USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 9
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I am, sir, with great esteem, your obedient servant,
H. KNOX, Secretary of War.
Brig. Gen. Rufus Putnam."
In May, 1793, he was appointed by the directors of the
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Ohio Company, superintendent of the surveys of one hun- dred thousand acres of land, donated by Congress to actual settlers,in the purchase, in lots of one hundred acres to each man, on the 21st of April, 1792. For the encouragement of settlers, the surveys were actually begun and carried on in certain allotments, on and near the Muskingum, in the midst of the war, and it was so ordered that no accident befell the surveyors from the Indians, although constantly liable to their attacks.
In 1794, a more safe and effectual mode of conducting the intelligence between the army assembling on the frontiers and the seat of government, than that by express through Kentucky and Carolina, or the chance and uncertain one by travelers up and down the river, had to be devised. Col. Pickering, the post master general, proposed that of send- ing the mails by water, in packet boats, which was submitted to Gen. Putnam, for his advice. He soon arranged a plan , that was adopted, of light boats, manned with five men each, to run from Wheeling to Limestone, with regular relays, and stations of exchange, one of which was Marietta. This system was put under the superintendence of Gen. Putnam, and found on experience to be very useful, safe, and expedi- tious. A full account of which is given in the History of Washington county.
In 1795, he was appointed by Mr. Walcott, secretary of the treasury, to arrange the distribution and survey of the twenty-four thousand acres of land given by Congress to the French settlers at Gallipolis which tract is known by the name of the "French Grant." The President also, through Mr. Walcott, confided to him the superintendence of the lay- ing out a national road, located by Ebenezer Zane, from Wheeling in Va., to Limestone in Ky.
In October, 1796, he was commissioned by the President Gen. Washington, surveyor-general of the United States
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lands -a post of great responsibility ; requiring a thorough knowledge of the principles of surveying, and the higher branches of mathematics, astronomy, &c., to be able to de- tect any errors that might arise in the returns, of the field notes, plats, &c., of the subordinate surveyors. It also re- quired great industry and constant vigilance, in attending to the duties of the office, which embraced large tracts of coun- try in the Northwest Territory, now first ordered to be sur- veyed. The lands granted to the officers of the army for military services were surveyed under his direction, and platted by himself. In this map the width of the streams is given, as well as their direction. The tract contains one hundred and seventy-four townships or sections, of five miles square, in twenty ranges. The lands given to the Moravian Indians, at Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem, lie in this tract. This office he continued to hold, with great credit to himself, and entire satisfaction of the government, until September, 1803, when Mr. Mansfield was appointed to his place, by Mr. Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson, in his reply to a remonstrance of the New Haven merchants, for some of his removals in that place, says, " How are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few : by resignation none. Can any other mode than removal be proposed? I shall proceed with deliberation, that it may be thrown as much as possible on delinquency, oppression, intolerance, and anti-revolutionary adherence to our enemies." And yet he was well known to have turned out some of the firmest Whigs of the revolution. Gen. Put- nam consoled himself under this mortifying act, by saying, " I am happy in having my name enrolled with many others 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." 8
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In 1798, he devised a plan for erecting a building, by a company of proprietors, for the purposes of education, to be called the "Muskingum Academy," which is believed to have been the first in the state, for branches of learning higher than those taught in common schools. The stock amounted to one thousand dollars, of which he was one of the princi pal owners. A building was put up in front of the large commons on the Muskingum, which continued to be occu- pied for the purposes of education for more than twenty years. It also served for a place of public worship until the year 1808, for the first Congregational society, who were the principal owners.
In 1801, he was appointed by the Territorial Legislature, one of the trustees of the Ohio University, established at Athens, and spent a great deal of time in bringing the lands for its support into available use ; and in forming rules and regulations for the government of the college. It was a subject in which he felt the deepest interest, and had been one of the principal movers of the plan, appropriating two full townships of land for its support, in the purchase made by the Ohio Company from Congress in 1789. This land, be it remembered, was not a gift of the United States, but a part of the contract made in the bargain by the agents of the company with the Board of the Treasury. The en- dowment of this institution, and seeing it put in actual oper- ation, were subjects which lay near his heart, and which he lived to see fulfilled, and a number of young men, now among the most eminent in the state, there educated and receive literary degrees.
