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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