Editing Marietta, Ohio (section)

==History==
===Prehistoric===
Succeeding Indigenous cultures lived along the Ohio River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Among them were more than one culture who built earthwork mounds, monuments which generally expressed their cosmology, often with links to astronomical events.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hissem |first=L. V. |date=November 24, 2023 |title=Native American history of the MOV: Pre-colonization |url=https://www.wtap.com/2023/11/25/native-american-history-mov-pre-colonization/ |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=WTAP |language=en}}</ref>

Between 100 BC and AD 500, the [[Hopewell culture]] built the multi-earthwork complex on the terrace east of the Muskingum River near its mouth with the Ohio. It is now known as the Marietta Earthworks. Developed over many years, it had a large enclosed square, within which were four platform mounds, used for ceremonial purposes and elite residential; another square, and a larger conical mound used for burials. A walled, graded path led to the river's edge.<ref name="OHC" /> By the time of the historic tribes, such as the [[Shawnee]], the purposes and makers of the monuments were no longer known.

===Settlement===
[[File:CampusMartius.jpg|thumb|Campus Martius fort at Marietta, with conical Great Mound visible in background to right of tree]]
[[File:PicketedPointMariettaOH.jpg|thumb|Picketed Point stockade at Marietta]]

French explorers entered this area in the 18th century, and in 1749 buried numerous leaden plates to mark their claim to the Ohio Country (which they called the Illinois Territory, as they had more settlements near the [[Mississippi River]].) They later ceded their territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain after the [[French and Indian War]]. Two of their plates were discovered in the Marietta area in 1798, and one was replicated for what is known as the French monument, erected in the 20th century (see photo).

In 1770, the future [[U.S. president]] [[George Washington]], then a [[Surveyor (surveying)|surveyor]], began exploring large tracts of land west of his native [[Virginia]]. During the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], Washington told his friend General [[Rufus Putnam]] of the beauty he had seen in his travels through the [[Ohio Valley]] and of his ideas for settling the territory.  In the summer of 1781, John Carpenter built [[Carpenter's Fort, Ohio|Carpenter's Fort]], or Carpenter's Station as it was sometimes called, a fortified house above the mouth of Short Creek on the Ohio side of the Ohio River, near present-day Marietta.<ref>J. A. Caldwell: ''History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio'', Historical Publishing Co., Wheeling, W.Va., 1880, p. 605, reprinted 1983.</ref><ref>Julie Minot Overton, with Kay Ballantyne Hudson and Sunda Anderson Peters, eds.: ''Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide'', The Ohio Genealogical Society, Mansfield, Ohio: Penobscot Press, 2000, p. 59.</ref>

After the [[American Revolutionary War]], the U.S. sold or granted large tracts of land to stimulate development in this area. Marietta was founded by settlers from [[New England]] who were investors in the [[Ohio Company of Associates]].<ref name="Hubbard, Robert Ernest pp. 80, 103">Hubbard, Robert Ernest.  ''General Rufus Putnam: George Washington's Chief Military Engineer and the "Father of Ohio,"'' pp. 80, 103-4, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina, 2020.  {{ISBN|978-1-4766-7862-7}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19700502&id=cn8gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hGgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=823,280187|title = Lewiston Evening Journal - Google News Archive Search}}</ref> It was the first of numerous [[New England]] settlements in what was then the [[Northwest Territory]].<ref name="New England page 175">Lois Kimball Mathews, ''The Expansion of New England: The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620–1865'', page 175</ref> These New Englanders, or "[[Yankee]]s" as they were called, were descended from the [[Puritan]] English colonists who had settled [[New England]] in the 1600s and were primarily [[Congregationalist church|Congregationalists]]. The first church constructed in Marietta was a Congregationalist church, founded around 1786.<ref name="New England page 175" /> Before the mid-1790s services were held at the fort or in Munsell's Hall at nearby Point Harmar. In 1798 the Muskingum Academy was built on the site of the 19th century Marietta Congregationalist Church. The academy building served both educational and religious purposes.<ref>Dickinson, Rev. CE. ''A History of the First Congregational Church of Marietta''. self-publ., 1896. 9–30</ref>

After the war, the newly formed United States had little cash but plenty of land. Eager to develop additional lands, the new government decided to pay veterans of the Revolution with [[Warrant (finance)|warrants]] for land in the [[Northwest Territory]], which was organized under federal authority in 1787 by the [[Northwest Ordinance]]. Competing states had agreed to end their claims to the lands; Pennsylvania and Virginia received some lands in a settlement. [[Arthur St. Clair]] was appointed by the president as governor of the new territory. He was inaugurated on a site now marked by the [[Start Westward Memorial]].

