Ohio History Journal

MARIETTA COLLEGE AND THE OHIO COMPANY

 

A Review of Professor Arthur G. Beach's History

 

 

BY WAYNE JORDAN

A college history that is also an outstanding contribution to

the general historical literature of Ohio has been published in

connection with "the 100th anniversary of the present charter of

Marietta College and the 138th of the founding of Muskingum

Academy." The book is entitled A Pioneer College--The Story

of Marietta,¹ and was written by Arthur G. Beach, professor of

English literature at Marietta College from 1913 until his death

in 1934.

Observing that the history of Marietta College is inseparable

from that of the town of Marietta, Beach starts with the story

of the Ohio Company of Associates and its colony, the first per-

manent American settlement in the Northwest Territory. Re-

viewing the educational aspects of the Ordinance of 1787, he

tells how Dr. Manasseh Cutler, while visiting Marietta in the

summer of 1788, recorded in his journal that he and General

Rufus Putnam "climbed the high hill northwest of Fort Har-

mar and proposed that the university should be on this hill."

Cutler and Putnam encountered delays, however, in founding

their university, and when it was finally established in 1804, it

was at Athens and not at Marietta. Meanwhile classical instruc-

tion in the Northwest Territory had its actual beginning at Ma-

rietta in the founding of a Greek and Latin school, the Muskin-

gum Academy, which, like Ohio University, was a product of the

efforts of Cutler, Putnam and their associates.

The Muskingum Academy, out of which Marietta College

 

1 Privately printed; distribution conducted by the alumni secretary of Marietta

College.

(290)

• 1
 

MARIETTA COLLEGE                         291

 

grew, was established in 1797, the first entry in its records, dated

April 29 of that year, being as follows:

At a meeting of a number of citizens of Marietta convened for the

purpose of taking into consideration measures for promoting the education

of youth, General Putnam was appointed chairman and R. J. Meigs, Jr.,

clerk. The following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That a committee of six be appointed to prepare a plan of

a House suitable for the Instruction of Youth and Religious Exercises;

and to make an Estimate of Expense, and the most suitable means of

raising the necessary monies, and to fix upon a spot whereon to erect the

House, and report on Saturday next, at 3 o'clock P. M.

The committee of six consisted of Putnam, Paul Fearing,

Griffin Greene, Return J. Meigs, Jr., Charles Green and Joshua

Shipman, names familiar to all students of early Ohio history.

A building was erected "between the first Congregational Church

and Governor Meigs's house at an estimated cost of $1,000." A

subscription list dated May 13, 1797, was circulated and forty-

seven signers assumed a total obligation of $1,162 for the support

of the new institution. "As the first local subscription made for

higher education in Marietta and also in the Northwest Terri-

tory," writes Beach, "the list is worthy of permanent record."

It is a veritable Who's Who of the pioneer Northwest:

Rufus  Putnam  ...............................................                                      $300

Charles   Green ...............................................                                            40

R. J.    Meigs................................................                                               40

Jabez   True...................................................                                              36

Joseph                                                                                                   Lincoln  ............................................                                20

Ichabod  Nye ................................................                                             40

Joshua    Shipman ..............................................                                   20

Ebenezer                                                                                               Sproat..............................................  40

Paul    Fearing.................................................                                      20

John   Collins ...............................................                                        10

Earl    Sproat .................................................                                       20

Joseph                                                                                                   Buell ...............................................  20

William R.  Putnam .......................................                                      30

William Bridge (in laying bricks) ............................                              10

Perley                                                                                                   Howe ................................................                10

James     White .................................................                                   10

Josiah     Munro................................................                                     10

John   Brough.................................................                                       10

Joel    Bowen ..................................................                                     20

W.      U.                                                                                                     Parsons ..............................................         10

Christopher  Burlingame ......................................                                10

Judson                                                                                                   Guitteau ............................................                10

Stephen  Pierce .............................................                                       15

John   Matthews ..............................................                                     20

• 2
 

292     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Daniel  Story     ................................................                                     30

Edwin Putnam   ................................................                                     20

Griffin  Greene ..............................................                                        20

Benjamin Tupper .............................................                                    20

Samuel     Thornily ..............................................                                 10

Timothy Buell .................................................                                                                              10

Azariah             Pratt ..............................................                              10

Ashel   Hale...................................................                                        10

Gilbert  Devol  (in      work) ....................................                              20

