Morgan County, Ohio - Chapter 4: The Ohio Company, 1886

First Steps Toward Organizing the Ohio Company - Conference of Generals Putnam and Tupper - Their Address to the People - Meeting in Boston - The Company Organized - Statement of its Objects - Dil Cutler Appointed to Conduct Negotiations with Congress - His Ability and Success as an Agent - Result of IIls Labors - The Ohio Company's Purchase and the Ordinance of Freedom - Their Intimate Relation - Reasons for Selecting Lands on the Muskingum - Dr. Cutler's Report Made and Accepted - The Proposed City and Colony - Measures in Relation to the Same - Conspicuous Zeal Manifested in the Promotion of Education and Religion - The Survey - Proposed Donations to Settlers - Final Adjustment of the Company's Affairs - A Period of Embarrassment, Finally Relieved by Congressional Action - The Purchase as Finally Concluded - The Donation Lands - Division of Lands Among Shareholders.

rpHE organization of the Ohio Oom- -L pany, and consequently the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the Northwest, resulted from plans formed by two Massachusetts men, heroes of the Revolutionary war, (feneral Rufus Putnam and General Benjamin Tupper. The war had naturally strengthened the spirit of adventure, always a prominent trait of New England character, and its close found many soldiers, reduced to poverty or bankruptcy by the results of the seven years' struggle, ready to embark in any scheme that promised to retrieve their shattered fortunes. The time was ripe for western colonization, a subject which had attracted the attention of many of the Revolutionary leaders during the closing years of the war, and was especially favored by Washington. In 1776 Congress had provided for a system of military land bounties for the benefit of all soldiers who should serve through flu* war. This act provided that a colonel should be entitled to 5oo acres, a lieutenant-colonel to 450 acres, while other officers should receive lesser amounts in proportion to their rank, and a private should be allowed 100 acres. Four years later the provisions of tin* act were extended to the higher officers,

" In 1783, seeing that the final reduction of the army must soon take place, the officers, to the number of two hundred and eighty-eight, anxious for definite action, petitioned Congress to locate the lands they were entitled to somewhere in the region now known as Eastern Ohio; but even the great influence of Washington was not able to bring about the object sought, and no legislation affecting the interests of the petitioners was enacted. Congress had not yet a, perfect title to the territory northwest of the Ohio. It must be remembered that the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army did not receive money for their priceless services, but almost valueless certificates. In 178-1 they were worth only about 3,v 6d to 4s to the pound, and as late as 1788 they brought not more than 5s or 6*."*

In 1784 Virginia ceded to the general government all her claims to the territory northwest of the Ohio, excepting only that tract since known as the Virginia Military District, lying between the Scioto and the Little Miami. This cession led to new efforts on the part of the New England officers to obtain some adequate recognition by Congress of the justness of their claims, but without result. At this juncture the plan of buying a tract was presented by Generals Putnam and Tupper. General Tupper was one of the government surveyors appointed by Congress to lay out in townships and ranges that part of the Northwestern Territory which is now Southeastern Ohio, lie had visited the western country in the performance of his duties in 1785, and doubtless that visit and his favorable report of the region had its influence on the subsequent purchase of the tract of the Ohio Company on the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers.

In January, 1786, General Tupper visited his friend General Putnam at the home of the latter in Rutland, Worcester County, Mass., and as the result of their conference there appeared in the newspapers of Boston on the 25th of January an address to the people, headed " Information," which read as follows :

" The subscribers take this method to inform all officers and soldiers who have served in the late war and who are by a late ordinance of the honorable Congress to receive certain tracts of land in the Ohio country, and also all other good citizens who wish to become adventurers in that delightful region, that from personal inspection, together with other incontestable evidences, they are fully satisfied that the lands in that quarter are of a much better quality than any other known to the New England people ; that the climate, seasons, products, etc., are, in fact, equal to the most flattering accounts that have ever been published of them ; that beingdetermined to become purchasers and to prosecute a settlement in the country, and desirous of forming a general association with those who entertain the same ideas, they beg leave to propose the following plan, viz. : That an association by the name of the Ohio Company lie formed of all such as wish to become purchasers, etc-., in that country, who reside in the commonwealth of Massachusetts only, or to extend to the inhabitants of other States, as shall be agreed on."

