Ohio Company, the
When, by treaty, the Indians had ceded the lands of the
Northwestern Territory, the thoughts of enterprising men turned in that direction as a promising field for settlements.
On the night of Jan. 9, 1786,
Gen. Rufus Putnam and
Gen. Benjamin Tupper formed a plan for a company of soldiers of the Revolution to undertake the task of settlement on the
Ohio River.
The next day they issued a call for such persons who felt disposed to engage in the enterprise to meet at
Boston on March 1, by delegates chosen in the several counties in
Massachusetts.
They met, and formed “The Ohio Company.”
It was composed of men like
Rufus Putnam,
Abraham Whipple,
J. M. Varnum,
Samuel Holden Parsons,
Benjamin Tupper,
R. J. Meigs, whom
Americans think of with gratitude.
They purchased a large tract of land on the
Ohio River; and on April 7, 1788, the first detachment of settlers sent by the company, forty-eight in number—men, women, and children—seated themselves
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near the confluence of the
Muskingum and
Ohio rivers, athwart the great war-path of the fierce Northwestern tribes when they made their bloody incursions to the frontiers of
Virginia and
Pennsylvania.
They named the settlement
Marietta, in honor of
Marie Antoinette,
Queen of
France, the ally of the
Americans.
This was the seed from which sprang the great
State of Ohio.
It was composed of the choice materials of
New England society.
At one time —in 1789—there were no less than ten of the settlers there who had re ceived a college education.
During that year fully 20,000 settlers from the
East were on lands on the banks of the
Ohio.
At the beginning of 1788 there was not a white family within the bounds of that commonwealth.