Nathan     McIntosh  (in  brick) .................................                           25

Francis     Thierry ..............................................                                   2

Ezra     Putnam  .................................................                                   15

Luther      Shepherd  .............................................                                 10

John     G. Petit ..............................................                                       10

Levi     Whipple .................................................                                  10

Thomas            Lane ................................................                            10

Joseph  Gilman  and  son ......................................                                 40

Josiah   Hart..................................................                                         10

Jonathan  Devol...............................................                                     10

William             Skinner ............................................                            30

Dudley  Woodbridge ...........................................                                   30

David   Putnam  ................................................                                    20

David Putnam, Yale graduate and grandson of General Is-

rael Putnam, was engaged as the first preceptor. Instruction in

the classics was begun in 1800 and has been maintained contin-

uously in Marietta since that year.

In 1815 the Academy underwent a reorganization, the Ma-

rietta School Association being formed to buy the stock of the

proprietors and carry on their work. This was done to enable

the institution to share in the school funds of the district.

The trustees chosen after this reorganization were David

Putnam, the Reverend Samuel P. Robbins, pastor of the Congre-

gational Church, and Samuel Hoit, postmaster. Among the later

members of the Academy Board were Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth,

the pioneer historian, and Nahum Ward, philanthropist and friend

of the Marquis de Lafayette.

The register of pupils in the Academy in 1817 has been

preserved and Beach includes it in his book. The first name in

each instance is that of the parent or guardian:

Levi Barber--David Barber, Austin Barber

Wm. Crawford--Wm. Crawford

Nath'l Dodge--Hannah Dodge, Dudley Dodge

Joseph Evans--Joseph Evans

Dan'l Green--Mary Green, Richard Green

• 3
 

MARIETTA COLLEGE                     293

 

 

Alex'r Henderson--Geo. W. Henderson, John A. Henderson, Mary P.

Henderson, Sarah M. Henderson

S. P. Hildreth--Mary Ann Hildreth, Charles C. Hildreth, George 0.

Hildreth

Alex'r Lawson--Alex'r Lawson

Rufus Putnam--Henry Putnam

David Putnam--Charles M. Putnam, Peter P. Putnam, Douglas Put-

nam, David Putnam

John B. Regnier--Alfred Regnier, Felix Regnier

Wm. Skinner--David Skinner, Wm. S. Skinner

D. Woodbridge Jr.--Jane D. Woodbridge

Joseph Wood--James Wood

John Webber--John Webber

James Whitney--David Whitney

Ichabod Nye--Rowena Nye, Huldah Nye, Edward Nye

Jonathan Cram--Rebecca Cram, John O. Cram, Mary Cram

John Green--Dudley Green, Alonzo Green, William Sprague

Caleb Emerson--Mary Emerson, William Emerson

Azariah Pratt--Lucy Pratt, Azariah Pratt

Joshua Shipman--Samuel Shipman

Samuel P. Robbins--Samuel P. Robbins

Samuel Whipple--Percival H. Pardee

Christopher Burlingame--Edward Burlingame

Samuel Sharpe--James Sharpe

[Not named]--William Glines

The transition from Academy to College involved two inter-

mediate stages. First, the work of classical instruction in Ma-

rietta was taken over by the Institute of Education, a private

school established in 1830 by the Reverend Luther G. Bingham,

pastor of the Congregational Church, who had given private in-

struction in Marietta "as early as 1826." The Institute of Edu-

cation included an Infant School, a Primary School, a Ladies'

Seminary and a High School.

The records of the closing days of the Muskingum Academy

have been lost, but Beach writes that "apparently it was continued

until after the Reverend Luther Bingham had begun his private

school." The Muskingum Academy building itself provided a

link between the old and the new, for in 1832 it was occupied by

Bingham's High School.

The second of the intermediate stages in the transition from

Academy to College came in 1832 and 1833 when the Institute

of Education was converted into a chartered institution with a

Board of Trustees. The first step was taken at a meeting held

March 15, 1832. Beach writes:

• 4
 

294    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth was made chairman and Douglas Putnam

secretary. The proposition of Mr. Bingham and Mr. French² was laid

before the meeting and Caleb Emerson, Arius Nye and Dr. John Cotton

took part in the discussion. A committee of seven was appointed with Mr.

Emerson as chairman, to report at a meeting to be held a week later. The

report made recommended that the proprietors appoint a board of seven.

