History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 138

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490

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marching his own troops over the ice to storin the town. But the ground was frozen to a great depth and resisted the pick-ax like solid rock.

Putnam was ordered to consider the mat- ter, and if he could find any way to execute Washington's plan to report at once. He him- self best tells the story of the accident-we may almost say the miracle-by which the de- liverance of Massachusetts from the foreign in- vader, a veteran British army 11,000 strong, was wrought by the instrumentality of the mill- wright's apprentice :

"I left headquarters in company with another gentleman, and on our way came to General Heath's. I had no thought of calling until I came against his door, and then I said, 'Let us call on General Heath,' to which he agreed. I had no other motive but to pay my respects to the general. While there, I lettered on the back 'Miller's Field Engineer.' I immediately requested the general to lend it to me. He denied me. I repeated my request. He again refused, and told me he never lent his books.

"F then told him he must recollect that he was one, who, at Roxbury, in a measure com- pelled me to undertake a business which, at the time I confessed I had never read a word about, and that he must let me have the book. After some more excuses on his part and close pressing on mine, I obtained the loan of it."

In looking at the table of contents liis eye was caught by the word "chandelier," a new word to him. He read carefully the descrip- tion and saw its importance at a glance. The chandeliers were made of stout timbers, 10 feet long, into which were framed posts five feet high and five feet apart, placed on the ground in parallel lines and the open spaces filled in with bundles of fascines, strongly pick- eted together, thus forming a movable parapet of wood instead of earth, as theretofore done.

Putnam soon had his plan ready. The men were immediately set to work in the ad- jacent apple orchard and woodlands, cutting and bundling up the fascines and carrying them with the chandeliers on to the ground se-

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lected for the work. They were set up in their place in a single night.

When the sim went down on Boston on the 4th of March, Washington was at Cambridge and Dorchester Heights as nature or the hus- bandman had left them in the autumn. When Sir William Howe rubbed his eyes on the morn- ing of the 5th, he saw through the heavy mists the entrenchments, on which he said, the rebels had done more work in a night than his whole army would have done in a month. He wrote to Lord Dartmouth that it must have the em- ployment of at least 12,000 men. His own effective force, including seamen, was about 11.000. Washington had but 14.000 fit for duty

"Some of our officers," said the Annual Register-Edmund Burke was the writer ---- "acknowledge that the expedition with which these works were thrown up, with their sudden and unexpected appearance, recalled to their minds the wonderful stories of enchantment and invisible agency which are so frequent in the Eastern romances."

Howe was a man of spirit. He took the prompt resolution to attempt to dislodge the Americans the next night, before the works were made impregnable. Earl Percy, who had learned something of Yankee quality at Bun- ker Hill and Lexington, was to command the assault. But the power that dispersed the armada baffled all the plans of the English gen- eral. There came a "dreadful storm at night." which made it impossible to cross the bay until the Americans works were perfected.

We take no leaf from the pure chaplet of Washington's fame when we say that the suc- cess of the first great military operation of the Revolution was due to Rufus Putnam. The Americans under Israel Putnam marched into Boston, drums beating, and colors flying. The veteran British Army aided by a strong naval force, soldier and sailor, Englishman and Tory. sick and well, bag and baggage, got out of Boston before the strategy of Washington, the engineering of Putnam, and the courage of the despised and untried yeomen, from whose leaders they withheld the usual titles of mili-

tary respect. "It resembled." said Burke, "more the emigration of a nation than the breaking of a camp."

THE OHIO COMPANY LAND GRANT, AND THE ORDINANCE SECURED.

It remained only to get the grant of lands. There had been various schemes in Congress from March 1, 1784, for the organization of the Northwest Territory. Jefferson reported one on the first day of March in that year, which contained a provision excluding slavery after 1800. The subsequent history proves beyond a question that a toleration of slavery until that time would have ended in making the whole territory slaveholding.

But even that limited and ineffective prohi- bition was stricken out by Congress. March 16. 1785, Rufus King, of Massachusetts, of- fered a resolve that there should be no slavery in this Territory. It was sent to a committee, of which he was chairman, and amended by postponing the prohibition of slavery until 1800, and with a clause providing for the sur- render of fugitive slaves. That was never acted upon and died in committee.

In 1786 a new committee was raised to propose a plan for the government of the Ter- ritory. They made a report which contained no prohibtion of slavery whatever. That he- port also remained without action until the end of Congress.

When Putnam had got his plan for the company ready and secured his associates, he sent General Parsons to Congress to secure the grant of lands and the passage of an ordinance for the government of the Territory. But Par- sons returned, having accomplished absolutely nothing.

Putnam was not discouraged. He met Manasseh Cutler, the other director in Boston, June 25. 178;, and it was agreed that Cutler should renew the attempt in which Jefferson and Rufus King and Parsons and Washington and several committees of the Continental Con- gress had so conspicuously failed.

