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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM.

The New England Putnams have their descent from a common ancestor, John Putnam, who came from Buckinghamshire, England, in 1634, and settled in Salem, Massachusetts. He had three sons—Thomas, Nathaniel, and John. Rufus Putnam was descended from Thomas, his father, Elisha, being the son of Edward, the son of Thomas. The celebrated Israel Putnam was also a grandson of Thomas, and, therefore, cousin to Elisha, the father of Rufus.

The Putnams seem to have belonged to that respectable middle class that has furnished to the world so many of its best workers and most useful citizens. In his old age, Edward, the grandfather of Rufus, said "he could say with the Psalmist, 'I have been young, and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread,' except from God, who provides for all; for he bath given the generation of my father Agur's petition, neither poverty nor riches, but hath fed us with food convenient for us, and their children have been able to help others in their need."

Elisha Putnam, the father of Rufus, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, November 3, 1685. He married Susanna Fuller, of Danvers. In 1725 he, with his wife and three children, moved to Sutton. After he removed to Sutton three sons were born to him, of whom Rufus, born April 9, 1738, was the youngest. The Rev. Dr. Hall said of him, "Deacon Elisha Putnam was a very useful man in the civil and ecclesiastical concerns of the place. He was for several years deacon of the church, town clerk, town treasurer, and representative in the general court or colonial assembly of Massachusetts. He died in June, 2745, in the joyful hope of the glory of God."

Misfortune set its mark upon Rufus before he had half started on the journey of life. His father died when he was but little more than seven years old. To the little boy the loss of such a father was a calamity that could not be measured, and the consequences were as lasting as his life. The first two years of his orphanage were passed in the home of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Fuller, in Danvers. During this time he went to school and learned to read, and thus secured the clue to the labyrinth of knowledge. But evil days were in store for him. In 1747 his mother married Captain John Sadler, and Rufus went back to his home. But it was a home without a father, for Captain Sadler but illy supplied the place of the good man that death had taken away. He was illiterate himself, and, what was worse and more to be deplored, he despised learning. He neither sent Rufus to school, nor allowed him opportunities to learn at home. No books were furnished him, and if by chance he succeeded in getting them, he had but little opportunity to use them. His aspirations were scoffed at, and his efforts to quench his thirst for knowledge at living fountains were ridiculed and derided.

Captain Sadler kept a house of entertainment, and by diligent waiting upon guests, Rufus sometimes became the happy possessor of a few pence. These he invested in ammunition, and with the help of an old shot-gun, killed partridges, which he sold. With the proceeds of the sale he bought a spelling book and an arithmetic. From these, without help or guidance, he learned what he could. There were discouragements thrown in the way of his doing this. He was not allowed even the faint light of a tallow candle to enable him to use, in his own behalf, the long winter evenings. But worse than this, and harder to bear, was the ridicule with which he was visited for his endeavors, from the man who stood to him in the place of a father. Yet all of this did not make him give up his determination to know. There is something very pathetic in the way this little fatherless boy struggled to obtain. knowledge in the face of discouragements that might well have appalled the stout heart of one who was older than he.

In his latter days he wrote out some of the main facts in his life for the benefit of his children and their descendants. The paper is yellow with age, the orthography is often incorrect. But there is a pathos in his simple, direct statements in regard to his early aspirations that no fine writing could equal. He says: "After I was nine years old I went to school in all only three weeks." Yet, not deterred by either abuse or ridicule, he went as far as the "Rule of Three" in arithmetic, and learned to write so as to be intelligible.

In March, 1754, when in his sixteenth year, he was apprenticed to Daniel Mathews, of Brookfield, to learn the trade of millwright. He says : " By him my education was as much neglected as by Captain Sadler, except that he did not deny me the use of a light for study in the winter evenings. I turned my attention chiefly to arithmetic, geography and history ; had I been as much engaged in learning to write well, with spelling and grammar, I might have been much better qualified to fulfil the duties of the succeeding scenes of life, which in Providence I have been called to pass through. I was zealous to obtain knowledge, but having no guide I knew not where to begin nor what course to pursue. Having neglected spelling and grammar when young, I have suffered much through life on that account." From sixteen to nineteen he was engaged in learning the trade of a millwright, interspersed with more or less farming. How much soever his mental faculties may have suffered from neglect, the physical powers were surely in a most prosperous condition. He had at eighteen the slature and strength of a mature man. He was nearly six feet in height, with brawny limbs and great muscular power. He was as good as the best in every part that required strength of muscle or power of endurance.. A brave heart beat in his bosom, in which abode the high resolve to act manfully and well the part that should be allotted to him in the drama of life. Always faithful, always on the side of the right, as he construed it, from the beginning to the end of his varied career, he was never known to prove recreant to a trust or fail to meet dutifully and well any just requirement. He was in every way well

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fitted for the life of peril and adventure that a common soldier in a frontier army was compelled to encounter. The time drew near when he was to lay aside the implements of trade and husbandry and take up the weapons of war.

Hostilities began between England and France in 1754. Accounts of military adventure formed the staple of conversation in the long winter evenings during his apprenticeship. The prowess of his father's cousin, Captain Israel Putnam, especially took hold of his imagination and made him emulous of the glory that seemed to rest upon the heads of heroes. As soon as the time for which he was indentured expired, when only nineteen, he enlisted as a private in a company, the term of service in which was less than a year.

A journal of this campaign was kept by the young soldier, in which the events of each day are worded, often without note or comment. The ravages of time have spared this journal, and the exact and methodical manner in which it is kept, are prophetic of the careful and thorough work that would distinguish the life, that as yet in great part, lay before the writer. Captain Lamed's company marched to Stillwater in Julie, and from thence to Fort Edward. There seems to have been but little actual service performed during the campaign, which ended in October, and Mr. Putnam returned home in February. He spent the remainder of the winter there and in the spring enlisted again in a company commanded by Captain Joseph Whitcomb and belonging to Colonel Ruggles' regiment, which rendezvoused at Northampton, Massachusetts. They started for Albany June 3rd, and reached Greenbush June 8th. Mr. Putnam says in his journal, "from Northampton street to this place was through a wilderness, with but one house in the whole distance, except the little fort above mentioned." What a change since then! The young soldier was not destined to see much of the honor or horror of war during this campaign. The regiment was discharged in October. Mr. Putnam went home and spent the winter and in the spring enlisted for the third campaign. During this time of service he was promoted to the post of orderly sergeant. He was in Colonel Ruggles' regiment, and went to Ticonderoga. He was, however, during the whole campaign compelled to work on mills or blockhouses instead of doing military duty, which was that for which he had enlisted. He did not think it just right, and he determined to leave the service. He passed the winter of 1759 in New Braintree working on a farm of fifty acres which he had bought with the avails of his savings while in the army. He gave his time to farming and building mills for a time, but meanwhile he was diligently studying practical surveying, in which he was assisted by Colonel Timothy Dwight. He soon became sufficiently master of the business to leave other things and devote himself to it. His thoroughness and exactness made it easy for him to find employment.

In 1761 Mr. Putnam was married to Elizabeth Ayres, daughter of William Ayres of Brookfield. She died within a year, and after a few months their infant son was laid beside his mother.

In January, 1765, he was married again to Persis Rice, daughter of Zebulon Rice, of Westborough, Massachusetts. He lived on the small farm he had previously bought until 1780, when he purchased a large farm in Rutland, Massachusetts. There was upon it a spacious house, which is still standing and in good repair. This property belonged to a Tory, and was confiscated, which enabled Mr. Putnam to purchase it on favorable terms.

During a considerable part of the years 1772 and 1773 Mr. Putnam devoted his time and effort to an enterprise that at the time excited much interest in New England. Soon after the close of the French and Indian war, General Lyman was sent to England by Colonial officers and soldiers, for the purpose of securing, if possible, from the British government a grant of land as a reward for military service performed during the war. He was detained there several years, making vain endeavors to obtain that for which he went. He returned in 1772. A meeting of "The Military Adventurers" was called in Hartford, and General Lyman assured those concerned that an order had been passed by the king in council, authorizing the governor of West Florida to grant lands in that province, to Colonial officers and soldiers in the same proportion and manner as had been given elsewhere to his Majesty's regular troops. As they had been liberally provided for in the provinces assigned during the war, the prospect seemed good that the Colonial officers and soldiers would also reap a reward for duties well done.

General Lyman brought no written vouchers to make the grant sure, but it was thought that the word of a king was a sufficient word. The company, therefore, appointed a committee to explore the country, and lay out the tracts to be divided among the adventurers. The associates of the military company chartered a sloop, in which the exploring committee sailed from New York January to, 1773. Rufus Putnam and his father's cousin, Colonel Israel Putnam, were two of the committee. They entered the bay of Pensacola March 1st. Governor Chester and his council received them kindly, but no order for a grant of land to the Provincials had yet arrived. This was discouraging, but they took comfort in the hope the order had been delayed, and would yet come. The committee, therefore, set about their explorations.

Among the papers left by General Putnam, which are now in the safe-keeping of the Marietta College library, there is a carefully prepared plan of the Mississippi river, with all its windings and eccentricities, to the mouth of the Yazoo, which was as far as their explorations extended in that direction. Nearly four months were occupied in the thorough examination of the country, which was also extended to a considerable distance up the Yazoo. When the committee returned to Pensacola early in July, they were chagrined and disappointed to find that the expected order had not yet been received. Governor Chester, however, took the responsibility of making an offer of lands upon terms that it was thought upon the whole best to accept, and preparations were made to begin a settlement. Accordingly, when the

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committee returned, they made so favorable a report in regard to the soil, climate, and conditions of the country that several hundred families from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other parts of New England, embarked for West Florida to find there new homes for themselves and their children. Unfortunately for them Governor Chester, in October, received orders from the Crown to neither sell nor grant lands upon any conditions until the King's further pleasure should be signified. Thus, when they reached the place, the land office was closed to the poor immigrants. Some of them spent all they had in getting there, and it was late in the season to return, even if they had the means to do so. In this emergency the governor kindly allowed the immigrants to take possession of any unoccupied lands they could find. Many of them, on account of change of climate and exposure, sickened and died, and to the greater part the venture was an unprofitable one. Mr. Putnam was occupied more than eight months in these explorations, and for his time and services received the munificent sum of eighty dollars, which was also to cover his expenses.

The cloud, big with portentous evenls, that had been hanging over the colonists burst in 1775. Rufus Putnam had too brave a heart and was too zealous a lover of his country to sit tamely by and see other men struggle for liberty and all that was dear to them. He girded on his sword at the first onset and it was not laid aside until peace again smiled upon the land. He entered the army as lieutenant colonel of a regiment commanded by Colonel David Brewer. The regiment was stationed at Roxbury, and was attached to the corps of General Thomas.

Colonel Putnam had not long to wait for a chance to give efficient aid to the cause he had so zealously espoused. After the battle of Charlestown, June 17th, the patriot army was in a most exposed situation. There were no fortifications to protect the town and nothing but a board - fence as a shelter for the army in case of an attack, which they had reason to expect at any moment. It was decided in a council of officers, that some kind of defence should at once be commenced. But where was the engineer who would plan the works and superintend their erection. It was one of the misfortunes connected with the situation of the colonies, that they were destitute of men skilled in the arts of war. There were no schools for training them, and in previous wars the colonists had, to a great extent, been subordinate. They had obeyed; those with whom they were now at war had commanded. Colonel Gridley was sent for, but he was needed at Cambridge, where he was, and could not be spared. No other engineer was known. Officers who knew the ability of Colonel Putnam, and knew also that he had been employed to some extent upon fortifications under British engineers during the French and Indian war, spoke of him as a man capable of doing what was needed. He protested—said that he had never read a work on fortifications, and was altogether unqualified to undertake to do what it was needful to have done. But no excuses availed, and he was too good and too patriotic a man to refuse to do the best he could when the need was so urgent. He then went to work and traced lines in front of Roxbury toward Boston and various other places on the Roxbury side, particularly toward Sewall's Point. While he was occupied in doing this, Generals Washington and Lee came and examined the works and expressed their satisfaction and entire approval, which greatly encouraged Colonel Putnam. General Lee thought the works at Sewall's Point much better constructed than those on the Cambridge side. Colonel Putnam laid out works at Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, and late in the fall the Norton Cobble hill, near Charlestown mill-pond. He says in his Memoir, "in the course of this campaign I surveyed and delineated the courses, distances and relative situation of the enemy's works in Boston and Charlestown with our own in Cambridge and Roxbury. In December he went with General Lee to Newport, where he laid out some works, particularly a battery from whence to command the harbor, and some works near Howland's ferry, to secure the communication of Rhode Island with the mainland.

