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Six more names are found on
General Putnam's list, these are Benjamin Griswold, Elizur
Kirtland, William Miller, Daniel Bushnell, Israel Danton and
Josiah White, which names probably belonged to men as good and
true as the others, but which we have been unable to trace, and,
therefore, leave them to some more fortunate investigator. As
to the actual number of men in the first party, Joseph Buell,
orderly sergeant in Captain Strong's Company, at Fort Harmar,
writes: "April 7, (1788). General Putnam arrived at
this place with fifty men, to begin a settlement on the east side of
the Muskingum." John Mathews, a surveyor, who had been
with the party but a short time, writes on the same date: "Our whole
party consists of forty-two men, surveyors and all." But
General Putnam, who was the superintendent and responsible
business manager of the Company, states: "The whole number of
men, including myself who arrived at Marietta, April 7, 1788, was
forty-eight, among whom were four surveyors, viz: Colonel
Sproat, Colonel Meigs, Major Tupper, and Mr. John Mathews.
His list of names, forty-eight in all, is found in Dr. Hildreth's
Pioneer History, and General Putnam's statement has been
accepted for an hundred years.
Each share in the Ohio Company entitled
the owner to eleven hundred and seventy-three acres of land, and a
town lot. Members of the party of forty-eight pioneers, held
in their own right, twenty-six shares, or about 30, 000 acres of
land, while some other men in the Company represented families, who,
in the aggregate, had 20,000 acres more. They had, therefore,
personal interests in the settlement, and came to look after their
own property. One-fourth of these men held commissions in the
Revolutionary Army, and had distinguished themselves in the service,
and were now equally at home in civil life, as judges, or in other
public offices, others were skilled artisans, successful merchants,
and intelligent farmers. Their descendants may well be proud
of their ancestry.
 Source:
The founders of Ohio : brief sketches of the forty-eight pioneers -
Publ. Cincinnati by R. Clark & Co. - 1888 |