The proprietors then nominated the following board of trustees and their

nomination was approved by the meeting: Caleb Emerson, James Whitney,

Samuel P. Hildreth, John Cotton, Arius Nye, Weston Thomas and Douglas

Putnam.

The institution was named the Marietta Collegiate Institute

and Western Teachers' Seminary and a charter was obtained

from the Legislature. The Board of Trustees, as finally organized

on January 16, 1833, had Dr. John Cotton as its president, Doug-

las Putnam as secretary and John Mills, treasurer. Other mem-

bers were Caleb Emerson, Bingham, Arius Nye, Jonas Moore,

Anselm Tupper Nye and John Crawford. Beach says:

Thus 45 years after the pioneers arrived at Marietta the dream of Dr.

Cutler and General Putnam was realized. Marietta had an institution of

college grade, gradually evolved from the Muskingum Academy and em-

bodying the hopes and ideals of the Ordinance of 1787 and of the compact

of the Ohio Company of Associates.

The Charter of the Marietta Collegiate Institute and Western

Teachers' Seminary gave no power to confer degrees and was

subject to amendment or repeal by the Legislature. A new char-

ter without these defects was obtained February 14, 1835. This

charter, which is the basis of this year's centennial celebration,

changed the name of the institution to Marietta College. The

Assembly decreed "that Luther G. Bingham, John Cotton, Caleb

Emerson, John Mills, John Crawford, Arius Nye, Douglas Put-

nam, Jonas Moore, Anselm T. Nye, and their successors, be and

hereby are appointed Trustees of said institution." In other words,

the trustees of the Institute automatically became the trustees of

Marietta College.

Beach quotes President Israel Ward Andrews,³ who said,

"Thus the College was founded in 1835, yet except for a new

name and with larger powers the institution went on as before.

 

2 Mansfield French. who had become a partner of Rev. Luther G. Bingham.

3 Israel Ward Andrews, president of Marietta College, 1855-1885; associate editor

of Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society Quarterly, 1887-1888; author of

Manual of the Constitution of the United States (Cincinnati, 1874).

• 5
 

MARIETTA COLLEGE                       295

 

The instruction was given by the same faculty and the whole was

managed by the same trustees." Then Beach adds:

This statement of President Andrews and the review in an earlier

chapter of the beginnings of higher education at Marietta make it evident

that Marietta College might naturally regard December 17, 1832, as the date

of its inception, for on that date the State Assembly granted a charter to

the Marietta Collegiate Institute; or 1800, the date of the actual beginning of

instruction in the Academy; or even 1797, the date of the organization of the

Muskingum Academy out of which the College grew. Other colleges have

followed such a practice. Illinois College did not receive its charter until

1835, yet it counts 1829 as the date of its beginning. Wabash College dates

its beginning from the day its founders first met to plan an English and

classical high school. There is an uninterrupted evolution of classical edu-

cation at Marietta from the Muskingum Academy of 1797 or 1800 through

the Collegiate Institute of 1830 and the Marietta Collegiate Institute and

Western Teachers' Seminary of 1832.

George Wheeler Hinman, who was president of Marietta

College from 1913 to 1918, once said, "If, like Yale and Har-

vard, Marietta should date its beginning from the original insti-

tution which was in the real sense its parent, it would be accounted

the oldest institution west of the Ohio River."

Recalling Hinman's statement, Beach says, "Many friends

of Marietta have advocated this claim of an earlier date for the

College with a view to adding to its age and honor, but the record

of the trustees does not indicate that they took an interest in this

question."

"It may be presumed," he adds, "that the change of name

was the deciding factor in the minds of those who determined the

matter." In any event "all anniversary celebrations have been

based on this interpretation."

Beach himself makes no studied effort to build up a case in

favor of a particular claim. He simply tells the story of the "un-

interrupted evolution of classical education at Marietta" as it is

documented in the sources that exist.     Because his review    of

these sources is more complete than any that has been made be-

fore, his book does contain convincing material for those who

care to make a critical examination on this score.

Despite the loss of many of the old Academy records, which

has obscured to some extent the relationship of Institute and Col-

lege to their parent institution, it will be found that the facts set

• 6
 

296   OHIO ARCH AEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

forth in Beach's book afford an abundance of external evidence

on this point. Because of the interest which attaches to the Ohio

Company colony, this evidence is worthy of review.

