The Pioneers

by David McCullough

  The governor of Ohio had called out the militia. At Marietta 10,000 or more were encamped, in the event Morgan might strike there in an attempt to escape back over the river. Another militia encampment had been established downriver at Warren, using the Cutler homestead as its command center. Militiamen were busy digging rifle pits across the field above the house.

  “We are getting accustomed to warlike sights and sounds,” wrote Julia Cutler, “the glittering bayonets of the infantry, the bugle call of the artillery, the clanking of saber and carbine of the cavalry. . . .

  They [the soldiers] come to us for food, medicines, tools, cooking utensils, tubs, washboard, soap, books, newspapers . . . every shade tree has its group of loungers, reading, writing. . . . Some walk about the garden—some spend hours in the river—while others sleep their time away. All say they like this place better than any they have camped in.

  General Morgan and his men kept rapidly on the move, until stopped at Buffington Island ford on the Ohio River, nearly sixty miles downstream from Marietta in a sharp skirmish with Ohio militia. More than 700 of his men were taken prisoner. Still he moved on, turning north, crossing the Muskingum near McConnelsville, until finally stopped at Salineville, where he surrendered.

  At Camp Marietta, meantime, Dr. George Hildreth, who was serving with the militia there, had on July 20 suddenly requested a leave of absence to return to the family home on Putnam Street, such was the declining condition of his father. The request was granted by his commander, Colonel William Rufus Putnam, Jr.

  Dr. Samuel Hildreth, now nearly eighty, remained one of Marietta’s most accomplished, highly respected citizens. He had been honored with numerous awards for worthy achievement well beyond Marietta, yet remained ever devoted to the town and the town to him.

  He had also remained in good health—a well-preserved and happy old gentleman, as said—until Sunday, July 5. That morning he had attended church as usual, but in the afternoon he suffered a stroke that paralyzed him.

  Samuel Hildreth died on July 24, 1863, in the grand, red-brick home built by Joseph Barker. His wife, Rhoda, his physician son, George, and others of the family were at his side.

  His funeral was held two days later at the Congregational Church. He was buried beside his father at the old Mound Cemetery. Rhoda Cook Hildreth, who died in 1868, would also be buried beside her husband.

  Published in the American Journal of Science and Arts, a few months after Hildreth’s death, Benjamin Silliman wrote, “In his private life he illustrated every virtue of a Christian gentleman. Bright and cheerful by nature, he loved nature with the simple enthusiasm of a child. Industrious and systematic in a high degree, no moment of his life was wasted.”

  A long obituary in the Marietta Register recounted Hildreth’s many scientific and historic publications, that he had been president of the Medical Society of Ohio, that he had recently donated his collection of fossils, insects, and shells, some 4,000 specimens in natural history, arranged in cases and drawers, labeled, numbered, and entered in a catalogue—to Marietta College.

  “Besides his laborious medical practice,” the obituary continued, “he accomplished very much, as he himself expressed it, by saving the ‘odds and ends of time.’ . . . He was exact in all his dealings—an honest man, a Christian. His was a complete life, he ‘finished his work.’ ”

  But then it can be said, too, that those others of the foremost pioneers of Marietta had finished their work, each in his or her way, and no matter the adversities to be faced, propelled as they were by high, worthy purpose. They accomplished what they had set out to do not for money, not for possessions or fame, but to advance the quality and opportunities of life—to propel as best they could the American ideals.

  1 General Rufus Putnam, Revolutionary War veteran and leader of the first expedition of pioneers to the far distant wilderness of “the Ohio country.” In the 1840s, artist Sala Bosworth of Marietta painted this portrait in profile in order to hide Putnam’s right eye, which had been disfigured in a boyhood accident.

  2 City Hall on Wall Street in New York (later Federal Hall), where the Continental Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance.

  3 The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (right), one of the most important, far-reaching acts of Congress in history, established by law the fulfillment of American ideals in a way nothing yet had, and was passed even before the Constitution. It guaranteed, in the first article, freedom of religion. The third article stated the need for education, and in the sixth article, most important of all, it declared there would be no slavery. Until then, despite the claim that “all men are created equal,” slavery continued throughout all of the thirteen states. Now, in five new states, a territory as large as the original thirteen, there was to be no slavery.

  4 The Reverend Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts, who, against all odds, almost singlehandedly persuaded Congress to pass the Northwest Ordinance. Artist unknown.

  5 The first covered wagon sets off for the west from in front of the Reverend Cutler’s church and parsonage in Ipswich Hamlet, Massachusetts, on the morning of Monday, December 3, 1787.

  6 General Rufus Putnam and the first pioneers being greeted on arrival near the Point by the Delaware chief Captain Pipe and some seventy native men, women, and children, as artist Sala Bosworth imagined the scene. Fort Harmar is seen in the distance.

  7 Campus Martius on the Muskingum River, measuring 188 feet in length, had an interior court and strong blockhouses at all four corners. Designed by Rufus Putnam as the bulwark of the settlement, it was built to house 864 people.

