CALEB ATWATER: VERSATILE PIONEER
A RE-APPRAISAL
By HENRY C. SHETRONE
BACK EAST:
Educator, minister, lawyer and
antiquarian; advocate of in-
ternal improvements; co-founder of
Ohio's school system; Ohio's
first historian; intellectual and social
pioneer of the Middle West!
Such was Caleb Atwater, of
Massachusetts, New York--and
Ohio.
Without an understanding of the times in
which Caleb At-
water lived, particularly of his years
in the East before coming
to Ohio, one might well wonder how he
could have so much of
accomplishment to his credit. The wonder
is even greater, and
hardly to be explained, that his career
is so little known today.
Atwater was born on Christmas Day, 1778,
in North Adams,
Massachusetts, a descendant of David
Atwater, an original settler
of the New Haven colony. He graduated
with the degree of
Master of Arts, in 1804, from Williams
College, Williamstown,
Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter, he
opened a school for young
women in New York City, during which
time he studied the-
ology and was ordained to the
Presbyterian ministry. It is indica-
tive of his restless energy and his
intellectual versatility that, a
few years later, he turned to the legal
profession and was ad-
mitted to the New York bar.
In 1815, at the age of 37, Atwater
succumbed to the current
urge to seek his fortune in the newly
settled country west of the
Alleghenies. Circleville, Ohio, was his
choice for a new home.
There he established himself in the
practice of law, and it is
there that we leave him momentarily in
order to glimpse his life
and activities "back East" in
New England and New York.
(79)
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Atwater was born in the midst of the
Revolutionary struggle,
and the haze of battle smoke must have
been a part of his earliest
recollections. He doubtless heard much
of Washington the General
and Washington as President of the new
nation. Conversation
and discussion must have concerned
itself with the fate of
America; should these United States
become a younger and per-
haps a better England, as Hamilton and
the Federalists envisioned
it, or should the dream of Jefferson and
his fellow Republicans
materialize?
We are concerned here with the times of
Caleb Atwater in
the East only in so far as they may
furnish a background for
understanding his subsequent career in
Ohio; that is to say, with
the four decades immediately following
the Revolutionary war.
With the surrender of Cornwallis to
Washington, the war had
ended, and in 1783 the Treaty of Peace
was signed in Paris. In
1787 the Constitution of the United
States was adopted, and two
years later the first Congress met in
New York. In 1799, Gen-
eral Washington, after serving eight
years as President, passed
to his reward. The federal census of
1800 showed a total popu-
lation of more than 5,000,000, an
increase of 25 per cent since
the first census, ten years previously.
At the turn of the century, the seat of
government was
removed from Philadelphia to the newly
founded capital on the
Potomac; John Adams, after serving as
the second President of
the United States, was succeeded by Thomas
Jefferson, in 1801,
for a two-term incumbency. The decades
which followed were
a time of unprecedented prosperity and
cultural advancement for
the new Republic. They were marred,
however, by the tragic
duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton, in which the
latter was killed; and by the War of 1812, in which the
city of
Washington was burned by the British.
Philadelphia, Penn's City of Brotherly
Love, had been the
center of political and cultural activities,
but with the removal of
the capital, this prestige gradually
diffused to other centers.
New York City, in particular, was
assuming more and more im-
portance as a mecca for art, the
theatre, education and literature.
New England, in contrast to earlier and
later times, was
CALEB ATWATER 81
strangely unproductive, except in
matters of religion and law.
It had been remarked that, particularly
in Connecticut, religion
was the "be-all and end-all"
of public interest. As for the law,
a group of keen-witted and convivial
lawyers, who were dubbed
"the Hartford Wits," had kept
the legal profession in the public
mind.
Thus, while the vast area north and west
of the Ohio River
was still little more than wilderness,
the East had achieved a
century and a half of tradition, history
and culture. Religious,
educational, artistic and literary
institutions and activities were
well established. Periodicals, magazines
and some books were
being published; and while there was
little that could be classed
as American literature, a number of
promising writers, among
them Irving and Cooper, were to make
their appearances shortly
in very special roles. Distances between
centers of interest were
not great, and many persons, despite the
limited means of trans-
portation, were traveling to or from New
England, New York,
Philadelphia and points south.
Correspondence was voluminous,
and letter-writing had become a fine
art. Most persons were in-
terested in agriculture and
horticulture, while natural history was
a current vogue.
This hurried glimpse of the East during
the time of At-
water's residence there perhaps is
sufficient to account for his
subsequent accomplishments in Ohio. It
may not be amiss, how-
ever, to refer to some of the factors
which were definitely to in-
fluence his special
interests--education, religion, law, history and
archaeology.
