Rufus Putnam

Rufus Putnam

Revolutionary War engineer who co-founded the Ohio Company of Associates and led the 48 men who founded Marietta in 1788.

Born April 9, 1738, Sutton, Massachusetts
Died May 4, 1824, Marietta

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: April 9, 1738, Sutton, Massachusetts source
Died: May 4, 1824, Marietta (Washington County) source
Buried: Mound Cemetery, Marietta (Washington County) source
Also known as: General Rufus Putnam, Father of the Northwest Territory, Father of Ohio
Education: Self-taught (surveying and mathematics), Massachusetts
Known as: Pioneer
Organizations: Ohio Company of Associates

Life story

Rufus Putnam was born in 1738 in Sutton, Massachusetts. His father died when he was six or seven. He taught himself geography, math and surveying while working as a millwright, and became a farmer and surveyor.

He served in the French and Indian War and the Revolution, helped fortify Dorchester Heights in 1776, built Fort Putnam at West Point in 1778, and became a brigadier general in 1783.

On March 3, 1786 he helped found the Ohio Company of Associates in Boston. He led the first pioneers to the mouth of the Muskingum and founded Marietta on April 7, 1788.

He served in Wayne's campaign, was the first US Surveyor General from 1796 to 1803, and in 1808 became the first Grand Master of Ohio Freemasons. He died in Marietta on May 4, 1824 and is buried at Mound Cemetery.

Ohio ties

Marietta (1788-1824)
founder and superintendent of the Ohio Company settlement; home from 1790; land office Washington County · source
Marietta (Campus Martius) (1788-1795)
built his house as part of the Campus Martius fortification Washington County · source
Athens (1804)
founding trustee and co-founder of Ohio University Athens County · source
Gallipolis (1790s)
helped settle the French immigrants there Gallia County · source

Timeline

1754 Apprenticed to a millwright in Brookfield, Massachusetts, after schooling of only about three weeks. source
1760 Commissioned an ensign at Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War. source
1776 His fortifications on Dorchester Heights helped force the British out of Boston. source
1783 Commissioned a brigadier general; helped organize the officers' petition for western land. source
1786 Founded the Ohio Company of Associates with Benjamin Tupper. source
1787 The Ohio Company bought about 1.5 million acres in southeast Ohio, paying in depreciated Continental currency and military warrants. source
1788 Arrived on April 7 with 48 men at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers and founded Marietta. source
1790 Moved his family to Marietta; his Campus Martius house was completed late that year. source
1792 Negotiated the Treaty of Vincennes with the Wabash nations, which the Senate did not ratify. source
1796 Appointed U.S. Surveyor General by Washington; he held the post until 1803. source
1801 Marietta's founders established the town cemetery around the Hopewell Great Mound, preserving it. source
1802 Served as a Federalist delegate from Washington County to the Ohio Constitutional Convention. source
1804 Helped found Ohio University at Athens and sat on its first board of trustees. source
1824 Died in Marietta on May 4, aged 86. source
2006 Ohio University's bobcat mascot was named Rufus in an online poll, for Lynx rufus and for Putnam. source

What Rufus is known for

Founded Marietta, April 7, 1788
Founded Marietta 1788
First US Surveyor General
Founding of Marietta (1788)
Ohio Company of Associates (1786)

Stories

A lost year on the Mississippi

Before Ohio, Putnam chased land in another direction. In 1772 he joined an expedition to West Florida, where veterans of the French and Indian War had been promised grants. He travelled almost 400 miles up the Mississippi looking for land. The colonial governor never received the king's order to make the grants, and Putnam later felt he had wasted eight months. The disappointment helps explain why he pressed Congress so hard after the Revolution for a firm grant of western land to veterans.

Source

A self-taught surveyor general

Putnam had very little schooling: about three weeks while living with his stepfather, and he regretted his weak spelling and grammar all his life. He still became the first Surveyor General of the United States in 1796, appointed by George Washington, his patron since the Revolution. He held it until 1803, losing influence as Jefferson's Republicans took over Ohio politics.

Source

A fort house inside a museum

When the settlers built Campus Martius, Marietta's fortified civilian stockade, Putnam's own house formed part of the walls. Construction began in 1788 and was finished in late 1790, with a four-room addition in 1795. The post-and-plank house is the only part of the fortification still standing. It is now enclosed inside the Campus Martius Museum at 601 Second Street, run by the Ohio History Connection, along with the Ohio Company Land Office that Putnam used. The museum also holds his boots, cane and Revolutionary War chest.

Source

A cemetery built around a mound

Marietta was laid out over the Marietta Earthworks, a Hopewell complex built between about 100 BC and AD 500. In 1801 the town's founders set the city cemetery around the conical Great Mound, called Conus, which kept it from being levelled. Putnam was buried there in 1824. Mound Cemetery is said to hold more Revolutionary War officers than any other cemetery in the country, among them Benjamin Tupper, Commodore Abraham Whipple and Col. William Stacy.

Source

Inventions and firsts

All Ohio inventions and firsts

First permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory (1788)

Honors and things named for them

Called 'Father of the Northwest Territory'
1937 US stamp
Rufus Putnam House, National Historic Landmark
Putnam, Ohio named for him

Named for Rufus Putnam

Rufus the Bobcat (Ohio University mascot, partly) (Athens, Athens County) source

Family

wife: Persis Rice Putnam
first wife: Elizabeth Ayers
cousin: Israel Putnam

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Rufus Putnam House, Campus Martius Museum
Marietta (601 Second St.) Washington County · source
2 Mound Cemetery (grave)
Marietta (5th and Scammel streets) Washington County · source
Ohio Company Land Office, Campus Martius Museum
Marietta Washington County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Mound Cemetery (Putnam grave) (grave)
5th and Scammel Sts, Marietta, Washington County ZIP 45750 (approximate) · Marietta · Washington County · official page

Ohio places

Where Rufus Putnam was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Worked: Marietta, Washington County (Marietta, where Campus Martius Museum now stands) ZIP 45750 · Marietta · Washington County
Buried: Marietta, Washington County (Mound Cemetery) ZIP 45750 · Marietta · Washington County
Lived: Marietta, Washington County ZIP 45750 · Marietta · Washington County

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

1. Artemas Ward 2. Rufus Putnam 3. Levi Lincoln Identifier: fortyimmortalsofworc (find matches) Title: Forty i...
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Arrival of w:Rufus Putnam and w:American pioneers to the Northwest Territory at the mouth of the Muskingum Riv...
Public domain
* Printmakers include Asher Brown Durand & Samuel William Reynolds. Title from Calendar of Emmet Collectio...
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* Printmakers include Asher Brown Durand & Samuel William Reynolds. Title from Calendar of Emmet Collectio...
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US Postage Stamp: Ordinance of 1787, Issue of 1937, 3c
Public domain
Public domain
Rufus Putnam's Boots, Cane and Revolutionary War Chest, Campus Martius Museum, Marietta, Ohio
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Signature of General Rufus Putnam.
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The w:Rufus Putnam marker, Mound Cemetery, w:Marietta, Ohio, August 2008. I took this photo, and I release to ...
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This is a cropped portion of w:John Trumbull’s portrait of the w:Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, wh...
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