During the months of January and February, 1776 General Washington was anxiously considering the situation with a view to finding some solution to the problem as to what would be done to change the aspect of things. Lord Howe occupied Boston with an army of eight thousand well organized and well appointed troops. These would be supplemented at any time by others from the ships of war that rode gaily in the harbor. Large reinforcements were expected in the spring. This fact emphasized the necessity of speedy action. Meanwhile the winter was passing pleasantly to the officers and soldiers of the British army, who were not only well housed and fed, but the officers especially were finding their pleasure in occupations and amusements suitable to their tastes, without being over scrupulous as to ways and means. The old South church was turned into a riding school, and Fanueil hall converted into a theatre for amateur acting. With war chests well supplied, a national treasury upon which to draw, there was every reason why hope should be exultant. The circumstances were greatly different in the Patriot army. The troops had been paid to December, but had received nothing since, nor did there seem to be anything as the Lasis for the hope that they would be paid in the future. There was no national treasury—there was not even a national government. There was no money, and what was worse there was no credit. The soldiers were poorly clad, badly sheltered, and the army was deficient in all the munitions of war. One hundred barrels of powder was all there was in store, and there was no artillery except what had been captured from the enemy. It seemed impossible either to drive the enemy from the city or to attack him therein; and it was very galling as well as inconvenient to have him retain possession of the most renowned city in the whole country. The necessity for doing something seemed urgent, and the anxious question was, what? What was possible; what was wisest and best? After much anxious thought and careful examination it was decided, if possible, to take possession of Dorchester heights and erect fortifications which would command both city and har-

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bor. Howe would then be compelled to either evacuate or come out and fight. There were great difficulties in the way of doing this, but as being the only thing possible, it was decided that it was best to undertake it. Preparations were carefully and promptly made. The night of the third of March was selected for the attempt. Everything was reduced to system. Each man knew his place and exactly what was expected of him. The ground was frozen to the depth of eighteen inches, but hay was spread over the surface so that the three hundred carts that went to and fro with material could go noislessly. The men worked with a will and in silence. In the morning the result was manifest. Strong redoubts looked down on the cily and harbor from the tops of two hills. "Perhaps there never was so much work done in so short a space of time." When Lord Howe saw what had been accomplished in a single night, he declared that it must have taken twelve thousand men to do it. He saw at once that his position was untenable. At first he was inclined to risk an engagement, but obstacles intervened and he chose to evacuate. He sent a messenger to Washington to say that he would withdraw if he would be allowed to do so without molestation. General Washington was only too glad to get rid of the enemy upon such terms This was the first substantial gain made by the Patriot army, and then and there, by the aid of an unskilled and untaught engineer, the corner-stone of American Independence was laid. General Putnam's account of the part he acted in this grand drama is very interesting. While the commander in chief was anxiously revolving the question as to what should be done, he called a council of the officers and laid the matter before them. The decision was, fortify Dorchester heights. But there was no engineer capable of laying out and superintending so important a work. Colonel Putnam was mentioned, and what he had already successfully done spoken of. He was invited to dine with General Washington, and after dinner the matter was talked over. Colonel Putnam expressed his reluctance to undertake the work because of his ignorance. He had read nothing on the subject, and was altogether unacquainted with scientific rules. But such was General Washington's confidence in his ability and good judgment that he would accept of no excuse, and Colonel Putnam was compelled to consent to do the best he could. On his way back to his quarters he called on General Heath, and while there he chanced to see lying on the table a book entitled Muller's Field Engineer. He asked General Heath to lend him the the book, and the request was rather uncourteously answered in the negative. But Colonel Putnam persisted, and finally General Heath consented to his taking it. The next morning, upon examining the book, Colonel Putnam found a description of chandeliers, and at once decided that that was what he wanted, and immediately drew a plan for fortifying Dorchester heights. The plan was approved and executed, and the result was the evacuation of Boston by the British army.

In March, 1776, General Washington ordered Colonel Putnam to go to New York by way of Newport, where he assisted Governor Cook in constructing works for the defence of the town. He reached New York April 2nd, and was appointed chief engineer, with orders to lay out works for the protection of New York, Long Island, Fort Washington, etc. He gave himself wholly to the business, working not only during the day, but oftentimes a considerable part of the night. Already General Washington seems to have had more confidence in his skill and ability than he had in any other man. During the summer he received the following letter:

August 11, 1776.

Sir: I have the pleasure to inform you that Congress have appointed you an engineer, with the rank of colonel, and pay sixty dollars per month.

I am, Sir,

Your assured friend and servant,

G. WASHINGTON.

In regard to this appointment, Colonel Putnam, with characteristic modesty, remarks: "My being appointed engineer by Congress was wholly unexpected. I had begun to act in that capacity through pure necessity, and had continued to conduct the business more from necessity and respect for the General than from any opinion of my own abilities. True it is that after my arrival in New York I had read some books on fortification, and I knew much more than when I began at Roxbury, but I had not the vanity to suppose that my knowledge was such as to give me the first rank in a corps Of engineers. Yet my experience convinced me that such a corps was necessary to be established. Therefore, near the last of September, I drew up a plan for such an establishment, and presented it to General Washington, and which he transmitted to Congress with a recommendation concluded in these words: 'I commend it as a matter worthy of their consideration, being convinced from experience and from the reasons suggested by Colonel Putnam, who has acted with great diligence and reputation in the business, that some establishment of the sort is highly necessary, and will be productive of the most beneficial consequences."

The need of well-taught as well as skilful engineers, was greatly felt. Those that came from France seemed not to have learned from their books the knowledge necessary to make new and unexpected applications. In Colonel Putnam, therefore, General Washington found what he sorely needed and could not find elsewhere—a man with will in plentiful measure, with good, sound, common sense, great industry, unbending integrity, and an intuitive knowledge of the way to adopt means to ends, so as always to accomplish the thing he sought to do. We shall see that he was always in demand. He had no chance to be idle. When the army was in winter quarters he was laying out roads, superintending fortifications, or in some way advancing the cause he had so zealously espoused.

In October of the year 1776, Colonel Putnam, by his shrewdness and energy, was enabled to do a very important service for the army and the country. A large quantity of valuable stores had been placed at White Plains, by order of the commander-in-chief, under the impression that they would there be secure. They were guarded only by three hundred militia. Colonel Put-

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nam was sent out upon a reconnoitering expedition, with a force of some fifty men as a guard. He soon satisfied himself that what he wished to do could be better done without soldiers to attract attention. He therefore dismissed his guard and sent them back, and set out alone. The country was strange to him, for he had never been there before, and he knew that the inhabitants were generally tories, so that it was not safe for him to stop and make inquiries. The enemy had a considerable force at New Rochelle, only nine miles from White Plains, and there were good roads between the two places. On the other side was the Hudson river, upon which were five or six armed vessels belonging to the enemy. With careful scrutiny, and skilful avoidance of danger, he saw and took in the situation. The principal depot of supplies for the American army was at the mercy of the enemy, who had but to reach out his hand and grasp the tempting prize. It was only the entire certainty that he could take it when he wished that made him delay. After a full survey of the situation, Colonel Putnam set out on his return to headquarters, near Kingsbridge. He had ten miles to ride, and reached there about 9 o'clock in the evening, and reported to General Washington, who, he says, "complained very feelingly" of the difficulty of getting correct information in regard to the country and the situation of affairs. Colonel Putnam had made a sketch of the country, and showed the danger there was of losing the stores, upon which so much depended. He was sent with orders for immediate action to Lord Sterling's headquarters, which he reached at 2 o'clock in the morning, and before daylight a detachment was on its way to White Plains, where they arrived about 9 o'clock. "Thus was the American army saved by an interposition of Providence," but that "interposition," the machinery, was the fidelity, and courage and shrewdness of Colonel Putnam.

In December he left the engineer corps, and took the command of a Massachusetts regiment, much to the regret of General Washington, who said in a letter to Congress, "I know of no other man even tolerably well qualified for the conducting of that business. None of the French gentlemen whom I have seen with appointments in that way appear to know anything of the matter."

After recruiting his regiment in Massachusetts in the summer of 1777 Colonel Putnam joined the brigade to which he belonged, near Fort Edward.

There was a dark cloud hanging over the north at this time. Burgoyne, at the head of seven thousand troops and a large number of Canadians and Indians, had invaded western New York, coming over the old war path through Vermont. Another large force, under Sir Henry Clinton, was expected to come from the southward, by way of the Hudson river, to meet them. Ticonderoga, the Gibraltar of the north, had fallen into the hands of the enemy. The fall of this fort sent an electric shock through New England. Consternation and alarm spread over the land. Troops were hurried forward to prevent, if possible, a worse disaster that might be impending. Affairs culminated in the battle of Saratoga, which Burgoyne was forced to fight before Clinton could join him.

This battle turned the tide in the concerns of the new nation, and success seemed ere long to be assured.

Colonel Putnam acted well his part in the battle. He was posted in front of the German reserves, and showed great bravery and military skill in the management of his troops. Kosciusko was at this time at the head of the engineering department in General Gates' army, and showed his appreciation of the skill and good judgment of Colonel Putnam by often consulting him in regard to matters pertaining to his business. After the surrender of Burgoyne, Nixon's brigade, to which Colonel Putnam belonged, went into winter quarters at Albany.

Early in the following year, 1778, Colonel Putnam was ordered to West Point to superintend the erection of fortifications at that important point. A French engineer had been employed, but his work was so unsatisfactory that it was thought best that another should take his place. He went at the head of his regiment and went to work with his usual energy both to undo and to do. The French engineer had laid out the main fort on an extreme point next the river. Colonel Putnam abandoned it and simply placed a battery there to annoy the enemy's shipping. The principal fort was built by his own regiment under his superintendence, and named by General McDougal, Fort Putnam. It is on a rocky eminence and commands both the plain and the river. It is said that even now engineers and those learned in the art of fortification from European countries wonder and admire when they see the plans that were made and the work that was done by this self-taught millwright. Colonel Putnam was occupied in laying out and constructing the defences at West Point until June. In July he marched to White Plains and united his regiment with the main army under the commander-in-chid There was but little more active service performed during the campaign, and in September the army was broken into divisions and that of General Gates, to which Colonel Putnam belonged, was sent to Danbury, Connecticut.

But Colonel Putnam was the possessor of abilities that very effectually kept him from being laid on the shelf with idlers. When there was no fighting to be done, there were surveys to be made and plans for defence. He was employed for some time in laying out roads in the vicinity of Danbury, and later in the season with General Greene, he made reconnoisance along the Hudson river. When this was done he obtained a furlough to visit his home, where he had not been since December, 1777, more than a year.

Mr. Putnam with his family of small children, the oldest not more than twelve, lived on a farm of fifty acres and those acres not of the richest and best. Colonel Putnam's salary was meagre and not promptly paid. When it was paid the currency in which it was done was so greatly depreciated that it was inadequate to meet the wants of the family. Mrs. Putnam eked out their scanty income by the diligent use of the distaff and the needle. Rigid economy prevailed in the household and industry that would seem a marvel to some of their descendants. If the fathers of the Revolution deserve credit for patriotism the mothers should also share in the renown;

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much they did and more they endured; and inasmuch as patient waiting is more difficult and harder to endure than active serving, they are worthy to be held in grateful remembrance as having had a large share in securing for us the inheritance of a free country, blessed with civil and religious liberty.

