Ohio: Difference between revisions

Before the American Revolution, Britain thinly exercised sovereignty over Ohio Country by lackadaisical garrisoning of the French forts.{{efn|The last French Fort in Ohio Country, Fort Sandusky, was destroyed in 1763 during Pontiac's Rebellion.}} Just beyond Ohio Country was the great [[Miami Tribe|Miami]] capital of [[Kekionga]], which became the center of British trade and influence in Ohio Country and throughout the future [[Northwest Territory]]. By the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], British lands west of [[Appalachia]] were forbidden to settlement by colonists.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Billington|first=Ray A.|title=The Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768 |journal=New York History |year=1944 |volume=25 |issue=2 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press|pages=182–194|jstor=23147791}}</ref> The [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix]] in 1768 explicitly reserved lands north and west of the Ohio as Native lands.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sosin|first=Jack M.|title=Whitehall and the wilderness: the Middle West in British colonial policy, 1760–1775 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaMzwgEACAAJ&pg=PA146|year=1961|publisher=Cornell University Press|page=146|access-date=March 9, 2022 |archive-date=January 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118044200/https://books.google.com/books?id=aaMzwgEACAAJ&pg=PA146 |url-status=live}}</ref> British military occupation in the region contributed to the outbreak of [[Pontiac's War]] in 1763.<ref>{{cite book |last=White|first=Richard|title=The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815|isbn=0-521-42460-7 |year=1991|publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=256}}</ref> Ohio tribes participated in the war until an armed expedition in Ohio led by [[Brigadier General]] [[Henry Bouquet]] brought about a truce. Another colonial military expedition into the Ohio Country in 1774 brought [[Lord Dunmore's War]], kicked off by the [[Yellow Creek massacre]] in Ohio, to a conclusion. In 1774, Britain passed the [[Quebec Act]], which formally annexed Ohio and other western lands to the [[Province of Quebec]] in order to provide a civil government and to centralize British administration of the [[Montreal]]-based fur trade.<ref>{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/quebecact00hartgoog/page/n22 12]|title=The Quebec Act 1774|url=https://archive.org/details/quebecact00hartgoog|author=Gerald E. Hart|year=1891|publisher=Gazette Printing Company |location=Montreal}}</ref> The prohibition of settlement west of the Appalachians remained, contributing to the American Revolution.<ref>Gordon Wood, ''The American Revolution'' (New York: [[Random House]], 2002).</ref>

===Northwest Territory===

[[File:LandingOfThePioneers.jpg|thumb|The landing of [[Rufus Putnam]] and the first settlers at [[Marietta, Ohio]] in 1788.]]

In 1776, Putnam created a method of building portable fortifications, which enabled the [[Continental Army]] to drive the British from Boston. [[George Washington]] was so impressed that he made Putnam his chief engineer. After the war, Putnam and [[Manasseh Cutler]] were instrumental in creating the [[Northwest Ordinance]], which opened up the [[Northwest Territory]] for settlement. This land was used to serve as compensation for what was owed to Revolutionary War veterans. Putnam organized and led the [[Ohio Company of Associates]], who settled at [[Marietta, Ohio]], where they built a large fort, [[Campus Martius (Ohio)|Campus Martius]].<ref>Hubbard, Robert Ernest.  ''General Rufus Putnam: George Washington's Chief Military Engineer and the "Father of Ohio,"'' pp. 2–4, 45–8,105–18, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina.  {{ISBN|978-1-4766-7862-7}}.</ref><ref>Hildreth, Samuel Prescott.  ''Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio,'' pp. 34–7, 63–74, Badgley Publishing Company, 2011.  {{ISBN|978-0-615-50189-5}}.</ref><ref>McCullough, David.  ''The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West,'' pp. 46–7, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, New York, 2019.  {{ISBN|978-1-5011-6870-3}}.</ref> He set substantial amounts of land aside for schools. In 1798, he created the plan for the construction of the Muskingum Academy (now [[Marietta College]]). In 1780, the directors of the Ohio Company appointed him superintendent of all its affairs relating to the settlement north of the Ohio River. In 1796, President George Washington commissioned him as Surveyor-General of United States Lands. In 1788, he served as a judge in the Northwest Territory's first court. In 1802, he served in the convention to form a constitution for the State of Ohio.<ref>Hubbard, Robert Ernest.  ''General Rufus Putnam: George Washington's Chief Military Engineer and the "Father of Ohio,"'' pp. 127–50, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina.  {{ISBN|978-1-4766-7862-7}}.</ref><ref>Hildreth, Samuel Prescott.  ''Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio,'' pp. 69, 71, 81, 82, Badgley Publishing Company, 2011.  {{ISBN|978-0-615-50189-5}}.</ref><ref>McCullough, David.  ''The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West,'' pp. 143–7, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, New York, 2019.  {{ISBN|978-1-5011-6870-3}}.</ref>