  8 Early map of Marietta’s ancient earthworks, constructed by what was known as the Ohio Hopewell culture and built between 100 BC and AD 500.

  9 The grand sweep of the ancient earthworks with Campus Martius in the distance. Painting and drawing below both by Charles Sullivan.

  10 The Great Mound, a thirty-foot-high ancient burial site, was to become the central feature of the cemetery of the Marietta settlement, in part as a way of protecting the historic Mound from destruction from future developers, a far-sighted decision for which Rufus Putnam was largely responsible.

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  14 Greatest and most formidable by far of the many initial challenges to be met was clearing the forests, the gigantic trees of every kind, and all by hand. Food supply in the form of white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and fish was available in quantity such as never imagined. But so, too, were wolves, panthers, black bears, and rattlesnakes.

  15 Marietta in its early stage as a settlement at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, the area known as “The Point.” Artist unknown.

  16 The classic Ohio River flatboat would be described as a mixture of log cabin, floating barnyard, and country grocery. Colored lithograph based on an unsigned Ohio folk art painting.

  17 General Arthur St. Clair, whose little knowledge of or interest in Indians, combined with notably poor judgment, led to one of the worst defeats ever of the American army in a battle by the Wabash River on November 4, 1791, to be known only as St. Clair’s Defeat.

  18 Colonel Winthrop Sargent, who, with so much going wrong on every side, proved himself a highly able and steadfast officer. Sketch by the great American portrait painter of the time, John Trumbull.

  19 The native force of some 1,000 warriors was commanded by the Miami tribe chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket, and included the young Shawnee warrior Tecumseh (left). All were highly experienced in wilderness warfare.

  20 Like Sargent, Major Ebenezer Denny proved himself a highly admirable officer in the chaos of defeat.

  21 With the defeat of the Shawnee chief Blue Jacket and his warriors by another American force, this commanded by General Anthony Wayne, at the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, came the end of four years of bitter frontier fighting. At Marietta the cloud of fear lifted and life for many returned to the main task of clearing and burning trees. Painting by George Harvey.

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nbsp; 1 Judge Ephraim Cutler, the oldest son of Manasseh Cutler, devoted much of his life to making the ideals of the Northwest Ordinance established by his father remain a reality—in continuing to exclude slavery and in keeping higher education a main objective. Oil portrait by Sala Bosworth, circa 1840s.

  2 Joseph Barker, talented carpenter, boat builder, and gifted, self-taught architect who designed and built many of the principal buildings of Marietta. This oil portrait, painted in his elder years by neighbor and portraitist, Lilly Martin Spencer, was intended also to show his great love of books.

  3 Elizabeth Dana Barker, long remembered as a “loving gentle woman” whose word was “law,” with her ten children. She encouraged them to get all the knowledge they could, make use of it, and “everywhere be useful.” Portrait by Sala Bosworth, circa 1840s.

  4 Harman Blennerhassett, a wealthy Irish aristocrat.

  5 Margaret Blennerhassett, his wife, who was also his niece.

  6 Blennerhassett Mansion, the palatial home built for the couple by Joseph Barker on what became known as Blennerhassett Island, twelve miles downstream from Marietta on the Ohio and within Virginia. Everything was done to perfection and at a cost such as never known on the river.

  7 On frequent excursions to Marietta on her white horse, Margaret sported a bright scarlet dress with brass buttons, a beaver hat with white ostrich feathers, and went accompanied by a slave on horseback.

  8 In the spring of 1805, former vice president Aaron Burr arrived at Blennerhassett Island, having shot and killed Alexander Hamilton only the year before and now reputedly plotting some new mysterious pursuits in the west in which he was soon to involve Harman Blennerhassett.

  9 Of all the gigantic trees that filled the forests of Ohio none was held in such regard as the buckeye, a favorite wood for making bowls, chairs, and cribs. It was the source for the buckeye nut, which in addition to its medicinal value was considered a reliable provider of good luck. It became Ohio’s much loved state tree.

  10 The Great Seal of the State of Ohio, depicting sunrise over the Scioto River, was first conceived in 1802, then made official the year following.

  11 Chillicothe, about 100 miles west of Marietta on the Scioto River, became the first capital of Ohio. It was there at the first Ohio State House (above), that Ephraim Cutler, who was so ill he could barely get out of bed, cast what proved to be the deciding vote that kept Ohio from becoming a slave state, thus saving the cause of freedom so cherished by his father and others of the founding pioneers.

  12 Locally built boats offshore at Marietta. Painting by Charles Sullivan, circa 1840.

  13 Commodore Abraham Whipple, famous American Revolutionary War naval officer, based on a portrait by Edward Savage. In April 1801, a 110-ton oceangoing square-rigger, St. Clair, built at Marietta by Charles Greene, set sail down the Ohio. Under the skillful command of Whipple, the ship made history, sailing all the way to New Orleans and out to sea.

  14 The steamboat New Orleans, built at Pittsburgh, set sail in October 1811 with its builder Nicholas Roosevelt in command. The voyage to New Orleans marked the start of the steamboat era on western waters.