In July, 1779, Colonel Putnam was sent to do special service in the examination of Stony and Verplank's Points, previous and preparatory to the attack upon the former so successfully and brilliantly made by General Wayne. He encountered many difficulties in performing this duty, but as usual accomplished what he had set out to do with great skill and carefulness. Soon after this, he was appointed to the command of a regiment of light infantry in the brigade of General Wayne, made up of the very elite of the army.

The greater part of the winter of 1780 he spent in Boston in endeavors to obtain from the legislature redress of grievances for the officers and soldiers in the army. Their sufferings, for want of pay and necessary supplies, were extreme, and had reached the point when endurance seemed no longer possible. The officer of General Nixon's brigade had, by an unanimous vote, chosen Colonel Putnam to represent their interests and intercede for them, both with Congress and the legislature of Massachusetts. He was partially successful in securing relief, and received a note of thanks for the help he obtained.

General Washington seems fully to have appreciated the trustworthiness as well as the ability of Colonel Putnam, and he lost no opportunity of manifesting his interest in him, and his desire to do for him whatever lay in his power. In the Memoir written by General Putnam, he speaks modestly, but with just pride, of the sincere and unwavering regard shown him, by the commander-in-chief. During this year he consulted. him in regard to the best plan for arranging a military peace establishment. Colonel Putnam drew up a plan in which he went very much into detail. In 1782 he had become dissatisfied with the service, and was about to retire, but he was made a brigadier-general, and his promotion left him without an excuse for leaving the service. But the war was over, and peace was again come to shed gladness over the land. Early in 1783 General Putnam resigned his commission, and went back to his farm and to surveying. But it was not easy for him to be content with the interests of so narrow a life, after being accustomed to act in stirring events that took hold upon public interests. In June, 1783, a petition signed by two hundred and eighty-three officers was presented to Congress, asking for a grant of land in the west. General Putnam addressed a letter to General Washington, enforcing the terms of the petition, and begging him to use his influence with Congress to induce them to act promptly. In this letter he very forcibly and clearly presents arguments in favor of immediate action. The arguments were drawn from both the needs of the officers and the best interests of the country. He says the probability is that the country between Lake Erie and the Ohio will be filled with inhabitants. He goes on to say that he thinks there are thousands that would emigrate thither and settle if Congress would grant favorable terms, and urges the necessities of officers and soldiers as a reason for immediate action. General Washington seconded him with all the influence he could bring to bear on the subject, but all was not sufficient to overcome the inertia of Congress. Nothing was done at that time. The history of General Putnam's connection with the Ohio company and the great work that he accomplished in superintending the establishment of the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory is given elsewhere, and will be omitted here, except the brief statement of a few facts to fill out the outline of his life.

While in this waiting posture, General Putnam was employed by the State of Massachusetts to survey a tract of land bordering upon Passamaquoddy bay and so entire was the satisfaction felt with the manner in which the work was done that in 1785 he was again employed by the legislature to survey their eastern lands. While he was thus engaged, Congress waked up enough to take action in regard to the proposed settlement in the west, and appointed General Putnam to superintend the work of surveying and laying out the land. But he felt himself in honor bound to keep his engagement with the State of Massachusetts, and at his request General Tupper was appointed in his place. April 7, 1788, forty-eight colonists with General Putnam in command landed at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, and began the settlement of Marietta. General Putnam administered the affairs of the colony with good judgement and wise forethought. There were educated men among the colonists, graduates of Havard and Yale—men who had filled honorably and well high positions, and it is proof, if proof were wanted, of the rare endowments of General Putnam, that he, without the training of school or college, among these men was facile prince's. Always cool and clear-headed, he was one to be depended on in emergencies. Inflexible in his integrity, just and upright in all his dealings, it was safe to commit to him any interest no matter how important. It is not strange, then, that he was so often employed to conduct difficult negotiations and manage business, when sound judgment and unimpeachable honesty were necessary to success. It is especially noticeable that in everything he tried to do he always succeeded. There is no failure on record in any enterprise he ever undertook, when the plans and execution were in his own hands.

He went to work at once, as soon as the colony arrived, to arrange securities for them in case of hostilities on the part of the Indians. The wise forethought shown in this, probably saved the colonists in the Indian war that broke out in 1791 and continued for five years.

General Putnam presided over the first court held in the territory and gave the charge to the grand jury in an appropriate and impressive manner. In 1790 he received a commission as judge in the United States court, and in the same year moved his family, consisting of his wife, six daughters, two sons, and two grand-children, to Marietta. In May, 1792, General Putnam was made a brigadier general in the United States army.

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He accepted the duty under protest. The first duty assigned him under his new office was to "attempt to be present at the general council of the hostile Indians, about to be held on the Miami river, of Lake Erie, in order to convince them of the humane disposition of the United States, and thereby to make a truce, or peace, with them." Accompanied by the Rev. John Heckewelder, he went to Post Vincent. He succeeded in making a treaty of peace and amity, which was signed by thirty-one kings, chiefs, and warriors, who represented eight of the Wabash tribes. This treaty was of great importance, as it detached a large body of warriors from the war party, though the Shawnees and Miamis were still too much elated by their recent victory over General St. Clair to be induced to sign the treaty.

Soon after this General Putnam resigned his commission as brigadier general, but he was not allowed to retire from public service. Colonel Pickering, the postmaster general, wanted to establish a line of boats to carry the mail from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. The arrangements were placed under the superintendence of General Putnam, and so wisely and so well was the business managed, that the boats continued to make their regular trips during the Indian war, with the loss of but one life. And again, when a road was wanted to connect Wheeling with Limestone, now Maysville, General Putnam was appointed to superintend the laying out of the same. And finally, through the influence of General Washington, he was made surveyor general of the United States, an office of great responsibility, requiring much wisdom and good judgment to properly' meet its requirements. Large tracts of land were to be surveyed and put into the market, grants to be laid out, and many delicate and difficult duties to be done. But he was sufficient for all these things, and discharged the duties of the office with honor to himself, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, until 1803, when he was removed by President Jefferson. He says, in regard to his removal: "I am happy in having my name enrolled with many, who have suffered the like political death, for adherence to those correct principles and measures, in the pursuance of which our country rose from a state of weakness, disgrace, and poverty, to strength, honor, and credit."

In 1802, General Putnam was elected by the citizens of Washington county as one of their representatives in the convention called to form a constitution for the new State. He did good service therein in fighting against the introduction of slavery, which, notwithstanding the prohibition in the ordinance of 1787, was kept out by a majority of only one vote.

In 1807 he drafted a plan for a church which was large and imposing for the time. He gave his services in superintending its erection, and also very liberal contributions in the way of money. The church is still used by the Congregationalists for their regular place of worship. He took great interest in establishing a Bible society in the county, and also in establishing a Sabbath- school, which was a new thing in the young west. He felt the want of educational advantages in his own early life so keenly that he was always ready to lend a helping hand to any effort to provide ways and means to save others from the evils that he suffered. While yet in Massachusetts, he was one of the corporators and trustees of Leicester academy one of the best and earliest started in the State, and to it he gave liberally of his means. In his new western home the cause still lay near his heart. But a brief period was allowed to pass after the Indian war was over before he was at work to get the "Muskingum academy" started and in working condition. This school was organized in 1798, and was the first in which anything higher than the common English branches was taught in all the great northwest, now so dotted with high schools, academies and colleges. He was elected in 1801 by the territorial legislature, one of the trustees of the Ohio university, the first college established in Ohio. He felt a warm interest in securing endowments and getting the college upon a solid foundation; and then, when all these things were acomplished, his public work was done. Surrounded by his children and their children, with a thriving community to bear witness to his wisdom and far-seeing philanthropy, honored with the respect of all who knew him, and cheered by the gratitude of those he had benefitted, he waited in serene old age for the summons to again start for a new and better country. The companion with whom he travelled the journey of life for more than half a century was called before him. Mrs. Putnam died in 1820, but his maiden daughter, Elizabeth, devoted herself to his comfort and did all that love and care could do to make his last years happy. At length his summons came. He died in 1824, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He was borne to his rest and his remains laid down in the "Mound cemetery" in Marietta, under the shadow of a monument erected by a forgotten race to chieftains of their, own, who had, perhaps, in their day, done deeds worthy of commemoration. He left numerous descendents, who are God fearing men and women, useful citizens and many of them active workers in the cause of Christ.

It is scarcely necessary to sum up the character of the man whose life has been so inadequately sketched. His work is his best epitaph. He was not brilliant, he was not quick, but he had good common sense in abundant measure, united with sound judgement and clear discrimination. When he saw what was needed to be done, he was wise in the selection of the means to secure the desired end. His integrity was never called in question, he was always found on the side of the right, and no good cause was ever brought before him from which he willingly turned away. His personal appearance was imposing. He was courtly in his manners, after the old style of gentlemen, though oftentimes a little abrupt, as is the way of the Putnams. Being a much experienced man, he was very interesting as well as instructive in conversation. He had a large fund from which to draw, for he had seen much of distinguished men and of many remarkable events. He could say, if he would—quorum magna pirs fui. A granite monument recently erected by his grandson, Colonel W. R. Putnam, marks the place of his rest. It has this inscription:

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GEN. RUFUS PUTNAM,

A Revolutionary officer, and the leader of the colony which made the first settlement in the Territory of the Northwest at Marietta, April 7, 1788.

Born April 9, 1738.

Died May 4, 1824.

Persis Rice, wife of

Rufus Putnam,

Born November 10, 737,

Died September 6, 1820.

The memory of the just is Blessed.

The children of General Rufus Putnam were: Ayres, born 1761, died 1762; Elizabeth, born 1765, died 1830; Persis, born 1767, died ; Susanna, born 1768, died 1840; Abigail, born 1770, died 1805; William Rufus, born 1771, died 1855; Franklin, born 1774, died 1776; Edwin, born 1776, died 1843; Patty, born 1777, died 1842, and Catharine, born 178o, died 1808. William Rufus married in 1803, Jerusha Guitteau. Their son William Rufus Putnam, jr., was born June 13, 1812. Edwin Putnam married a Miss Safford and had a family of five children, three sons and two daughters. Susanna married Christopher Burlingame. Abigail married William Browning, of Belpre. Persis married Perly Howe, of Belpre. Martha married Benjamin Tupper, of Putnam (now Zanesville). Catharine married Ebenezer Buckingham.

REV. MANASSEH CUTLER, LL, D.

The interest which a majority of those who consult this volume, have in Dr. Manasseh Cutler centres in his splendid services for the New England Ohio company and his immeasurable influence for good, as exerted through the ordinance of 1787, of which much has been already said within these pages, but it is desirable that in a work devoted to the history of a settlement, of which he was one of the founders, a personal sketch of the man should be given to convey, however inadequately, some idea of his life, his talents, and his worth.

Rev. Manasseh Cutler, son of Hezekiah and Susanna (Clark) Cutler, was born in Killingly, Connecticut, May 28 (old style), 1742. His father was a respectable farmer and the son spent his earlier years in the usual manner of a New England farmer's boy. He early displayed promising tokens of genius and made rapid progress in study. He prepared for college under the Rev. Aaron Brown—a Killingly preacher—and entered Yale in 1761. He graduated with high honor in 1765. In the following year he married Mary Balch, daughter of the Rev. Thomas and Mary (Sumner) Balch. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1767, and pleaded a few cases in the Norfolk county, Massachusetts, courts, but having entertained, for some years, serious thoughts of entering the ministry, he began in earnest his theological studies in 1769, under the directions of his father-in-law, who was the first pastor of the South church, of Dedham, Massachusetts. In his diary under date of November, of the preceding year, appears an entry showing that he had even then given much consideration to the subject. He says: "Prosecuted my studies—began to make sermons. May God grant me his blessing in so important an undertaking, and make me servicable to the cause of religion and the souls of my fellow-men." After completing the course of study usual at that day he was ordained at Ipswich Hamlet (afterward Hamilton), Massachusetts, September 11, 1771. His pastorate here continued fifty-two years, until his death, in 1823. Dr. Cutler regarded himself as consecrated to the ministry and repeatedly refused opportunities to enter other, and very tempting, avenues of life. His labors in the church were very successful. The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Wadsworth thus spoke of him: "Christ crucified was the great theme of his preaching. His public discourses were prepared in Gospel style, but with studied accuracy, argumentative energy, and persuasive pathos. They were serious and practical, rather than speculative and metaphysical; he could be a son of thunder, and a son of consolation; his object was to win souls to Christ, and to establish them intelligent, judicious, and exemplary Christians." Another writer has said of him: "As a preacher, he was grave, dignified, and impressive in manner, and select in the matter of his discourses. In doctrine, a moderate Calvinist, he steadily maintained the religious opinions with which he commenced his ministry, to the end of his life." Felt, in his history of Ipswich, Massachusetts, says: His voice in preaching was not loud, but distinct and audible to his congregation. . . . His style of writing was clear, perspicuous and strong." His published sermons are: "Charge at the Ordination of Rev. Daniel Story, 1798" (the first ordained minister in the northern territory). "A National Fast Sermon, 1799," "A Sermon before the Bible Society of Salem and vicinity, 1813," and "A Century Discourse of Hamilton Church, 1814."

