Contents ▼▲
Front Matter Benjamin's Story The Ohio Company Rufus Putnam Colonel Putnam, Engineer The First Emigrants Building a Fleet Campus Martius Arrival of General Putnam Work of the First Emigrants Clearing the Land How Our Company was Formed Making Ready for the Journey Concerning Myself Setting Out Mistress Devoll's Outfit At Providence The Road to Blooming Grove Plans for the Future On the Water Once More Feasting on Honey Among the Moravians The Rope Ferry The Way Thru Pennsylvania The Shame of the Girls Meeting With Parson Cutler Ohio Cornfields The Governor and Judges The Name of the Town Campus Martius Independence Day Master Devoll's House The Indian Mounds At Harrisburg Isaac Barker's Sport Uncle Daniel Carter Uncle Daniel Joins Us Hard Traveling Mud and Water A Storm of Snow Across the Mountains A Friendly Dunkard Master Hiples's Kindness A Surly Landlord Isaac Flogs the Landlord A Much Needed Lesson A Time of Rest Pack Trains A Night Adventure Women and Children Descending The Mountains The Foot of the Hills Nearing Journey's End At Sumrill's Ferry Parting With Uncle Daniel Our Flatboat The Cattle Are Sent Away At Pittsburgh Too Much Water Escape of the Women Repairing Damages Our Pilot A Change Of Weather Noisy Fear A Real Feast Finding The Canoe Buffalo Creek A March Across Country At Marietta Plans for the Future Inspecting Marietta A Temporary Home Buying Land Visiting the Savages Captain Haskell's Advice A New Friend Fishing Through the Ice The Sabbath in Marietta A Regular Business A Visit from the Savages Building a Home A Great Project The Two Millers Savages on the Warpath

Benjamin of Ohio - James Otis




Building a Fleet

Major Haffield White's party arrived at Sumrill's Ferry, after a long and tedious journey over the old Military Road, on the twenty-third day of January, in the year 1788, and immediately began building boats.

On the fourteenth of February, General Putnam's party, by which I mean those who set out from Hartford, joined those who were already at the ferry, and the two companies landed here on the bank of the Muskingum River the seventh day of April, in the year 1788.

[Illustration] from Benjamin of Ohio by James Otis

All this is an old and familiar story; but it is well for me to remind you of it, so that you can the better understand how I, who had believed and hoped I was coming into a new country to do my full share in building up a town, found everything, as one might say, ready to hand.

Instead of cutting through the wilderness in order to build houses, we found the land so far cleared that we might get about the home making at once, and during the time the work was being carried on, the people lived in the fort, which General Putnam calls Campus Martius. It is situated near Fort Harmar, a fortification standing on the west bank of the Muskingum River near its mouth, and not far from this town of Marietta. It was built in 1785, and Colonel Josiah Harmar is now in command.