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: This lithograph depicts Farmer's Castle in Belpre, Ohio, a fortification built in 1791 by white settlers during conflicts with the Native American tribes. The image shows a dozen or so block houses made of logs; the entire settlement is surrounded by a picket fence ten feet high. A boat and a canoe are tied up on the bank of the Ohio River. The lithograph was first published in 1848 in Samuel Prescott Hildreth's book "Pioneer History: Being an Account of the First Examinations of the Ohio Valley, and the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory; Chiefly from Original Manuscripts" (Cincinnati: H. W. Derby and Co., 1848. Farmer's Castle was the birthplace of William Pitt Putnam (1792-1871), grandson of Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05863
Subjects: Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Farmers' Castle; Forts & fortifications
Places: Belpre (Ohio); Washington 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: 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: Exterior view of the home of Rufus Putnam in Marietta, Ohio. It was one of the dwellings in Campus Martius, the fortification erected by the Ohio Company, ca. 1790-1799. Putnam was a Revolutionary War veteran and member of the Ohio Company who helped to found Marietta, Ohio, and open the Northwest Territory for settlement. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05488
Subjects: Dwellings--Ohio; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Putnam, Rufus, 1738-1824; Campus Martius (Marietta, Ohio); Northwest Territory--History
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Harman Blennerhasset's mansion on the Ohio River, ca. 1820-1829. In 1798, Irish native Harman Blennerhassett (1764-1862) settled and built a mansion on an island in the middle of the Ohio River. In 1805 he conspired with Aaron Burr to rebel against the United States. Using Blennerhassett's home as a staging ground, they plotted to form a new country with the western United States. When the government learned about this plan, the Ohio and Virginia militias were sent to stop boat traffic on the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers and seize the Blennerhassett home. Today, the restored mansion on Blennerhassett Island is a tourist attraction which visitors approach from West Virginia's Parkersburg Point Park via a paddlewheel boat. The lithograph was all first published in 1848 in Samuel Prescott Hildreth's book "Pioneer History" (Pioneer History: Being an Account of the First Examinations of the Ohio Valley, and the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory ; Chiefly from Original Manuscripts). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03933
Subjects: Blennerhassett Island (W. Va.); Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Blennerhassett, Harman, 1765-1831
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: The Logan Elm in Pickaway County, Ohio, was the location of a speech on Indian and white relations given by Chief Logan of the Ohio Iroquois in 1774. Originally an ally of white settlers in the Ohio country, Logan began to oppose their settlement after a contingent of Virginia settlers killed 12 members of Logan's family and tribe. At the time the tree died in 1964, it was estimated to be between 200 to 300 years old, and was approximately 24 feet in circumference. In its place, the Ohio History Connection (then the Ohio Historical Society) and Pickaway Country placed a plaque, and, recently, planted a pin oak tree in honor of Chief Logan and the legendary elm tree. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00395
Subjects: Natural monuments; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Seneca-Cayuga Tribe; American Indians in Ohio
Places: Pickaway County (Ohio)
 

Description: Marietta was the first permanent settlement of the United States of America in the Northwest Territory in 1788. The 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. The Campus Martius Museum highlights migration in Ohio's history. The museum is on the site of the fortification built by the Ohio Company of Associates, as their headquarters. Campus Martius means “military ground." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B15F01_066
Subjects: Campus Martius (Marietta, Ohio); Northwest Territory--History; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)