Dr. Cutler became, while a young man, very fond of scientific study, and, later in life, it is not too much to say, was more distinguished as a scientist than any man in America, except Benjamin Franklin. In the early part of the Revolutionary war an American privateer captured and brought into port a British prize, contain. ing among other valuables a fine library, consisting chiefly of medical and botanical works. These books became the neucleus of what is now the Salem athaneum. The botanical department—a field till then but little cultivated in this country—being very congenial to Dr. Cutler's taste, engaged his eager attention. He prepared a paper on botany which the American Society of Arts and Sciences published in their memoirs, and which Dr. Franklin (as he himself afterward assured Dr. Cutler) caused to be republished in the Columbian Magazine, printed at Philadelphia. In the year 1785 Dr. Cutler published four papers in the Memoirs of the American Academy, in three departments of science—astronomy, meteorology, and botany.

Dr. Cutler, who had already taken degrees in law and divinity, soon after the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, became a student and practitioner of medicine. The regular physician of the hamlet had been called to active military service, and the people were obliged to send to neighboring towns for medical aid.

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In this exigency Dr. Cutler qualified himself to fill the place made vacant. In due time he acquired a high reputation as a physician, and in the treatment of some difficult cases his success became quite proverbial. Many valuable medical papers are preserved among his manuscripts. His knowledge of botany was blended advantageously with that of medicine. It may be remarked that one of his papers upon a topic of the former science was instrumental in bringing into use lobelia and other indigenous plants.

The public honors conferred upon him give some idea of the estimation in which Dr. Cutler was held as a man of literature and science—such an accumulation as is rarely annexed to the ministerial character. They rank in the following order: He graduated from Yale in 1765; received the degree of Master of Arts from Harvard in 1770; was elected a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1781; of the Philosophical society, Philadelphia, 1784; and an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical society, 1785; received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale college, 1789; was elected member of the Agricultural society, 1792; of the Historical society, 1792; a representative to Congress from 1800 to 1804; an honorary member of the Linnnaean society, Philadelphia, 1809; president of the Bible society of Salem and vicinity, 1811; a member of the American Antiquarian society, 1813; and of the New England Linnaean society, 1815. Dr. Cutler was better and more widely known during his life as a scientist than as a preacher. And now the popularity of the preacher and the renown of the scientist are both eclipsed by the fame of the author of the ordinance of. 1787. As the agent who introduced and who secured the adoption of the clause in that immortal instrument which gave it the name of the Ordinance of Freedom, he organized the force which, swelling steadily and irresistibly as the years rolled on, changed the destiny of the Nation and of millions of human beings by barring its progress and so making possible the final overthrow of American slavery. Only in recent years has Dr. Cutler's name been covered with the glory of this great deed. But his agency in the formation of the ordinance—in the insertion and passage of the clause prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory—has been established beyond a doubt.

The events which led to Dr. Cutler's great opportunity, if not forming as long a train as that of the steps by which he was fitted to take advantage of the opportunity, were nevertheless numerous. It is not necessary that they should here be recounted. He took a deep interest in the success of the American patriots. He served during two campaigns as chaplain in the Revolutionary army. He was thus personally acquainted with many of the officers and soldiers in that noble body beside those who dwelt in Hamilton and its vicinity. When the great struggle was ended and independence secured, he deeply sympathized with the survivors who had sacrificed all but life itself in the battle. When a number of those men organized the New England Ohio company for the purpose of planting a colony in the west, and there retrieving their spent fortunes, he was elected a director. Subsequently he was appointed the agent of the company to negotiate for a purchase of lands from Congress. In June, 1787, he journeyed to New York upon his important mission. How perfectly he fulfilled and how mightily he exceeded the object of that mission has already been told in a lengthy chapter of this volume. He not only made the purchase on advantageous terms, but he succeeded, by the exercise of his splendid abilities, in planting upon that land to which the colony was to journey, and upon the soil of the whole Northwest Territory, the law of Massachusetts. He succeeded in securing the eternal prohibilion of slavery, and the enactment of wise. measures for the support of schools, and the ministry, and the founding of a university.

Dr. Cutler kept a journal during his visit to Congress. That journal (from which ample extracts are given in chapter VI of this work) contains much of the evidence of Dr. Cutler's agency in the formation of the Ordinance of Freedom, and is an invaluable historical document. It was not meant for the public eye, but to give his daughters a glimpse of the world beyond their quiet New England home. The diary was kept at the request of his daughter, Mary, who, as her father was about to depart, ran to him with a book in which she enjoined him, girl- like, to write not only of his negotiations, but to give descriptions of the people whom he met—of ladies as well as gentlemen—of costumes, entertainments, etc. The journal was many years afterwards in Marietta in the hands of Judge Ephraim Cutler. Portions of it were copied by Miss Julia Cutler, and this manuscript is now in the hands of Mrs. Sarah Cutler Dawes, of Marietta. The original was returned to New England and passed into the possession of Daniel Webster. After his death it was found among his papers by the Rev. Edwin Stone, of Massachusetts, who has been for many years engaged in writing a biography of Dr. Cutler, and who still retains the document. Such in brief is the history of this journal. It will, doubtless, some day be deposited in the library of Marietta college.

While his negotiations with Congress were pending Dr. Cutler journeyed to Philadelphia to visit Benjamin Franklin (a man, by the way, whom he resembled in tastes, talents and achievements, as will be seen, when the story of his life is fully told). James Parton, in his life of Franklin, introduces Dr. Cutler's description of this visit as one of the best contemporary accounts of the distinguished American. The following extracts from this description we reproduce as showing something of the character of the writer and the esteem in which he was held by Franklin.

The Journal reads:

Dr. Franklins’ house stands up a court at some distance from the street. We found him in the garden, sitting upon a grass plot, under a very large mulberry tree, with several other gentlemen and two or three ladies. . . . He rose from his chair, took me by the hand, expressed his joy at seeing me, welcomed me to the city and begged me to seat myself close to him. His voice was tow; his countenance open frank and pleasing. I delivered him my retters. After he had read them, he took me again by the hand and with the usual compliments introduced me to the other gentlemen. . . Here we entered into a free conversation and spent our time most agreeably, untit it was quite dark . . . After it was dark we went

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 457

into the house, and he invited me into the library, which is likewise his study.

Here Franklin exhibited to his scientific friend many interesting objects,—a glass machine for representing the flow of the blood in the arteries and veins of the human body, a copying press, a long artificial arm and hand (his own invention) for taking books down from high shelves, and other devices and curiosities. Dr. Cutler continues:

But what the doctor wished principally to show me was a huge volume on botany, which, indeed, afforded me the greatest pleasure of any one thing in his library. It was a single volume, but so large, that it was with great difficulty that he was able to raise it from a low shelf and lift it on the table. But with that senile ambition, which is common to old people, be insisted on doing it himself, and would permit no person to assist him, merely to show us how much strength he had remaining. It contained the whole of Linnaeus Sytema Vegetabilium with large cuts of every plant colored from nature. It was a feast to me, and the doctor seemed to enjoy it as well as myself. We spent a couple of hours in examining this volume, while the other gentlemen amused themselves with other matters. The doctor is not a botanist, but lamented he had not in early life attended to the science. He delights in naturat history and expressed an earnest wish that I should pursue the plan that I had begun and hoped this science so much neglected in America would be pursued with as much ardor here as it is now in every part of Europe. I wanted for three months at least to have devoted myself to this one volume, but fearing that I shoutd be tedious to him, I shut up the volume, though he urged me to examine it longer.

He seemed extremely fond, through the course of the visit of dwelling on philosophicat subjects, and particularly that of natural history, while the other gentlemen were swallowed up with politics. This was a favorable circumstance for me, for almost the whole of his conversation was addressed to me, and I was highly delighted with the extensive knowledge he appeared to have of every subject, the brightness of his memory and clearness and vivacity of all his mental faculties, notwithstanding his age. His manners are perfectly easy, and everythingl about him seems to diffuse an unrestrained freedom and happiness. He has an incessant vein of humor accompanied by an uncommon vivacity, which seems as naturat and involuntary as his breathing He urged me to calt on him again, but my short stay would not admit.

Dr. Cutler, in the summer of 1788, visited the infant settlement which he had been instrumental in founding, for the purpose of attending a meeting of the directors of the Ohio company. He left Hamilton, in his sulky, July 21st, and arrived at Marietta August 19th. On the twenty-seventh of the month he performed the burial service for a child of Major Nathaniel Cushing, the first funeral among the settlers here. He preached on the Sabbath in the hall at Campus Martius; and was present in the same hall September 2, 1788, at the opening of the first court held northwest of the river Ohio, under the forms of civil jurisprudence, officiating as chaplain on that occasion. He was greatly interested in examining the ancient mounds, squares, and other earthworks at Marietta, which he thought were a thousand years old, and were made by some nation more civilized and powerful than any Indians known to exist in America. After his arrival in Massachusetts he wrote to General Rufus Putnam: "On my return home I found several letters from different parts of Europe. The most of them request me to send a particular account of the ancient works found in North America. These works seem to have engaged the attention of the literati in Europe, and I wish to gratify those with whom I have the honor to correspond, as far as possible. I must beg you to forward to me the surveys of the works at Marietta. Accurate measurements I find to be of consequence in their minds. Pray attend to the width of the openings, and the distances and relative situations of all the works to one another." Dr. Cutler gives an account of these remarkable earthworks in a note to his charge at the ordination of Rev. Daniel Story.

Dr. Cutler at one time contemplated removing his family to the new purchase, but after this visit he writes that he could not do so without making great sacrifices, and, although the country equalled, and in some respects much exceeded his expectations, especially as a grazing country, and he felt the warmest interest in the success and prosperity of the settlement, he finally abandoned the plan.

Soon after the peace made by General Wayne with the western Indians, in 1795, President Washington tendered to Dr. Cutler a commission as judge of the supreme court in the Ohio Territory, which he declined.

Although Dr. Cutler was not of the pioneers at Marietta, two of his sons, Ephraim and Jervis, were, and a. third, Charles, was also an early resident of Ohio. Another son died in infancy. Temple, the youngest of the four who lived to maturity, never removed to the west, and died in New England in 2857. Dr. Cutler had three daughters: Mary, who became the wife of Dr. Joseph Torry, of Hamilton; Elizabeth, who married Fitch Poole and lived in Danvers; and Lavinia, who married Captain Jacob Berry.

In the autumn of 1800 Dr. Cutler was elected a member of Congress, and again in 1802, when, having served two terms, he declined a reelection. His people entertained a high estimate of his talents and patriotism, and he accepted the honors conferred with the modest diffidence which true dignity inspires. Whether at home or abroad, his mind was intent on projecting great and good plans, consulting the benefit of generations to come; and his persevering genius rarely failed of carrying them into effect. In politics Dr. Cutler was a Federalist.

Felt's History of Ipswich (Massachusetts), says: "In person Dr. Cutler was of light complexion, above the common stature, erect and dignified in his appearance. His manners were gentlemanly; his conversation easy and intelligent. As an advisor he was discerning and discreet. . . . His mental endowments were high."

