USA > Ohio > Washington County > Marietta > Sketch of Mound cemetery, Marietta, Ohio > Part 1
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F 499 M3C8
SHEY
Alound Cemete
MARIETTA, OHIO
WIELIA DAY COTTO-
1800
SSS
Class F499
Book
M308
Copyright N.ยบ.
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.
MOUND CEMETERY
:
LIBRARY of CONGRESS
Two Copies Received JUN 7 1906
Copyright Entry Jun 7, 1906 CLASS
a XXc. NO.
147755 COPY B.
COPYRIGHT 1906 BY W. D. COTTON
TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN OF THE OHIO COMPANY WHO
-Were born under a monarchy, Fought the battle of Independence, Assisted in the baptism of a great republic, Then moved into a wilderness, And laid the foundations of a state, Itself almost equaling an empire,"
THIS SKETCH IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED. 1
HERE is no spot west of the Alle- ghanies of more historic interest than the old Mound Cemetery of Marietta, for in it are buried many of the Pioneers of the Great Northwest. Sturdy and true were the men who bade "Good- bye" to the old Bay State, and wended their way westward to establish a new home in the wilderness. Under the leadership of Rufus Putnam they followed the Indian trail over the mountains, and in a large boat, called the "Adventure Galley," floated down the Ohio to the mouth of the Muskingum. Here they landed on the 7th of April, 1788, and laid out a little city, which they named Marietta in honor of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette.
Too much praise cannot be given to that little band which thus laid the foundations
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of the great state of Ohio. It was composed of remarkable men. "Energetic, industrious, persevering, honest, bold and free,-they were limited in their achievements only by the limits of possibility." Many of them were officers of the Revolution. At the end of that long struggle, finding themselves almost penniless and with occupations gone, they hailed with delight the idea of founding a colony in the far away country on the Ohio. They had often heard of its beauty and rich- ness from their old commander, George Washington, who had directed their attention to the West as a land where they might take refuge, should they be worsted in the strug- gle for independence.
No one knew better than Washington the possibilities of the country west of the Alle- ghanies. His opportunity for studying the problems and hardships of frontier life began with his service in the old French War, when at the age of twenty-two he fought his first battle on the head-waters of the Ohio. Some years later, in 1770, with a doctor as a com- panion and two Indians for guides, he made
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a perilous expedition in a canoe down that then almost unknown river as far as the Ka- nawha, and at the close of the Revolution owned large tracts of land in its fertile val- leys. He was much interested in the Ohio Company's settlement at Marietta, and wrote: "No colony in America was ever settled un- der such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at Muskingum. Infor- mation, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."
The place selected for the little town con- tained some of those remarkable earthworks whose origin is shrouded in mystery. The Indians could give no information concerning the mounds and squares which lay on an el- evated plain above the east bank of the Muskingum, save that they were the remains of an ancient people, who had long since vanished from the face of the earth. The settlers were much interested in these vast monuments, which showed that they were
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erected by a race of men greatly superior to the aborigines of the country.
The sides of the ramparts and mounds were covered by grand old trees, the growth of centuries. One day, in the presence of Governor St. Clair, some trees were felled, and the number of concentric circles counted in order to ascertain their age. One of the largest, a poplar tree, contained 452 circles, and therefore was more than 452 years old. The Rev. Manasseh Cutler, from whose jour- nal the above facts were taken, wrote, "Ad- mitting the age of the present growth to be 450 years and that it had been preceded by one of equal size and age, which as probably as otherwise was not the first, the works have been deserted more than 900 years. If they were occupied 100 years, they were erected more than 1000 years ago."
The worthy pioneers gave evidence of their wisdom and culture by laying out broad streets and ample lots, and above all by re- serving some of the most perfect of the ancient earthworks for public grounds.
With their country's struggle for liberty
8
emerely
Oid'view & Mavos Come
still fresh in their minds they could not honor sufficiently the name of the beautiful Queen of France, who had helped them dur- ing that weary period by her love and sym- pathy; and at an early meeting it was decided to call the square which contained the conical mound Marie Antoinette Square. It bore this name until 1791, but after that it was simply designated as Mound Square. The Great Mound, or Conus, as it is sometimes called, is as perfect today as it was when first discovered by Putnam's little band. Its perpendicular altitude is 30 feet, and its base is a regular circle, 375 feet in circumference. It is surrounded by a moat 15 feet wide and 4 feet deep, and defended by a parapet 20 feet thick and 585 feet in circumference.
