Ephraim Cutler
| Ephraim Cutler | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Delegate to 1802 Ohio Constitutional Convention from Washington County | |
|
In office November 1, 1802 – November 29, 1802 Serving with |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 13, 1767 Edgartown, Massachusetts |
| Died | July 8, 1853 (aged 86) Belpre, Ohio |
| Resting place | Gravel Bank Cemetery, Marietta, Ohio |
| Political party | |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | eleven |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
Ephraim Cutler (April 13, 1767 – July 8, 1853) was an early Northwest Territory and Ohio political leader and jurist.
Ephraim Cutler was born in Edgartown, Massachusetts on April 13, 1767. He was the oldest son of Manasseh Cutler, and was named for his father's late brother. From age three he lived with his grandparents in Killingly, Connecticut. He married Leah Atwood April 8, 1787. Manasseh Cutler was a leader of the Ohio Company of Associates, a land company which bought a large tract in what is now southeast Ohio from the Congress of the Confederation. Ephraim Cutler acted as a sales agent for the company, and sold twenty subscriptions. These shareholders elected him to represent them at a meeting of the company in 1788, even though he was not yet of legal age. In the 1790s he ran a shop, and inherited his grandfather's farm, which he sold. Cutler decided Ohio would have a more agreeable climate for his wife's failing health, and decided to move.
On June 15, 1795, Cutler, his wife, and four children left Killingly, and traveled by foot to the Monongahela River near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where they had a Kentucky flat-boat built. The river was low, so progress was slow. The boat finally landed at Marietta, Ohio September 18, 1795, after 31 days on the river, with the death of two of Cutler's children to illness along the way, Mary and Hezekiah. Cutler had dysentery by this time, and recovered in a rented room in the blockhouse of Campus Martius.
With Ephraim Cutler's recovery in October, the family moved up the Muskingum River to Waterford, Ohio, where some Killingly families had settled. The autumn and winter were spent settling company business in Marietta and surveying land in the Donation Tract. In 1796 he procured some land nearby, and later had a hand in developing and marketing a salt spring, and also received commissions from Governor Arthur St. Clair for captain of the militia, Justice of the Peace and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. By 1799 he was the first settler in what would become Ames Township, Athens County, Ohio, moving his wife, two surviving children from Connecticut, and two children born in the Northwest. In 1800, the Legislature of the Northwest Territory named Cutler to examine and lease the School Lands sections in his part of the territory, which involved a great deal of travel. He convinced the people of Ames Township to establish the Western Library Association in 1804, one of the earliest libraries formed in the Northwest Territory. Money was raised for the library through sale furs and other items. It came to be called the “Coonskin Library.” It was not the first incorporated in the state, as three others in the state had been incorporated before it was incorporated in February, 1810. Cutler was elected the first librarian.
...
Wikipedia