Ohio History Journal

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A LETTER OF RUFUS PUTNAM'S TO NEHEMIAH

A LETTER OF RUFUS PUTNAM'S TO NEHEMIAH

HUBBARD, ESQUIRE, A NON-RESIDENT PRO-

PRIETOR OF MARIETTA, OHIO

 

Contributed by FRANK ANKENBRAND, JR.

 

This letter, written by Rufus Putnam,1 the founder of the

city of Marietta, Ohio, gives but an inkling of the many petty

annoyances that beset a man of vision. Here are all the little

irksome things, the exasperating delays and hindrances, the mo-

squito bites of adversity, such as irritated the men who hewed

from the vast American wilderness the cities and civilization of

the New World. One can look, if he has vision, beyond the

wiry lines of ink and see the man and part of his every-day life.

The old faded letter with its descending s's and quaint spelling

conveys the true spirit of the times in which he lived.

The few facts I have garnered about the man to whom the

letter is written also bears out the tragic roles, some major and

others minor, that these pioneers have played in our history. I

have no way of ascertaining whether the letter was written to

Nehemiah, Sr., or to Nehemiah, Jr., but one might reasonably

suppose it was written to Nehemiah, Jr., as he was a revolutionary

war veteran and president of a bank. It is my supposition that

the father, enjoying the twilight of his days, was too old to be

taking an active part in landed investments.

Nehemiah Hubbard,2 son of Nathaniel Hubbard, was born

at Middletown, Connecticut, July 22, 1721, and died there March

11, 1811. He married about 1747, Sarah Sill, who was born

January 2, 1728, and who died the same year as her husband.

According to local and family tradition, she was the youngest

daughter of Joseph and Phebe (Lord) Sill, of Lyme, Connecticut.

He was a soldier in the old French and Indian War. Rufus

1 Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York, 1888), V.

2 Record of Service of Connecticut Men War of Revolution (Hartford, 1889).

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