What a wonderful piece of work it is! What a witness to the skill and intelligence of a prehistoric people! What lessons it teaches in constancy and patience when we realize that all the earth used was probably carried from some distant place in baskets, and that as it rose foot by foot it was moulded into shape by the hands of the laborers.
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Is it the colossal sepulcher of some mighty chieftain, typifying by its magnitude and symmetry the nobility and beauty of his life? Was it erected as a memorial of some deadly conflict, on the very spot where the young braves shed their blood for their na- tion's cause ? Was it an altar built to placate an avenging God and thus to ward off famine and pestilence from the land, from whose sacrificial fires the cries of hundreds of vic- tims ascended to the Great Spirit? Questions like these must have arisen in the minds of our forefathers as they viewed this curious work from the parapet, or climbed its sloping sides to the top, where a great white oak more than 100 feet high spread out its branches in perpetual benediction. They made an opening near the summit of the inound, and found under a large flat stone the bones of an adult lying in a horizontal position on thin stones placed vertically a few inches apart. The opening was filled up for it was feared that the contour of the mound would be destroyed by further exca- vation, and the search has never been re- newed.
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In order to preserve these noble remnants of ancient skill, the founders of Marietta re- solved to lease them "for as long a time as they were not wanted for the uses for which they were reserved." Marie Antoinette Square was leased in 1791 to Gen. Rufus Putnam for 12 years, with the following con- ditions: "He would surround the whole square with mulberry trees with an elm at each corner. The base of the mound to be encircled with weeping willows, with ever- greens on the mound. The circular parapet outside of ditch to be surrounded with trees; all within the Square to remain undisturbed by the plow and seeded down to grass, the whole enclosed with a post and rail fence."
The settlers had not been long in their new home before death claimed some of their number. The first to be taken was Major Cushing's little daughter Nabby, who died Aug. 25, 1788. She was buried on the ridge south of the present Oak Grove Cemetery, where the house of the late Beman Gates now stands.
On the 15th of January of the following
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year, General Varnum was carried to the same spot and buried with military honors. Cut off in his prime, at the early age of forty, his loss was deeply felt by his fellow-towns- men. He was a Brigadier-General in the Revolution, had made a brilliant record in the old Congress, and at his death was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territory.
The order of procession, copied by Dr. Hildreth from the original manuscript of Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the territory, was as follows:
THE MILITARY
MARSHALS
MARSHALS
MR. WHEATON bearing the sword and military commission of the de- ceased on a mourning cushion.
MR. LORD bearing the civil Commission on a mourning cushion.
MR. MAYO with the di- ploma and order 'of Cincinnati on a mourn- ing cushion.
MR. FEARING bearing the insignia of Masonry on a mourning cushion.
PALL-HOLDERS
GRIFFIN GREENE, EsQ. JUDGE TUPPER THE SECRETARY
CORPSE 12
PALL-HOLDERS
JUDGE CRARY
JUDGE PUTNAM
JUDGE PARSONS
,
PRIVATE MOURNERS
CHARLES GREENE and RICHARD GREENE
FREDERICK CRARY and PAICLIP GREENE
DOCTOR SCOTT and DOCTOR FARLEY
DEACON STORY and DOCTOR DROWNE
Private citizens. two and two Indian Chiefs, two and two The Militia Officers
Officers of the Garrison at Fort Harmar The Civil Officers The Cincinnati The Masons
This reservation, which had been selected by Dr. Cutler, one of the Directors of the Company, was used for the burial of the dead till the breaking out of the Indian War in 1790, when it was abandoned because of its long distance from the Block House. Here were buried a Mr. Welsh, from Kentucky, who landed at Marietta, sick with smallpox; eight other persons, adults, who died from the same disease, and several children; Mrs. Rowena (Tupper) Sargent, the first bride of the Northwest Territory, who was afterward removed to Mound Cemetery; Mrs. Shepherd, first wife of Col. Enoch Shepherd, and Mrs. Clark, first wife of Major John Clark. In the Autumn of 1867 the remains of twenty-six
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persons were removed from the sunken graves of the old burying ground to Oak Grove Cemetery, and a granite monument was erected to mark their last resting place. General Varnum's remains were identified by the brass buttons found in the grave, but the others were entirely lacking in distin- guishing marks.