The [[Ohio Company of Associates]] had supported provisions in the ordinance to allow veterans to use their warrants to purchase the land. They bought 1.5 million [[acres]] (6,100&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of land from [[Congress of the United States|Congress]].<ref name="Hubbard, Robert Ernest pp. 80, 103"/> On April 7, 1788, [[American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory|48 men]] of the Ohio Company of Associates, led by General Putnam, arrived at the confluence of the [[Muskingum River|Muskingum]] and [[Ohio]] rivers.<ref>Hubbard, Robert Ernest.  ''General Rufus Putnam: George Washington's Chief Military Engineer and the "Father of Ohio,"'' pp. 107-10, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina, 2020.  {{ISBN|978-1-4766-7862-7}}.</ref> The site was on the east side of the Muskingum River, across from [[Fort Harmar]], a military outpost built three years prior.

Bringing with them the first government sanctioned by the US for this area,<ref name="Hildreth">Hildreth, S. P.: ''Pioneer History: Being an Account of the First Examinations of the Ohio Valley, and the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory'', H. W. Derby and Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (1848)</ref> they established the first permanent United States settlement in the [[Northwest Territory]].<ref name="Hulbert Vol I">Hulbert, Archer Butler: ''The Records of the Original Proceedings of the Ohio Company, Volume I'', Marietta Historical Commission, Marietta, Ohio (1917).</ref><ref name="Hulbert Vol II">Hulbert, Archer Butler: ''The Records of the Original Proceedings of the Ohio Company, Volume II'', Marietta Historical Commission, Marietta, Ohio (1917). Note:</ref> (Older European settlements in the Northwest Territory region include [[Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan]], 1668; [[Cahokia, Illinois]], 1696, [[Detroit]], 1701; [[Kaskaskia, Illinois]], 1703, [[Ouiatenon, Indiana]], 1717, [[Prairie du Rocher, Illinois]], 1720; [[Vincennes, Indiana]], 1732, [[Clarksville, Indiana]], 1783, [[Martin's Ferry, Ohio]], 1785, Fort Finney/[[Jeffersonville, Indiana]], 1786, most settled by ethnic French colonists from Canada.) The Americans named Marietta in honor of [[Marie Antoinette]], the Queen of [[France]], who had aided the colonies in their battle for independence from Great Britain.

The settlers immediately started construction of two forts: [[Campus Martius (Ohio)|Campus Martius]], whose former site is now occupied by the [[Campus Martius Museum|museum of the same name]], and [[Picketed Point Stockade]], at the [[confluence]] of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers. At the same time, the settlers started developing their community, platted according to plans they had made in Boston.

In 1788, [[George Washington]] said: {{cquote|No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. ... If I was a young man, just preparing to begin the world, or if advanced in life and had a family to make provision for, I know of no country where I should rather fix my habitation....<ref name="Sparks IX 385">Sparks, Jared: ''The Writings of George Washington, Vol. IX'', Harper and Brothers, New York (1847) p. 385.</ref>}}

The families of the settlers began arriving within a few months. By the end of 1788, 137 people populated the area.
[[File:PUTNAM exb.jpg|thumb|left|[[Rufus Putnam]] was George Washington's chief engineer.  After the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], he led the first settlers to Marietta, erected the [[Campus Martius (Ohio)|Campus Martius]] fort, and established the [[Northwest Territory]] as free soil - no slavery.]]

In 1789, the United States signed the [[Treaty of Fort Harmar]] with several Indigenous tribes that occupied areas of the [[Northwest Territory]], to settle issues related to trade, as well as the boundary between their lands and United States settlement. The US did not address the Indigenous people's major grievance about American settlers moving into their lands, particularly in the [[Western Reserve]], where there were disputes over land. Although Congress authorized Governor [[Arthur St. Clair]] to give land back to the Indigenous people, he did not do so. Conflict increased as the Indigenous people tried to push the settlers out. After years of warfare in the region, they were defeated. The US signed the [[Treaty of Greenville]] (1795) with the Indigenous people, which secured the safety of settlers to leave the forts and develop their farms. {{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

