Rev. Manasseh Cutler

A Patriot of the American Revolution for CONNECTICUT with the rank of PRIVATE. DAR Ancestor # A029163

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manasseh_Cutler

Manasseh Cutler (May 13, 1742 – July 28, 1823) was an American clergyman involved in the American Revolutionary War. Cutler was also a member of the United States House of Representatives and a founder of Ohio University.

Cutler was born in Killingly, Connecticut. In 1765, he graduated from Yale College and after being a school teacher and a merchant – and occasionally appearing in court as a lawyer – he decided to enter the ministry. From 1771 until his death, he was pastor of the Congregational church in what was the parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts until 1793, now Hamilton.

For a few months in 1776, he was chaplain to the 11th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel Ebenezer Francis, raised for the defense of Boston. In 1778, he became chaplain to General Jonathan Titcomb's brigade and took part in General John Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island. Soon after his return from this expedition he trained in medicine to supplement the scanty income of a minister. In 1782, he established a private boarding school, directing it for nearly a quarter of a century.

In 1786, Cutler became interested in the settlement of western lands by American pioneers to the Northwest Territory. The following year, as agent of the Ohio Company of Associates that he had been involved in creating, he organized a contract with Congress whereby his associates (former soldiers of the Revolutionary War) might purchase one and a half million acres (6,000 km²) of land at the mouth of the Muskingum River with their Certificate of Indebtedness. Cutler also took a leading part in drafting the famous Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, which was finally presented to Congress by Massachusetts delegate Nathan Dane. In order to smooth passage of the Northwest Ordinance, Cutler bribed key congressmen by making them partners in his land company. By changing the office of provisional governor from an elected to an appointed position, Cutler was able to offer the position to the president of Congress, Arthur St. Clair.[1] From 1801 to 1805, Cutler was a Federalist representative in Congress. He died in 1823 at Hamilton, Massachusetts.

Cutler was one of the early members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Besides being proficient in the theology, law and medicine of his day, he conducted painstaking astronomical and meteorological investigations and was one of the first Americans to conduct significant botanical research. He is considered a founder of Ohio University and the National Historic Landmark Cutler Hall on that campus is named in his honor. He received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale University in 1789.

Manasseh Cutler was featured on a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1937. __________

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American story—the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would come to define our country.

As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.

McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough’s subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them.

A contemporary account of his life, along with his correspondences can be found here.

https://archive.org/details/lifejournalscorr01cutl

Author: Cutler, William Parker, 1812-1889; Cutler, Julia Perkins, 1814-1904, joint author; Dawes, E. C. (Ephraim Cutler), b. 1840; Force, Peter, 1790-1868 Volume: 1 Subject: Cutler, Manasseh, 1742-1823; Ohio Company (1786-1796); Scioto Land Company; United States; Ohio -- History 1787-1865; Northwest, Old -- History Publisher: Cincinnati, R. Clarke & Co.

A history of the settlement of Ohio, focused on Manasseh Cutler is here:

https://archive.org/details/ManassehCutlerAndTheSettlementOfOhio1788

Author: Robert Elliot Brown Subject: Cutler Manasseh 1742-1823; Ohio--History--1787-1865 Publisher: Marietta, OH: Marietta College Press Year: 1938

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Burial: Hamilton Cemetery, Hamilton, Essex County, Massachusetts

Memorial for Manasseh Cutler:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Cutler&GSfn=M...