This great and good man having nobly fulfilled his life duty passed away July 28, 1823 at the ripe age of eighty-one years.

In a discourse delivered July 30, 1823, in Hamilton, at the interment of the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, by Benjamin Wadswords, D. D., he said: "All who enjoyed the privilege of an acquaintance with the Rev. Dr. Cutler knew that nature had been liberal of her gifts; enriching an elegant form with a penetrating and enterprising mind, capacitated for literary and scientific attainments, and with talents formed to shine on the public stage of life," and he adds, "his name will stand enrolled on the list of the early literati."

Dr. Cutler's old home in Hamilton remains, little changed since he dwelt in it, except that the beautiful gardens which he had in connection with the house have long since disappeared. In the village burying-ground

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is a monument to his memory bearing the following inscription:

REV. MANASSEH CUTLER, LL. , D.

He died July 28, 1823, in the 81st year of his age.

He was beloved for his domestic and social virtues.

His talents were of a high order. He was eminent for his Botanical, Medical, Political and Theological knowledge. He was a member of riterary and scientific societies in both Europe and America. After a useful ministry of fifty-two years in this place, he expired, with a firm and peaceful reliance on his Redeemer.

"They that trust in the Lord shatl be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abideth forever."

This stone is erected to his memory by his church.

On the reverse is the following:

Sacred to the memory of

MRS. MARY CUTLER,

Consort of Rev. Dr. Cutler, who deceased

Nov. 3, 1815, in the 73d year of her age.

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."

GENERAL BENJAMIN TUPPER.*

The important part taken by General Benjamin Tupper in the measures leading to settlement at Marietta, makes his personal career a subject of general interest. He was born at Staughton, Massachusetts, in 738. While yet quite young his father died, and he was apprenticed to a tanner named Whitherton, in Dorchester. He left Dorchester at the age of sixteen, and lived on a farm at Easton.

He served as a private soldier in the French war most of the time for about three years. About this time he also taught school at Easton two or three winters.

He was married November 18, 1762, to Huldah White, of Easton. She was a woman of much strength and beauty of character, and was well fitted to be the companion of a public man during a trying epoch of history. A short time after their marriage they removed from Easton to Chesterfield, which continued to be the family residence until they came to Marietta.

Mr. Tupper, at the opening of the Revolution, was lieutenant in a militia company at Chesterfield, and under command of Major Halley, of Northampton, participated in preventing the supreme court from sitting under authority of the British Crown. He thus early joined the illustrious line of revolutionists. When the war had actually begun, he entered the service with the rank of major, and was an actor in the events which took place at Boston harbor.

Mr. Tupper was promoted to the colonelcy in 1776. He participated in the battle of Long Island. During the campaign of 1777, he served under General Gates. In 1778, he was under General Washington, and had a horse killed under him at the battle of Monmouth. In 1780, he served in the army of the Hudson. About the close of the war he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by brevet. When the war had closed, he returned to his family at Chesterfield.

The circumstances which brought him to the valley of the Ohio, the survey under the ordinance of 1785, his

* From a sketch written by his grandson, A. T. Nye.

visit to Fort Harmar, his conference with General Putnam and its result, are already known to the reader.

General Tupper's last military services were in the suppression of Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts, in which he performed an important part.

General Tupper came to Marietta with the first company of families, August 19, 1788. He served as judge of the court of quarler sessions until his death in June, 1792. His wife died at Putnam, Ohio, February 21, 1812.

Their family consisted of three sons and four daughters. Major Anselm Tupper died at Marietta, December 25, 1808 ; Colonel Benjamin Tupper died at Putnam in February, 1815 ; General Edward W. Tupper died at Gallipolis in 1823 ; Rowena, the oldest daughter of General Tupper, and wife of Secretary Winthrop Sargeant, died at Marietta in 1790 ; Sophia, wife of Nathaniel Wilys, esq., of Connecticut, died in October, 1789 ; Minerva, wife of Colonel Ichabod Nye, died at Marietta in April, 1836; the other daughter died young, before the family emigrated to Ohio.

SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS.

Samuel Holden Parsons was an honorable soldier and able diplomat during the early period of our country's existence. He was born in New London county, Connecticut, May 14, 1837. His father was Jonathan Parsons, a distinguished clergyman, and his mother was a descendant of Henry Wolcot, of Connecticut. He graduated from Harvard college, and studied law. His first appointment was to the position of colonial auditor with power to collect and adjust accounts. He became a member of the committee on western land claims in 1773. His diplomatic services in this connection were found of great service to his colony.

In 1783 he was made a member of the inter colonial standing committee of correspondence and inquiry. As a member of this committee he suggested to Samuel Adams the propriety of holding annual meetings of commissioners of the colonies to consult on their general welfare. Historians have attributed to Samuel Adams the honor of originating the American Congress, but a letter on file among the papers of Samuel Adams from Colonel Parsons proves him to have been the originator of the idea.

His strong and caustic pen was employed during the whole of the preliminary struggle with Great Britain in inspiring his countrymen with a spirit of resistance against oppression. The fact that a National Congress was first suggested by Colonel Parsons, has been referred to. It was through his diplomacy that the legislature of Connecticut was led to pass a resolution in 1774, recommending a meeting of representatives of the colonies. Massachusetts, with Samuel Adams in the lead, seconded this resolution. Colonel Parsons joined the lines at the opening of the war, and served, with distinction till its close, when he was retired with the rank of major-general. He had succeeded General Putnam in command of the

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Hudson River division, and was one of the committee which tried Major Andre.

In 1786 his ability as a diplomat was called into use when he was appointed to a place on the commission, to treat with the Shawnee Indians for extinguishing the aboriginal title to certain lands within the Northwestern Territory. The other members of the commission were Generals Richard Butler, of Pittsburgh, and George Rogers Clark, of Kentucky. The treaty was held January 31, 1786, near the mouth of the Great Miami, and resulted in the cession to the United States of a large tract of land, on which Cincinnati now stands.

General Parsons was appointed one of the supreme judges under the ordinance of 1787, and came to Marietta in May, 1788. In 1789 he was commissioned chief judge of the territory. In the fall of 1789 he went to the northern part of the State in the service of Connecticut, to treat with the Wyandots relative to their claim on the Reserve lands. While returning to Marietta, he was drowned in the rapids of the Big Beaver November 17, 1789.

JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM.

Americans patriotically cherish the. memory of the Revolutionary heroes. But in the character of James Mitchell Varnum we have a man whose services extend beyond the establishment of independence into the period of the establishment of government and the formation of constitutions, a man who devoted to the service of his country the talents of a ready commander, able lawyer and pure statesman.

James Mitchell Varnum was born in Middlesex county, Massachusetts in 1749, on the ancestral estate, which was purchased from the Indians and settled by Samuel Varnum in 1664. His life is briefly summed up in the published memoirs of the Bar of Rhode Island: "The career of General Varnum was active but brief. He graduated at Brown university at twenty; was admitted to the bar at twenty-two; entered the army at twenty-seven; resigned his commission at thirty-one; was member of Congress the same year; resumed practice at thirty-three and continued four years; was elected to Congress again at thirty-seven; emigrated to Ohio at thirty-nine, and died at the early age of forty." Varnum soon after admission to the bar acquired an extensive practice. He had a natural taste for military life, and his. keen mind doubtless foresaw the dark future of his country, for he joined the Kentish guards and was in 1774 appointed commander. This was one of the most celebrated companies of the colonial militia. Thirty-two of its members entered the Revolution as commissioned officers. Besides the commander among the number were General Green, Colonel Crary and Colonel Whitemarsh. The prominent part Varnum had taken in the colonial controversies and his position in the militia service caused him to be chosen to the command of one of the first regiments of infantry raised by authority of the colonial legislature. He afterwards received a commission from Washington. He served as colonel in Washington's division at Trenton and Princeton. In February, 1777, Colonel Varnum was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and served with distinction until 1779, when he retired to his own State which sent him to Congress in 1780. But we cannot detail his important public services. His power as a lawyer was shown in an important case which involved the destiny of the State. The idea took possession of the impoverished people, inexperienced in affairs of government, that money could be manufactured by State authority (an idea since several times revived). Laws had actually been enacted making it an offense finable by law to refuse to accept at par the worthless fiat money of an impoverished State. Interest had become as high as four per cent. per month, and all business was on the verge of ruin. This paper money system gave rise to a case which gave General Varnum a national reputation as a lawyer. The case in itself was simple. John Trevett bought meat of John Weeden and tendered him in payment State bills, which Weeden refused. The whole State was interested in this case. "If the complaint should be sustained by the judgment of the court all the commerce and business of the State would be destroyed and all previous obligations cancelled by this irredeemable trash," General Varnum's plea on this occasion was a masterpiece. He succeeded not only in having the laws adjudged unconstitutional, but the effect of his logic was so powerful that the dominant party was forced to a change of policy.

General Varnum became a member of the Ohio company in 1787, and was elected one of its directors. He was also appointed one of the supreme judges of the terrrtory. He left Rhode Island in the spring of 1788 and arrived in Marietta in June. He delivered the oration at the first Fourth of July celebration in Marietta. After coming to Ohio his health gave way. In the fall of 1788 he determined to go South in the hope of recuperating, but rapid decline saved him a death among strangers. He died of consumption January 10, 1789. His burial was attended with the ceremony due his high character and distinguished public services.

COMMODORE ABRAHAM WHIPPLE.

In the Mound cemetery at Marietta is a tombstone bearing the following inscription:

Sacred to the memory of

COMMODORE ABRAHAM WHIPPLE,

whose name, skill, and courage,

will ever remain the pride and

boast of his country.

In the late Revolution he was the

first on the seas to hurl defiance at proud Britain,

gallantly leading the way to wrest from

the mistress of the ocean her scepter,

and there to wave the star-spangled banner.

He also conducted to the sea

the first square-rigged vessel ever built on the Ohio,

opening to commerce

resources beyond calculation. *

* This inscription was written by Judge Ephraim Cutler, his warm friend and admirer.

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While Ohio is pointing with pride to her many great sons, she should not neglect to know the life, and honor the memory of the brave men who planted ripe civilization on her savage soil. The high position of so many of these among the celebrated men of the Revolution is a source of pride and congratulation.

Abraham Whipple, a descendant of John Whipple, one of the original proprietors of the Providence plantations, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in the year 1733. In early life he was drawn into ocean commerce, and attained to the command of a vessel engaged in the West India and St. Croix trade. He followed the sea for many years before the Revolution, during which he acquired a practical knowledge of navigation and an intimate acquaintance with the ocean and its harbors. Near the close of the French war he was given command of a privateer. During this period he exhibited qualifications which brought him into notice. He was brave and confident and his ready mind was never at a loss for an expedient. The reputation acquired during the French war drew him into the incipient acts of the Revolution. In 1772 he headed a company of his townsmen who burned an odious British schooner, stationed at Narragansett. bay, for the purpose of enforcing oppressive maritime laws. One thousand pounds was offered for the detection of the leader, and five hundred pounds for any member of the company. But England was at that time so universally hated that although more than fifty knew the secret none were found willing to inform. Historians generally consider the burning of the Gaspe, June 17, 1772, by Captain Whipple and the Providence company, the overt act of the Revolution.

Little Rhode Island was first to renounce allegiance to the British crown, and the first to send to sea under legislative authority a vessel of war. Two days before the battle of Bunker Hill, two sloops were purchased and armed, one with twelve the other with eight guns. The larger was placed under command of Captain Whipple, with ordets to clear the bay of British tenders, to the frigate Rose under command of Sir James Wallace, who blockaded the harbors and rivers, preventing a large number of homeward bound vessels from entering the port. Captain Whipple sailed on the fifteenth of June, down the Narragansett bay and attacked two of the enemy's traders. He forced one to retire and took the other a prize. This bold stroke cleared the bay and entitles Whipple to the honor of having fired the first gun at the British on the sea, in the opening of the Revolutionary war.

But to narrate the life of Commodore Whipple during the next seven years would be telling an important part of the naval history of the Revolution, and belongs to a book of wider scope. Our purpose here is to give the citizens of Washington county an idea of the National importance of one of the founders of society in their own State and community.