The address further proposed that all favoring the plan should meet at designated places in their respective counties on the 15th of the following month (February) for the purpose of choosing delegates, who should assemble at the Hunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston, on Wednesday, March 1, 1786, "then and there to consider and determine upon a general plan of association for said company."

The meeting, which was destined to have such an important bearing upon the future of the West, came off at the time and place designated. The delegates, among whom were some of the foremost men of the State at that day, were as follows : Manasseh Cutler, of Essex County ; Winthrop Sargent and John Mills, of Suffolk; John Brooks and Thomas Cushing, of Middlesex; Benjamin Tupper, of Hampshire; Crocker Sampson, of Plymouth ; Rufus Putnam, of Worcester; Jelaliel Woodbridge and John Patterson, of Berkshire, and Abraham Williams, of Barnstable. General Putnam was chosen chairman and Major Winthrop Sargent secretary. A committee of five was chosen to draft articles of association,* which were unanimously adopted on the 3d of March, and thus the Ohio Company formally entered upon its important mission.

" The design of this association," as stated in the preamble of the resolutions, was to raise a fund in Continental certificates for the sole purpose and to be appropriated to the entire use of purchasing lands in the western territory belonging to the United States, for the benefit of the company, and to pro-

*A copy of the articles of agreement ol' the Ohio Company and a record of its proceedings may be seen in the county auditor's oiliee in Met 'onnellsvillo.

mote a settlement in that country." Article I provided that the fund should not exceed $1,000,000 in Continental specie certificates, exclusive of one year's interest due thereon (except as afterward provided); each share to consist of $1,000, as aforesaid, and also $10 in gold or silver. Article II provided that the whole fund, except one year's interest on the certificates, should be applied to the purchase of lands. The one year's interest was reserved to be "applied to the purpose of making a settlement in the country and assisting those who may be otherwise unable to remove themselves thither." The gold and silver was for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the agents of the company and other contingent ex] lenses.

Ho person was allowed to hold more than five shares in the company's funds. Agents were to be appointed representing divisions of twenty shares each ; and in case the fund was not raised to the proposed amount, the agents of divisions, after October 17. 1786, were to be entitled to proceed as if the whole fund had been raised. Five directors were to be chosen, who should have the sole disposal of the company's funds.

A year elapsed. The projectors of the scheme had used their best efforts, vet at the second meeting of the company at Brackett's Tavern, in Boston, March S, 17*7, it was reported that only two hundred and fifty shares had been subscribed for. Despite this somewhat meager showing the directors seemed satisfied and encouraged, and decided at once to make application to Congress for the purchase of lands. It was stated at this meeting that many persons in Massachusetts and also in the neighboring commonwealths of Connecticut,

Rhode Island and New Hampshire were "inclined to become adventurers," and were only deterred by the uncertainty of obtaining a sufficient tract of land, collectively, for a good settlement.

General Rufus Putnam, Dr. Manasseh Cutler and General Samuel II. Parsons were chosen directors and especially intrusted with the business of making a purchase of land. The haste for a speedy conclusion of the negotiation then manifested resulted from the fact that other companies were already forming, and there was a fear that the most desirable lands in the Ohio country would soon be secured by some of those speculative associations. The directors now empowered Dr. Cutler to make a purchase of lands upon the Muskingum. The sequel showed that they could have employed no more competent or trustworthy agent.

Rev. Manasseh Cutler, though then but a country parson, settled over a small congregation in Ipswich (now Hamilton), Mass., was a man of genius and the highest culture. He was a graduate of Yale and had taken degrees in law, medicine and divinity. He now assumed the role of diplomat, and his keenness, shrewdness and sagacity rendered him successful in the highest degree.

