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Date April 7, 1788 (1788-04-07) Location Northwest Territory, the area later to become Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as the northeastern part of Minnesota Participants Pioneers and veterans of the American Revolutionary War Outcome Founding of the first permanent American settlement of the Northwest Territory at Marietta within the area to become Ohio | ||
American pioneers to the Northwest Territory included soldiers of the Revolution and members of the Ohio Company of Associates. During 1788 these pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opened the westward expansion of the new country. General George Washington commented about these pioneers: “I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community.” General Lafayette of France, who fought with the Americans during the Revolution, visited Marietta on his US tour during May 1825 [1] and described these pioneers and former officers: “They were the bravest of brave. Better men never lived.”
Contents
- Massachusetts to Ohio
- The first forty eight pioneers April 1788
- Arrivals the following month May 1788
- June 1788
- August 1788
- 1788 and 1789
- Legacy
- Film
- References
The first group of these early American pioneers to the Northwest Territory is sometimes referred to as “the forty-eight” or the “first forty-eight”, and also as the “founders of Ohio”. These first forty-eight men were carefully chosen and vetted by several of the co-founders of the Ohio Company of Associates, Rufus Putnam and Manasseh Cutler, to ensure not only men of high character and bravery, but also men with proven skills necessary to build a settlement in the wilderness.
During 1852 the president of the Ohio Historical Society described these pioneers: “So various and eventful lives as theirs have scarcely ever fallen to the lot of man. They 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. These men not only lived in remarkable times, but were themselves remarkable men. Energetic, industrious, persevering, honest, bold, and free — they were limited in their achievements only by the limits of possibility. Successful alike in field and forest,—they have, at length, gone to their rest,—leaving names which are a part of the fame and the history of their country”. On the centennial anniversary of the Marietta settlement, Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts orated, “It was an illustrious band; they were men of exceptional character, talents and attainments; they were the best of New England culture; they were Revolutionary heroes”.
Massachusetts to Ohio
Under the leadership of Rufus Putnam, two parties of pioneers comprising the first forty-eight men, departed New England, cutting trails westward through the mountains during an uncommonly severe winter. One party departed from the towns of Ipswich, Massachusetts and Danvers, Massachusetts on December 3, 1787; the other party departed from Hartford, Connecticut on January 1, 1788. The pioneers crossed the mountains and met at Sumrill’s Ferry (present-day West Newton, Pennsylvania) on the Youghiogheny River. During the bitterly cold winter, the men built two flatboats, the forty-five ton ‘Adventure Galley’ also known as the ‘Mayflower’ in honor of their Pilgrim ancestors, and the three-ton ‘Adelphia’. They also built three log canoes. This small fleet of boats carried the pioneers down the Youghiogheny River to the Monongahela River, and then to the Ohio River, and onward to the Ohio Country and the Northwest Territory. They arrived at their final destination, the mouth of the Muskingum River at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, on April 7, 1788.
“Can too much be said in praise of the noble heroes who opened to settlement the Great Northwest Territory? These men had been trained in army life and discipline and were anxious to take this country as the payment due them for military service. They were men who had fought valiantly to preserve the principles of their government and were ready for other great achievements. They were men who had assisted in making this territory a part of the United States and had, in great measure, assisted in the formation and adoption of the Ordinance of 1787 which was to govern it. Indeed, a better company of men could scarcely have been selected than those who were directed by General Putnam.”
The first forty-eight pioneers, April 1788
The first forty-eight pioneers included the following men. This group of pioneers arrived on April 7, 1788, except for Col. Meigs, who arrived several days later on April 12, 1788, and Anselm Tupper, who arrived on April 25, according to Rufus Putnam's journal.
- General Rufus Putnam, superintendent of the settlement, co-founder of the Ohio Company of Associates
- Colonel Return J. Meigs, Sr., surveyor
- Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, surveyor (married to daughter of Commodore Abraham Whipple)
- Major Anselm Tupper, surveyor (son of General Benjamin Tupper)
- John Mathews, surveyor
- Major Haffield White, quartermaster
- Captain Ezekiel Cooper
- Captain Daniel Davis
- Captain Jonathan Devoll (Devol)
- Captain Peregrine Foster
- Captain William Gray
- Captain Josiah Munroe (Munro)
- Captain Jethro Putnam
- Jabez Barlow
- Daniel Bushnell
- Phineas Coburn
- Ebenezer Corey (Cory)
- Samuel Cushing
- Jarvis (Jervis) Cutler (son of Manasseh Cutler)
- Israel Danton
- Jonas Davis
- Allen Devoll
- Gilbert Devoll, Jr.
- Isaac Dodge
- Oliver Dodge
- Samuel Felshaw
- Hezekiah Flint
- Hezekiah Flint, Jr.
- John Gardner
- Benjamin Griswold
- Elizur (Elisur) Kirtland
- Theophilus Leonard (Learned)
- Joseph Lincoln
- Simeon Martin
- Henry Maxom
- William Maxom (Mason)
- William Miller
- William Moulton
- Edmond (Edmund) Moulton
- Amos Porter, Jr.
- Allen Putnam
- Benjamin Shaw
- Earl Sproat
- David Wallace (Wallis)
- Joseph Wells
- Josiah White
- Peletiah White
- Josiah Whitridge
Arrivals the following month, May 1788
Arrivals the following month, May 1788, included:
June 1788
During June 1788, several more pioneers arrived, including the first woman settler:
August 1788
During August 1788, General Benjamin Tupper and his extended family arrived.
1788 and 1789
Other notable arrivals included:
Legacy
“The forty-eight persons who disembarked from the ‘Adventure Galley’ at the mouth of the Muskingum, April 7, 1788, had come out into the wilderness to lay the corner-stone of one of the greatest political edifices that has ever sheltered millions of brave, prosperous and happy freemen. They were certainly the progenitors of the state builders of the great Northwest. Within fifty years of their coming, Ohio had a million and a half of people, and had already made such rapid strides in its internal improvement, its systems of navigation, its jurisprudence, and its enlargement of public education, as to become an example to some of the older states.”
These early American pioneers to the Northwest Territory have been memorialized in verse and book. The poem, Landing of the Pioneers, was written sixty years after the landing by Frances Dana Gage, and included in her book of poems published in 1867. The poem, The Founders of Ohio, was written in 1888 during the centennial of the event by William Henry Venable, and was published later in several books of poems. The book Pioneer History (1848) by Samuel Prescott Hildreth describes the early civil history of the Northwest Territory in Ohio; Hildreth’s book Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio (1852) provides biographies of the earliest settlers.
Many of these early pioneers are buried in Marietta at Mound Cemetery.
In 1888, the Adventure Galley III recreated the journey of the original pioneer 'Adventure Galley'. In 1984 this journey was again recreated aboard the Adventure Galley II (actually the fourth boat by the name Adventure Galley), captained by Vaughn P. Wendland. This Adventure Galley IV is on display at the Behringer-Crawford museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.