In 1782 he was excused from the service, and returned to his farm at Cranston. He was given command, in 1784, of one of the first merchant vessels sent to Great Britain after the peace. "To Commodore Whipple was given the honor of first unfurling the American flag on the Thames." After his return he again retired to his farm, and was a member of his State legislature during the first rage of the paper money lunacy.

In a pitiful petition to Congress, in 1786, he sets forth his financial condition. His grievances are similar to those of many others who took part in the battles for freedom, and in this age of pensions the prayer of the petition may not be uninteresting. After setting forth his military services, he says:

Thus having exhausted the means of supporting myself and family, I was reduced to the sad necessity of mortgaging my little farm, the remnant I had left, to obtain money for a temporary support. The farm is now gone, and, having been sued out of possession, I am turned into the world at an advanced age, feeble and valetudinary, with my wife and children, destitute of a house or a home that I can call my own, or have the means of hiring. This calamity has arisen from two causes, viz,: First, from my disbursing rarge sums in France and Charleston. In the former I expended in the service of the United States to the amount of three-hundred and sixty French guineas—a large part of that sum was appropriated to the pay of marine, the other part for sea stores to accommodate a number of gentlemen passengers sent on board by the commissioners to take passage for America, and for which I have never been recompensed; and, secondty, my having served the United States from the fifteenth of June, 1ns, to December, 1782, without receiving a farthing of wages or subsistence from them since December, 1776. My advances in France and Charleston amount in the whole to nearly seven thousand dollars in specie, exclusive of interest. The repayment of this, or a part of it, might be the happy means of regaining the farm I have been obliged to give up, and snatch my family from misery and ruin."

The whole amount due from the United States was about sixteen thousand dollars. He received in final settlement securities the nominal amount expended in France. He was forced to sell these securities at a discount of eighty per cent. This amount, however, enabled him to regain his Cranston farm, which he sold in 1788 and came to Ohio. During the Indian war he lived in comparative quiet in the house of his son-in-law, Colonel Sproat. He, indeed, considered the whites aggressors in the Indian country, and was inclined to deal with the red men as peaceably as possible.

In 1796, in his sixty-third year, he removed with his wife to a farm of twelve acres, located on the Muskingum, two miles from Marietta, and depended upon its productions and his own labor for a livelihood. The fact of his having gone to Havana with a cargo of produce, in 1801, will be found in the chapter on commerce and navigation.

In an, when failing health and reduced circumstances were oppressing him, he followed the advice of friends and applied to Congress for a pension. In answer to his petition he was allowed half the pay of a captain, which was at that time sixty dollars a month. The remaining years of his life were free from anxiety.

His sympathetic life companion was Sarah Hopkins, sister of Governor Hopkins, of Rhode Island. Their family consisted of two daughters and one son. The oldest daughter married Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, and the younger, Dr. Comstock, of Rhode Island. She never came to Ohio. John, the only son, left Marietta at an early period and followed a seafaring life. He never married, and with him the family name became extinct.

Mrs. Sarah Whipple died in October, 1818, in her

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eightieth year. Commodore Whipple died May 29, 1819, on his farm. He was a leading actor from beginning to end of that trying struggle which resulted in the establishment of our Nation. Impoverished, he struggled in later life in the midst of the events incident to the first settlement of the northwest. It is pleasant to reflect that his last years were spent in ease and contentment.

COLONEL ROBERT OLIVER.

It is a fortunate circumstance that so many of the colony of first settlers were men of superior character and ability. One of the most useful members of the Ohio company was Colonel Robert Oliver. He was born in 1738 in the north of Ireland. His parents moved to America while Robert was young, and settled on a farm in Worcester county, Massachusetts. His education was as good as the schools of that period afforded.

He entered the Revolution as a lieutenant, but at the close of the war had advanced to the position of colonel. He served under General Rufus Putnam in the campaign against Burgoyne, and was highly complimented as a disciplinarian. After the close of the war he again settled on a farm, where he lived quietly until 1786, when he volunteered to assist in putting down Shay's rebellion.

Upon the formation of the Ohio company he invested in two shares of their land and came to Marietta in the summer of 1788. The formation of the Millsburgh colony and the erection of Wolf Creek mills is Cully noticed in the chapter on Watertown.

In 1790 Colonel Oliver was elected to fill the vacancy on the board of directors of the Ohio company caused by the death of General Parsons. His services in that capacity were of great value, especially during the trying period of the Indian war.

Colonel Oliver was the colleague of Colonel Meigs in the first territorial legislature, and was selected as one of the council, which was composed of five representatives, nominated by the governor and commissioned by the President of the United States. In 1800 he was chosen president of the council. He served as colonel of militia, and judge of the court of common pleas. He served his township as magistrate until his death, which occurred in May, 1810.

The few persons yet living who knew him bear testimony of the high regard in which he was held, especially in Waterford, where his private life was known and appreciated.

MAJOR HAFFIELD WHITE.

The few old settlers of the community of Waterford whom time has spared to tell reminiscences of past events frequently mention the name of Major White. He was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, where, at the opening of the Revolution, he was an officer in a company of minute men. His company hastened to the scene of action as soon as the news of the actual opening of hostilities reached them, and arrived in time to pour a round of rifle-balls into the retreating British lines. He served as an officer in line and as commissary until the close of the war.

He became a member of the Ohio company in 1787 and acted as commissary for the first detachment to Marietta. His son, Peletiah, was one of the forty-eight who arrived April 7, 1788. In 1789, Major White, in company with Captain Dodge and Major Oliver, built the first mill in Ohio—Wolf creek mill in Watertown township. This property eventually passed under control of the White family. After the death of the major his son, Peletiah, managed the mill.

Major White was held in high regard by his customers, who were prejudiced by his affable manner and sterling qualities.

COLONEL EBENEZER SPROAT.

A distinguished character in the early history of Ohio is the tall sheriff who headed the procession at the opening of the first court in the territory, and whose imposing figure so impressed the Indians that they gave him the name of Hetuck (Big Buckeye). There is a tradition that from this circumstance the term Buckeye came to be applied to all Ohioians.

Colonel Sproat was born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, in 1752. He had the advantage of early education and became familiar with the principles and practice of surveying. He assisted his father on the farm and was remarked for his strong vigorous frame. He stood erect six feet four inches tall. At the opening of the Revolution Mr. Sproat was given command of a company but soon rose to the position of major in the Tenth Massachusetts regiment, under Colonel Sheppard. In 1778 he became lieutenant colonel in Glover's brigade. It has been said that he was not only the tallest man in the brigade, but also the most complete disciplinarian. At the close of the war he retired to Providence and employed himself at surveying. While here he became attached to Catharine Whipple, whom he married. Colonel Sproat now turned his attention to mercantile pursuits, for which he was singularly unfitted. He was fond of company and freehanded, and as a natural result failed after a short period, losing his own fortune and his wife's patrimony. In 1786, Colonel Sproat was given an appointment on the survey of the seven ranges, and the following year was made one of the surveyors of the Ohio company's purchase. In the fall of that year he led a detachment to Simrell's ferry, where he superintended the building of the Mayflower. Colonel Sproat continued as surveyor for the company until 1791, when the Indian war prevented further operations. He held the position of high sheriff, under commission of Governor St. Clair, for fourteen years. He invested the office with all the dignity of ancient ceremony, which his commanding presence gave a peculiar effect. He always carried a sword as the badge of office. During the Indian war he served as paymaster of the troops. The family of Colonel Sproat consisted of his wife and one

462 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

daughter, who came to Marietta with Commodore Whipple. His daughter married Solomon Sibley, esq. Colonel Sproat was a friend of General Washington and an acquaintance of Lafayette. He was a staunch Federalist and saw the fall of his party with regret. He took a live interest in agriculture, particularly gardening. His garden covered nearly an acre of ground and was tastefully laid out in squares and walks. He died suddenly in February, 1805.

COLONEL RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS.

Another of the celebrated spirits of the Revolution, and one, too, who figures prominently in the early history of Ohio, was Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs. He was apprenticed a hatter in early life and afterwards had a shop in his native State of Connecticut.

Mr. Meigs was a member of the Colonial military company, of Middletown, and when the war became iminent was chosen captain. After the news of the first bloodshed at Lexington, Captain Meigs volunteered and was received into the service with the rank of major.

After his release he again signified his willingness to enter the service, and was commissioned colonel by Congress. He raised a regiment of volunteers, known in history as the "Red Cap regiment." The expedition of this regiment against Sagg Harbor, Long Island, is celebrated, and its conduct at Stony Point highly honorable. After the war Colonel Meigs returned to Middletown, where he remained until the formation of the Ohio company. His services were engaged by the company as a surveyor, and in the spring of 1788 he entered on the duties of his office. Before the territorial officers had arrived Colonel Meigs had drawn up a code of rules, which served for the government of the territory. After the organization of the government, under the ordinance of Congress he was made one of the associate justices and justice of the peace. He was also commissioned clerk of the court of quarter sessions and prothonotary of the court of common pleas.

Colonel Meigs was commissary of the clothing department during the treaty of 1795, at Greenville. It was through his exertions that Joseph Kelly, the boy captive, was restored to his mother.

Washington county was ably represented in the first territorial legislature by Colonels Meigs and Oliver. This was an important session, and Colonel Meigs' intimate knowledge of affairs made him a superior member.

In 1801 he was appointed by President Jefferson Indian agent in the Cherokee nation, where he removed and resided until his death, which occurred in 1823.

His family consisted of three sons—Return Jonathan, John, and Timothy. Colonel Meigs was held in the highest esteem in the army, in Marietta, and among the Indians, where he spent the evening of his busy life.

ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.

Arthur St. Clair, first and, practically, the only governor of the Northwest Territory, was born in Scotland in 1734.

He became a subaltern in the British army, and was detailed to America for duty during the French war. He was present at the storming of Quebec. In 1763 he was given command of Fort Ligonier, in Pennsylvania, where he settled and received one thousand acres of land. He sympathized with the colonies in their difficulties with Great Britain, and at the opening of the Revolution was given command of a regiment of continentals. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of brigadier general, and before the close of the war was made major general. He had command of Ticonderoga when it was captured by Burgoyne, and was charged with everything reflecting on his honor as a military man, but a court-martial sustained his conduct and fully exonerated him. His military career although not brilliant was creditable.

In 1785 he was elected a representative of Legonier, where he settled after the war, to the Continental Congress, and was afterwards chosen president of that body.

The Northwest Territory was formed in 1787, and General St. Clair received the appointment of governor. His home in Legonier, Westmoreland county, was known as "Pott's Grove." He had made some improvements when his duties called him to Ohio. In the winter of 1790 he removed to Marietta with all his family, excepting his wife, who remained to superintend the homestead. His household at Marietta consisted of a son, Arthur St. Clair. jr., and three daughters—Louisa, Jane, and Margaret, and an aged colored woman who acted as cook. Arthur studied law, and engaged in practice in Cincinnati; Louisa was a young lady of eighteen; Jane was two years younger, "a girl of retiring manners and feeble constitution;" Margaret, the youngest child, died that year with fever. Louisa has been the subject of much comment. She was quick and vigorous both in mind and body. She seemed in her element amid the wild and dangerous surroundings of the period. She was often to be seen riding on a wild and spirited horse at full speed through the thick woods and over logs and streams. She was one of the best pedestrians at the garrison, and frequently came out victorious in walking or running races. She could shoot a rifle with the accuracy of a skilled woodsman, and was exceedingly fond of the chase. Although she had a passion for athletic sports, intellectual pursuits were by no means neglected. She had been educated with much care in Philadelphia.

Governor St. Clair was removed by President Jefferson a few months before the formation of the State Government in 803. He had suffered great financial loss, and the last years of his life were spent in poverty. He returned to his Pennsylvania farm and in vain appealed to Congress for a bounty. The legislature of his State recognized his services by voting him an annuity of three hundred dollars, which was afterwards increased to six hundred. He died on his farm in the Legonier valley, August 31, 1818.

ICHABOD NYE.