Manasseh Cutler records in his diary: "I conversed with General Putnam and settled the principles on which I am to contract with Con-

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gress for lands on account of the Ohio Com- panv."

Cutler reached New York, where Congress was in session on the 6th of July and was intro- duced into their chamber. He explained his scheme to the members of Congress. In three days a new committee was appointed, the or- dinance which had expired with the last session brought forward and committed. A copy of the ordinance was sent to Cutler, that he might make remarks and prepare amendments. The next day, the roth, the ordinance was newly modeled. It was reported to Congress on the Itth. But it did not include the clause prohib- iting slavery because. as Nathan Dane, who re- ported it, said. he had no idea the States would agree to it. But Dane moved it as an amend- ment. It was inserted and passed unanimously. save the single vote of Abram Yates.

During the two or three days that this ordi- nance was pending, the committee proposed to reject some of Cutler's amendments; he does not specify which. "Thereupon he paid his re- spects to all the members of Congress in the city, informed them ci his intention to depart that day, and if his terms were not acceded to turn his attention to some other part of the country."

They urged him, as he says, to "tarry till the next day, and they would put by all other business to complete the contract." He re- cords further in his diary that "Congress came to the terms stated in our letter without the least variation."

Why was it that Congress came in three days to terms which the influence of Washing- ton and of Jefferson had failed to accomplish for n're than four years? Putnam and Cutler were masters of the situation. The Ohio Com- pany might well dictate its own terms, even in dealing with the farsighted statesmien of 1787.

PUTNAM'S FORESIGHT

Washington said of Rufus Putnam that he was the best engineer in the army, whether French or American. At the end of the war he directed Putnam to report a comprehensive plan for fortifying the whole country. I have

seen General Putnam's elaborate scheme. I think among his paper- at Marietta College, or in the archives at Washington. It was never executed. in spite of earnest appeals of some of our ablest statesmen in every generation from Washington to Jackson and Tilden and Eugene Hale.

It remains a monument of that national im- providence of which we have shown so many conspicuous examples, especially in the mat- ter of preparation for defense and for war and which, during the last few months, has even dimmed the glories of Manila and Santiago.

To be a great engineer is to be a great sol- dier. T. be a great engineer with only such advantages of education as Rufus Putnam en- joyed is to be a man of consummate genius. But to have been the trusted friend of Wash- ington, to have conceived as by a flash of in- spiration the works which with an inferior force compelled England to evacuate a fortified town and to quit Massachusetts forever: to have constructed the very fortress and citadel of our strength and defense in the War of the Revolution : to have been in Lord Bacon's front rank of sovereign honor: to have four ded a mighty State, herself the mother of mighty States : to have p'warned, constructed and made impregnable the very citadel and fortress of liberty on this continent; to have turned the mighty stream of current and empire from the channel of slavery into the channel of freedom. there to fun forever and forever-if this be not greatness, then there is no greatness among the living or the dead.

During the years he lived in Rutland, he was representative to the General Court, secci- man, constable, tax collector, en a committee to lay out sch al lands, committee to make re- pairs of school house. State surveyor, commi- sioner to treat with the Penobscot Indians, vol- unteer in putting down the Shays rebe lich. on committee to settle with Jabe Fairbanks. He was one of the founders and Arst trustees of the Leicester Academy, and, with his family of eight children, gave from his slender means £too toward its endowment. The rest of his life is, in large part. the history of Marietta for more than 30 years. "The impression of his

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character, says the historian, "is strongly marked in the history of Marietta, in their buildings, institutions and manners."

Now this seems to me to be a good, honest. old-fashioned American story. It is a Massa- chusetts story. It is a Worcester County story ; although we by no means pretend to a monop- oly of such things in Massachusetts or in Wor- cester County. We have got over wondering at them. The boy went to school but three days after he was nine years old. That has happened before to many a boy who became a great man, from Ulysses to Abraham Lincoln. A Worcester County farm in those days was a pretty good school. It was a pretty good school, both for the intellect and the heart. The boy learned the secrets of the forest and the field, the names and habits of bird and beast. He could take care of himself anywhere. He became an expert woodsman and sharp- shooter.

He heard high topics discussed in the church-I beg your pardon-in the meeting- house. The talk by the blacksmith's forge and the tavern fire, and the rude drafting board of the millwright, when the great political contest with England was pending, was of the true boundary between liberty and authority in the government of the State and between men's free will and God's foreknowledge and omni- potence in the government of the universe.