In 1802, he was elected by the citizens of Washington county, then embracing a large territory, a member of the convention to form a constitution for the state of Ohio. It was an arduous and difficult labor, in which many conflict- ing views were to be harmonized, but was finally completed
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in the best manner the period and times would allow. A history of the parties, and the secret springs put in motion during the formation of .this important document, which was to shape the destiny of future millions, for weal or woe, would now be a narrative of peculiar interest, and may be expected from the pen of one the few remaining living mem- bers of that convention, in an article for the Historical Soci- ety of Ohio.
In January, 1806, the Rev. Samuel Priuce Robbins was settled as pastor over the church and congregation of which he was a member. In 1807, he drafted the plan of a large frame building for a church, which was executed under his superintendence, the funds being raised by the more wealthy members of the society and his own liberal subscription, amounting to fifteen hundred dollars. It was finished and occupied in 1808, and yet remains a monument of his devo- tion and zeal to the cause of religion. Thirty of the pews were reserved by him, and in his will, the annual rents de- voted to the support of the pastor, and a Sunday school ; equally divided between them. In his latter years, when he had retired from the active pursuits of life, his mind was much occupied in devising plans for the promotion of the gospel. In 1812, he was deeply engaged with several others in forming a Bible Society, the first that was organized west of the mountains, and subscribed very liberally for its support. It has continued to flourish until this day, and has been the means of spreading that blessed book amongst thousands of the destitute in this, and the adjacent counties.
A correspondence, by letters, was kept up with his old as- sociates of the Revolutionary war, and in one of the letters from Gov. Strong of Massachusetts, in 1812, he writes, " By your letter, I am convinced that your sentiments with regard to the present war, are similar to my own. Your old ac- quaintances, Gen. Brooks, (afterward Gov. of Massachusetts,)
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and Gen. Cobb, are of the council. I read to them your letter, and they expressed in the warmest terms their friendship and respect for you." Such manifestations of the regard and friendship of his early associates, served to ani- mate and warm his heart, as old age approached, and console him for the great political changes which were con- tinually going on.
In his religious character, he was equally faithful and ener- getic, as in his military and civil. In the year 1816, a gen- tleman removed to Marietta from Massachusetts, who had been engaged as a teacher in Sunday schools, and well acquainted with conducting those seminaries of good prin- ciples, in which that state was ever foremost. At that period it was a new thing in the west, and none were in operation in the valley of the Ohio. Gen. Putnam was quite anxious to have one established in Marietta, and made many in- quiries of the teacher as to the manner of conducting them. After one of these interviews, he sent for him one day, and related to him a dream he had the night before. He thought he was standing by a window in a large public building, and saw a procession of children neatly clad, approaching with music. He asked a bystander the meaning of the show, who answered, "These are the children of the Sabbath school." After this relation he remarked to the teacher that he thought he should live to see the dream fulfilled. The following spring, a Sabbath school was commenced in the Muskingum Academy, and continued through the summer. The next year, or in 1818, three schools were opened in dif- ferent parts of the town. In the autumn, when the time for closing them arrived, they then being laid aside in the winter, the three schools were assembled at the academy, and a procession formed, which marched from that building on to the bank of the Muskingum, and thence to the Congrega- tional church. As the teacher, before mentioned, entered
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the house, Gen. Putnam was standing at the window from which he had viewed the approach of the procession, and as the tears flowed from his eyes, exclaimed " Here is the fulfillment of my dream !"
In the spring of 1820, a revival of religion commenced in Marietta, and frequent evening meetings were held for prayer, but being very old and infirm, he was unable to at- tend them. A friend remarked to him that he supposed it was a source of regret to him, that he could not meet with them at this interesting period. "I do meet with you," was his prompt reply ; meaning by this, as was afterward ascer- tained, that he spent the whole time of the meeting in his closet, engaged in secret prayer.