Ichabod Nye was from Tolland, Connecticut. His ancestors, both on his mother's side and his father's were

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English, and came from England to America in 1639. They were of those who came here to escape religious persecution. They first settled in Scituate, and then Barnstable, Massachusetts, the church to which they belonged coming over almost in a body. A part of the family after some years moved westward to Tolland, Connecticut. The father of Ichabod Nye was George Nye. His mother was Thankful Hinckley. George Nye owned a farm at Tolland on which he resided. December 21, 1763, Ichabod Nye was born. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a tanner in Hadley, for the purpose of learning the trade. In this it was considered he had an advantage not shared by his brothers who were reared on the farm. It is probable that he finished his apprenticeship, though he entered the Revolutionary army at the early age of sixteen. Among the names of Revolutionary soldiers found at the State house in Boston is the following: "Ichabod Nye, age sixteen, five feet, eleven inches high, black hair; Colonel Porter's regiment, 1779." He afterwards served in Colonel Sear's regiment, which belonged to the northern army under Gates. He was with this branch of the army during the campaign which terminated with the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga.

In 1785 Ichabod Nye married Minerva, daughter of General Benjamin Tupper. At the close of the war they were residing with General Tupper, at Chesterfield, Massachusetts.

General Tupper, immediately on his return from the army in 1783, made known to his friends and neighbors his intention to go to the western territory. They regarded it as mere talk on his part. He, however, immediately set about the formation of the Ohio company. Mr. Nye has- written: "I had engaged to come west to settle with him, and we began to prepare for the undertaking. Soon after the defeat of Shay I began to collect timber to build wagons, and went with a sleigh to Williamsburgh for timber of oak as there was none to be obtained in Chesterfield, nor was there a wagon fit for such a journey to be obtained in the State of Massachusetts, and but one man in our part of the State who could make one. I engaged him, however, and he built us two wagons, one for the family, or rather both families, and one for the goods and utensils belonging to them. With these we made our destination on the Ohio bank at Wellsburgh, Virginia, in company with Colonel Cushing and family, Major Goodale and family, and were joined there by Major Coburn and family, and his son-in-law, Andrew Webster and family. I left this company at Wellsburgh and came overland on the Virginia side with the horses and two hired men, reaching Marietta ten days before them." They descended the river in the Mayflower, which had been sent up for that purpose, and arrived at Marietta August 19, 1788. Their journey had occupied ten weeks, haying been detained at Wells- burgh waiting for Major Coburn.

When these families arrived in Marretta, Campus Martius was in process of building, but not finished. They occupied such houses as they could obtain near Campus Martius, generally small log houses. General Tupper soon put up a dwelling in the Campus Martius, on the southwest side, on the ground afterwards occupied by the residence of Ichabod Nye In September, 1788, Mrs. Nye wrote as follows to some friends in New England: "We now live in the city of Marietta, where we expect to end our days. We find the country much more delightsome than we had any idea of." And in November Miss Rowena Tupper writes: "The country has been so often spoken of that it is needless for me to say more than that it answers every expectation." In 1790 Mr. Nye began to sink vats for a tan-yard in the extreme northern portion of the town on Seventh street.

These vats were built from the timbers of the boat in which his brother, Ebenezer Nye, had descended the river, and were the first tan vats in the Northwestern Territory. This situation was during the Indian war, which soon followed, a hazardous one, but no attack was made upon him there. He afterwards sunk some vats near the upper end of Third street, but the ground was unfavorable, and he finally erected buildings near the corner of Seventh and Putnam streets, where the main building of the chair company now stands. At that time Putnam street was not opened beyond Fifth. It was at this place that the heaviest part of his business was carried on. His customers were from all parts of the surrounding country, and the reputation of the leather made there was of the highest character.

During the Indian war Mr. Nye lived in General Tupper's house in Campus Martins. His brother, Ebenezer Nye, with his family and Mrs. Kelley (a widow) with her children, lived in the southeast block-house. After the close of the war Ichabod Nye purchased the southwest block-house, which had been the residence of Governor St. Clair, and resided there until 1814. He owned four lots on the south end of the square, north of Scammel street, and he left the stockade and lived for a time in a house standing on the lot corner of front and Scam- met In 1820 he built his dwelling house on the stockade, where he resided during the remainder of his life, and where two of his sons have always lived until 1880. In 809 he erected the brick store on Putnam street, now (1881) occupied by Jacob Pfaff as a bakery. The upper story was used for the Masonic lodge hall; the lower story for a store. In the spring of 1810 he opened a store in this building, in which he kept dry goods, groceries, shoes—in fact such goods as were in demand. In August, 1813, he entered into a partnership with Mr. Charles Shipman, and they removed the goods to Athens and opened a store there under charge of Mr. Shipman, then a young man. In 1816 this partnership was dissolved and Mr. Nye reopened his store on Putnam street, Marietta. He had also formed, in 1805, a partnership with Colonel Benjamin Tupper, his brother-in-law, and they had opened a store in Springfield, now the Ninth ward of Zanesville, Ohio. He afterwards withdrew from this partnership, and established two of his sons in the mercantile business with himself, one under the firm name of I. & A. Nye, and the other A. Nye & Co. These were also in Springfield. He finally transferred the goods from the Marietta store and the store of I. & A. Nye, in Putnam, to Waterford, Ohio. In March, 1819,

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A. T. Nye took charge of the business there, and in 824 he purchssed the stock and continued the business under his own name. After 824, Mr. Ichabod Nye had no further interest in mercantile business.

Colonel Nye, as he was always called, having been commissioned in militia about 1804, was very little engaged in public business. He was a subscriber to Muskingum academy, and was always interested in educational matters. He was a member of the Masonic lodge in Marietta. In his youth his opportunities for obtaining an education were limited, but he was a man who read a great deal, and of the very best, and he also kept himself well informed on all public affairs. He had a strong and vigorous mind, and generally formed his own opinions. He was strongly attached to the administration of General Washington, and belonged to the Federal party as long as that party existed, and afterwards to the Whig party. He died November 27, 1840. His first wife, Minerva Tupper, died April 20, 1836. Their children who survived infancy were: Horace, Panthea, who married Rothius Hayward, of Waterford, Ohio; Arius, Anselm Tupper, Sophia, who married Rev. Cyrus Byington, of the Choctaw Mission; Rowena, who married William Pitt Putnam, of Belpre; Huldah, died June 22, 1838, not married; Ichabod Hinckley, Edward White. The only children who now survive (881) are Anselm T. Nye, born in Campus Martius, November 9, 1797, and Edward White Nye, born April 13, 1812. Ichabod Hinckly Nye, so well known and highly esteemed in Marietta, died at the homestead, on the stockade, in June, 1880. Colonel Nye married, in 1840, Mrs. Rebecca Howe Beebe, who survived him some years.

Ebenezer Nye, brother of Ichabod Nye, settled in Rainbow. His descendants live in Athens, Meigs and Muskingum counties. From these two brothers are .descended all of the name in southeastern Ohio, who are of English descent.

REBECCA GILMAN.

The centre of a circle of cultured intellects during the period of early settlement was Rebecca Ives Gilman, wife of Joseph Gilman. She was the daughter of Benjamin Ives and granddaughter of Hon. Robert Hall, under whose direction a fine mind was store with useful information, and a taste cultivated for polite literature. Her early associates were people of culture and education.

I Mrs. Gilman was bright and fascinating in conversation. Her friendship was much sought and highly valued. But she never permitted her polite studies to interfere with domestic duty. She is described as a model housekeeper and mother. After the death of her husband in 1806, she lived in her own house at Harmar until 1812, when she removed with her son, Benjamin Ives Gilman, to Philadelphia, where she died in 1820.

MRS. MARY LAKE.

The name of Mary Lake was for many years a household word in the pioneer families of Marietta. Her example both in the Revolution and here demonstrated the capability of a kind hearted, strong minded woman in seasons of distress. Mary Bird was born in Bristol, England, in 1742. At the age of twenty she married Archibald Lake, a seaman, and moved to St. John, New Foundland. Here he followed fishing until the place came into possession of the French, when he removed to New York and engaged in ship building. New York at an early period of the war was occupied by the British, and Mrs. Luke determined to be of use to her adopted countrymen, for she enlisted heartily in the American cause, deserted the city and went into the hospitals at Fishkill and then at New Windsor, where she was the comforting angel of many suffering soldiers. The war over her husband was at a loss for profitable employment, and welcomed the news of the opening of the new territory west of the Ohio, where he could find a home.

The family came to Marietta in 1789. Mrs. Lake's kindness of heart and skill in the sick room were soon found out. Her superior intelligence and purity of character, placed her in high esteem in the new settlement. In the spring of 1790 small-pox broke out in Campus Martius. Most of the physicians were young, and knew little of the disease. Her experienced services during this trying period were found of the highest value.

Mrs. Lake was a lady of intense purity, and wore all the graces of pure religion. She taught the first Sunday- school in the territory, and it has been said the second in America, but there is good ground for disputing this statement. After the regular preaching service, Mrs. Lake gathered the children about her and instructed them from the Westminister catechism and the Bible.

After the peace in 1795, she moved to the Rainbow settlement on the Muskingum, where she died in 1802, leaving an estimable family.

ISAAC AND REBECCA WILLIAMS.

During the toilsome period of early settlement two inhabitants of Virginia by kind offrces so endeared themselves to the residents of this side, that a sketch of their lives belongs in this volume. The village facing the mouth of the Muskingum bears their name.

Isaac Williams was born in Pennsylvania in 1737. In early life his parents removed to Winchester, Virginia, then a frontier town. He was fond of hunting, and soon became acquainted with the out of the way places of the wild country in which he lived. When he was eighteen years old the Colonial Government employed him as a spy to watch the movements of the Indians. He served in the army of General Braddock, and was connected with the military movements in the west during the French and Indian war. He was one of the first settlers of Brooks county, West Virginia. He removed west about 1769. He had previously visited the Ohio on hunting and trapping expeditions, which he

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made annually. He accumulated large tracts of land by making entries under the Virginia laws. Clearing and planting one acre in corn entitled the holder to four hundred dollars.

While residing in Brooks county he became acquainted with and married Rebecca Martin, a widow. Her first husband had been killed by the Indians.

Mr. Williams accompanied Lord Dunmore in his campaign against the Indians in 1774, and was present when the treaty was made near Chillicothe. Mrs. Williams had come to Virginia in 1771, and was living with her brothers near the mouth of Grave creek. While living here an incident occurred which proves that she was a very remarkable woman. She made an expedition to her sister's, fifty miles down the river, in a canoe. On her return, night overtook her, and she determined to go ashore and wait for the rising of the moon. On returning she found it necessary to wade a few steps to reach the canoe. When just in the act of stepping on board her foot rested on the cold, dead body of an Indian who had been murdered a few days before. Without screaming, she stepped into the canoe and rowed on her way homeward.

In the spring of 1773 Joseph and Samuel Tomlinson, her brothers, entered four hundred acres of land in the bottom opposite the mouth of the Muskingum, which they presented to their sister Rebecca, in consideration for previous services. In 1786, Fort Harmer having been built and garrisoned, Mr. and Mrs. Williams desired to occupy. their land. Saplings had grown on the clearing made fifteen years before, but the land was easily reduced to a state of cultivation.

This early settlement on the Virginia side was a fortunate circumstance for the early settlers of Marietta. Mr. Williams, by the time the New England colony arrived, had his farm under a good state of cultivation, and during the distressing famine of 1790 supplied the hungry pioneers on the other side of the river with corn, of which he had a large crop. Speculators, always ready to take advantage of people's misfortunes, urged him to take a dollar and a quarter a bushel for his whole crop. "Dod rot 'em," said the old man, "I would not let 'em have a bushel." When a purchaser came he proportioned the number of bushels to the number of members in the family, in order that he might be able to serve all alike. He charged no one more than fifty cents per bushel, the current price in plentiful years. In the fullest sense he improved his opportunity for doing good.