RUFUS PUTNAM'S HOME IN MARIETTA .*

There seems to be a good reason to be- lieve that the house was the one now known as the Rufus Putnam house at the corner of Sec- ond and Washington streets. I quote the opin- ion of a life-long resident of Marieta and one well acquainted with all the facts relating to its early history with regard to this matter. She says : "Upon examination of General Putnam's letter of 1790, and by comparing it with pa- pers and charts descriptive of the Campus Mar- tius from 1788 to 1795, I am satisfied that the orders given to Colonel Meigs in regard to building and the lumber supplied relate to the

house built for him in the Campus Martius, 1788 to 1790, which covered ground not less than 30 by 18 feet and which stood next to the S. E. Blockhouse, which was at the N. W. cor- ner of Second and Washington streets.

"General Putnam brought his family to Marietta in 1790, arriving November 5th. He took them to his house in the Campus Martius and they resided there during the Indian war, 1791 to 1795. (This is shown by historical record. )

"It is a matter of local knowledge that for many years previous to and until his death in 1824. General Putnam resided in the house now standing at the corner of Washington and Second streets, which covers the same ground ( and more ) than the Campus Martius house of 1788-1795 stood upon. I think that the present structure which I have always known as 'The General Rufus Putnam house,' was erected with the original house as a nucleus. I am satisfied that a careful examination by compe- tent house builders would proved this beyond a question."

For 85 years I have been a resident of Mar- ietta and have paid more than ordinary atten- tion to the residences of its citizens, especially those of olden times. I have read with interest the conclusion of the above writer and in con- versation with the person, and after extensive examination, I am of the impression that Gen- eral Putnam had but the one house in Marietta, at the corner of Second and Washington streets. I well remember, though only a boy, the day of his death. By the order of the proper authorities, the tolling of the bell at the time of the death and funeral of residents had been omitted, on account of the general sick- ness in the town. On the occasion of the death of General Putnam, this order was suspended and on the day of his death the bell tolled to the number of his years, and on the day of his burial the tolling of the bell commenced at the time of the procession leaving his house and continued till the return to the same spot. With my father and elder brother, I attended the funeral. I was particularly impressed, as my father was called on to be a bearer and we two boys fell into the procession alone. The death

*Written by Hon. George M. Woodbridge.

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of General Putnam and his funeral took place at his home at the corner of Washington and Second streets.

.A granite monument erected by his grand- son, Col. W. R. Putnam, marks the place of his rest. It has this inscription :

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

Born April 9. 1738. Died May 4. 1824. Persis Rice. wife of Rufus Putnam, Born November 10. 1737, Died September 6. 1820. The memory of the just is Blessed.

The children of Gen. Rufus Putnam were: Ayres, born 1761. died 1762; Elizabeth, born 1765, died 1830 : Persis, born 1767, died -; Susanna, born 1768, died 1840; Abigail, born 1770, died 1805: William Rufus, born 1771, died 1855; Franklin, born 1774, died 1776; Ed- win, born 1776, died 1843: Patty, born 1777, died 1842, and Catharine, born 1780, died 1808. William Rufus married. in 1803, Je- rusha Guitteau. Their son. William Rufus Putnam, Jr., was born June 13, 1812. Edwin Putnam married a Miss Safford and had a family of five children, three sons and two daughters. Susanna married Christopher Bur- lingame. Abigail married William Browning. of Belpre. Persis married Perly Howe, of Belpre. Martha married Benjamin Tupper, of Putnam (now Zanesville). Catharine married Ebenezer Buckingham.

REV. MANASSEH CUTLER, LL. D.

The interest which a majority of those who consult this volume, have in Dr. Manasseh Cut- ler centers in his splendid services for the New England Ohio Company and his immeasurable influence for good, as exerted through the or- dinance of 1787. of which mitch has been al- ready said within these pages, but it is desira- ble that in a work devoted to the history of a settlement, of which he was one of the found- ers, a personal sketch of the man should be

given to convey, however inadequately, some idea of his life, his talents, and his worth.

Rev. Manasseh Cutler, son of Hezekiah and Susanna ( Clark) Cutler, was born in Kil- lingly, Connecticut, May 28 ( ok! style), 1742. His father was a respectable farmer and the son spent his earlier years in the usual man- ner of a New England farmer's boy. He early displayed promising tokens of genius and made rapid progress in study. He prepared for col- lege under Rev. Aaron Brown-a Killingly preacher-and entered Yale in 1761. He grad- uated with high honors in 1765. In the follow- ing year he married Mary Balch, daughter of Rev. Thomas and Mary ( Sumner ) Balch. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1767, and pleaded a few cases in the Norfolk County, Massachusetts, courts, but having entertained, for some years, serious thoughts of entering the ministry, he began in earnest his theological studies in 1769, under the direction of his fa- ther-in-law, who was the first pastor of the South Church, of Dedham, Massachusetts. In his diary under date of November, of the pre- cedling vear, appears an entry showing that he had even then given much consideration to the subject. He says: "Prosecuted my studies- began to make sermons. May God grant me his blessing in so important an undertaking, and make me serviceable to the cause of re- ligion and the souls of my fellow-men." After completing the course of study usual at that day he was ordained at Ipswich Hamlet ( after- ward Hamilton ), Masachusetts. September II, 1771. His pastorate here continued 52 years, until his death, in 1823. Dr. Cutler regarded" himself as consecrated to the ministry and re- peatedly refused opportunities to enter other, and very tempting, avenues of life. His la- bors in the church were very successful. Rev. Dr. Benjamin Wadsworth thus spoke of him: "Christ crucified was the great theme of his preaching. His public discourses were pre- pared in Gospel style, but with studied accu- racy, argumentative energy and persuasive pa- thos. They were serious and practical, rather than speculative and metaphysical : he could be a son of thunder and a son of consolation : his object was to win souls to Christ, and to estab-

