Description: Reverse reads: "Italian born pupils in a citizenship class at the South Side Settlement House, Columbus, is under the direction of Mr. Grover Gilfillen" The South Side Settlement House is still in operation. It can be found at 310 Innis Avenue in Columbus. It was founded in 1899 and is one of the oldest settlement houses in the country. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B10F10_028_001
Subjects: Settlement Architecture, Domestic--Ohio--Pictorial works.; Italians
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Map illustrating the ancient earthworks and terrain near the city of Marietta, drawn by Rufus Putnam in 1802. The Marietta Earthworks site is a large Hopewell ceremonial center located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers in Washington County. Originally, it included a large square enclosure surrounding four flat-topped pyramidal mounds, another smaller square, and a circular enclosure with a large burial mound at its center. In 1788, the directors of the Ohio Company of Associates, who were the founders of Marietta, agreed to preserve important parts of the earthworks as parks. Three segments of the Marietta Earthworks are maintained as public parks today. Originally known as Adelphia, meaning "brotherhood," Marietta was the first settlement founded by the Ohio Company of Associates in the Northwest Territory in 1788, and the first permanent settlement of the United States in the territory north and west of the Ohio River. The Ohio Company's investors renamed the community after Queen Marie Antoinette of France, in honor of France's contributions to the American victory in the American Revolution. The first settlers were led by Rufus Putnam, who was one of the Ohio Company's early investors. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02885
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Putnam, Rufus, 1738-1824; Earthworks (Archaeology); Mounds--Ohio River Valley
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photographic postcard depicting a side view of the Rufus Putnam house at Campus Martius in Marietta, Ohio, ca. 1915-1930. The caption identifies the building as "The Old Block House, Erected 1788, Marietta, O." Rufus Putnam (1738-1824) was a soldier and early settler of Ohio after the American Revolution, establishing the first Ohio Company settlement on the banks of the Ohio River. Known originally as Adelphia, the community soon became known as Marietta. To protect the settlement from Native American attacks, the settlers built a fortification known as the Campus Martius. Putnam was also an important political leader in the Northwest Territory, participating in the constitutional convention of 1802 and playing a large role in preventing slavery from becoming legal in Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05192
Subjects: Washington County (Ohio); Putnam, Rufus, 1738-1824; Campus Martius (Marietta, Ohio); Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Early map of the city of Gallipolis, Ohio, titled "A Tract of Land granted By The Congress to The French Inhabitants of Gallipolis," surveyed by Absalom Martin. The map shows 92 plots of land making up the city along the Ohio River. In 1790, land speculators representing the Scioto Company persuaded several hundred French immigrants to come to the United States. The immigrants built a settlement in the Ohio Country called Gallipolis, meaning "city of the Gauls." Once the French arrived, they discovered that the company's representatives had misled them. The land that they had purchased actually belonged to the Ohio Company of Associates rather than to the Scioto Company. Many of the immigrants returned to the East. Those who chose to stay had either to pay the Ohio Company for their land or move to the area set aside for them by the American government known as the French Grant. The French faced great difficulties during the early years of the town's settlement. Disease was common in the community due to the town's swampy conditions, and approximately one-third of the French settlers died from these diseases. Gallipolis grew relatively slowly, despite its location along the Ohio River. By the 1880s, just over one thousand residents lived in the town. Numerous businesses operated in Gallipolis, with many of the manufacturing establishments making furniture, stoves, or carriages. Today, Gallipolis has a population of just over five thousand people, and is the county seat of Gallia County. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MAPVFM0260_2
Subjects: Gallipolis (Ohio); Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Maps--Ohio; Ohio River;
Places: Gallipolis (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio);
 