During the Indian War in June, 1792, Gen- eral Benjamin Tupper died and was buried between Third and Fourth streets, opposite. the Great Elevated Square. The site was commanded by the cannon at Campus Mar- tius, where most of the settlers lived during the four years struggle with the Indians. A description of the funeral, given by Mr. John Heckewelder, who was visiting in Marietta at the time, throws a vivid light on the man- ners and customs of the little town which then numbered less than three hundred people. Mr. Heckewelder writes as follows:
"Gen. Tupper, who had died the day be- fore, was buried on the 17th. In considera- tion of the four different offices which he held, first as General in the service of the United States in the late war; secondly as
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member of the Cincinnati order; thirdly as director of the Ohio Company; and fourthly as master among the Freemasons; therefore, because of these positions, great honors were shown his remains at the funeral. I will mention what was most remarkable to me. After a company of soldiers had arrived with drum and fife from Campus Martius, and all the Freemasons had gathered, the latter en- tered the house of the deceased where the remains lay. They stayed for about half an hour, during which time a guard had been placed at the doors of the house. When they came out they were furnished with tools according to their different degrees. They wore leather aprons, skillfully em- broidered with red, blue or green ribbons around the edge, and bearing the design of a square and compass in the center. A few wore only a clean white leather apron. Two men with drawn swords placed themselves on both sides of the door through which the body was to be taken, and when at last it was brought forward and placed in the square, the Masons gathered around it and those with swords stood between it and the people, so that none could draw too near. There was a lid with hinges at the head of the coffin which could be opened. On the coffin were laid: first, an open Bible with square and compass; second, a costly sword in a black sheath, lined with red velvet; third, four black boxes, about ten inches square; fourth, green bushes or asparagus greens. On the four boxes, two at the head
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and two at the feet, his four written com- missions were laid. Some of the Masons wore red, others blue ribbons fastened at the breast. Two of them stood with long, round, beautifully carved wands in their hands, to which a blue ribbon was fastened at the top. Two others held finely carved candlesticks, two and a half feet long, con- taining white wax candles, at least two inches in diameter. All these arrangements having been completed, the clergyman, who was also a Mason, offered up a prayer, of which how- ever I could understand but little, as he spoke in a very low tone. A very mournful dirge was then sung, and the order of the proces- sion called out. Hereupon the coffin was closed and every Mason broke off a little branch of the greens which lay upon it, and stuck it in his coat. The Bible, with the square and compass, the pocketbook, the four black boxes with the papers resting on them, and the sword, were now carefully lifted up, and carried by as many men as were neces- sary, and also the coffin, which had been covered by a large white cloth. The soldiers who had stood in double rank from the gates during the whole of the ceremony with stacked bayonets were now in part stationed by their corporal where the procession passed. After the other part had performed various evolutions before their officer, the drums were muffled and covered with a black cloth, and at a given signal they marched off, while a funeral march was be- ing played. The Masons who had not been
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occupied with the care of the remains marched behind them, hand in hand, two and two. These were followed by those carrying hammers, measuring lathes, the two round wands, columns, etc., and finally came the clergyman, and behind him a man carrying the open Bible with both hands, and four men, each carrying a black box. The coffin now followed. On each side of the coffin stood a Mason, the Master walking beside it, and the mourners behind him. As they neared the grave, the soldiers who stood in double file approached it, went through a military drill and then retired. Hereupon the Masons drew near to the grave, and after a given signal knelt down around it. The clergyman then said: 'Lord! now lettest thy servant depart in peace,' etc. He pro- nounced several passages from the Scriptures applicable to the servants of God and closed with the words: 'After labor rest is sweet.' The Masons then arose and threw their green twigs on the coffin, and the grave was immediately filled up. The guards of the different stations were now relieved, and all returned in the former order, the Masons re- assembled in the house for the closing exer- cises."