His attendance at Williams College, and
his proximity to
Harvard, Yale and others of the older
institutions of learning.
had fitted him for his subsequent
interest in education. Religious
and legal precepts, as has been noted,
were not lacking in New
England; and as to the latter, his
sojourn in New York City
doubtless brought him into contact with
Columbia's James Kent,
whose Commentaries he must have
read sooner or later.
There was precedent, also, for Atwater's
interest in history.
Jeremy Belknap had founded the
Massachusetts Historical So-
ciety in 1794, and had written a history
of New Hampshire;
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Jedediah Morse, father of the artist and
inventor Samuel F. B
Morse, had published his noted Geography;
Timothy Dwight of
Yale had written his Travels in New
England; and there were,
of course, Jefferson's Notes on
Virginia.
Atwater's predilection for natural
history and antiquities was
shared by most of his contemporaries.
Jefferson in his Notes had
reported the exploration of certain
prehistoric burial mounds ad-
jacent to his Virginia estate; Bartrams
Gardens, in Philadelphia,
were a widely known meeting place for
botanists and naturalists;
the American Philosophical Society,
founded by Franklin, and
Peale's famous museum, located for a
time in rooms of that So-
ciety, attracted numerous scientists,
naturalists and antiquarians.
Alexander Wilson had published the first
volume of his American
Ornithology, and only a little later the great Audubon made his
professional bow to a bird-loving
public. The American Anti-
quarian Society, which had been founded
at Worcester, Massa-
chusetts, two or three years prior to
Atwater's departure for
Ohio, engaged his particular attention,
and was destined to pub-
lish, in 1820, his first report on the
antiquities of the western
country.
IN OHIO:
The transition of Caleb Atwater from the
cosmopolitan East
to the newly settled West, in 1815, was
a violent one. In con-
trast to sophisticated New York City,
Circleville, Ohio, must
have impressed him as the opposite
extreme.
Ohio had enjoyed its first permanent
settlement, at Marietta,
as recently as 1788 and, after a
spirited contest between the
Federalist sentiment of the Marietta
pioneers and the Jeffersonian
convictions of the political leaders at
Chillicothe, had achieved
statehood in 1803. Thomas Worthington
was governor of the
State, and the capital, for the second
time, was located in Chilli-
cothe, pending permanent establishment
in Columbus in 1816.
The War of 1812 was just ending, and while Ohio had no
particular interest in "search and
seizure" or "free trade," there
still was the threat of Indian
depredations, and so the State had
played a prominent part in the contest.
Attempted invasions of
Canada from Ohio by Generals Hull and
Harrison, and Perry's
CALEB ATWATER 83
victory on Lake Erie, were to become a
part of the history of
the second war against England.
Caleb Atwater devoted the first six
years of his residence in
Circleville to the practice of law and,
incidentally, to a study of
the prehistoric remains of the western
country. His innate
interest in antiquities was sharpened by
the fact that Circleville
was located within one of the country's
most impressive pre-
historic earthworks--circular in
form--from which the town had
taken its name.
While Atwater's report to the American
Antiquarian Society
on the prehistoric remains of the West,
published as Volume I
of Archaeologia Americana, in
1820, was the most pretentious
and detailed study up to that time, he
was not the first to write
on the subject. As early as 1772, the
Rev. David Jones of New
Jersey, after a sojourn among the
western Indians, had described,
among others, the very same prehistoric
earthwork at Circleville,
within which Atwater was to live and
work. Moreover, the im-
pressive earthworks at Marietta had been
described and mapped
by several early writers, the most
important of which was a de-
tailed map made by General Rufus Putnam
for the Ohio Com-
pany. This venerable document, preserved
in the library of
Marietta College, is regarded as a
unique contribution to Ameri-
can archaeology.
The fact, however, that others had taken
cognizance of one
or another of the Ohio antiquities only
spurred Atwater to the
task of correlating what already had
been done and of enlarging
the scope of investigation through his
own efforts. When, a few
years later, Squier and Davis conducted
extensive explorations
and wrote their classical volume, Ancient
Monuments of the
Mississippi Valley, they were able to avail themselves of At-
water's pioneer efforts. To Caleb
Atwater, and to Squier and
Davis, American archaeology is
definitely indebted, since they
described and mapped many prehistoric
remains which since have
been obliterated in part or in their
entirety.
Caleb Atwater's ability as a lawyer and
his interest in public
affairs led to his election, in 1821, to the Ohio
legislature. It
was in this capacity that he made his
most valuable contributions
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to his adopted State and to his fellow
citizens. From the begin-
ning he was an aggressive advocate of
internal improvements
and of an adequate public school system.
In his opinion, the
construction of highways and canals were
basic essentials in the
development of the State, and universal
education was the only
means of securing for the people the
enlightenment and happi-
ness to which they were entitled.
