Ohio History Journal


THE PEOPLE OF OHIO'S FIRST COUNTY

THE PEOPLE OF OHIO'S FIRST COUNTY

 

 

By WAYNE JORDAN

 

Colonel John May of Boston, writing from Pittsburgh to

his wife on May 12, 1788, remarked, "I wish there were more

New England people going to Muskingum."1 By Muskingum

he meant the newly founded Marietta colony, which had not yet

been named for France's queen.2 The colonel had been impressed

by the number of boats, laden with whites and blacks, which

kept floating by en route to Kentucky. Against such competition,

apparently, he feared that the Yankees of the Ohio Company had

made but a poor beginning.

The hopes of May and his fellow promoters were never

wholly fulfilled, although many more New England people did

find their way to Marietta, at times in rather large parties. Cod-

fish were soon being eaten on the banks of the Muskingum,3 and

by September of 1790 a "Gentleman in Neworleans" was writing

of "the industry, sobriety and good order of the Newenglanders"

at Marietta, with whom he spent some days while journeying

down the Ohio.4 Later travelers were to comment on Yankee

traits which distinguished the community. To Christian Schultz,

Marietta was "New England in miniature."5 John Melish found,

"The state of society is such as might be expected in a colony

from Massachusetts,"6 and Fortescue Cuming observed, "Marietta

 

1 John May, Journal and Letters . . . Relative to Two Journeys to the Ohio

Country in 1788 and '89 (Cincinnati, 1873), 38-9.

2 Muskingum was the first name applied to the settlement being planted by the

Ohio Company. The usage occurs in Manasseh Cutler's writings and in the diary of

John Mathews. Josiah Harmar dated letters from "Fort Harmar," but used Mus-

kingum when referring to the locality rather than to the fort itself. Josephine E.

Phillips, who has edited many of the Backus and Woodbridge letters, writes, "Clarina

and Elijah Backus head their letters 'Muskingum' as late as 1794, as does Lucy Wood-

bridge Backus. James Backus uses 'Muskingum' on all personal letters of which I

have copies, as late as 21st Nov., 1790."

3 "Dined on Codfish & potatoes," wrote James Backus under date of July 20,

1788. See his fourth Notebook (in Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society

Library).

4 Worcester Spy, December 16, 1790.

5 Christian Schultz, Jun. Esq., Travels on an Inland Voyage through the States

of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee . . . (New York,

1810), I, 143.

6 John Melish, Travels in the United States of America, in the Years 1806 &

1807, and 1809, 1810 & 1811 . . . (Philadelphia, 1812), II, 103.

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