The first and most obvious connection between the Muskin-

gum Academy and Marietta College is the personal one. With

but few exceptions those who served as trustees, patrons and

benefactors of the chartered College in its earlier days were men

who had been in some way identified with the Academy of 1797.

Two of the nine trustees named in the Charter of 1835,

Emerson and Moore, had been teachers in the old Academy.

Another trustee, Douglas Putnam, the largest single donor to the

institution in its early days under this charter, was a son of Mr.

David Putnam, first proprietor of the Academy and later a mem-

ber of its Board. Douglas Putnam was himself a product of the

Academy, his name appearing in the register of pupils for 1817.

Anselm T. Nye was a son of Ichabod Nye, whose name appears

in the original list of Academy subscribers as well as in the list

of its patrons in 1817, and a grandson of General Benjamin Tup-

per. Mills was the son of a Revolutionary officer who had joined

the Ohio Company settlers. Both he and Cotton, an eminent

physician who had lived in Marietta since 1814, were identified

socially, culturally and in a business way with the families who

had sponsored the Academy. Arius Nye and Crawford did not

serve under the new charter. The remaining member of the

Board, Bingham, already has been identified.

Hildreth, who presided over the meeting at which first steps

were taken to convert the Institute of Education into a chartered

college, was another whose personality linked the Academy and

the College. A former trustee and patron of the Academy, he

served for a time on the board of the Collegiate Institute. He

remained an active supporter of Marietta College, his gifts in-

cluding more than 500 volumes to the Library besides his valued

collection of natural science specimens.

Still another of the original trustees of the Collegiate Insti-

tute was James Whitney, whose name appears in the list of

Academy patrons of 1817. Other ties of this kind are shown in

• 7
 

MARIETTA COLLEGE                    297

 

Beach's history. William Slocomb, who was engaged in 1820 as

principal of the Muskingum Academy, was one of the early sup-

porters and later a trustee of Marietta College. In 1845 Slocomb,

by making a generous financial pledge, launched a successful

movement for a new college building, the oldest structure on the

present campus. One of the largest subscribers to this project

was Ward, previously mentioned as an Academy trustee.

Names of other trustees who served the College during its

first half century under the present charter emphasize still more

the relationship to the Muskingum Academy and the Ohio Com-

pany.

Colonel William Rufus Putnam, a trustee of the College

from 1849 to 1881 and one of its financial benefactors, was a

grandson of General Rufus Putnam, foremost among the Academy

founders and member of the Committee of Six which arranged

for the first building. Colonel William Putnam's father was the

William R. Putnam whose name appears in the subscribers' list

of 1797.

Other Board members of this period were Charles M. Put-

nam, former Academy pupil and son of David Putnam; William

P. Cutler, a grandson of Manasseh Cutler; Samuel Shipman, for-

mer Academy pupil and son of Joshua Shipman, an Academy

founder; General Rufus R. Dawes, a great-grandson of Manasseh

Cutler; Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Putnam, Jr., a grandson of

David Putnam.

Beach quotes from an address given by Andrews in 1860:

The College at Marietta was the natural outgrowth of this settlement

by the Ohio Company. The descendants of the men of the Revolution and

their associates in the Ohio Company, whose ideas of civil liberty were

embodied in the immortal ordinance of 1787, were the founders of Marietta

College, and they have been its warmest and most steadfast friends and its

most generous benefactors. To speak of no others, the families of the two

Putnams, General Israel and General Rufus, of Dr. Manasseh Cutler and

of General Benjamin Tupper, have furnished eight trustees.

Another evidence of the oneness of Academy, Institute and

College is the fact that each was the handiwork of New Eng-

landers. Before the trustees of the Academy engaged Elisha

• 8
 

298   OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Huntington⁴ as principal in 1816 they specified in a letter sent to

Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth that they were looking for a man

"capable of teaching all those branches that are usually taught

in the best academies" and added that the people of Marietta

were "attached to the Yankee manners and customs." The trus-

tees of 1835, like the founders of 1797, were New Englanders.

Cotton, Emerson and Moore were born in Massachusetts and

Bingham was a native of Vermont. Douglas Putnam, Mills and

Anselm T. Nye were born in Marietta of New England parents.

Putnam was a graduate of Yale, Cotton of Harvard, Bingham

of Middlebury, and Moore had spent three years at Dartmouth.