About the year 1821, a company of missionaries from New England, arrived at Marietta, on their way to the Osage Indians. Two young ladies, who stayed with Mr. William Slocomb, expressed a strong desire of seeing Gen. Putnam, and he accompanied them to his house. After many inqui- ries as to the prospects of the mission, and expressing his ardent desire for its success, he abruptly asked them if they had any fresh meat on board their boat? Finding they had none, he turned to Mr. Slocomb and said, "I now see through the whole mystery ; I have an ox that has been fat- ting for more than a year, and for several months past have tried to sell him, but could not. I now understand the rea- son : the Lord has designed him for this mission family. I will have him killed and dressed by eight o'clock in the morning, and do you have barrels and salt ready at the boat, for packing what cannot be used fresh." All was done as he directed.
For some time before his death, being unable to attend public worship, a duty he had never failed to perform, in all weather, while able to walk that distance, it was his weekly practice to rehearse in his own mind, the articles of the
-
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Assembly's Shorter Catechism, lest from not hearing the preached word, he might lose sight of the great principles and doctrines of the Christian religion; a practice well worthy the attention of modern professors. Many other examples might be given of his devotion to the cause of religion, but these will suffice to show his habitual feelings on this mo- mentous subject.
He lost his excellent and faithful wife in the year 1820; but his last years were made comfortable and happy by the unremitting and affectionate attention of his pious maiden daughter, Elizabeth.
His final departure was like that of the righteous, and his last end full of hope and heavenly consolation. Although he was for many years the master of a lodge of Masons, to which he became attached during the war, yet he enjoined it upon his son, as one of his last orders, that his burial should be conducted without any of the forms and ceremo- nies common at the funerals of those the world calls great, but in the most simple manner ever practiced on these oc- casions; choosing rather to be buried as a humble follower of Christ, than with the showy forms of military or Masonic pageantry. He died in May, 1824, in the eighty-seventh year of his age.
In person, Gen. Putnam was tall, nearly six feet; stout, and commanding: features strongly marked, with a calm, resolute expression of countenance, indicating firmness and decision, so peculiar to the men who figured in the American revolution : eyes grey, and one of them disfigured by an injury in childhood, which gave it an outward, oblique cast, leaving the expression of his face strongly impressed on the mind of the beholder. His manner was abrupt, prompt, and decisive; a trait peculiar to the Putnam family, but, withal, kind and conciliating. In conversation, he was very interesting; possessing a rich fund of anecdote, and
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valuable facts in the history of men and things with which he had been familiar; delivered in a straightforward, impress- ive manner, very instructive and pleasant to the hearer. The impress of his character is strongly marked on the population of Marietta, in their buildings, institutions, and manners; so true it is, that new settlements, like children, continue to bear through life, more or less, the impressions and habits of their early childhood.
ABRAHAM WHIPPLE.
ABRAHAM WHIPPLE Was a descendant of John Whipple, one of the original proprietors of the Providence plantations, and associate of Roger Williams, who is considered the founder of the colony. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in the year 1733.
His early education was very imperfect; but possessing a naturally strong mind, and great resolution of purpose, he acquired in the course of the sea-faring life which he fol- lowed at an early period, sufficient knowledge of naviga- tion, and the keeping accounts, to conduct the command of vessels in the West India trade, with credit to himself and profit to his employers. The intercourse of the colonists was restricted by Mother Britain to that of her own posses- sions, with an exception in favor of the Dutch port of Surinam on the main, and the Danish island of St. Croix. This busi- ness he followed for many years previous to the war of the Revolution, and several letters from Nicholas Brown, one of the earliest merchants of Providence, and in whose employ he sailed, are on file amongst his papers, containing instruc- tions for the conduct of the voyage. Toward the close of the old French war, after the king of Spain had taken up arms against England, he was employed as the commander of a privateer called the Game Cock .* During the cruise
* The following notice of an early cruise of Com. Whipple, was procured for me by my friend Dr. P. G. Robbins, of Roxbury, from an old file of the Boston Post- boy and Advertiser, of February 4th, 1760, now in the Historical Society rooms, at Boston.