Just why lands upon the Muskingum should have been selected in preference to all others then available may not be readily apparent to the student of history. There were, however, many good reasons for the choice made by the Ohio Company. While much of the northwestern territory was then known to be infested by hostile Indians, none of these had their homes on the Lower Muskingum, and only occasionally visited this locality on their hunting expeditions. Fort Harmar, built in 1785-86 at the mouth of the Muskingum, also had its influence in drawing the adventurers thither. Thomas Hutchins, the geographer of the confederation, recommended the Muskingum region as "the best part of the whole western country," and his opinion was identical with that of other explorers, among whom were General Butler, General Parsons and General Tupper. Doubtless the existence of mineral wealth in this part of the country was known to members of the company, and it is also probable that the prospect of establishing a system of water communication between the Ohio and Lake Erie, via the Muskingum, Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga, and between the Ohio and the Atlantic coast by way of the Great Kanawha and the Potomac (a plan commended by Washington before the Revolution), had its influence.

Dr. Cutler started in June from Ipswich and proceeded to New York, where Congress was then in session. He put up his horse "in the Bowery barns," and at once began the business which was to have such an important influence upon the future of the whole western country. It is not our purpose to give a history of his negotiations, but only the results of his mission, it suffices, therefore, to state that he managed the matter with consummate tact and far-sighted wisdom, though his task was no easy one. The Ordinance of Freedom which was passed while Dr. Cutler's negotiations were pending, received from his hand those noble provisions which have given it its name - those clauses forever prohibiting slavery and encouraging religion, morality and education. Before the act passed (July 13, 1787), the committee having it in charge sent a copy to Dr. Cutler " with leave to make remarks and propose amendments," and the measures mentioned were included on his recommendation. This action, while it was a testimonial of the greatest honor to Dr. Cutler, also shows how anxious Congress was to secure his favor and encourage his scheme. " The ordinance of 1787 and the Ohio purchase," says a writer who has given much attention to the subject, "were parts of one and the same transaction. The purchase would not have been made without the ordinance, and the ordinance could not have been enacted except as an essential condition of the purchase."

The proposed terms of the purchase were submitted to Congress by Dr. Cutler and his associate, Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Ohio Company, and on the 27th of July were adopted without change. They are set forth in the report made by Dr. Cutler to the directors and agents of the Ohio Company at the Hunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston, August 20, 1787, which was as follows :

"That in consequence of resolves of Congress of the 23d and 27th of July he agreed on the condition of a contract with the Board of Treasury of the United States for a, particular tract of land, containing in the whole as much as the company's funds will pay for should the subscription amount to one million of dollars, agreeably to the articles of association, at one dollar per acre, from which price is to be deducted one-third of a dollar for bad lands and defraying the expenses of surveying, etc.

the Ohio; west by a meridian line to be drawn through the western cape of the Great Kanawha River, and extending so far north that a due east and west line from the seventh range of townships to the said meridian line shall include the whole.

" This tract to extend so far northerly as to comprehend within its limits, exclusively of the above purchase, one lot of six hundred and forty acres in each township for the purposes of religion; an equal quantity for the support of schools; and two townships of twentythree thousand and forty acres each for a university, to be as near the center of the whole tract as may be; which lots and townships are given by Congress and appropriated for the above uses forever; also three lots of six hundred and forty acres each, in every township, reserved for the future disposition of Congress; and the bounty lands of the military associators to be comprised in the whole tract, provided they do not exceed one-seventh part thereof.

" In consideration of which, a right of entry and occupancy for a quantity of land equal to this sum, at the price stipulated, be given, and that as soon as the geographer or some proper officer of the United States shall have surveyed and ascertained the quantity of the whole, the sum of live hundred thousand dollars more be paid, amounting in flit' whole to one million dollars, for which the company are to be put in possession of the whole moiety of the lands above described and receive a deed of the whole from the said Board of Treasury."

