing with his family to the new settlement, but finally judged that
it would require too much sacifice, and he abandoned the project.

Dr Cutler's eldest son, Ephriam Cutler, was born April 13, 1767. He was
brought up in Killingly, Conn., by his grandfather Hezekiah Cutler. He
left Killingly,Conn on June 15, 1795 with three shares of stock in the
Ohio Company lands, and arrived in Marietta, Ohio on Sept 18,1795.
Sadly, two of his young children died on the trip. In 1799, he moved
from Marietta to Waterford in Washington County. In Waterford he engaged
a short while in the Merchantile business, then in May of 1799 Ephriam
moved to an 1800 acre farm on Federal Creek, where he erected a mill.
Shortly thereafter, Ephriam Cutler was appointed Judge of the Court of
Common Pleas and Justice of the Peace, by the Northwest Territorial
Governor, Arthur St.Clair. He as also appointed a member of the
Northwest Territorial Legislature and in 1802 he became Washington
County's delegate to the Ohio Statehood Constitutional Convention. His
anti-slavery contribution at the Ohio Statehood Convention was his
introduction of the section to the Ohio Constitution that excluded
slavery in the State of Ohio. From this you can see that the Cutler's,
Mannaseh and his son Ephriam played a big role in Ohio becoming a free
state, which laid the track for Ohio's Underground Railroad.

When Ohio became a State in 1803, Washington County already had a small
but vocal population of anti-slavery advocates. As evidenced by events
which occurred in 1793, the invention of the cotton gin and the passage
of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the Upper Providence of Canada abolishing
its slavery. anti-slavery advocates realized that slavery in the United
States was never going to end by negotiated emancipation. During the
time period 1806-1810, Judge Ephriam Cutler informally began to enlist
support from abolitionists across Ohio. With extensive contacts among
Quakers and other anti-slavery advocates throughout Ohio, they
established assistance for fugitive slaves crossing the Ohio River to
avoid being apprehended under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.

In 1806, Judge Ephraim Cutler established his family at a new home on
the North bank of the Ohio River, six miles below Marietta at a
community that became Constitution. His home became a staging area for
fugitive slaves from across the Ohio River in Virginia. Subsequently,
Judge Cutler's Underground Railroad Station at Constitution became the
model for all the other Underground Railroad Stations that quickly
located on the North side of the Ohio River. In Ohio an informal system
of referring fugitive slaves northward to friendly havens, called safe
houses, extended north across Ohio at ten to fifteen mile intervals. By
1810 settlers in Ohio were becoming increasingly aware of the
brutalities of slavery as told and demonstrated by fugitive slaves.

In 1820, Judge Cutler became a trustee of Ohio University at Athens, and
worked  unceasingly to promote the prosperity of that Institution. He
was known as an advocate for common schools, introducing the first bill
in Ohio for the regulation and support of schools. He was the author of
the ad valorem system of taxation, which was the foundation of the
credit enabling the State to build and maintain canals. He also was
involved with duties for the Presbyterian Church. Judge Cutler died
peacefully at his home in Constitution at the age of eighty-six, in
1853.

Judge Cutler is considered one of the best examples of his day in the
Underground Railroad. Because of his understanding of his and his
father's principals, many fugitive slaves found their freedom in Canada.
Many unselfish desires were manifested by the opening of many safe
houses in Ohio, creating the beginning of emancipation.
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To be continued in part 3--