302 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
THE FIRST COURT IN OHIO.
(From the American Pioneer.)
"The first court held northwest of
the river Ohio, under the forms
of civil jurisprudence, was opened at
Campus Martius, (Marietta,) Sep-
tember 2d, 1788.
"It will be remembered, that on the
preceding 7th of April, General
Rufus Putnam, with forty-seven men, had
landed and commenced the
first permanent settlement in what is
now the state of Ohio. General
Harmar, with his regulars, occupied Fort
Harmar. Governor St. Clair,
and also General Samuel Holden Parsons
and General James Mitchell
Varnum, judges of the supreme court,
arrived in July. The governor
and judges had been employed from their
arrival in examining and
adopting such of the statutes of the
states, as, in their opinion, would be
appropriate to the situation of this new
colony. The governor had made
appointments of civil officers for the
administration of justice, and to
carry into effect the laws adopted. Some
idea may be obtained of the
character of the early settlers of Ohio,
by describing the order with which
this important event, the establishment
of civil authority and the laws,
was conducted. From a manuscript written
by an eye-witness, now in
my possession, I have obtained the
substance of the following: The pro-
cession was formed at the Point, (where
most of the settlers resided,)
in the following order: 1st, the high
sheriff, with his drawn sword; 2d,
the citizens; 3d, the officers of the
garrison at Fort Harmar; 4th, the
members of the bar; 5th, the supreme
judges; 6th, the governor and
clergyman; 7th, the newly appointed
judges of the court of common
pleas, Generals Rufus Putnam and
Benjamin Tupper.
"They marched up a path that had
been cut and cleared through the
forest to Campus Martius Hall
(stockade,) where the whole counter-
marched, and the judges (Putnam and
Tupper) took their seats. The
clergyman, Rev. Dr. Cutler, then invoked
the divine blessing. The sheriff,
Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, (one of
nature's nobles) proclaimed with his
solemn 'O Yes,' that 'a court is opened
for the administration of even-
handed justice, to the poor and the rich,
to the guilty and the innocent,
without respect of persons; none to be
punished without a trial by their
peers, and then in pursuance of the laws
and evidence in the case.' Al-
though this scene was exhibited thus
early in the settlement of the state,
few ever equalled it in the dignity and
exalted character of its principal
participators. Many of them belong to
the history of our country, in the
darkest as well as the most splendid
periods of the revolutionary war.
To witness this spectacle, a large body
of Indians was collected, from the
most powerful tribes then occupying the
almost entire West. They had
assembled for the purpose of making a
treaty. Whether any of them
entered the hall of justice, or what
were their impressions, we are not
told."