Description: Artist's rendering of the Battle of Big Bottom, also known as the "Big Bottom Massacre." On January 2, 1791, native Delaware and Wyandot Indians attacked the isolated settlement Big Bottom, along the Muskingum River in Morgan County. Tensions were high between Native Americans and the Ohio Company settlers prior to the attack, and following the massacre, most whites in southeastern Ohio moved closer to Marietta, hoping that the Indians would not attack in a more populous area. The United States Congress also played a greater role in the Ohio Country, due at least in part to the attack. Today, the Ohio Historical Society maintains a monument at the site of the Big Bottom Massacre. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02816
Subjects: Morgan County (Ohio); Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Morgan County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image shows the Fort Steuben Bridge near Steubenville, Ohio. The bridge was demolished on February 12, 2012. The demolition of the bridge was not a universally accepted idea. Bicyclists and trail enthusiasts began a campaign back in 2007 to save the bridge in order for it to be the Ohio River crossing for a bike trail that will ultimately run from Washington, D.C. to Indianapolis. The bike trail concept ran into opposition because the Ohio portal access is to Ohio 7, a divided expressway. In 1786, the United States government built Fort Steuben within the area known as the Seven Ranges, in what is now southeastern Ohio. The federal government had arranged for a survey of this area in order to prepare for the settlement of the Northwest Territory. Fort Steuben served two purposes: troops stationed at the fort were supposed to keep illegal settlers from moving into Ohio, and the surveyors of the Seven Ranges used the fort as a base of operations. The fort, which was destroyed in a fire in 1790, did not deter people from moving into the Seven Ranges. After the fort was abandoned, these settlers established a town, which became known as Steubenville. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06508
Subjects: Bridges--Ohio River; Bicycles; Steubenville (Ohio); Forts & fortifications; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood;
Places: Steubenville (Ohio); Jefferson County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is a photographic print of an illustration showing the proposed memorial to the "Start Westward of the United States" in Marietta, Ohio. The sculptor was Gutzon Borglum and the architect was John P Schooley. The drawing was done by J. E. Myers for the Ohio Writers' Program of the Works Projects Administration. This memorial was erected in 1938 by the Marietta Bicentennial Celebration. It was dedicated by President Franklin D Roosevelt as a tribute to the pioneers who traveled from New England and established Marietta as the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B15F02_027
Subjects: Marietta (Ohio); Works Progress Administration; Monuments & memorials; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: This calumet, or ceremonial pipe, seen here in two views, was used at the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Possibly crafted by a member of one of the tribes who were signatories on the treaty, it is made of red catlinite with inlaid metal designs and a carved wooden stem, and was one of several pipes smoked by participants over the course of solemnizing the treaty negotiations. General Anthony Wayne defeated the American Indian confederacy led by Blue Jacket at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. Abandoned by the British at Fort Miami, the American Indians agreed to a peace settlement. A year later, representatives from twelve tribes met at Greenville, in present-day Darke County, to negotiate with Wayne. Among the leaders were Little Turtle of the Miami, Tarhe of the Wyandot, and Blue Jacket and Black Hoof of the Shawnee. The treaty confined the American Indians to northwestern Ohio. Despite Wayne's hope that the treaty would hold "as long as the woods grow and waters run" American Indians were removed to the West by the mid-19th century. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: H39471_1
Subjects: American Indian history and society; Wayne, Anthony, 1745 - 1796; American Indian tribal leaders; Treaty of Greenville; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood;
Places: Greenville (Ohio); Darke County (Ohio);
 

Description: The tomb of John Cleves Symmes (1742-1814). Symmes would come to be a prominent figure in the history of the early United States. He served some time in Congress and was also at one time a judge for the state of New Jersey. Symmes would eventually decide that it would be a good idea to start a settlement in what is today Ohio, pooling money together with others to acquire land out in the rugged frontier. Despite his good investment, there were glaring issues that soon cropped up and caused him trouble. Because of his disregard for policies about land ownership, there were cases where many people paid Symmes for land he didn't even own, which became a disaster for these settlers. Because of this disaster, private owners were no longer able to buy up land and then sell it. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06776
Subjects: Symmes, John Cleves, 1742-1814; Northwest Territory--History; Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Land settlement--Ohio
Places: Northwest Territory; North Bend (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Illustration of French expedition led by Joseph Pierre Celoron de Bienville, here depicted burying a lead plate. On these plates were pronouncements laying claim to the Ohio Country in the name of the king of France. At the places where major rivers joined the Ohio, the party stopped and buried one of the tablets. On a nearby tree, a metal plaque was placed, asserting the claims of France and stating that the tablet lay nearby. This practice of burying plates first began in Europe in the Middle Ages and was a common way to show landownership. In total, De Bienville is believed to have buried six plates. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04622
Subjects: Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Ohio--History; Land settlement--Ohio; Explorers;
 

Description: Map of the Ohio Company Purchase. This plan illustrates the first tract of Ohio land to be sold by the Continental Congress to the Ohio Company of Associates, also known as the Ohio Company. The company was formed on March 1, 1786, by former Revolutionary War officers and soldiers, Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Samuel Holden Parsons and Manasseh Cutler in Boston, Massachusetts. Parsons, Putnam, and Cutler were chosen as directors while Winthrop Sargent became the secretary. The company established the first permanent settlement at Marietta in April 1788 and sent pioneers from New England to settle the Northwest Territory. In 1796, the Ohio Company divided its shares and ceased to exist as a land company. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07517
Subjects: Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Ohio Company (1786-1796); Marietta (Ohio); Northwest Territory--History; United States. Continental Congress
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Dated ca. 1935-1940, this photograph shows the tablet at the front entrance of the City Hall in Greenville, Ohio, which reads "Site of Fort Greene-Ville. The largest pioneer fort in Ohio, built in 1793 by General Anthony Wayne. Here in August 5, 1795, the Treaty was signed by which much of present Ohio was opened to White settlement." In August 1795, representatives from the Myaamia, Wyandotte, Shawnee, Lenape, Ottawa, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Kaskaskias, Eel River, and Weas signed the Treaty of Greenville. In signing the treaty, these tribes agreed to move to the northwestern part of what is now the State of Ohio. Championed as a treaty of friendship between Anglo-American settlers and American Indian tribes, the treaty forced tribal leaders to relinquish much of their land to Anglo-Americans. This is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F05_014_001
Subjects: City halls; Historic sites--Ohio; Public buildings; Treaty of Greenville; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Greenville (Ohio); Darke County (Ohio)