Years afterward the remains of General Tupper were removed to Mound Cemetery and laid beside his son, Major Anselm Tup- per, who died in 1808. Two plain marble slabs mark their graves.
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Major Tupper was probably the youngest hero of the Revolution, for soon after the battle of Lexington, when not twelve years old, he enlisted in the regiment of which his father was Major. With true military spirit he bore the trials and perils of war, and when he was promoted the document em- bodying the recommendation was indorsed by General Washington. At the close of the Revolution Major Tupper was engaged as surveyor with his father, who had been ap- pointed by the Government to lay out the lands in the territory northwest of the Ohio. After the survey of the seven ranges was completed, he returned to Massachusetts, but in the spring of 1788 he recrossed the Alleghanies as one of the forty-eight pioneers, and became Marietta's first school teacher.
In 1793 the little settlement was again scourged with smallpox, and a daughter of Governor St. Clair, a son of Major Putnam, William Moulton, one of the pioneers, and a number of others were buried just above Wooster street, west of the place where the Presbyterian Church now stands. These, to-
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gether with two other interesting characters, Matthew Kerr and Captain Josiah Rogers, who were killed by the Indians in 1791, it is said were reinterred in Mound Cemetery in 1839, but their graves were not marked. Captain Rogers was an officer in General Mogan's rifle corps at the taking of Burgoyne. He was one of the original pioneers and because of his bravery was employed as spy, or ranger, during the Indian war at Campus Martius, his duty being to range the country between the Muskingum and Duck Greek, making a tour of fifteen or twenty miles a day.
When the Indian had buried his hatchet the settlers returned to their homes, and the little town resumed its accustomed activity. Occasionally their busy, happy lives would be saddened by the death of one of their number, for they were bound together by no common ties and seemed like one large family. They continued to use the sand hill on Wooster street for a burying ground, and as late as 1849 some old tombstones could be seen there. It was a dreary place, however,
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and when in 1800, some one made the happy suggestion that the Mound Square would be an appropriate and beautiful spot for a cem- etery, the idea was received with great favor.
When Congress sold the western land to the Ohio Company, following the recom- mendation of Dr. Cutler it granted perpetu- ally Section 29 in each township of the Ohio Company's purchase for the support of re- ligion. In 1800 the territorial Legislature ap- pointed Ministerial Trustees, whose duty it was to take charge of the funds which accumulated from the taxation on the land set apart for this purpose, and as Mound Square lay in this section it came under their control.
Rufus Putnam, who, it will be remembered, had leased the Mound Square in 1791 for twelve years, at once ceded it to the town, and in consequence of such cession the Trustees granted the square to the town to be improved as a burying ground. No formal action was taken, however, until May 3d, 1803, when, according to the records of the Ministerial Trustees, it was resolved "that
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Memory of Col.
ROBERT TAYLOR
Who Departed This LIFE Sep 30th 1801 in the 65 year of his age Being The First interment In this Burying Ground
Mound Square be reserved for the following purposes, viz .: a part thereof for erecting public buildings thereon and the remainder for a public burying place to be laid off by the direction of the Trustees." But nearly two years before that time the first burial had taken place, that of Colonel Robert Taylor, a soldier of the War of the Revolution, who died Sept. 30th, 1801.
In the spring of 1811 the citizens, wishing to make the title good, directed the Council in a town meeting to make application to the Ministerial Trustees for a permanent lease of Mound Square as a public burying ground. Accordingly on the 7th day of May the Board resolved that Mound Square be reserved to the town of Marietta for the pur- poses above mentioned, free of rent for ninety-nine years, renewable forever.
Thanks to the good sense of our fore- fathers, the first clause of the resolution of 1803 came to naught, though at one time it seemed likely to be acted upon. This was in 1822, when the proper location for the new Court House, recently destroyed to give place
21
to a more modern structure, was creating much discussion. On March 27th of that year, the citizens, by order of the Town Council, voted upon the following resolution:
"Resolved, by the Town of Marietta, in town-meeting assembled, that the town do appropriate so much of the west side of the Mound Square as will be adequate to the quantity of land at present owned and occu- pied by the county at and near the present Court House, for the purpose of erecting the County buildings thereon."
There were 75 votes cast for the resolution and 116 against it.
