Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-07-04
MARIETTA REJUVENESCENT.
SD. HATHAWAY.

Httle more tnan name. A hamlet
the juncture Of the Ohio and Muskin,
um rivers, few log huts on the ban
with a small clearing and a few rud
canoes and boats drawn up on tn
shore. Those were days when yo
could hunt and find game, big gam,
and not go far to get 1t either. Hum
ing meant finding and fishing mean
catching. Those were the times G
leather stockings and deer ski
shirts and all the glories of the plo
neer and rough life of the frontier
The pioneers were rich in land. bu
poor In nearly everything else exoep
pluck and physical strength. The.
had hard job on their hands, yet the!
went into 1t knowingly and no doub
because they liked new conditions ant
the untrammeled freedom OF the will
derness. No one had gone before
them to make customs and precedents
They had none to dictate to them
none to prescribe the fashions. The
only fashion was to be clothed IL you
could, comfortably IL possible, II not
then, uncomfortably, and 1t goes
without saying that many times the
winter dress was pretty shabby and
thin and no doubt conducive to health
and to freedom from colds by becoming
Injured to hardships and deprivation.
We honor the first settlers because
they were the first men and women to
subdue the trackless wilds of new
country and because they were people
OF character and animated with the
best OF purposes.
LAYING OUT A CITY.
Did 1t ever occur to you that our
fair city was laid out in Boston, before
they started west? They had before
them an object lesson of "How not to
do It," Boston, the very name they
say, means Cow-town, Bos meaning
COW; in other words, town laid out
according to the COW paths. Any one
who has been in Boston will appreci-
ate this by recalling the crooked and
narrow streets OF that famous city.
Sc the Associates of the Ohio Com
pany, when they met at the Bunch of
Grapes Tavern, or Cromwell's Head
Tavern, which ever 1t was, to lay out a
city at the confluence of these two
rivers, had in mind the narrow and
crooked streets OF old Boston and they
resolved that a liberal system of
streets and public grounds should be
provided for the new city which they
were to found in the Western coun-
try. The streets of Marietta are as
a rule eighty-three feet wide. Two
streets, Third and Second, are one
hundred and fifteen feet wide. Wash
ington, which was no doubt intended
to be the main street of the city, was
laid out one hundred and fifty feet
wide. The one great mistake they |
made was in not giving the alleys |
twenty feet in stead OF ten. The lots |
were as originally surveyed ninety feet
by one hundred and eighty, but they |
have been subdivi6ed and now very |
few are held as originally laid out.
The lots being so deep, they could very |
we'll have spared five feet more off on
each side, making a twenty foot ala
ley. Following the lead Of Boston
with her famous Common the Ohio
Company laid out Commons for Ma
rietta which is the beautiful stretch Of
park fronting on the Muskingum. The
lots were not actually located and sur
yeyed until after arriving at the site
OF the proposed city. which was dedi-
Gated as City and Commons forever.
When the surveyors came to locate the
lots several Indian earth works and
mounds were found and the Directors
and Associates arranged the survey
so that these relies OF the Mound
Builders should be set aside in public
grounds and thus preserved. Another
discovery was made and that was that
the mile square OF land dedicated and
reserved by the United States for relig-
ious purposes. fell IN the center OF the
city. and that therefore the Company
had no title 70 any lots which were in
that section or mile square.
A share In the Ohio Company con-
sisted of the following tracts OF land:
One city lot. one three acre lot, one
eight acre lot. one one hundred acre
lot, one one hundred and sixty acre
lot, one one hundred and sixty-two acre
lot and one section or mile square OF
land, so that 1t turned out that the
city lots which had been set off to the
share holders inside the Ministerial
section could not be decided nor could
a coed title be secured for them and
they had to be abandoned and new
territory was surveyed off above the
section up the Musklngum,
to take the place of the others.
FROM THE WILDER
NESS.
! BY and by. the lines and boundaries
began to be important. or at least
more important. 1t Is probable that
the first call for fence was to keep
out or keep In stock. for we find
among the first ordinances strict regu-