Thus the ( )hio Company secured the refusal for 1,500,0(10 acres ; but for reasons that will appear hereafter they , finally became possessed of only 964,- 2S5 acres. The report of Dr. Cutler having been approved and accepted, it was ordered that the contract he closed. The contract was executed at New York, October 27, 1787, and signed by Samuel Osgood and Arthur Lee, of the Board of Treasury, and Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, for the Ohio Company. It was, in all its provisions, in accordance with the foregoing report of Dr. Cutler; and thus the declaration of the ordinance of 1787, "That schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," received practical exemplification.

On the next day after Dr. Cutler made his report to the directors, they, in far-away Boston, mapped out on paper a city at the confluence of the Muskingum and the Ohio, the Marietta that was to be, though no name was given the city until the following year. At a subsequent meeting held at Cromwell's Head Tavern in Boston, November 21, the directors

" liesolved, That the lands of the Ohio Company may be allotted and divided in the following manner, anything to the contrary in former resolutions notwithstanding, viz. : Four thousand acres near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers for a city and commons, and contiguous to this, one thousand lots of eight acres each, amounting to one thousand acres.

"Upon the Ohio, in fractional townships, one thousand lots of one hundred and sixteen and forty-three one-lmndredths acres, amounting to one hundred and sixteen thousand four hundred and thirty acres.

" In the townships on the navigable rivers, one thousand lots of three hundred and twenty acres each, amounting to three hundred and twenty thousand acres.

"And in the inland towns one thousand lots of nine hundred and ninetytwo acres each, amounting to nine hundred and ninety-two thousand acres, to be divided and piloted as the agents shall hereafter see fit."* passed resolutions providing for the fitting out and sending of a party of pioneers to the Muskingum. To show what was the equipment and the duty of this party, we quote the resolutions entire :

"That twenty -two men shall attend the surveyors ; that there be added to this number twenty men, including six boat-builders, four house-carpenters, one blacksmith and nine common workmen. That the boat-builders shall proceed on Monday next, and the surveyors rendezvous at Hartford the 1st day of January next, on their way to the Muskingum ; that the boat-builders and the men with the surveyors be proprietors in the company ; that their tools and one axe and one hoe to each man, and thirty pounds' weight of baggage, shall be carried in the company's wagons, and that the subsistence of the men on the journey be furnished by the company ; that upon their arrival at the place of destination and entering upon the business of their employment the men shall be subsisted by the company, and allowed wages at the rate of four dollars each per month until discharged : that they be held in the company's service until the 1st day of July next unless sooner discharged ; and if any of the persons employed shall leave the service or wilfully injure the same or disobey the orders of the superintendent or others acting under him, the person so offending shall forfeit all claim to wages. That their wages shall be paid the next autumn in cash or lands upon the same terms as the company purchased them. That each man furnish himself with a good small arm, bayonet, six dints, a powder horn and pouch, priming wire and brush, half a pound of powder, one pound of balls, and one pound of buckshot. The men so engaged shall be subject to the orders of the superintendent and those he may appoint as aforesaid in any kinds of business they shall be employed in, as well for boat-building and surveying as for building houses, erecting defenses, clearing land and planting or otherwise, for promoting the settlement. And as there is a- possibility of interruption from enemies, they shall also be subject to orders as aforesaid in military command during the time of their employment. That the surveyors shall be allowed twenty -seven dollars per month and subsistence while in actual service, to commence upon their arrival at the Muskingum ; that Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, from Rhode Island, Mr. Anselm Tapper and Mr. .John Mathews, from Massachusetts, and Colonel R. -1. Meigs, from Connecticut, be the surveyors. That General Rufus Putnam be the superintendent <>t all the business aforesaid, and he is to be obeyed and respected accordingly : that he be allowed for his services forty dollars per month and his expenses, to commence from the time of his leaving home."

Before following this pioneer party into the western wilds let us hastily sketch the subsequent history and transactions of the Ohio Company.

