OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 60

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Historical Collections of Ohio.
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio
Tid Bits - part 60 
by Darlene E. Kelley
notes by 
S. Kelly  [   ]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tid Bits - Part 60 
Washington County.

[ Sublime and humane and eventful in the history of mankind as well was
the result, it will not take many words to tell how it was brought
about. For a time, wisdom and peace and justice dwelt among men, and the
great ordinance which alone give continuance to the Union came in
serenity and stillness. Every man that had a share in it seemed to be
moved by an invisible hand to do just what was wanted of him; all that
was wrongfully undertaken fell by the wayside; whatever was needed for a
happy completion of the mighty work arrived opportunely, and just at the
right moment moved into its place." ]

Daniel Webster said of this great   "Ordinance of Freedom" ;  " We are
accustomed to praise the law-givers of antiquity; we help to perpetuate
the fame of Solon and Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single law of
any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct,
marked and lasting character than the ordinance of 1787. We see its
consequence at this moment, and we shall never cease to see them,
perhaps, while the Ohio shall flow."

Having suceeded by rare diplomacy in uniting the different interests
involved so as to secure the enactment of an ordinance, with provisions
for education, religion, and prohibition of slavery, Dr Cutler made a
contract for the sale of 1,500,000 acres of land to the Ohio Company.
This was signed by Samuel Osgood and Arthur Lee of the Board of Treasury
for the United States, and by Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent for
the Ohio Company. The price was  $1.00 per acre, payable in " specie,
loan office certificates reduced for specie, or certificates of the
liquidated debt of the United States." An allowance not exceeding
one-third of a dollar per acre was to be made for bad lands. Section
sixteen was to be reserved for schools; twenty-nine for the support of
religion; eight, eleven and twenty-six to be disposed of by Congress;
and two townships for a University.
          +++++++++++++++++

    How the First Settlers Came to Ohio

At a meeting of the directors of the Ohio Company at Bracket's tavern,
in Boston, Novemeber 23, 1787, it was ordered; That four surveyors be
employed under the direction of the superintendant hereafter named; that
twenty two men shall attend the surveyors; that there be added to this
number twenty men, including six boat builders, four house carpenters,
one blacksmith, and nine common workmen, in all forty-eight men; that
the boat-builders shall proceed on Monday next, and the surveyors
rendezvous at Hartford, on the first of January next, on their way to
the Muskingum; that the boatbuilders and men with the surveyors be
proprietors in the company; that their tools and one hoe and one axe to
each man and thirty pounds weight of baggage shall be carried in the
company's wagons, and that the subsistence of the men on their journey
be furnished by the company. After other details this order directs that
" each man shall furnish himself with a good small arm, bayonet, six
flints, a powder horn and pouch, priming wire and brush, half a pound of
powder, one pound of balls and one pound of buckshot." and " shall be
subjct   to the orders of the superintendent
and those he may appoint, as aforesaid, in any kind of business they
shall be employed in, as well boatbuilding and surveying, as for
building houses, erecting defences, clearing land and planting or
otherwise, for promoting settlement."
" They shall also be subject to military command during the time of
their employment." We call attention to the military precision of this
order, and its fulfillment to the letter in the number of men who went
and the duties they performed.

General Rufus Putnam was appointed superintendant, and Col. Ebenezer
Sproat from Rhode Island, Anslem Tupper and John Mathews, from
Massachusettts, and Col. R.J. Meigs, of Connecticut, were appointed
surveyors.

               The First Company.

