“canoo,” “learge,” “exelent,” “sildom”: Ibid., 4, 9, 11, 13.
“Starving Year”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 113.
“strewed all their money”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 63.
“the hungry year”: Alan Taylor, “ ‘The Hungry Year’: 1789 on the Northern Border of Revolutionary America,” in Dreadful Visitations: Confronting Natural Catastrophe in the Age of Enlightment, Alessa Johns, ed., 145–81.
“Where poverty, improvidence, and scarcity meet”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 63.
“In this great scarcity it was wonderful”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 265.
One family in particular: See biographical sketch of Isaac and Rebecca Williams in Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 475–91.
“How many is there of you?”: Isaac Williams to Captain Devol and Isaac Barker, 1790, Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 65.
“Those who had cows”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 265–66.
“I am living in a little, clean log-cabin”: Joseph Barker to his wife, Elizabeth Barker, Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 439.
“good, smooth poplar floors”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 67.
In June he headed back to Rutland: Stone, “From Rutland to Marietta,” New England Magazine, Vol. 16, New Series, April 1897; Crawford, “Rufus Putnam, and His Pioneer Life in the North West,” American Antiquarian Society, New Series, Vol. 12, 1899.
“Your company is much wished for”: Rufus Putnam to Manasseh Cutler, August 12, 1790, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 464.
“At length we arrived at Marietta”: Crawford, “Rufus Putnam, and His Pioneer Life in the North West,” American Antiquarian Society, New Series, Vol. 12, 1899, 445.
“Big Buckeye”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 237.
“Call every man’s name”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 6.
Serious trouble of a different kind: For an excellent account and examination of the Scioto Company speculation, see Belote, The Scioto Speculation and the French Settlement at Gallipolis. New York: Burt Franklin, 1907.
“an Englishman”: Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 499.
“I view my character”: Manasseh Cutler to Rufus Putnam, November 18, 1788, MCSC.
“prospectus”: Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 499.
“wholesome and delightful”: Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. 1, 669.
“Nothing was talked of in every social circle, but the paradise”: E. O. Randall, “Editorialana,” Vol. 25, No. 1, January 1916, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, 541.
“strangers in a strange land”: Cutler, Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, 264.
“There might have been more”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 60.
“I have seen half a dozen at work in taking down a tree”: Barber and Howe, Our Whole Country, Vol. 2, 954.
“To some the surrounding woods might appear frightful deserts”: Hurt, The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720–1830, 193.
“town located opposite”: Cuming, Cuming’s Tour to the Western Country, 1807–1809, 256.
“It was as late as the 5th of November”: Rufus Putnam to George Washington, December 20, 1790, The Papers of George Washington, Vol. 7, 100.
“indulge . . . to excess”: Henry Knox to Josiah Harmar, September 3, 1790, Papers of George Washington; Presidential Series, Vol. 6, Mark A. Mastromarino, ed., 168–69.
“scandalous”: Knepper, Ohio and Its People, 72.
“When or where”: Rufus Putnam to George Washington, December 20, 1790, The Papers of George Washington, Vol. 7, 101.
Big Bottom Massacre: Van Every, Ark of Empire: The American Frontier, 1784–1803, 226; Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, Vol. 3, 137–38; Sugden, Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees, 110.
“From the ridge”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 431.
“to prepare for the worst”: Rufus Putnam Journal, January 2, 1791, Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 67.
4. Havoc
“Beware of surprise!”: Lodge, George Washington, American Statesman series, Vol. 2, 95; Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, Vol. 6, 329; Flexner, George Washington and the New Nation, 299.
“The sad and dreadful havoc”: Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, December 18, 1791, Adams Family Correspondence, Vol. 9, 247.
“A horrid savage war”: Putnam, The Memoirs of Rufus Putnam, 247; Salem Gazette, February 15, 1791, MCSC.
“spunk to the backbone”: Catherine Barker Memoirs, October 21, 1880, 4, MCSC.
“spies”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 464.
“the prudence of our people”: Rufus Putnam to Caleb Strong, January 6, 1791, MCSC.