Rebecca was skilled in the healing art, and often relieved distressed pioneers and hunters by the application of simple remedies. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were always social, clever, and kind. They liberated their slaves in later years, and left them substantial tokens of friendship. Mr. Williams never missed an opportunity to indulge his passion for hunting, even in his old age. The citizens of Marietta mourned his death in September, 1820, as one of their own number.

COLONEL WILLIAM STACEY.

Colonel William Stacey, a man highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities, and honored for his services and sufferings in the cause of freedom, has many descendants yet living in the county. He was a native of Massachusetts, and when the outbreak at Lexington aroused American patriotism, he was the first member of the New Salem militia company to renounce his allegiance to the king. The company was reorganized, and entered the American service with Mr. Stacey as captain.

In 1778 Captain Stacey was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of Colonel Ichabod Alden's regiment of the Massachusetts line. He was with his regiment on the perilous campaign, in 1778, against the Indians and tories in the Cherry valley, New York, and was a witness of the slaughter of November 11th in Oneida county. Colonel Stacey was here taken prisoner, and was taken a distance of about two hundred miles to an Indian village near the present site of Geneva.

After a council of the chiefs he was sentenced to be burned. The Indians were under the command of Joseph Brant whom Colonel Stacey saw in the surrounding crowd, while the fires were being kindled under him. It is said that he gave Brant the sign of Free Masonry, and that chief, whose word was law, directed his release.

Colonel Stacey was held as a prisoner by the Indians for four years. After his release he returned to his farm at New Salem until 1789, when he removed with his five sons and one son-in-law with their family to Marietta. Two of the sons, John and Philemon, were victims of the attack on Big Bottom, January 2, 1791. John was killed, and Philemon was taken prisoner, and died in captivity. Gideon, the youngest son, settled in New Orleans, and established a ferry across Lake Pontchatrain. The remaining member of the family settled in this county.

After the death of his first wife Colonel Stacey married Mrs. Sheffield, a lady of high rank. He died at Marietta in 1804.

MAJOR ANSELM TUPPER.

Anselm Tupper, eldest son of General Benjamin Tupper, came to Marietta as one of the surveyors of the Ohio company, April 7, 1788. Previous to that time he had been in the western country with his father, engaged in the survey of one of the seven ranges.

General Tupper entered the service of his country immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill. At that time his son Anselm was very young, only thirteen, but he was with his father in an engagement on North river, in August, 1776. In 1779 when sixteen years of age, he received the appointment of adjutant in the regiment of Colonel Sproat, of the Massachusetts line, in which position he served until the close of the war. This regiment was engaged at Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth and other battles. Major Tupper enjoyed the confidence and personal friendship of his commanding officer.

Immediately upon their arrival at the Muskingum,

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in 1788, the surveyors began their work, and continued it until driven into the forts by the hostility of the Indians. During the Indian war Major Tupper lived in Campus Martins. He taught the first school opened there, in the northwest block-house. He was a man of intellectual ability, and especially in mathematics had the reputation of being a good scholar. He is said to have possessed a refined and polished address, and was of fine personal appearance and military bearing. An oil portrait exists, representing him when very young, in the uniform of the Massachusetts regimental officers. He was appointed post major of Campus Martius, and continued in this position during the war. He was the favorite of the officers in the garrison, especially of Colonel Sproat, and his wit sometimes in verse, seemed to give them great satisfaction, though at their expense. On one occasion, when Colonel Sproat was left behind in a foot race with Dr. Story, the minister, Major Tupper wrote some lines, in which the following gave a momentary offence to Colonel Sproat:

It was a point, they all gave in,

Divinity could outstrip sin.

Some poetic pieces were written by him in connection with Masonic celebrations, he being a member of the Masonic lodge. His verses generally had for their subject some local event, among others "The Indian Feast," to commemorate the dinner given to the Indian chiefs at Campus Martins. Another piece was a parody on the "Battle of the Kegs," and was called the "Battle of the Muskingum," a humorous account of the affairs which occurred at Marietta in connection with the capture of Blennerhassett's boats, usually called Burr's flotilla. This was published in a Lancaster paper, and afterwards in Safford's Life of Blennerhassett.

About 1801 Edward W. Tupper engaged in ship building in Marietta. One of his vessels, the Indiana, was built five miles up the Muskingum. Another, called the Orlando, was built at the foot of Putnam street, Marietta. The Orlando went out under the command of Captain Matthew Miner, and Major Tupper went out as second officer. The vessel arrived at New Orleans the fourth of July, 1804, and found the city in great commotion, celebrating the first fourth of July since the cession of Louisiana to the United States Government. They then crossed the Atlantic to the Mediterranean sea, up to Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic. She was sold, and Major Tupper returned home by way of England. After his return to America he went to Gallipolis, to be with his brother Edward. His health failing, he returned home to Marietta, where he died, December, 1808, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Ichabod Nye. He is buried in Mound cemetery, by the side of his father, and near his old friend and commander, Colonel Sproat.

COLONEL BENJAMIN TUPPER.

Benjamin Tupper, youngest son of General Tupper, was born in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. He came to Marietta with his father in 1788. In 1802 he married Martha, daughter of General Rufus Putnam. For several years he was receiver of the United States land office at Marietta. In 1806 he removed to Springfield, afterwards Putnam, Ohio, and entered into a mercantile business with his brother-in-law, Ichabod Nye. He afterwards formed another partnership, which continued until his death, in 1814. Of his children but one is now (1881) living, Mrs. Catharine Munam, of Zanesville, Ohio. His only son, Benjamin, died some years since. His youngest grandson, Theodore Tupper, died on the battlefield at Shiloh, at the age of nineteen. His body was not recovered. In his death the name of Tupper became extinct in the family line of General Benjamin Tupper.

GENERAL JOSEPH BUELL

General Buell was not a member of the Ohio company, but he was a soldier who spent two years in the western country before the pioneers arrived. The greater part of those two years he spent at Fort Harmar. He kept a diary, in which he describes the country west of the Ohio and the people who were then in it, and mentions many occurrences which, though apparently of small moment then, are now eagerly sought for as matters of history. In trying to reproduce some of the events of his life, we shall not dwell upon his ancestry or early youth. He was from Killingworth, Connecticut, where he was born February 16, 2760. His parents were David and Mary (Hurd) Buell, and he was the second of their twelve children. His first ancestor in America was William (1630), whose eldest son, Samuel settled in Killingworth, now Clinton, Connecticut, in 1664.

At the age of twenty-two, in September, 1785, Joseph Buell conducted a company of ninety-four recruits for the army from Hartford, Connecticut, to West Point, in the capacity of orderly sergeant. At West Point the men were assigned to Captain Strong's company of Colonel Harmar's regiment. November 20th the company was ordered to the western frontier. They marched across the mountains and arrived at Fort McIntosh, at the mouth of Beaver river, on the Ohio, December 26, 1785, where they remained in barracks during the remainder of the winter. May 4, 1786, Captain Strong's company and that of Captain Zeigler embarked for the mouth of the Muskingum, where, on the west point, Fort Harmar had been built, though not completely finished, in the fall of 1785. They reached the fort on the eighth, but encamped outside at the edge of some woods until the tenth, when Captain Zeigler's company proceeded down the Ohio to the Miami, and Captain Strong's company moved into Fort Harmar.

On the twenty-seventh of May, 1787, Captain Strong's company was ordered to report at Post St. Vincent, now Vincennes. They descended the river in two keel-boats to Fort Finney, opposite Louisville, which they reached on the thirty-first. There they remained until July 8th, when they Started for Post St. Vincent, arriving there on

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the nineteenth. After a very sickly summer, in which nearly half the men were unfit for duty, they were ordered to return to Fort Harmar, at which place they arrived November 21st.

The succeeding summer was spent at Fort Harmar. Early in November Sergeant Buell obtained his discharge and returned to Connecticut.

In August, 1788, Sergeant Buell purchased four hundred acres of land of Judge Symmes, at half a dollar an acre, paying one-half in cash, the other half to be paid in one year. It was his intention when he bought this to settle in the Miami country, of which he writes, "I think it exceeds any part of the western world." Whatever may have been Mr. Buell's plans for ultimate settlement, he set his face toward home as soon as he had received his discharge from the army, and reached Killingworth November 27, 1788. After visiting his friends he taught school for three months, at the same time trying to perfect his plans for returning to the western country for settlement. February 15, 1789, he was married to Siba Hand. He seems to have felt much doubt about taking her into the new country, but finally decided to do so. He visited Mr. Joshua Shipman, of Saybrook, and bargained with him to furnish half the wagon and half the team which was to carry the two families to Ohio.. By the first of May, however, Mr. Shipman had given up the plan, and this, with other difficulties, led Mr. Buell to leave his wife in New England for two years. In May, 1789, he set out for Marietta with his brother, Timothy, aftewards sheriff of Washington county. Arriving safely at Marietta, Mr. Buell was joined by his friend, Mr. Levi Munsell, with whom he had been associated in the army, and they went to North Bend to join Judge Symmes' colony. Probably from fear of the Indians they soon returned to Marietta, many others leaving North Bend for the same reason.

In 1790 Messrs. Buell and Munsell opened a tavern at the Point, Marietta. This was a large frame building, and it was erected in 1789 on the lots at the corner of Front and Green streets. The frame of the building was made at the headwaters of the Ohio and floated down to Marietta. During the Indian war it was within the enclosure which formed the "Point" garrison. At this time Messrs. Buell and Munsell both lived there— Mrs. Buell having joined her husband in 1790, and Mr. Munsell having married a daughter of Colonel Alexander Oliver, of Belpre.

In 1795, peace having been declared, life was once more infused into the plans of the colonists; men left the garrisons and went to their farms; others engaged in occupations in town. Mr. Buell remained in Marietta, and built for his own residence, in 1801, a brick house, on the corner of Green and Second streets. This house is still standing, and is said to be the oldest brick house in the State of Ohio. He also built, a year or two later, the brick house on "Boiler corner." The tavern business was continued under the charge of Mr. Munsell, and became about 1801 very remunerative to the proprietors. Owing to the activity in the business of ship-building, many carpenters, calkers, and other artisans connected with the business came into Marietta, and they largely patronized this tavern. In August, 1807, there were five ships on the stocks at Marietta. Soon after, in consequence of the embargo, the business was suddenly discontinued, and several prominent business men failed and left Marietta, and laborers connected with them were obliged to seek employment elsewhere. The tavern business suffered in consequence. Mr. Munsell left Marietta in a few years, and General Buell died in 1812; but the tavern was kept as a public house by other parties until about 1830. In 1832 Mr. Joseph Holden, who had bought the property, pulled down the old frame and erected brick buildings on the lots, in which he engaged in a mercantile business. About thirty years after, these buildings were remodelled (having escaped the great fire of 1859), and finally became the property of the First National bank.

From the time that Mr. Buell decided to make Marietta his home he took an active interest in all that concerned the welfare of the town, especially in civil, political, and military affairs. In the early days of Marietta all were adherents of General Washington, and of his administration. A few years later party strife arose and Marietta people became divided in political sentiment. Mr. Buell became an adherent of Jefferson's administration. He was elected a member of the senate of the State of Ohio and served in the first, second, third and fourth assemblies-1803 to 1805. His military service had fitted him to take part in military affairs and he was appointed major general of militia, a position at that time a very responsible one. While he was major general the so called "Burr conspiracy" arose, and Marietta became the scene of considerable military activity. In December, 1806, General Buell received an order from the governor for the arrest of Blennerhassett and the prevention of cer min "acts hostile to the tranquility and peace of the United States,"—i. e. the departure of the boats intended for the Burr expedition from the Muskingum. Acting under this authority, General Buell, with characteristic energy and method, took measures to arrest the batteaux, which had been building at Judge Joseph Barker's, on the Muskingum river. "These boats," writes one who saw them, "were very frail, built like a skiff, sharp at both ends, and sided up with thin weatherboarding and covered. There were ten of them, of two or three tons each, and they were built under contract of Mr. Blennerhassett with Colonel Barker. They were called in derision 'Burr's flotilla.'"

One evening in December, 1806, the company of militia from the Point (there were two companies in Marietta), passed up Front street to the Washington street landing. They entered a building there and prepared to remain for the night. The