The Pioneers
Page 29
“An Ordinance for the Government”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 216.
“created a machinery”: Hinsdale, The Ordinance of 1787, 10.
“Religion, morality, and knowledge”: Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 2, 424.
“given perpetually to the use of an university”: Cutler, Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, 176.
“a first object”: Manasseh Cutler to Ephraim Cutler, August 7, 1818, Poole, The Ordinance of 1787, 37.
“utmost good faith shall always be observed”: Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 2, 425.
“There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude”: Ibid., 426.
“no graces of style, either native or borrowed”: “Dr. Manasseh Cutler and the Ordinance of 1787,” The North American Review, Vol. 123, No. 251, 1876, 255; Parsons, Ancestry of Nathan Dane Dodge and of His Wife, Sarah (Shepherd) Dodge, 61.
“acting for associates, friends, and neighbors”: Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 344.
“Never was there a more ingenious”: Hart, “The Westernization of New England,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, Vol. 17, 1908, 271.
“attention and generous treatment”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, July 27, 1787, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 305.
“Thus I completed one of the most interesting and agreeable”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 4, 1787, ibid., 318.
“Determined to send men this fall”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 31, 1787, ibid., 322.
“may be greatly enlarged”: Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 2, 404.
“a season of the most arduous labor”: Cutler, Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, 7.
“General Putnam”: Ibid.
“superintendent”: Rufus Putnam Journal, November 23, 1787, Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 64.
“full of good advice and hearty wishes”: Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 329.
“For the Ohio”: Ibid., 330.
2. Forth to the Wilderness
“December 31, 1787—Monday”: Swayne, “The Ordinance of 1787 and The War of 1861,” footnote, 19.
“very useful”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 13.
“pursued the occupation”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 14.
“After I was nine years old”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 14.
“Had I been as much engaged in learning”: Ibid., 14–15.
“hardships of his early life were schoolmasters to fit him”: Ibid., 15.
“those singular circumstances”: Rufus Putnam Journal, 1776, ibid., 45.
Rufus Putnam house: The author is grateful to Chris and Marcia Warrington for a tour of the Rufus Putnam house in Rutland, Massachusetts.
“So great a quantity”: Rufus Putnam Journal, January 24, 1788, Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 64.
“Among that body of sterling men”: Cutler, The Founders of Ohio: Brief Sketches of the Forty-Eight Pioneers, 23.
“boats of a beautiful model”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 242.
“Traveling both these days very bad”: Rufus Putnam Journal, February 4, 1788, MCSC.
“[The] cold last night and this day”: Rufus Putnam Journal, February 5, 1788, MCSC.
“No boats built”: Rufus Putnam to Manasseh Cutler, May 16, 1788, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 379.
“new spirit was infused”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 204.
“fleet”: Rufus Putnam Journal, March 30, 1788, MCSC; Leeper, “American Union Lodge, No. 1, F. & A. Masons, Marietta, Ohio,” The Masonic Review, Vol. 73, No. 1, February 1, 1890, 354.
“strongly timbered”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 205.
“Adventure Galley”: Ibid., 204–5.
“Mayflower”: Ibid., 205.
“an irregular poor built place”: John May Journal, May 7, 1788, May, The Western Journals of John May: Ohio Company Agent and Business Adventurer, Dwight L. Smith, ed., 37.
“a lazy set of beings”: Ibid.
“money affairs”: John May Journal, May 26, 1789, ibid., 19.
“completely serpentine”: Ashe, Travels in America, Performed in 1806, 68.
“sawyers”: Knepper, Ohio and Its People, 141.
“Beautiful River”: John May Journal, May 24, 1788, May, The Western Journals of John May, 46.
“A very disagreeable time”: John Mathews Journal, April 3, 1788, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 191.
“tarried”: John Mathews Journal, April 5, 1788, ibid.
“delightsome”: Williams, History of Washington County, Ohio, 463.
“At half past nine got under way”: John Mathews Journal, April 6, 1788, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 191.