"Last Tuesday returned to Providence, after a successful cruise, Capt. Abraham Whipple, of the Game Cock privateer; who sailed from this place on the 19th of July last, having taken in said cruise, twenty-three French prizes, many of which
anderson lith.
AbrahamWhipple
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he captured a valuable Spanish ship, by running alongside, and carried her by boarding without much resistance.
It was during this period of his early life that the follow- ing event took place, while in the southerly portion of the Gulf of Mexico, on his return from a West India voyage, in a large armed ship or letter of marque, the larger portion of whose guns, however, were of wood, technically called "quakers." In a severe gale, he was obliged to throw over- board a part of his armament, especially a number of his metal guns, leaving him in quite a defenseless condition. Soon after this event a French privateer appeared in chase. She was full of men, as he ascertained by his telescope, and far outnumbered him in guns; although but for the late disaster, as his ship was much the largest, and pretty well manned, he might have made a stout defense, but under pres- ent circumstances his only chance for escape was by flight. Capt. Whipple, after sailing as close to the wind as possible, and trying the speed of the enemy on that course, found him constantly gaining on him, and that his hope of safety must rest on a ruse de guerre, in which he was always ready. He directed his sailors to set up a number of handspikes, with hats and caps on them, looking at a distance like men at their stations ready for action, which, in addition to his ac- tual crew, appeared quite formidable. Being to the windward of the enemy, he directed the man at the wheel to put the ship about, and bear down directly upon him, showing his broad- side of quaker guns and deck full of men to great advan .- tage. The privateer was taken all aback ; and thinking the former attempt at flight only a stratagem to entice her within reach of her shot, instantly put about, and with all haste
were valuable. Capt. W. on his passage home on the 26th of January, spoke with Capt. Robert Brown, in a sloop from Monte Christo, bound to New York, in lat. 39 deg. 30 min., and long. 72 deg. 40 min. in great distress for want of water and pro- visions, which he generously supplied him."
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escaped from her cunning antagonist. Capt. Whipple kept on the chase until the privateer had run nearly out of sight, when, with a shrug of the shoulder, and a hearty laugh at the success of his stratagem, he ordered the steersman to up helm, and bear away on the proper course for his des- tined port.
His ready and prompt mind was never at a loss for expe- dients in all such emergencies, and generally succeeded in turning them to his own advantage, as will be seen in his after life. This exploit gained him a good deal of credit with his townsmen, and was doubtless the reason of his being selected a few years after to command the company of volunteers who captured and burnt the British schooner Gaspe, the tender of a ship of war, stationed in Narragan- sett bay, to enforce the maritime laws. These restrictions had become very odious and unpopular to the inhabitants of Newport and Providence : the Gaspe especially, com- manded by Lieut. Buddington, of the navy, with a crew of twenty-seven men, had become the terror of all the shipping entering these ports; not only by overhauling their cargoes, and confiscating the goods, but by pressing the men into the British service. At this time, the commerce of Newport and Providence together, exceeded that of New York, whose retail traders often visited the former town, to purchase dry goods and other merchandise of the importers, as the smaller cities now visit New York. Newport, next to Boston, owned a larger number of vessels than any other port on the coast. The attempts of the king and parliament of Great Britian to enforce the old navigation act, with the stamp act, duties on tea, and quartering large bodies of troops on the colo- nists, to tame them into obedience, only served to rouse their jealousy, and excite their disgust. While the inhabit- ants were filled with fears of coming evils, and the public mind roused up to resistance, an event took place in the
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waters of Rhode Island, which may be considered as the "overt act," to the Revolution which soon followed.
