Editing Marietta, Ohio (section)

===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>