In 1804 the little town mourned the loss of three of its most influential citizens, Colonel William Stacey, Griffin Greene and the Rev. Daniel Story. At the beginning of the Revolution, Colonel Stacey was a first lieutenant in the militia of New Salem, Mass.
When the news of the battle of Lexington reached the town, the excited people rushed to the village green and there awaited anxiously the action of the militia officers.
As the Captain seemed disinclined to express his opinion, the gallant Stacey stepped out of the line, and, declaring that
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he would no longer serve a king who murdered his countrymen, he drew his commission from his pocket and tore it into a hundred pieces. This fervid patriotism was greeted by aloud huzza. The old com- pany was summarily disbanded and a new company marched off to Cambridge with Stacey as its Captain.
In 1778, when he had risen by his merits to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he was captured by the Indians, who, under Walter Butler, ravaged the settlement in Cherry Valley, N. Y. After a weary march of two hundred miles he was tied to the stake, the fire was kindled, and he was saved from this dreadful death at the last minute by catching the eye of Joseph Brant, the noted Indian Chief, whom he knew to be a Free Mason, and making to him the well known sign of the fraternity. Influenced by Brant the Indians released their victim but kept him a prisoner for four years.
Colonel Stacey came with his family to Marietta in 1789, and was an honored and respected citizen. His burial place in Mound
23
Cemetery is not known, for the record of the interments made in the early days is very incomplete, and many of the tombstones have gone to partial or total destruction, so far as the inscriptions are concerned.
Griffin Greene was a native of little Rhode Island. When hostilities began between the colonies and the mother country, he at once enlisted in one of the troops of his state. For this he was cast out of the synagogue of the Quakers at the same time with his cousin, General Nathaniel Greene, and never re- turned to them again. Mr. Greene was a man of remarkable intelligence, and was noted for his polished manners. When he came to Marietta in 1788 he brought with him a collection of valuable books, which proved a great boon to the frontier village. He was a Master Mason and one of the mem- bers of the Marietta Lodge, known as the American Union Lodge No. 1, which was a reorganization of a lodge formed during the Revolution by some officers of the Connecti- cut line. He was buried by this order in June, 1804, with great ceremony.
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On December 30th of the same year the Rev. Daniel Story was carried to Mound Cemetery by loving friends, who appre- ciated the sacrifices he had made for their sake. On the monument erected by his relatives in Massachusetts seventy-four years after his death are the words, "He was the first minister of Christ who came to labor in the vast field known as the Northwest Territory, excepting the Moravian Mission- aries." Mr. Story's life was not an easy one, for his pastoral charge included besides Marietta, the settlements which were spring- ing up on the two rivers. In a little log canoe, he paddled down the Ohio to Belpre, or ascended the beautiful Muskingum twenty miles to Waterford, where the people, gath- ered in the shade of a fine old elm, heard him gladly.
Sunday in Marietta an hundred years ago was pre-eminently a day of worship. Our forefathers, in whose veins ran the blood of the Puritans, considered it a privilege to be able to attend divine service three times a day, and thought a sermon of two hours none
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too long. To prepare sermons for such an audience as gathered in the northeast block- house of Campus Martius was no small task, for many of the men who sat on the hard, wooden benches were graduates of Harvard or Dartmouth, and had listened to the most eminent preachers of the day. However, Mr. Story gave universal satisfaction, and it is said that his sermons were practical and scholarly and fully equal to those of the best preachers of New England.
A few months after Mr. Story's death, in February, 1805, the same friends marched again to Mound Cemetery and laid to rest Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, of the Massachu- setts line. Colonel Sproat was the first sheriff of Washington County and opened the first court ever held in the territory, which, according to Dr. Hildreth, was an august spectacle, conducted with great dignity and decorum. Colonel Sproat preceded by a military escort marched with his drawn sword and wand of office at the head of the judges, governor, secretary, &c., to the block- house of Campus Martius, where the court
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was held. The Indians, watching the little procession wend its way up the Muskingum, admired greatly the commanding figure of Colonel Sproat, who, being six feet, four inches high, towered head and shoulders above his companions. They always called him hereafter Hetuck, or Big Buckeye, and thus originated the title now applied to the natives of Ohio.
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