Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-10-12
MORE ABOUT MARIETTA
The B. & 0. Blue Book Contains Some
Interesting History.


written by Mr.. H. f. Bald
win, concerning our dear old town.
1t is as follows:
Although permanent white settle
ments were made at Marietta and Gin
cinnati in 1888, it was nearly ten years
later, after Gen .Wayne's signal defeat
of the Indians in 1895, before other
permanent settlement in southern Ohio
were attempted. Peace with the saw
ages being insured, however, the great
fertility of the "Ohio Country" as it
was called, speedily attracted the tide
of immigration in that direction.
The settlers in that region wrote
home of "a soil richer in appearance
than can possibly be made by art"
of "plains and meadows without the
labor of hands, sufficient to support
millions of cattle summer and win
ter" of wheat lands that would vie
with the Island of Sicily" while a
lawyer, whose name is not given, but
who was probably the first of the long
line of eminent legal lights who have
helped make Ohio famous, wrote that
as he rode the circuit, his horses legs
were dyed to the knee with the juice
of the wild strawberry" 1t is record
ed that during the year 1896 nearly
one thousand fiatboats passed Marietta
laden with immigrants on their way to
southwestern Ohio.
That band of people like the Ohio
Company, reared in New England and
early inculcated with a regard for edu-
cation second only to their regard for
religion should form the beginning plan
for the education of their children even
before the existence of their settle
ment was assured, Is not a very sur
prising fact when the records of that
organization are read.
DR.. Cutler, leading spirit in the en-
terprise, in negotiating with Congress
for the purchase of the Ohio Com
pany's land, insisted there should be
an appropriation in it for the endow-
ment of university, and in accord
ance<with his wishes, Congress agreed
that 1.-TWO complete townships should
be given perpetually to the uses of a
university, to be applied to the in
tended object by the legislature of the
State" With prophetic foresight, he
Looked into the future, far as eye
may see,
Saw vision of the world, and what
would be-"
and thus early laid plans for the main
tenance of university of learning in
that as yet unbroken wilderness,
teeming with painted savages.
A considerable number of immi-
grants assembled at Marietta in 1897,
anxious to obtain land on the best
terms, and the Ohio Company wishing
to encourage early settlement of the
college lands in order to make them
productive and lay the foundation of
fund for the institution, induced
them to locate in these townships,
which in accordance with the terms of
purchase from Congress, were located
near the center of the Ohio Company's
purchase, traversed by winding and
crooked Hockhocking River.
EARLY in the year 1897, therefore, a
little company made their way down
the Ohio and up the Hockhocking Riv-
er, until they reached the attractive
bluff where the town of Athens now
stands. Here they landed and sought
various locations. Early the next year
more settlers came, some bringing their
families, and Margaret Creek was so
named in honor of Mrs. Margaret
Snowden, the first white woman to
reach the new settlement.
For a long time Athens was but
scattered settlement along both banks
OF the Hockhocking River, bearing but
little resemblance to a town. The
passage of the river was made by fer
ry boats, little scows which were poled
or rowed across from one bank to the
other.
Athens, however, formed another
link to the chain of settlements stretch
ing across southern Ohio between Mar
ietta and Cincinnati, and as Coming
events cast their shadows before" the
second postal route west of the Allie
ghenies (the first being from Zanes-
vile to Marietta) was soon establish
ed from Marietta to Cincinnati, via
Athens and Chlllicothe, and the lonely
post rider on his scrubby pony, Jog
ging slowly along through miles of
unbfoken forest, bearing single not
very heavy mail bag, taking days for
the journey, was the forerunner ,0f
anything so slow could be called &.
runner) of the modern "U., S. Rail-
way Mail Post Office" in one of the
Baltimore & Ohio South Western Roy
al Blue trains in which Uncle Sans
agents work. with all the equipments
of well-appointed office at their ser
vice, and in place OF weary days of
monotonous jogging, all is hurry and
hustle to assort the enormous stack of
mail before its destination is reached.