“truly critical”: Rufus Putnam to George Washington, January 8, 1791, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 279; The Papers of George Washington, Vol. 7, 208.
“better that [the] government disband”: Rufus Putnam to Henry Knox, January 8, 1791, Hildreth, Pioneer History, 281.
“a dead man”: Joseph Rogers, ibid., 283.
“Well, boys”: Ibid., 285.
“All was consternation”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, George Jordan Blazier, ed., 72–74.
“Some whites are more savage”: Essay of Horace Nye, “Recollections of the Settlement of Marietta and Campus Martius,” Samuel Hildreth Papers, Vol. 1, MCSC.
Arthur St. Clair: Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 8, Dumas Malone, ed., New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 293–95; Chernow, Washington: A Life, 666.
“filled the public mind”: Illinois Biographical Dictionary, 2008–2009 edition, Vol. 1 (Hamburg, MI: State Historical Publications, 2008), 638.
“as much appearance”: Guthman, March to Massacre: A History of the First Seven Years of the United States Army, 1784–1791, 215.
“The President of the United States”: Henry Knox to Arthur St. Clair, August 4, 1791, ibid., 211.
“totally unacquainted”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, November 7, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, 170.
“a matter of astonishment”: Guthman, March to Massacre, 210.
Until then the worst defeat: Van Every, Ark of Empire, 235; Sugden, Blue Jacket, 127; and Sugden, Tecumseh: A Life, 63.
Denny took St. Clair for a visit: Denny, Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, May 23, 1788, 118.
“Beware of surprise!”: Lodge, George Washington, Vol. 2, 95; Freeman, George Washington, Vol. 6, 329; Flexner, George Washington and the New Nation, 299.
“stamina of soldiers”: Guthman, March to Massacre, 221.
“deficiencies”: Ibid., 223.
“We had no guides”: Ibid., 227–28.
“compact”: Ibid., 223.
“Cold and wet”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, October 15, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, 156.
“Weather very bad,” “very severe” frost, “ice upon the waters”: Ibid., October 17, 21, 1791, 157.
“unpardonable mismanagement”: Ibid., October 19, 1791, 157.
St. Clair gout: Van Every, Ark of Empire, 232.
“good effect”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, October 28, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, 160.
“Our prospects are gloomy”: Guthman, March to Massacre, 229.
“may be afraid to return”: Ibid., 230.
As they were soon to learn: Sugden, Blue Jacket, 117–27.
“turncoat”: Banta, The Ohio, 233.
“The Indians were never in greater heart”: Butts, Simon Girty: Wilderness Warrior, 204.
“The few Indians that have been seen”: Calloway, The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army, 91.
“all men unable to march”: Guthman, March to Massacre, 226.
“small flight of snow”: Sargent, Diary
of Col. Winthrop Sargent, 24.
“principally by our own sentinels”: Guthman, March to Massacre, 237.
“unclouded”: Sargent, Diary of Col. Winthrop Sargent, 25.
“Not terrible, as has been represented”: Ibid.
“Close upon the heels of the flying militia”: Ibid.
“smart fire”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, November 4, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Ebenezer Denny, 165.
“The enemy from the front”: Ibid.
“Indeed, they seemed not to fear anything”: Ibid., 166.
“The Indians fought like hellhounds”: Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 183.
“I wish I could describe that battle”: Ibid., 183.
“As our lines were deserted”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, November 4, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Ebenezer Denny, 166–67.
“Delay was death”: Ibid., 167.
General Richard Butler: Chernow, Washington, 667; The Papers of George Washington, Vol. 9, 250; Murray, “The Butlers of Cumberland Valley,” Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Biographical and Genealogical, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1883. Hogeland, Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the United States Army and the Invasion that Opened the West, 11–18, 297–99.
“weary with the work”: Hill, History of Knox County, Ohio, 180.
“Accordingly, . . . we set out a little after ten”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, November 4, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Ebenezer Denny, 169.
“Every house in this town”: Sargent, Diary of Col. Winthrop Sargent, November 9, 1791, 27.