At the November meeting it was decided that the next meeting of the directors should take place in Providence, R. I., m March following. Accordingly, on the 5th of the month, the directors and agents having assembled, the lots of the proposed city at the mouth* of the Muskingum were drawn by the agents for the respective shareholders. A thousand shares were represented. At this meeting, even before the settlement had begun, such was the zeal of the proprietors to promop education and religion, there was appointed, to consider the expediency of employing some suitable person as a teacher in the new colony, a committee, who recommended in their report " That the directors be requested to pay as early attention as possible to the education of youth and the promotion of public worship among the first settlers; and that, for these important services, they employ, if practicable, an instructor eminent for literary accomplishments and the virtue of his character, who shall also superintend the first scholastic institution and direct the manner of instruction." Noble words! And noble were the aims of the founders of the first settlement in ( )hio nearly one hundred years ago.

tember, 1TSS, until the treaty with the Indians (then pending and subsequently concluded at Fort llarmar, January 9, 1789) could he consummated. This course perhaps prevented serious trouble, as the Indians objected to the survey and were likely to interfere with its progress. The surveys made by the company were in accordance with the ordinance of Congress, passed in 1785, for the survey of the northwestern lands, and the rules therein laid down were carefully observed.

In December committees were sent out to explore lands in the purchase, the character of which the proprietors as yet knew but little, with a view toward deciding upon the location of future settlements. It was recommended that two thousand acres, in one-hundred-acre lots, at the forks of Duck Creek, about fifteen miles from Marietta, lie given to twenty settlers ; also, that a tract of six hundred and forty acres be given to encourage the erection of mills on Duck Creek near Marietta.

2. To build a dwelling-house within live years, of the size 18x24 feet, eight feet between the floors, and a cellar ten feet square; a chimney of brick or stone.

Any settler complying with the above rules who kept on the land for five years a man able to bear arms was entitled to receive a deed from the directors. These donation lots were permitted to be issued until October 1, 1789, to any number of persons not exceeding; two hundred, making in all 20,000 acres. The settlements were to be made by companies or associations of not less than twenty men to each settlement - this provision being a military precaution to guard against surprises from wandering Indians.

"This mode of settling the new lands of the purchase," says Dr. Hildreth, " was one of the most admirable that could be devised, and showed that the men who planned it were familiar with the cultivation of the soil as well as military affairs. These donation settlements were generally located on the frontiers of the purchase, and served as outposts to guard the more central parts. They formed a military as well as an agri cultural people, just such as the condi tion of the country needed. Their requirements as to the character of the improvements on the land were such as would be most beneficial to the settler and ultimately useful to the community. The regulation as to fruit-trees made a permanent impression upon the people generally."

By subsequent action of Congress the company was relieved from the necessitv of making donations out of their own lands to promote settlements.

being made and encouraged by the company's efforts, its own business was involved in well-nigh serious difficulties. Shortly after the formation of the Ohio Company another association, known as the Scioto Company, had been organized. Dr. Cutler, while negotiating with Congress for lands for his company, had been entreated to use his influence to obtain a purchase for them. Through his efforts a refusal was secured for a a large tract, and under the lead of the Sciota Company's agents, a French setment was made at Gallipolis in 1790. The affairs of the company were badly managed and the settlers were unable to obtain titles to their land until Congress, in 1798, made a grant of the tract, since known as the French grant, situated on the Ohio above fhe mouth of the Scioto. In 1789 it became apparent that the Ohio Company could not pay for the land embraced in the original contract; only half the purchase money had been paid and notifies could be secured until the balance was paid; a number of shares had become forfeited through non-payment. Therefore, in 1790, the directors of the Ohio Company readily availed themselves of an offer made by the Scioto Company to purchase certain tracts of the Ohio Company's lands, including the forfeited shares and a tract on the Great Ivanawalia. The contract was closed and the Ohio ( Company was cheered by the hope of adding to its finances by this means. The matter resulted in nothing Imt blank disappointment.