In exact compliance with this order a company of twenty-two men,
including Jonathan Devoll, a master shipbuilder, and his assistants,
assembled at the house of Dr. Manassah Cutler,in Ipswich, Mass., on
December 3, 1787. About the dawn of day they paraded in front of the
house, and after a short address from him, three volleys were fired, and
the party went forward, cheered heartily by families and bystanders. Dr.
Cutler accompanied them to Danvers, where he placed them under the
command of Major Haffield White and Capt Ezra Putnam. He had prepared a
large and well built wagon for their use, covered with black canvas,
which was driven by William Gray, on which Dr. Cutler had painted with
his own hand, in large, white letters." For the Ohio Country." After a
tedious journey on foot of nearly eight weeks, they arrived at Sumrills
ferry, on the Youghiogheny river
[ now, West Newton, Westmoreland conty, Pa. ], January 23, 1788, where
they were to build the boats to float down the river to the Muskingum.

          The Second Company.

The other party of twenty-six men, including Gen. Putnam and the four
surveyors and their assistants, with equal punctuality left Hartford,
Connecticut,on January 1, 1788, under the command of Col. Ebenezer
Sproat. Gen Putnam had business in the city of New York, and did not
join the division until it reached Swatara Creek, just below Harrisburg.
When Gen. Putnam overtook his division they could cross the creek only
with difficulty, on account of the ice. That night snow fell to a
considerable depth, which, with that already on the ground, blocked up
the roads so that with their utmost exertions they could get their
wagons no farther than Cooper's tavern, at the foot of the Tuscarora
mountains, where they arrived on January 29, four weeks after leaving
Hartford, a journey which could now be made in probably twenty hours

They had now reached the great mountain ranges over which all the early
emigrants came in wagons, or on horseback, whose journeys were the theme
of fireside talks, among them many years ago, and over which the
Cumberland or National road was built, to facilitate communication
between the growing west and seashore.

This company of pioneers ascertained that no one had crossed the
mountains since the last fall of snow.They therefore abandoned their
wagons, built four stout sledges to carry their baggage and tools, and
harnessed their horses in single file. the men went before on foot to
break the road, and after two weeks of ardous travel they also reached
Sumrill's ferry on February 14, 1788.

When they arrived they found that, on account of the severity of the
weather and the deep snow, little progress had been made toward building
the boats. Gen. Putnam, who had been brought up to mechanical pursuits,
and as an engineer had caused many forts and works to be built during
the revolutionary war, infused new spirit into the enterprise. The
boat-builders and men already on the ground, recruited by the large
party just arrived, went heartily to work under his supervision. The
work now progressed rapidly under the immediate direction of Jonathan
Devoll, the ship builder. The largest boat, which the ship-builders
called " Adventure Galley," was afterward named the " Mayflower " in
honor of the famous vessel that bore the Puritan emigrants into Plymouth
bay-- an earlier but hardly a more momentious migration than the one
about to enbark on the Western waters. This boat was forty-five feet
long and twelve wide, with curved bows, strongly timbered and covered
with a deck roof enough for a man to walk upright under the beams. The
sides were thick enough to resist the bullets of any wandering party of
Indians who might attack it, as they attacked and captured several boats
later in the season. As the 
" Galley " could not carry the forty-eight men, horses, wagons, baggage,
tools and provisions to keep them until their crops were grown, they
constructed a large flat boat and several canoes. This flotilia was
ready on April 1, and after it was loaded it left Sumrill's ferry for
the Muskingum on the afternoon of April 2, 1788. 

The expedition after a few stoppages by the way, came in sight of Kerr's
island a little after sunrise. It was a cloudy, rainy morning, and as
they neared the foot of the island, Capt. Devoll said to Gen. Putnam, "
I think it is about time to take an observation; we must be near the
mouth of the Muskingum." 

In a few minutes they came in sight of Fort Harmar, which was on the
northwest shore of the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum. This fort had
been erected in 1785-86. The banks of the Muskingum were thicly clothed
with large sycamores whose pendant branches, leaning over the shores,
obscured the outlet so much, that those who were on the galley in the
middle of the Ohio, on this cloudy morning, passed by without observng
it. Before they could correct their mistake they had floated to far to
land on the upper point and were forced to land a short distance below
the fort.