St. Clair’s defeat: Van Every, Ark of Empire, 235; Sugden, Blue Jacket, 127; Freeman, George Washington, Vol. 6, 339.
“with what material the bulk of the army”: St. Clair, The St. Clair Papers: The Life and Public Services of Arthur St. Clair, Vol. 2, William Henry Smith, ed., 262.
“constantly on the alert”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, November 7, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Ebenezer Denny, 170–71.
“This was a knowledge of the collected force”: Ibid., 171.
“these evil forebodings began to subside”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 297.
“When I consider the multiplicity”: Rufus Putnam to George Washington, December 26, 1791, MCSC.
Tobias Lear and Washington: Lodge, George Washington, Vol. 2, 95; Lossing, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, 416–20; Decatur, Private Affairs of George Washington, 248; The Papers of George Washington, Vol. 9, 275.
“unpleasant task”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, December 19, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Ebenezer Denny, 175.
“The sad and dreadful havoc of our army”: Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, December 18, 1791, Adams Family Correspondence, Vol. 9, 247.
“attention and kindness”: Ebenezer Denny Journal, December 19, 1791, Denny, Military Journal of Ebenezer Denny, 176.
first congressional investigation in American history: Calloway, The Victory with No Name, 5.
“melancholy theater”: Sargent, Diary of Col. Winthrop Sargent, appendix, 55.
“Every twig and bush seems to be cut down”: Ibid.
“When I came to his house”: Manasseh Cutler to Mary Balch Cutler, March 5, 1792, Manasseh Cutler Journal, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 1, 484.
“closeted”: Ibid., 485.
“not the remotest wish”: Rufus Putnam to Henry Knox, Philadelphia, May 7, 1792, The Memoirs of Rufus Putnam and Certain Official Papers and Correspondence, 118.
General “Mad Anthony” Wayne: Chernow, Washington, 717; Howard, Shawnee!: The Ceremonialism of a Native Indian Tribe and Its Cultural Background, 17; Hogeland, Autumn of the Black Snake, 230.
“debarred”: Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 18–19.
“They were united in bonds of friendship”: Hildreth, Pioneer History, 470.
“Uncle Sam”: Ibid., 471.
battle of Fallen Timbers: Sugden, Blue Jacket, 172–87; Chernow, Washington, 717.
“scarcely be over-estimated”: Cone, Life of Rufus Putnam, 126.
“Compared to any previous effort”: Knepper, Ohio and Its People, 79.
5. A New Era Commences
“Thus we left the scene of my early life”: Ephraim Cutler Journal, June 15, 1795, Cutler, Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, 17.
“earnestly entreated”: June 1770, ibid., 8.
“impracticable”: Ibid., 12.
“a strong propensity to read”: Ibid.
“It has always been to me a source of regret”: Ibid.
“before I had attained my twentieth year”: Ibid., 14.
“I should esteem it one of the greatest pleasures”: Ibid., 277.
“suffer herself to be disheartened”: June 15, 1795, ibid., 17.
“conveyance”: Ibid., 19.
“Again we moved on in the usual slow way”: Ibid., 21.
“To add to our distress”: Ibid.
“much weakened”: Ibid.
“We had landed sick among strangers”: September 18, 1795, ibid., 22.
“There is probably no more beautiful and pleasant location”: Ibid., 24–25.
“principal inhabitants”: Ibid., 23.
“broken up former fixed habits of industry”: Ibid.
“found employment”: Ibid., 29.
“a great relief to me in my then needy circumstances”: Ibid., 30.
“overwhelming”: Ibid., 31.
“I have earnestly wished you to have a good farm”: Manasseh Cutler to Ephraim Cutler, ibid., 35–36.
various “circumstances”: Ibid., 38.
“The timber was large, principally beech and sugar-tree”: Ibid., 40.
“They sometimes visited us”: Ibid., 41.
“abundant”: Ibid., 42.
“In those early times”: History of Hocking Valley, Ohio, 46–47.
“to hold his scalp on”: Joseph Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of the Ohio, iv.
“The fortitude and perseverance requisite”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 455.