In the spring of 1792 a panic in New York caused the failure of Richard Platt, who was then the Ohio ( Company's treasurer, and had nearly $50,00(1 of tin1 funds of the association. At the same time financial disaster overtook the directors of the Scioto Company (bv whom as yet no payments had been made to the Ohio Company), and their contract for the purchase of forfeited shares was forfeited and annulled.

At this crisis three of the directors of the Ohio Company, Dr. Cutler, General Putnam and Colonel Robert Oliver, petitioned Congress for relief, asking that the 1,500,000 acres be deeded to them for the $500,000 already paid, and that a grant of 100,000 acres in addition be made to compensate for the lands which the company had donated to settlers. The prayer of the petitioners was answered in part by a bill passed April 21, 1792, which provided that a deed be made to the Ohio Company for 750,000 acres for the $500,000 in securities already paid; another for 214,285 (about one-seventli of the original purchase), to be paid for in land-warrants, and a third for 100,000 acres, to be held in trust and given to actual settlers in lots of one hundred acres each.

May 10, 1792, the President issued three patents to Rufus Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Robert Oliver and Griffin Greene in trust for the Ohio Company. With one exception these were the first land-patents issued by the United States. P>y their provisions the total amount of land conveyed to the Ohio Company was 964,285 acres; or, including the donation tract, 1,064,285 acres. The boundaries of the tract, as finally fixed by the survey, were approximately as follows :

"Beginning on the Ohio River upon the western boundary line of the fifteenth range of townships, thence running northerly to a point about one mile north of the south line of township number seven; thence west to the western boundary of the sixteenth range; thence north to the north line of township number sixteen ; thence east to a point about one mile east of the western boundary of the eleventh range of township; thence north four miles ; then east to the western boundary of the seventh range; thence south to the Ohio ; thence along the Ohio to the place of beginning."

Included in the purchase were parts of the present counties of Morgan, Washington, Gallia, Vinton, Jackson and Hocking, and all of Athens and Meigs.

The donation tract (a part of which is in Morgan County) lies in the northeastern part of the above-described territory, and is about twenty-one miles long and nearly eight miles wide. Its boundaries are as follows: Beginning on the western boundary line of the seventh range of townships, at the northeast corner of the seven hundred and fifty thousand acre tract ; thence running north to the line surveyed by Israel Ludlow at the northern boundary of the original purchase of 1,500,000 acres; thence west along that line to the tract containing 214,285 acres ; thence south to the boundary of the tract of 750,000 acres; thence east to the place of beginning.

The directors of the Ohio Company, as trustees of the donation tract, were required to make, free of expense, deeds in fee simple of one hundred acres to each male person not less than eighteen years of age, who must be an actual settler or a resident within the purchase at the time the conveyance should be made. The donation, although it secured fewer permanent settlers than was expected, greatly aided the Ohio Company, and was the means of attracting many adventurers into the territory. The lands were speculated in to some extent, those who had secured lots before the Indian war selling them to others at its close without having made any actual settlement or improvement.

Under the direction of the Ohio Company and the immediate superintendence of General Putnam the donation tract was surveyed in May, 1793, and by the middle of July 170 lots had been surveyed in nine allotments on the Muskingum and Wolf Creek. During the year a total of 186 lots was drawn; this number represents the whole number of males able to bear arms then residents of the three settlements of Washington County - at Marietta, Belpre and Waterford.

We need not follow the history of the Ohio Company further, having seen it successful, against incalculable disadvantages, in the performance of the mission to which its members voluntarily dedicated themselves. The last meeting of the directors and agents of the company held west of the Alleghany Mountains began at Marietta, November 22, 1795, and lasted till January 29, 1796. Then was made the final division or partition of lands, by which was set off to each share in the company the following lands : First division, one eight acre lot; second division, one three acre lot ; third division, one city lot ; fourth division, one one hundred and sixty acre lot ; fifth division, one one hundred acre lot; sixth division, one six hundred and forty acre lot, and one two hundred and sixty-two acre lot ; total, 1,173 acres to each share. There were then 819 shares classified in sixteen agencies.