“I think it is time to take an observation”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 106.
“We arrived . . . most heartily congratulating each other”: Extracts of a letter, May 18, 1788, in Independent Chronicle, Boston, Massachusetts, June 12, 1788; The Salem Mercury, June 17, 1788, MCSC.
“As long as the sun and moon endured”: Rufus Putnam to Isaiah Thomas, printer of the Massachusetts Spy, May 16, 1788, MCSC; Gazette, New Haven, Connecticut, June 26, 1788.
“marquee”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 107.
“They commenced with great spirit”: Joseph Buell Journal, April 7, 1788, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 160.
“quite a different set of people”: Josiah Harmar to Henry Knox, April 26, 1788, Denny, The Record of the Court at Upland in Pennsylvania, and a Military Journal Kept by Major E. Denny, 1778–1795, 430.
“in-lot” and “out-lot”: Knepper, Ohio and Its People, 79.
“Old Hetuck”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 32.
“girdled”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnum, 107.
“The axe, in stalwart hands”: Piatt, “The School Master’s Story,” from The Lost Farm and Other Poems, 12.
“not strongly attached to government”: Knepper, Ohio and Its People, 56.
“O-Y-O”: Hulbert, The Ohio River, 2.
“elk’s eye”: Williams, History of Washington County, Ohio, 48.
“Their monstrous growth”: Cramer, The Navigator, 1821, 26.
“persevering industry”: Ibid., 54.
“I was fully persuaded that the Indians”: Rufus Putnam Journal, April 1, 1788, Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 64.
“Drunkenness and desertion”: Joseph Buell Journal, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 141.
“Field of Mars”: Campus Martius Secured, Ohio Archaeological and History Quarterly, Vol. 26. No. 1, January 1917, 297.
“a plentiful repast”: Cutler, The Founders of Ohio, 11.
“doubtless preferring to encounter”: Ibid., 12.
“Ancient Works”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, September 6, 1788, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 418.
“Great Mound”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 242.
speculations of Ezra Stiles, Benjamin Franklin of the earthworks: Silverberg, “. . . And the Mound-Builders Vanished from the Earth,” American Heritage, Vol. 20, No. 4, June 1969.
“It is too early to form theories”: Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson 1784–1787, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., Vol. 4, 1894, 447; Silverberg, “. . . And the Mound-Builders Vanished from the Earth,” American Heritage, Vol. 20, No. 4, June 1969.
“those works so perfect as to put it beyond all doubt”: Rufus Putnam to Isaiah Thomas, printer of the Massachusetts Spy, May 16, 1788, MCSC.
“Quadranaou” and “Capitolium”: O’Donnell, Ohio’s First Peoples, 14–15.
“the covered way”: Ibid.
“It has . . . been currently reported here”: Manasseh Cutler to Rufus Putnam, April 21, 1788, MCSC.
“Have not received a line from you”: Manasseh Cutler to Rufus Putnam, May 15, 1788, MCSC.
“That part of the purchase I have been over”: Extracts of a letter, Rufus Putnam to Isaiah Thomas, printer of the Massachusetts Spy, May 16, 1788, MCSC.
It was a decision: The author is grateful
to Scott Britton and Wes Clarke of the Castle Historical Museum in Marietta, Ohio, for a tour of the Mound Cemetery. Both Mr. Britton and Mr. Clarke have done considerable research and investigation into the history and significance of the site.
“At present, we do not think”: Rufus Putnam to Manasseh Cutler, May 16, 1788, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 377.
“This country, for fertility of soil”: Letter to Worcester, Massachusetts, from a settler, May 18, 1788, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 208.
“mania for Ohio immigration”: Massachusetts Gazette, Boston, June 20, 1788, MCSC.
“No colony in America”: Cutler, Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, 24.
“A spirit of immigration to the western country”: George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788, The Writings of George Washington: From the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, Vol. 29, 412.
