Description: This image is a photographic reproduction of an engraved portrait of Manasseh Cutler (1742-1823). The artist portrays Cutler in his mature years: a clean-shaven man with slightly wavy hair and a serene expression. He wears a clergyman's collar with Geneva bands. The engraving includes Cutler's signature and a notation by the engraver: "Eng'd by J. C. [John Chester] Buttre, N.Y." Cutler was a major figure in the settling of Ohio in the years following the American Revolution. Born in Connecticut, he was descended from a long line of clergymen but entered Yale to become an attorney, thus breaking with family tradition. He graduated in 1765 but worked as a schoolteacher and store clerk before becoming an attorney. However, disenchanted by his current life, Cutler eventually pursued the clergy as his career choice. He became the minister of the Congregational Church in Ispwich, Massachusetts, in 1771 and held that post until his death. Although Cutler finally had settled on a career, he still pursued many outside interests. During the American Revolution, he was a committed patriot and served as a chaplain for several military units. The war caused serious economic problems in Massachusetts, and Cutler's parishioners faced great difficulty in paying their minister's salary. To supplement his income, Cutler studied medicine. When a smallpox epidemic struck Massachusetts in 1779, Cutler cared for as many as forty patients at a time. He also studied astronomy and was especially fond of determining the distance between the Earth and certain stars with a telescope and sextant. In a different field of study, he provided the first detailed account of plant life in New England, identifying roughly 350 different species. Because of these scientific endeavors, he was selected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He continued with his scientific interests until his death. In 1786, Cutler joined several other Revolutionary War veterans, including Rufus Putnam and Winthrop Sargent, in forming the Ohio Company of Associates. They hoped to secure from the Confederation Congress the right to develop land in the Ohio Country. After company representative Samuel Parsons failed to secure the land grant, Cutler entered negotiations with the Congress on behalf of the Ohio Company. Present while the Congress debated the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Cutler played a vital role in that document's eventual adoption. Some scholars claim that Cutler was responsible for this document's anti-slavery provisions. He also secured from the Congress the Ohio Company's right to purchase up to 1.5 million acres of land in Ohio for roughly eight cents an acre. In December 1787, Putnam led the first group of settlers to Ohio. In April 1788, where the Muskingum River flows into the Ohio River, the Ohio Company established Marietta. Cutler visited the settlement later that year and actively investigated the area. His primary interest was in earth mounds that he believed had been created centuries earlier by a Native American civilization. He returned to Massachusetts in 1789 and played an active role in Massachusetts's government for the next two decades. In 1795, President George Washington offered him a position as judge in the Northwest Territory, but Cutler refused. He did not return to Ohio after his trip in 1788. He died in Hamilton, Massachusetts, on July 28, 1823. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07015
Subjects: Cutler, Manasseh, 1742-1823; Clergy; Ohio Company (1786-1795); Portraits; United States. Ordinance of 1787; Northwest Territory--History
Places: Manasseh Cutler Collection