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lish them intelligent, judicious, and exemplary Christians." Another writer has said of him : "As a preacher, he was grave, dignified, and impressive in manner, and select in the matter of his discourses. In doctrine, a moderate Cal- vinist, he steadily maintained the religious opinions with which he commenced his minis- try, to the end of his life." Felt, in his history of Ipswich, Massachusetts, says: "His voice in preaching was not loud, but distinct and aud- ible to his congregation. His style of writing was clear, perspicuous and strong." His published sermons are : "Charge at the Ordination of Rev. Daniel Story, 1798" ( the first ordained minister in the Northwest Ter- ritory ). "A National Fast Sermon, 1799." ".1 Sermon before the Bible Society of Salem and Vicinity, 1813." and "A Century Discourse of Hamilton Church. 1814."

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

Dr. Cutler, who had already taken degrees in law and divinity, soon after the breaking out of the War of the Revolution, became a stu- dent and practitioner of medicine. The regular physician of the hamlet had been called to ac-

tive military service, and the people were obliged to send to neighboring towns for med- ical aid. In this exigency Dr. Cutler qualified himself to fill the place made vacant. In due time he acquired a high reputation as a physi- cian, and in the treatment of some difficult cases his success became quite proverbial. Many valuable medical papers are preserved among | his manuscripts. His knowledge of botany was blended advantageously with that of medicine. It may here be remarked that one of his papers upon a topic of the former science was instru- mental in bringing into use lobelia and other indigenous plants.

The publie honors conferred upon him give some idea of the estimation in which Dr. Cut- ler was held as a man of literature and science -such an accumulation as is rarely annexed to the ministerial character. They rank in the following order: He graduated from Yale in 1765; received the degree of Master of Arts from Harvard in 1770; was elected a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1781; of the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1784; and an honorary member of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society, 1785: received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale College, 1780 : was elected member of the Agricultural Society, 1792; of the Historical Society, 1792; a representative to Congress from 1800 to 1804 : an honorary member of the Linnæan So- ciety, Philadelphia, 1809: president of the Bi- ble Society of Salem and vicinity, 1811 ; a men- ber of the American Antiquarian Society, 1813; and of the New England Linnaan Society, 1815. Dr. Cutler was better and more widely known during his life as a scientist than as a preacher. And now the popularity of the preacher and the renown of the scientist are both eclipsed by the fame of the author of the ordinance of 1787. As the agent who intro- duced and who secured the adoption of the clause in that immortal instruction which gave it the name of the "Ordinance of Freedom," he organized the force which, swelling steadily and irresistibly as the years rolled on, changed the destiny of the Nation and of millions of human beings by barring its progress and so

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making possible the final overthrow of Ameri- can slavery. Only in recent years has Dr. Cut- , osities. ler's name been covered with the glory of this great deed. But his agency in the formation of the ordinance-in the insertion and passage of the clause prohibiting slavery in the North- west Territory-has been established beyond a doubt.

The events which led to Dr. Cutler's great opportunity, if not forming as long a train as that of the steps by which he was fitted to take advantage of the opportunity, were nevertheless numerous. It is not necessary that they should here be recounted. He took a deep interest in the success of the American patriots. He served during two campaigns as chaplain in the Rev- olutionary Army.

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

The journal reads :

Dr. Franklin's house stands up a court at some lis- tance from the street. We found hun in the garden, sitting upon a grass plot. under a very large mulberry tree, with several other gentlemen and two or three ladies. *** He rose from his chair, took me by the hand, expressed his joy at seeing me. welcomed me to the city and begged me to seat myself close to him. His voice was low ; his countenance open, frank and pleasing. I delivered him my letters. After he had read them. he took me again by the hand and with the usual compli- ments introduced me to the other gentlemen. * * * Here we entered into a free conversation and spent our time most agreeably, until it was quite dark. * * * After it was dark we went into the house, and he invited me into the library, which is likewise his study.

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History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 138

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1490

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490