Ann Cales gave Delphi Study Club members a glimpse of the settlement of Ohio Country as told in David McCullough’s historical narrative The Pioneers.
Speaking at the club’s November meeting hosted by Vivian Pemberton, Cales concentrated on the first part of the book. Ohio Country, also called the Northwest Territory, was 265,878 square miles of land ceded by the British to the fledgling United States at the end of the Revolutionary War. The territory, from which the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota were eventually created, doubled the size of United States land.
An economic depression led to a call to open the land for settlement, and eleven Revolutionary War veterans, including Rev. Manassah Cutler and General Rufus Putnam, met to form the Ohio Company of Associates and to draft the Northwest Ordinance, a plan for a controlled settlement of the area. Cutler lobbied the Continental Congress to approve the ordinance, which called for absolute freedom of religion, free universal education and no slavery. The approved ordinance also provided that land and property of the Indians would not be taken from them without their consent and they would never be invaded or disturbed unless in just and lawful war authorized by Congress.
The company purchased one million acres from the government and in 1787 Putnam selected 48 men, divided into two parties, to travel on foot the 700 miles overland to the Ohio River headwaters where they would build flatboats and float down the river to its confluence with the Muskingum River. There they established the town of Marietta. Despite many hardships, more settlers arrived and the town thrived.
Attending the meeting in addition to Cales and Pemberton were Nancy Brown, Evelyn Coyle, Beverly Frazier, Gayle Kuchera, Carolyn Ott, Marjilea Smithheisler and Neva Staton.
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