Perhaps no member of the legislature was
so well informed
in matters of transportation and
travel--highways and canals--
as was Atwater. He was living in New
York at the time of
Fulton's first steamboat trip up the
Hudson, and had enthused
over Clinton's canal project. Even after
coming to Ohio, he had
kept in close touch with the
construction of the "big ditch"
which was destined to connect the Great
Lakes with the Atlantic
Ocean.
His advocacy of "good roads"
was evidenced when, shortly
after his election to the legislature,
he strongly opposed a pro-
posal to abandon the usual road tax for
one year. "From such
legislation," he declared, "I
devoutly pray to be delivered on this
and all other occasions."
From the time that the initial canal
bill was introduced in the
legislature, in 1821, until the final
bill was passed, in 1825, At-
water was untiring in his efforts to
overcome opposition to its
adoption. He argued in the legislative
sessions, met and dis-
cussed the situation with opposition
leaders, and wrote freely in
the press, until one more of his
aspirations became reality. Since
his account of the turning of the first
spadefuls of earth by
Governors Clinton and Morrow for the
construction of the Ohio
canal is the best existing report, there
can be little doubt that he
was a witness to that historic
event. This occurred on that
memorable July 4, 1825, at the Licking
Summit, just south of
the (then) town of Newark; and, by
coincidence, it was on this
same day that the extension of the
National Road westward
through Ohio, was begun just across the
Ohio River from
Wheeling! Evidence of Atwater's
remarkable prevision is had
in the fact that only a few years later
(1829) he foresaw the ulti-
mate passing of the canals, and
remarked: "When locomotive
CALEB ATWATER 85
engines are brought to the perfection .
. . goods and passengers
can pass between the two seas in ten
days." Like Jules Verne,
he was over-modest in his prediction.
The creation of an adequate public
school system for Ohio
was a part of the broad campaign for
internal improvements, in
all of which--highways, canals and
schools--Atwater was a fore-
most proponent. But before an acceptable
school system could
be provided, certain abuses which had
grown up around the ad-
ministration of school lands had to be
corrected. By provision
of the Ordinance of 1785 and subsequent
congressional grants,
one thirty-sixth of all public lands,
amounting eventually to some
700,000 acres, were reserved for the
support of public schools.
Control of these school lands rested
with local officials, but were
subject to regulation by the General
Assembly. Almost from
the beginning of statehood, up until
1825, when the creation and
support of a school system came to be
accepted as a State obliga-
tion, much of the time and energies of
the General Assembly
were devoted to school land legislation
of a questionable nature.
It was said that certain members of the
Assembly had secured
the use of such lands on terms which
were most favorable to
themselves. Atwater himself asserted that one State senator
had used his office to obtain possession
of no less than seven sec-
tions.
Innumerable "squatters" on these lands had come to
think of themselves as actual owners,
and rentals due the State
were not infrequently ridiculously low
and too often were left
unpaid. To avert the temptation of
corrupt practice, the policy
of leasing eventually was abandoned in
favor of direct sale, and
the proceeds were loaned to the State
for financing canal con-
struction.
Credit for the establishment of Ohio's
school system is due
largely to three men: Ephraim Cutler, of
Washington County,
who sponsored the first legislation;
Caleb Atwater, chairman of
the Commission which drafted the bill
which was enacted into
law; and Nathan Guilford of Cincinnati,
who ably looked after
publicity. These three and their
associates worked tirelessly over
a period of several years in overcoming
opposition to a tax-sup-
ported school system. Their efforts were
rewarded when, in the
86
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
election of October, 1824, the voters
cleared the legislature of
much erstwhile opposition by electing
delegates who favored the
proposed school system. The Act of
February 5, 1825, not only
consummated the basic steps in Ohio's
public school system, but
the General Assembly of 1824-1825 was
long to be remembered
for its progressive accomplishments. In
Atwater's own words,
"That Legislature was the ablest. .
.that we ever had in the
State. They gave us a system of
education for common schools;
changed the mode of taxation; created a
Board of fund com-
missioners who were authorized to issue
stock and borrow money
on it, wherewith to make canals. They
passed many other wise,
moral, healthful and useful acts."
In 1829, Caleb Atwater was appointed by President Jackson
as one of three commissioners to treat
with the Winnebago In-
dians of Wisconsin. While this mission
was of immense im-
portance from a federal point of view,
it is of passing interest to
Ohio, and will be referred to only
briefly at this point. En route
to Prairie du Chien, Atwater comments
freely on Cincinnati, the
Ohio River, the trip up the Mississippi,
the character of the
country and the people whom he met. That
he once more saw
into the future is indicated in his
report of the journey. He
wrote: "The mind of the patriot is
lost in wonder and admira-
tion when he looks through the vista of
futurity at the wealth,
the grandeur and glory that certainly
awaits our posterity."