With the aid of ropes and some soldiers from the garrison, sent to their
assistance by the commander, and crossing the Muskingum a little above
its mouth, they landed at the upper point about noon on the 7th day of
April, 1788, and ever since it is observed as the anniversary of the
first settlement of Ohio.

Jervis Cutler, a lad of sixteen [ son of Rev. Manassah Cutler, who did
so much to secure the liberal provisions of the ordinance of 1787 and
the grant of lands to the Ohio Company ], always claimed that he was the
first person who leaped ashore when the boat landed; and was also the
first to cut down a tree, which commenced the settlement of Ohio.

The weather in the valley had been so mild that the vegetation on
landing was in striking contrast to the place of their embarkation,
where snow still lngered in the hollows. The buffalo clover and other
plants were already knee high and afforded a rich pasture for the hungry
horses.

At the time of landing, Capt. Pipe, a principal chief of the Delaware
Indians, who lived on the headwaters of the Muskingum with about seventy
of his tribe. men and women and children, was encamped at the mouth of
the river, whither they had come to trade their peltries with the
settlers at Fort Harmer. They receivd the strangers very graciously,
shaking hands with them, saying they were welcome to the shore of the
Muskingum, upon whose waters they dwelt. The pioneers immediately
commenced landing the boards brought from Buffalo for the erection of
temporary huts and setting up Gen. Putnam's large marquee. Under the
broad roof of this hempen house he resided and transacted the business
of the colony for several months until the block-houses of Campus
Martius, as their new garrison was called, was finsihed.

On the 9th the surveyors commenced to lay off the eight acre lots. the
laborers and others commenced to cut down trees, and by the 12th about
four acres of land were cleared. Log-houses were built to shelter their
provisions and for dwellings. All were delighted wth the fertility of
the soil, the healthfulness of the climate and the beauty of the
country. Their town was at first called Adelphia, but this name was
changed as soon as the directors met on July 2, to Marietta, in honor of
Marie Antoinette, the Queen of that French King and nation who had
helped these brave men in the times that tried men's souls.

Now the pioneers turned their attention to the education of their
children very soon after their arrival in Ohio, after their planting of
crops. In the summer of 1789, Bathsheba Rouse, daughter of John Rouse,
from New Bedford, Mass., taught a school in Belpre, and for several
subsequent summers in Farmer's Castle. The first teacher in the Marietta
settlements was Daniel Mayo, a graduate of Harvard, who came to Boston
in the fall of 1788, and during the winter months taught the larger boys
and young women in Farmer's Castle. In July, 1790, the directors of the
Ohio Company appropriated one hundred and fifty dollars for the support
of schools in the three settlements in the territory.

Before the first decade had passed steps were taken to establish a
regular academy at Marietta. On the 29th of April, 1797, a number of
citizens convened to " consider measures for promoting the education of
youth," and a committee was appointed to prepare a plan of a house
suitable for the instruction of youth and for religious purposes, to
estimate the expenses, and recommend a site. The committee consisted of
Gen. Rufus Putman,Paul Fearing, Griffen Greene, R.J. Meigs, Jr.,
Charles Greene and Joshua Shipman. At the end of a week, the committee
made their report at an adjourned meeting. They presented a plan of the
house, estimated the expense at $ 1,000, and recommended city lot # 605,
on Front street. 

The report was accepted as to the plan of the house, the cost, and the
location; but te method of securing funds was modfied, so as to assess
the possessors of ministerial lands in proportion to the value of their
respective possessions. The sums thus paid, either by assessment or
subscription, were to be considered as stock at the rate of ten dollars
a share; and the stockholders were entitled to votes according to their
shares. At a meeting in August of that year, fifty nine shares were
presented, of which thirty belonged to Gen. Putnam. 

Thus originated the Muskingum Academy, which was probably the first
structure of the kind erected in the Northwest Territory.

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Tid Bits continued in part 61.