The settlers held services regularly and chartered the first church in 1799.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.40911/page/n11/mode/1up |last=Murray|first=Charles Augustus|title=The Prairie-bird|year=1845|page=3 |publisher=[[Richard Bentley (publisher)|Richard Bentley]] |place=London |access-date=2024-05-26 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> It was a [[Congregational church|Congregational]] institution; its charter was unusually inclusive due to the varied religious backgrounds of its members. The congregation constructed the first church building in 1807.<ref name="New England page 175" /> The original church burned in 1905 and another constructed in its place in 1906. The church, First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, is the longest continuously worshiping congregation west of the Alleghenies.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the First Congregational Church of Marietta, Ohio |url=https://www.mariettafirstchurch.org/history/ |website=mariettafirstchurch.org |access-date=January 24, 2019}}</ref>

Education was important to the settlers, many of whom had been officers during the Revolution. During that first winter, they began a basic school for the children at Campus Martius. In 1797, settlers founded Muskingum Academy. The town had numerous [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]], and Ephraim Cutler was instrumental as a state delegate in 1802 at the state convention in swaying the vote for the state to be free of slavery.<ref name="Yeager">[http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/travel/escapes/06amer.html?8dpc Robert C. Yeager, "A Historic River Town Where the West Began"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 6, 2009, accessed August 22, 2012</ref>

===19th century===
[[File:Marietta Works Squier and Davis Plate XXVI.jpg|thumb|upright|1837 Survey of Marietta Earthworks]]

Townspeople organized and chartered [[Marietta College]] in 1835. It was used as a station on the [[Underground Railroad]] to help [[slaves]] escape from the South.<ref name="Yeager" /> [[Ohio University]] was founded earlier in [[Athens, Ohio|Athens]], on land reserved for public education under the Northwest Ordinance.

The settlers preserved the Great Mound, or ''Conus,'' by planning their own [[Mound Cemetery (Marietta, Ohio)|cemetery]] around it. They also preserved the two largest platform mounds, which they called ''Capitolinus'' and ''Quadrophenus.'' The former was developed as the site for the city library.<ref name="OHC" /> As of 1900, the [[Mound Cemetery (Marietta, Ohio)|Mound Cemetery]] had the highest number of burials of Revolutionary War officers in the nation, indicating the nature of the generation that settled Marietta.<ref>[[Daughters of the American Revolution]] (DAR): ''American Monthly'', Vol. 16, Jan–Jun 1900, New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1900, p. 329</ref>

Marietta's location on two major navigable rivers made it ideal for [[Industry (manufacturing)|industry]] and [[commerce]]. [[Boat building]] was one of the early industries. Artisans built oceangoing vessels and sailed them downriver to the [[Mississippi River]] and south to New Orleans and the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. In less than two decades after settlement, the [[steamboat]] had been developed, and was also constructed here. Brick factories and [[sawmill]]s supplied materials for homes and public buildings. An iron mill, along with several foundries, provided rails for the growing [[railroad]] industry; the Marietta Chair Factory made [[furniture]].

Interest in the prehistoric culture that built the Marietta Earthworks continued. The complex was surveyed and drawn by [[E. G. Squier|Ephraim George Squier]] and [[Edwin Hamilton Davis]], whose large project on numerous prehistoric mounds throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys was published by the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in 1848 as ''[[Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley]].'' It was the first book published by the Smithsonian. Their drawing above shows the plan of the original complex, which "included a large square enclosure surrounding four flat-topped pyramidal mounds, another smaller square, and a circular enclosure with a large burial mound at its center."<ref name="OHC">[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2219 "Marietta Earthworks"], Ohio History Central, accessed August 20, 2012</ref> The walled, graded path, called by the settlers the ''[[Sacra Via]]'', led from the largest enclosure to the lower river's edge. This pathway was destroyed in 1843 during mid-nineteenth century development.<ref name="OHC" />

===Railroads and oil===
Local development began with the [[Belpre and Cincinnati Railroad]] (B&C); it was founded in 1845. It was intended to connect from [[Belpre, Ohio]], the next town downriver, to a planned [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] (B&O) spur to [[Parkersburg, West Virginia|Parkersburg]]. But, for years, the Virginia government did not allow the B&O to construct track south of [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]]. In 1851 developers changed the Ohio state terminus to Marietta and changed the name of the railroad to the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad that year. The right-of-way for an alternate connection to the B&O extended upriver from Marietta to [[Bellaire, Ohio]]. The M&C was bankrupt by 1857, but construction of track continued west to reach [[Cincinnati]]. The first through-train from Cincinnati ran on April 9, 1857. The M&C got out of bankruptcy in 1860.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

