Earl Sproat, one of the first pioneer band, was a relative of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat.  He was a share-holder in the Ohio Company and remained in the country as a settler.  He was one of the petitioners to the Territorial Legislature for an act of incorporation for the town of Marietta, which was granted, and approved by Governor St. Clair December 2, 1800, and Marrietta was the first incorporated town in the North-west Territory.  He was a director of Marietta Bank, chartered February 10, 1808, of which Gen. Rufus Putnam was President.  He was a subscriber to the fund for erecting the Muskingum Academy, and held the position of major in the Ohio militia. *

Benjamin Shaw was another of the first party.  He served in a Danvers company of minute men, under Captain Israel Hutchinson, at teh battle of Lexington, and afterward as a regular soldier in the Revolutionary Army.  He came from Hampton, New Hampshire, and at a later date removed his family to the west.  They were in Fort Frye during the war, and afterward settled on the rich Round Bottom.  This farm next came into the possession of Boylston Shaw, his son, who was one of the most successful and enterprising farmers in this region.  Sally Shaw, a daughter of the pioneer, married Benjamin Dana, whose highly cultivated farm of fourteen hundred acres was perhaps the finest in the county.  The lamented General Benjamin D. Fearing, of the Union Army, and the Hon. James W. Dawes, late governor of Nebraska, are among their descendants. *

Colonel Ebenezer Sproat.   The Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was a member, thus gives his record:  "Born at Middleborough, Massachusetts, 1752; died at Marietta, Ohio, February, 1805; Major in Cotton's Regiment May, 1775, at the siege of Boston; in Francis' Regiment in 1776; Lieutenant-Colonel of the 12th regiment January 1, 1777; and September 29, 1778, Lieutenant-Colonel commanding in Glover's Brigade at Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth; Inspector of Brigade under Steuben; emigrated to Ohio in 1788."  "When stationed at Providence, in 1778, with Glover's Brigade of four regiments, he was said to be the tallest man in the Brigade, being six feet and four inches high, with limbs formed in nature's most perfect model.  In the duties of his station he excelled as much as in size being the most complete disciplinarian in the Brigade.  His social habits, pleasant, agreeable manners, and cheerful disposition, rendered him a general favorite with the officers, as well as with the private soldiers who always followed with alacrity where he led."  He performed many valuable services and shared largely in the perils of the war.  He married Catharine Whipple, daughter of Commodore Abraham Whipple.  Congress appointed Colonel Sproat Surveyor for Rhode Island on the seven ranges of townships west of the Ohio river, which were to be placed in the market for sale, and he was engaged in his duty during the autumn of 1786.  He was appointed a Surveyor for the Ohio Company, a service for which his hardy frame and great resolution eminently fitted him.  He owned three shares in the Company, and conducted those of the forty-eight adventurers who left Hartford, Connecticut, on the 1st of January, 1788, in their winter march across the Alleghanies.  General Putnam was obliged to go to New York on business for the Ohio Company, but joined them on the way, and at Sumrell's Ferry took command of both this and Major White's party, who all came down and landed at the mouth of the Muskingum, and pitched their tents in the woods, April 7, 1788. Colonel Sproat was the first sheriff of Washington County, which at that time extended from the Ohio river to Lake Erie, and westward to the Scioto.  He filled this office with great dignity and propriety for fourteen years, until the state government was formed.  During the Indian war he had control of the military affairs in the county of the United States.  He appointed the rangers, or Indians spies, and enrolled a company of soldiers for the defense of the colony.  He was a liberal and active citizen, and his memory was held in grateful remembrance by all who knew him.  His daughter married the Hon. Solomon Sibley, of Detroit Michigan.    *