By tracing the history of the town of Marietta as he traces

the history of the College, Beach makes it clear that each in-

stitution in the succession which he describes was a community

project. Academy, Institute and College were developed and

maintained by the same men who were leaders in other com-

munity enterprises of the time.   That this is true of the

Academy will be conceded at once by any student of Ohio

history who reads the subscription list of 1797. The names

there are those identified with most of the "firsts" in the Ohio

Company settlement, whether religious, political or economic.

That the College was fostered in the same manner is demon-

strated by the careers of the trustees of the 1830's. The names

of Mills, Cotton, Nye, Putnam, Hildreth, Emerson and Shipman

are stamped on every community undertaking of the period,

whether it be the founding of a library, a historical society or a

temperance society, the management of a bank, or the promotion

of a trans-Allegheny highway, a county fair or a railroad.⁵

So closely is this leadership linked to the leadership of the earlier

period by financial, cultural and family ties that it would be im-

possible to tell where the one left off and the other began.

Closely allied is the additional fact that the College continued

to draw most of its students from the same relatively small com-

munity which had been served by the Academy, and in large part

 

4 Later lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts.

5 Israel Ward Andrews, Centennial Historical Address, 1876 (Cincinnati, 1877),

is of interest in this connection.

• 9
 

MARIETTA COLLEGE                  299

 

from the same families. The secondary instruction which had

been given in the Muskingum Academy was continued in the

College Preparatory Department, which was maintained until

1913. Andrews in 1876 remarked, "It is an item of historical

interest that about sixty of the graduates of the College are the

lineal descendants of those who settled on the lands of the Ohio

Company prior to 1800, representing more than forty of the early

settlers."

Still another fact which emphasizes the inseparableness of

Academy, Institute and College is their relationship to the Con-

gregational Church. Marietta College is not a sectarian insti-

tution, and Beach lays stress upon this point. He quotes the first

public pronouncement of the incorporating trustees which was

that "no sectarian peculiarities of belief will be taught," and he

points out that this non-sectarian character was further confirmed

in 1907 when the College, without modification of its policies, was

elected to share in the Carnegie Foundation. However, it is in-

teresting to note that six of the eight presidents of Marietta Col-

lege have been Congregational ministers and that graduation exer-

cises are held by long-established custom in the Congregational

Church. One who reads Beach's book may observe that this

relationship is one which goes back to the early days of the

Muskingum Academy. The first Board of that institution pro-

vided "that the minister or pastor of the First Religious Society

in Marietta shall have the liberty, from time to time, to instruct

the pupils, provided it is not more than half a day in any one

week."

The first religious society was a Congregational body and the

pastor who was called upon to give the instruction was the Rev-

erend Daniel Story, the first established minister in Marietta.

Robbins succeeded to the Congregational pulpit in 1806 and, as

has already been noted, served as a trustee of the Academy.

Bingham assumed the pastorate in 1826 and it was he who, using

the old Academy building for a time, founded the Institute and

then helped to convert it into the College which was to carry

its work and the work of the Academy. He was a trustee of

• 10
 

300   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

the College for ten years under the present charter, and his two

immediate successors in the Congregational pulpit were trustees,

the Reverend Thomas Wickes being on the Board from 1849 to

1870 and the Reverend Theron H. Hawks from 1871 to 1885.

This tie, while not a formal affiliation, is one which must com-

mand attention in connection with the other evidence which has

been cited.

Enough has been said to show that while Marietta College

was chartered as such in 1835 it did not have its beginning in

that year. The charter simply represented an advanced stage in

a development which had begun in the early days of the Ohio

Company settlement. In presenting for the first time a historical

narrative which makes this clear to all readers, Beach has ren-

dered a distinct service to those who wish to study the educational

foundations of early Ohio. The scope of his book, however, is

much wider. It is what is now customarily described as a human

document, filled with interesting personalities, anecdote and ob-

servation, mirroring life as it has been lived in Ohio from wilder-

ness days till now.

The trustees of Marietta College made a happy selection when

they commissioned Beach to write such a history. The College

of which he writes was his own alma mater and to it he had given

years of scholarly devotion. His father before him, Professor

David E. Beach, occupied the chair of moral philosophy and was

likewise a graduate of the institution. His maternal grandfather,

D. Howe Allen, was professor of mathematics in the Marietta

Collegiate Institute and a member of the faculty of Marietta

College until 1840.

In every sense the author of A Pioneer College was the

product and true representative of the cultural evolution which

he describes so ably.

• 11