The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1879-07-10
THE MARIETTA COLONY.
How OhID Came to be Called ihs
"Ruckeye" Atate.

Rev. J. R. Davis, in Marietta Register
By association very insignificant
events frequently become memorable, if
not important, and this fact is illus
trated by the little incident that is said
to have given the name of Buckeye"
instead Of Beech Tree" State, to Ohio
Until the 7th of April, 1888, the vast
forests of the territory now embraced
within the State had been untouched by
an az of an actual white settler. Hunt
ing, scouting and surveying parties, and
even small armies had passed over the
armed force in the Scioto Valley, near
cothe, that Lord Dunmore, the Colonial
Governor of Virginia, listened to the
famous speech of Logan, the celebrated
Mingo chief. One or two military posts
had also been established in the
country, but OF resident white settlers
there were none, until the date already
mentioned.
Your readers are aware that the first
settlement was made at Marietta, at the
junction of the Muskingum with the
Ohio, by body of New England emil
grants, forming a part of the Ohio Com
pany, an incorporated body presided
over by General Rufus Putnam. of
Massachusetts,, assisted by a board of
directors, composed of gentlemen of in
tegrity and marked ability. General
Putnam was cousin of the Revolu-
tionary hero, General Israel Putnam
The company had purchased from the
old Congress large body of land in the
southeastern part of the territory, and
the mouth of the Muskingum was Sc
lected as the site of tne first settlement.
During the winter of 1878, the first
installment of the company's emigrants,
numbering forty eight men, were pre-
| pairing for removal and were journeying
| by wagon-train from New England TO
! Pittsburg. In consequence of the i'm
passable condition of the roads over the
mountains, caused by heavy snow falls,
the wagons were abandoned, and, by
pack-horses, the company reached
SumrelPs Ferry, thirty miles above
Pittsburg, in the latter part of March.
Here the emigrants found craft some
what resem oling a common fatboat, but
with roof and raking bow, so that it
could be used in ascending as we'll as
descending the stream. This craft was
named the "Mayfower." They had
also one ordinary fatboat and three
large canoes. On this insignificant fat
boat forty-eight men, the germ of the
State of Ohio, with its millions of popu-
lation, its vast stores of wealth. and its
eminent position in our sisterhood of
States, embarked for their destination.
After floating for few days without
any marked incident, about noon on the
7th of April, 1888, the settlers landed
on the site of the present city of
Marietta. Two of them Immediately
took each his own ak, each wishing to
cut the first tree. Neither of them
knew the species of the tree selected by
him. One attacked beech, which be-
ing hard wood, the process of telling
was slow. The other selected a buckeye,
which being soft, soon came to the
ground. And thus, it is affirmed by a
family tradition, which during nineteen
years past has not been contradicted by
any history or denied by any counter
statement, Ohio came to be called the
Buckeye" State. The successful com
petitor in this little contest was Captain
Daniel Davis, of Killingly, Windham
County, Connecticut. He was my hon.
ored grandfather, who, with somewhat
numerous family, spent five years in 8
private, or neighboring fortifcation
called Fort Frye, which was located
where the town of Beverly, in Wash
ington County, Ohio, now stands. With
% his two eldest sons he participated
in the perils of Indian warfare, with
which the settlers were harassed unit
after General Wayne's victory over the
savages of the Northwest in August
1894
During the entire history of oul
country, no. little band of emigrantl
into the wilderness ever combined more
if indeed as much. intelligence, refine
ment and morality as could be fount
in the Ohio Company's little colony a
Marietta. t#s t G..- al