On the 17th of June, 1772, a Providence packet, that plied between New York and Rhode Island, named the Hannah, and commanded by Capt. Linzee, hove in sight of the man- of-war, in her passage up the bay. She was ordered to bring to, for examination; but Linzee refused to comply; and being favored with a fresh southerly breeze, that was fast carrying him out of gunshot of the ship, the tender was sig- naled to follow. In pursuing the chase, the Gaspe was led on to a shoal, which puts out from Nanquit point, but which the lighter draught of the Hannah enabled her to pass in safety. The tender here stuck fast; and as the tide fell, she careened partly on to her side. The packet reached Provi- dence before dark, and soon spread the news of the chase, and the helpless condition of the hated Gaspe. A muster of the sailors and sea-faring people soon followed; who, after choosing Capt. Whipple for their leader, embarked, to the number of sixty, in eight row-boats. The men were without arms, excepting one musket, which was shipped without Whipple's consent, as he intended no harm to the crew, unless opposed by force, but only to board the vessel, land the crew, and then set her on fire. They, however, put into each boat a large quantity of pebble stones, intending them as articles of offense, if necessary. As they approached the schooner, about two o'clock in the morning, they were hailed by the sentinel, and asked, "Who commands them boats ?" Whipple instantly answered, "The sheriff of the county of Kent;" and, " I come to arrest Capt. Buddington." The captain was by this time on deck, and warned the boats not to approach ; which they not heeding, he fired his pistol at them ; at this moment, a boy who had possession of the musket, discharged it, and wounded the captain in the thigh; a volley of pebbles followed the discharge, and Whipple, at
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the head of his men, boarded the schooner, driving the crew below. After securing them, they were taken on shore, and the Gaspe burnt. The party returned in triumph to Provi- dence, and knowing that their conduct amounted to treason against the king, no one said anything about it; and, al- though the secret was confided to not less than sixty per- sons, so deep was the hatred and indignation of the people, that no one disclosed it, or let any hint drop that could be used as proof against their companions. This bold step naturally excited great indignation in the British officers, and all possible means were taken to discover the offenders. Wanton, the colonial governor of Rhode Island, issued his proclamation, offering a reward of one hundred pounds ster- ling, for the discovery of any of those concerned. Soon after, the king's proclamation appeared, offering one thou- sand pounds for the man who called himself the high sheriff, and five hundred pounds for any other of the party ; with the promise of a pardon should the informer have been one of the party. But notwithstanding these tempting offers, so general was the dislike of the community to their oppress- ors, and their patriotism so true, that "no evidence was ever obtained, sufficient to arraign a single individual; although a commission of inquiry, under the great seal of England, sat in Newport from January to June, during the year 1773." Cooper's Naval History. Capt. Whipple, however, soon after sailed on a trading voyage to the West Indies, and did not return until 1774, when the event was in a manner forgotten.
In the meantime, aggressions and restrictions were heaped on the colonists, until they became insupportable, and reac- tion began to take place. After the Boston Port Bill was passed, by which the commerce of that flourishing town was entirely destroyed, as an offset for the destruction of the tea chests of the East India Company, resistance became
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more open, especially subsequent to the passage of the act prohibiting the exportation of military stores from England to the colonies. Fully aware of the approaching contest, and the destitute condition of the inhabitants of the materi- als for resistance, they began, in many places, to seize upon the military stores of the crown. Every garrison, fort, and magazine, being in possession of the king's officers, and many of the inhabitants destitute of arms, and still more so of ammunition, it was absolutely necessary to resort to vio- lence for the purpose of arming themselves. At Portsmouth, N. H., a quantity of powder was taken from the castle in the harbor, and the citizens of Providence seized on twenty- six guns at Fort Island, and carried them up to their town. It was to destroy a magazine of provisions and other stores, collected by the inhabitants for the coming contest, at Con- cord, Mass., that the British made their celebrated inroad on the 19th of April, 1775; and the war fairly opened by the slaughter of the militia at Lexington. From this point, the spirit of resistance flew, like an electric shock, from heart to heart, until it pervaded the land.
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