In 1871, the Ohio Valley Railroad was formed and for the next two years built tracks going north for 103 miles. Their home office was in Marietta, with treasurer offices in Pittsburgh. The Ohio Valley railroad was reorganized as the Marietta and Cleveland. The Pennsylvania Railroad in its expansion later purchased the railroad and its right-of-way between Marietta and Bellaire.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Passengers traveling between Marietta and Parkersburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) had to take a steamboat for the 14 miles between the two towns and transfer. With help from the B&O and the Baltimore City Council, the Union Railroad finally connected Marietta to [[Belpre, Ohio]] in 1860. Later absorbed by the B&O, this section of track is still in operation (2008), with unit coal trains providing most of the traffic.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

The planned [[Parkersburg Bridge (CSX)|bridge]] from Parkersburg across the Ohio River to Belpre was finally built 1868–1870 by the B&O, as part of its main line from Baltimore to [[St. Louis, Missouri]].<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(DOCID+@lit(WV0105)) ''Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Parkersburg Bridge, Ohio River, Parkersburg, Wood County, WV''], Historic American Engineering Record, accessed August 22, 2012</ref> This cut Marietta off from traffic and trade, although it retained local and Ohio service. In the early 20th century, 24 passenger trains served Marietta each day, most of which ran on the PRR tracks.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

[[William P. Cutler]] was a major figure in the M&C. He also backed the [[Union Railroad (Ohio)|Union Railroad]] and the Marietta, Columbus and Cleveland Railroad, among other local railroads. Cutler served as General Manager and as President of the M&C for many years.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

In 1860, oil was first drilled in the Marietta region. Oil booms in 1875 and 1910 made investors rich, who constructed numerous lavish houses in town, of which many still stand.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/travel/escapes/06amer.html?hpw |work=The New York Times |title=A Historic River Town Where the West Began |first=Robert C. |last=Yeager |date=November 6, 2009 |access-date=May 12, 2010}}</ref> The Dawes brothers of Marietta founded the [[Pure Oil Company]].{{when|date=March 2017}} All four brothers became nationally prominent businessmen or politicians: [[Charles Gates Dawes]], [[Rufus C. Dawes]], [[Beman Gates Dawes]] and [[Henry May Dawes]]. Charles Dawes was elected in 1924 with President [[Calvin Coolidge]] to serve as the 30th [[Vice President of the United States]] (1925–1929). In 1925, he shared the [[Nobel Peace Prize]], based on his work on the [[Dawes Plan]] and relieving an international crisis in 1923 related to German reparations after [[World War I]].

In 1880, the first [[Putnam Street Bridge]] was opened to connect Marietta to Fort Harmar. It provided the first free crossing of the [[Muskingum River]].{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

===20th century===
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2017}}
[[File:Geography of Ohio - DPLA - aaba7b3295ff6973b6fd1e23e33cde14 (page 143) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Map of Marietta, 1923]]

As transportation advanced along railroads and highways, Marietta was initially passed by. From 1868 to 1870, the [[B & O Railroad]] built a bridge to connect [[Parkersburg, West Virginia]] and Belpre; and the [[National Road]] went further north through [[Zanesville, Ohio|Zanesville]].

But the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] expanded in the late 19th century and had a station in Marietta, running 26 daily trains between Marietta and [[Pittsburgh]]. After WWII passenger service decreased as the railroads restructured and the federal government invested in highway construction. The last rail passenger service ended in 1953. Marietta was relatively isolated from new travel routes until 1967, when [[I-77]] was opened with close access to the city.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Before the United States entered World War I, a group of 23 young men went from Marietta College to serve in France in 1917 as an ambulance unit; four died in battle. In 1937–1938, during the US celebration of the Northwest Territory, France gave a plaque to the city of Marietta, which was installed on the French monument, to commemorate these young men and their service.
In 1939, the [[Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen]] was established in Marietta during the [[Great Depression]] to celebrate the city's substantial river history and its people. Two years later the [[Ohio River Museum]] was opened. In 1972, the museum campus was totally redesigned.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

The 2016 Ohio State of the State address was held at People's Bank Theater on April 6. The speech was given by governor [[John Kasich]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schreckinger |first1=Ben |title=Kasich team says he can win New York |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/kasich-win-new-york-primary-delegates-221676 |website=POLITICO |access-date=February 22, 2023 |language=en |date=April 7, 2016}}</ref>