  15 The explosion of the steamboat Washington at Marietta the morning of June 5, 1816, was the first steamboat disaster on the western rivers.

  16 Dr. Samuel Hildreth first arrived alone on horseback at Marietta in 1806 when still in his twenties, knowing no one, and soon established himself not only as an indispensable physician but as a man of many interests and remarkable abilities. He was to distinguish himself also as a naturalist of national reputation and the first chronicler of the Marietta story. Oil portrait by Aaron Houghton Corwine, painted in 1823.

  17 Rhoda Cook Hildreth with her sixth child, Harriet Eliza. Oil portrait by Sala Bosworth, 1826.

  18 Watercolor of the life cycle of a butterfly, one of the many painted by Samuel Hildreth.

  19 The town of Marietta in a landscape painted about 1840 by Charles Sullivan. The Congregational Church with its twin towers stands out clearly on the left, on Front Street overlooking the Muskingum River.

  20 The Congregational Church in a photograph taken in the 1880s.

  21 The Cutler family homestead, the Old Stone House, and its abundant gardens, overlooking the Ohio River. Painted by Sala Bosworth, about 1840.

  22 Judge Ephraim Cutler, who in old age began his autobiography with classic understatement: “I have had rather an eventful life.”

  23 Julia Cutler, who looked after her father, kept house, worked with him on his autobiography, and corrected his spelling right to the end.

  24 Wholehearted commitment to higher education, ever a main objective among the founding pioneers of Ohio, was notably achieved with the establishment of both Ohio University, in 1804, and Marietta College, in 1832. Cutler Hall, the first building at Ohio University and still the centerpiece of the campus. Drawing by Henry Howe, 1846.

  25 Marietta College, also drawn by Henry Howe in 1846. The structure on the right, built in 1832 and only known as the College Building, no longer stands; that on the left, Erwin Hall with its tower, remains the proud symbol of the college.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  It was large-scale good luck that led me to writing this book, beginning back in 2004, when the president of Ohio University, Dr. Robert Glidden, invited me to deliver the commencement address in tribute to the university’s 200th anniversary. The invitation was one for which I will ever be grateful.

  I already had good feelings about pioneer times in Ohio, mainly because of the monumental trilogy by Conrad Richter, The Trees, The Fields, and The Town, among the finest ever works of American historical fiction. But I knew relatively little about the university and in my early efforts to understand its beginnings I learned that the oldest building on campus was called Cutler Hall. This led me to the story of the amazing Reverend Manasseh Cutler, a figure I had never heard of, and that eventually would lead me to Marietta, Ohio, and the Legacy Library at Marietta College.

  Because I had other projects underway at the time, including a book on the Wright brothers set in another part of Ohio, it was not for several years before I got started on The Pioneers and came to grasp the full reach and importance of the story.

  What was for me particularly exciting was the realization that I now had the opportunity to write about a cast of real-life characters of historic accomplishment who were entirely unknown to most Americans—to bring them to life, bring them center stage and tell their amazing and, I felt, important story.

  It would also be a book such as I had long hoped I might one day attempt, ever since I first saw Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. But where or when, if ever, would I find a collection of primary source material—original letters, diaries, memoirs and the like—sufficient to make that possible?

  Now there it was, and not in some long-forgotten attic, but in one fine, superbly staffed library at the center of a beautiful college campus in the very town at the center of the story.

  The papers of General Rufus Putnam and those of the Ohio Company of Associates were all there, no fewer than forty-five hundred items. There, too, was the Ephraim Cutler Family Collection, numbering some five thousand items; and the Samuel Hildreth Collections, which include not only his letters, journals, and daily notes on the weather, but his voluminous natural history notes, articles, speeches, in addition to his notes and papers related to the history of the Ohio Valley.

  The main body of Manasseh Cutler’s journals and correspondence, beginning as early as 1765, was published in two volumes in 1888, but the Marietta College Library collection also includes some 350 original manuscript sermons, three original diaries from the 1820s, and fifty items of original correspondence.

  Included also in the Marietta collection is an extensive collection of books and newspaper articles, maps, drawings, landscape paintings, and superb oil portraits of the principal characters done from life, a treasure in themselves.

  In the diary I kept during my first visit to the Mariett
a College Library in September 2016, I wrote:

  These were two of the very best research days ever—the material beyond anything expected and the librarians and Marietta history specialists among the best and most good-spirited I’ve ever worked with. The time spent has expanded my feeling for the subject in a way nothing else could have.

  And then there is the remarkable keeper of the treasures, Linda Showalter, whose help, guidance, and immense knowledge of the subject were of such great importance from the start. Hardly a day went by when she did not turn up some surprise items from the collection. Most memorable was the point during that first visit when she came over to the work table where I was seated in the archives reading room and said simply with a smile, “I think this might be of interest to you.”

  She set before me what looked like it might be an old account book. I opened it and there, to my utter surprise, I found page after page of exquisite watercolor renderings of caterpillars morphing into a variety of bright-colored butterflies, all the work of the highly gifted Samuel Hildreth.