Atwater and his associate commissioners
effected a satisfac-
tory treaty with the Indians. On his
return, he submitted the
treaty to President Jackson. While
awaiting the convening of the
Senate, he made a side trip to
Philadelphia where he renewed
his acquaintance with the East. Later in
the year he returned
to Washington and was present when the
Senate enthusiastically
adopted his treaty.
Two years later, in 1831, Atwater
published an account of
his mission to the Winnebagos, together
with a discussion of the
relations of the government to the
Indians. In a volume entitled
the Writings of Caleb Atwater, published
in 1833, he included his
earlier report on the Antiquities of
Ohio and other States, the
CALEB ATWATER 87
account of his journey to Prairie du
Chien and thence to Wash-
ington, and an article on Franklinton
and Columbus.
His most pretentious literary product, A
History of the State
of Ohio, Natural and Civil, came from the press in 1838. It was
this volume which won for him the title
of Ohio's first historian.
His travels over the State and his
observation and study of its
geology, geography, flora and fauna, had
fitted him well for a
report on the natural history of the
area, while his active partici-
pation in civic affairs left little to
be desired in preparing him
for the task of recording Ohio's civil
history up to that time.
His final literary contribution was An
Essay on Education,
published in 1841. At this time, while
the Ohio school system
had been definitely established, there
remained obvious need of
improvement. The Essay was a plea
for efficiency. It demanded
better school buildings, better
teachers, better text books and
broader curricula, and it championed
co-education. Its concep-
tion of education was not only as a
cultural but as a utilitarian
asset, particularly as regards the needs
of the foreign-born immi-
grants who at the time were finding
their way into Ohio and the
Middle West. The Essay is
considered by many as the best of
Atwater's writings. Certainly here, as in everything that he
wrote, he showed his remarkable ability
in anticipating future
needs and developments. He was in very
truth one of the intel-
lectual pioneers of the West.
The Atwater Genealogy, compiled
by Francis Atwater, shows
that Caleb Atwater of Circleville was of
the fifth generation of
the family in America, and that at least
five others preceding him
had borne the same given name. Nor was
Atwater of Circleville,
the first member of the family to settle
in Ohio, and to leave
the Atwater imprint on the history of
the State. In the History
of Portage County, Ohio, it is recorded (p. 152) that a Captain
Caleb Atwater was one of the original
proprietors of the West-
ern Reserve, and that in April, 1799, he
came to Portage County
and established Atwater Township. In addition to this town-
ship, the family name is perpetuated by
the towns of Atwater
and Atwater Center, midway between Akron
and Youngstown.
In the same publication (p. 226) there is an
account of one Amzi
88
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Atwater who, in 1787, was a surveyor of
the Western Reserve
for the Connecticut Land Company. In
1800, in company with
his brother Jotham, he made a permanent
settlement at Mantua,
where he lived until his death. Amzi
served as judge of the
Court of Common Pleas, and was a writer
of poetry. However,
it is not the purpose of this paper to
pursue Atwater genealogy,
intriguing though it may be. According
to the genealogy of the
family, there have been in all some
8,000 persons bearing the
family name in America, while the family
genealogy carries back
to the 13th century in England.
To Caleb Atwater and his wife, Belinda
Butler Atwater
there were born six sons and three
daughters. As early as 1905,
all these had died, with the exception
of a daughter, Mrs. Lucy
Brown, of Indianapolis. No further report of the immediate
family is at hand.
Caleb Atwater was destined to die, as he
had lived, with but
little accumulation of worldly goods.
His whole concern had been
given to the advancement of science and
human welfare, rather
than the making of money. He was
unfortunate, perhaps, in
having outlived his time and to have
been forgotten by his con-
temporaries a full decade before his
death. He passed to his
reward in his Circleville home in March,
1867, at the age of 88.
That it may not be said of Caleb Atwater
that he is "unwept,
unhonored and unsung," this brief
re-appraisal is submitted.*
* Author's Note: The data for the period
of Atwater's residence in the East are
of historic record and require no
special references. For the sketch of his life in Ohio,
the following sources have been consulted:
Francis Atwater, comp., Atwater
History and Genealogy (Meriden, Conn., 1901).
William McAlpine, "The Origin of
Public Education in Ohio," in Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly (Columbus), XXXVIII (1929),
409-47.
Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of
American Biography (New York, 1928-37), 1,
415-16.
Clement L. Martzolff, "Caleb
Atwater," in Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly, XIV (1905), 247-71.
History of Portage County, Ohio (Chicago, 1885).
Charles Whittlesey, Early History of
Cleveland (Cleveland, 1867).