“refinement”: Ibid., 456.
“to be useful, to be pleasant”: Catherine Barker Memoir, October 26, 1880, 10, MCSC.
“Count the day lost”: Catherine Barker Memoir, October 29, 1880, ibid., 12.
“I sometimes thought it terrible”: Catherine Barker Memoir, October 21, 1880, ibid., 4.
“ninety-one dwelling houses”: Fry, “Women on the Ohio Frontier: The Marietta Area,” Ohio History Journal Archive, Vol. 90, No. 1, Winter 1981, 63.
Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 491–528. The author is grateful to historian Dr. Ray Swick; Bill Reynolds, of the Campus Martius Museum; and Miles Evenson, Superintendent of the Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park for two separate detailed tours of the island and mansion.
“the accidental effects of the electric fluid”: Safford, The Life of Harman Blennerhassett: An Authentic Narrative of the Burr Expedition, 44.
“Blanny”: Ibid., 219.
“the most perfect proportions”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 501.
The total outlay: See, generally, Swick, An Island Called Eden: The Story of Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett, 15.
“a scene of enchantment”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 505.
“the Enchanted Island”: Swick, An Island Called Eden, 23.
“Earthly Paradise”: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 506.
“more sedate”: Ibid., 505.
“under the spotlight of history”: Hood, “A Genealogy and Biography of Colonel Barker,” in Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, George Jordan Blazier, ed., v.
“Tis well”: Irving, Life of George Washington, Vol. 5, 373.
“her most esteemed, beloved and admired citizen”: John Adams address to Senate, December 23, 1799, in Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. 1, 299.
“Falls”:
Gruenwald, River of Enterprise: The Commercial Origins of Regional Identity in the Ohio Valley, 1790–1850, 64.
Jonathan Devol: Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 254.
“I am . . . fully convinced”: Ephraim Cutler to Manasseh Cutler, March 18, 1802, Ephraim Cutler Papers, MCSC.
“highly respected for their moral worth and standing”: Catherine Barker Memoir, March 12, 1881, Vol. 2, 22, MCSC.
“cherished”: Ibid., 21.
“distinguished seat of hospitality”: Catherine Barker Memoir, March 14, 1881, Vol. 2, 27, MCSC.
“It was so sudden”: Manasseh Cutler to Ephraim Cutler, Boston, February 5, 1801, Ephraim Cutler Papers, MCSC.
“I cannot close this letter”: Manasseh Cutler to Ephraim Cutler, Boston, February 5, 1801, ibid.
“I thank you for your advice”: Ephraim Cutler to Manasseh Cutler, April 25, 1801, ibid.
“remarkably pleasant”: Manasseh Cutler to Betsy Poole, December 21, 1801, Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals, Vol. 2, 51.
“The block in which I live”: Ibid., 50.
“very little done”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, January 5, 15, 22, 1802, ibid., 59–60.
“conversed with great ease and familiarity”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, January 2, 1802, ibid., 56.
“social”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, February 6, 1802, ibid., 72.
“Rice soup, round of beef, turkey, mutton”: Ibid., 71.
“Before I came”: Manasseh Cutler to Ephraim Cutler, March 14, 1802, ibid., 96.
“rambled”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, April 24, 1802, ibid., 106.
“At five o’clock took leave”: Manasseh Cutler Journal, May 4, 1802, ibid., 107.
“I rejoice to hear you are well”: Manasseh Cutler to Mary Balch Cutler, January 25, 1804, MCSC.
“Your very affectionate letter of the 6th”: Manasseh Cutler to Mary Balch Cutler, January 22, 1805, MCSC.
“dirty, drunken”: Ephraim Cutler to Manasseh Cutler, August 31, 1802, Ephraim Cutler Papers, MCSC.
“No person shall be held in slavery”: Cutler, Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, 74.
“The handwriting, I had no doubt”: Ibid.
“very desirous” and “warmth of feeling”: Ibid.
“the Jeffersonian version”: Ibid., 76.
“Cutler, you must get well”: Ibid.
“I went to the convention and moved to strike out”: Ibid.
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