“into the woods”: Backus, Backus, and Backus, A Genealogical Memoir of the Backus Family: With the Private Journal of James Backus, 104.
“pretty close crowded”: John May Journal, May 24, 1788, May, The Western Journals of John May, 45.
“Every prospect as to the goodness of our lands”: Samuel Parsons to his wife, Hall, Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons, 521.
“All hands clearing land”: John May Journal, June 2, 1788, May, The Western Journals of John May, 50.
“answers the best description”: John May Journal, May 27, 1788, ibid., 48.
“I dare say not a market in the world”: John May Journal, July 24, 1788, ibid., 67.
“These men from New England”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, May 28, 1788, Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny: An Officer in the Revolutionary War and Indian Wars, 119–20.
“Those people appear”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, July 15, 1788, ibid., 121.
“Myriads of gnats”: John May Journal, May 29, 1788, May, The Western Journals of John May, 49.
“inflamed”: John May Journal, June 10, 1788, ibid., 52.
“Thunder and lightning all night”: John May Journal, June 13, 1788, ibid.
“I tried to catch the fellow”: John May Journal, June 23, 1788, ibid., 57.
“hellish Pow-wows”: John May Journal, August 1–2, 1788, ibid., 69.
“At Boston . . . we are alarmed”: John May Journal, July 23, 1788, ibid., 67.
“A number of poor devils—5 in all”: John May Journal, June 15, 1788, ibid., 53.
“sluggishly”: John May Journal, July 26, 1788, ibid., 67.
“It looked so tempting I could not refrain”: John May Journal, July 27, 1788, ibid.
“Putnam’s Paradise”: Summers, History of Marietta, 46.
“Adelphia”: Manasseh Cutler to Rufus Putnam, December 3, 1787, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 376.
“a natural gush of feeling”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 214.
“to explore . . . the Paradise of America”: Joseph Varnum, July 4, 1788, ibid., 507.
“Pleased with our entertainment”: John May Journal, July 4, 1788, May, The Western Journals of John May, 61.
“a change came over him”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 110.
“excessively”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 1, 1788, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 399.
“anxious”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 7, 1788, ibid., 404.
“very romantic”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 17, 1788, ibid., 409.
“a second education in the Army of the Revolution”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, George Jordan Blazier, ed., 51.
“Our buildings are decent and comfortable”: Rowena Tupper to Mrs. Stone, November 18, 1788, Belcher and Nye, The Nye Family of America Association, Proceedings of the First Reunion, August 1905, 64.
“Cabin Raisings”: Fry, “Women on the Ohio Frontier: The Marietta Area,” Ohio History Journal Archive, Vol. 90, No. 1, Winter 1981, 62.
“city lots”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 21, 1788, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 412.
“astonished”: Ibid.
“the great tree”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 24, 1788, ibid., 413.
“Took off his head”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 28, 1788, ibid., 415.
“almost drowned”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 23, 1788, ibid., 413.
“very well accomplished”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 27, 1788, ibid., 415.
“fine woman”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, September 2, 1788, ibid., 417.
“very agreeable”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, September 7, 1788, ibid., 419.
“We have had Indians to dine”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 28, 1788, ibid., 416.
“the squaws mostly drunk”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, August 23, 1788, ibid., 413.
“It may be emphatically said”: Manasseh Cutler, August 24, 1788, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 2, 444.
“New England Settlement”: Mathews, The Expansion of New England, 175.
“a mixture of log-cabin”: Dunbar, A History of Travel in America, Vol. 1, 272.
“The roof or deck of the boat”: Audubon, Audubon and His Journals, Vol. 2, 458.
“heralded a new era”: Hulbert, Waterways of Westward Expansion, 108.
“bushwhacking”: Ibid., 110.
“a distinct class”: Ibid., 161.
“If a town had a really malodorous repute”: Banta, The Ohio, 255.
“fine, large”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, September 9, 1788, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 420.
“surprised to see a man of that age”: Manasseh Cutler to Rev. Dr. Belknap, March 19, 1789, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 2, 253.
“spirituous liquors”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 110.
“Destroy and starve out every white face”: Joseph Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, George Jordan Blazier, ed., 61.
“No one in particular can justly claim this [land]”: Knepper, Ohio and Its People, 20.
“insincere and hollow affair”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 115.
“This treaty under all circumstances”: Putnam, The Memoirs of Rufus Putnam, 108.
“very unhappy”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, January 23, 1789, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 441.
“much uneasiness”: Cayton, The Frontier Republic: Ideology and Politics in the Ohio Country, 1780–1825, 43.
first general store: Store inventories from Backus-Woodbridge Collection at the Ohio History Connection, Columbus, Ohio.
“saw fit”: Joseph Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 61.
3. Difficult Times
“Spit on your hands and take a fresh holt”: Richter, The Town, 45.
“The little provisions which the settlers had”: Ichabod Nye Journal, MCSC, 50.
“for the long and unknown adventure”: Ibid., 85.
“I never made one word of complaint”: Ibid., 96.
“exclusively confined to handling books”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, George Jordan Blazier, ed., 52.
“We were all starving for bread”: Ichabod Nye Journal, MCSC, 92.
“without funds”: Ibid., 96.
Winthrop Sargent: For background information on Sargent, see Pershing, “Winthrop Sargent: A Builder in the Old Northwest”; Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 8, Dumas Malone, ed., New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963, 369–70.
“in such circumstances as indicate a strong presumption”: Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 1768–1771, 614.
“in such a manner as to endanger the lives and property”: Ibid.
“the fickleness of privateering”: Ibid., 616.
“a consummate tyrant and raskale”: Ichabod Nye Journal, MCSC, 94.
“amiable and agreeable”: Manasseh Cutler to Winthrop Sargent, September 28, 1789, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 448.
“imperious and haughty”: Ichabod Nye Journal, MCSC, 97.
“most mortif
ying and trying”: Ibid.
“slave to whiskey”: Winthrop Sargent to Manasseh Cutler, December 4, 1789, MCSC.
“Spring opened with much activity”: Ichabod Nye Journal, MCSC, 93.
“The blacksmith was gunsmith, farrier”: Buley, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815–1840, 227.
“Tis I can delve and plough, love”: Hodgson, Letters from North America, Vol. 2, 84.
“The women put up with all these inconveniences”: Ichabod Nye Journal, MCSC, 49.
“Working butter with wooden paddles”: Buley, The Old Northwest, 217.
heavy iron pots: Author’s tour of Rufus Putnam house with historian Bill Reynolds of the Campus Martius Museum was helpful in identifying the many tasks a woman on the frontier would have to contend with on a daily basis.
“I never so severely felt the pain of being separated from you”: Lucy Backus Woodbridge to parents, February 25, 1790, Backus-Woodbridge Collection, Microfilm Reel 1, Ohio History Connection, Columbus, Ohio.
“I am happy to feel my attachment for this place”: Lucy Backus Woodbridge to James Backus, February 1, 1792, Rau, “Lucy Backus Woodbridge, Pioneer Mother,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 4, 1935, 422.
“On ascending the bank”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 438.
“reconnoitering” the settlement: John May Journal, July 18, 1789, May, The Western Journals of John May, 123.
“a very good performance”: John May Journal, July 19, 1789, ibid.
“the howling wilderness”: John May Journal, July 26, 1789, ibid., 125.
“all the resources which I could bring into action”: Ichabod Nye Journal, MCSC, 99.
“in danger pretty considerable”: Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, 290.
“Oh God, I am killed!”: 1789, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 254.
“He found them lying near where they fell”: John Mathews, July 13, 1789, ibid., 256.
“quite a relish for hunting”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 415.
“a little half-starved opossum”: Cutler, Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, 275.
“the milk”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 265.
Joseph Barker: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 433–63.
“housewright”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, George Jordan Blazier, ed., ii.