Anselm Tupper Anselm Tupper ( 1763 – 1808 ) was an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War , a pioneer to the Ohio Country , and one of the founders of Marietta , Ohio , the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory . The eldest son of Benjamin Tupper , Anselm enlisted in the fight for independence during 1775 , while only eleven years old , achieving the rank of lieutenant before his seventeenth birthday . After the war , he was a pioneer and surveyor in the Northwest Territory , and became major of the militia at Marietta during the Northwest Indian War . Tupper was the first school teacher at Marietta , and was a classical scholar and poet . He was unmarried , and was known as a favorite in society . Early life and the American Revolutionary War . Anselm Tupper was born in Easton , Massachusetts on October 11 , 1763 and grew up to the age of eleven in Chesterfield in western Massachusetts . His childhood was brief , as Anselm Tupper enlisted in May 1775 at the young age of eleven , shortly after the Battles of Lexington and Concord , likely being one of the younger soldiers in the fight for independence . Anselm joined Captain Robert West ' s Chesterfield company , assigned to Colonel John Fellows ' regiment ( 17th Massachusetts Bay Provincial Regiment ) , in which Anselm ' s father , Benjamin Tupper , was already major . As described in Chaffin ' s " History of the Town of Easton , Massachusetts " , It is interesting to think of this Revolutionary soldier , " not yet twelve years old " , engaging in all the toil , hardship , and peril of war , and never flinching until his country ' s independence was achieved . During 1779 , Anselm Tupper was appointed adjutant of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat ' s ( aka Sprout ) regiment . Anselm was appointed ensign during 1779 or 1780 . He was subsequently promoted to the rank of lieutenant and adjutant in the 11th Massachusetts Regiment on September 1 , 1780 , before his seventeenth birthday . He then served in the 10th Massachusetts Regiment during 1781 and 1782 , the 6th Massachusetts Regiment during the first half of 1783 , and the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment from June until November 3 , 1783 . Post - war and the Ohio Country . During 1786 , Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper founded the Ohio Company of Associates . During that year , Anselm joined his father in a survey of the Seven Ranges in the Ohio Country . Anslem became a shareholder of the Ohio Company of Associates , and was engaged as a surveyor with the company . Subsequently , on April 7 , 1788 , Anselm Tupper and a group of American pioneers to the Northwest Territory , led by Rufus Putnam , arrived at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers to establish Marietta , Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory . Anselm ' s parents , Benjamin and Huldah , arrived several months later . Anselm Tupper was a notable member of the pioneer settlement of Marietta , and a favorite in society . During September 1788 , he served as a juror on the Grand Jury of the first civil court in the Northwest Territory . During the Northwest Indian War in 1789 , he was appointed major in the militia with command of the Campus Martius fortification during the war . He was a founding member of the Society of the Cincinnati , and an original member of the American Union Lodge No . 1 of Freemasons at Marietta along with others including Rufus Putnam , Benjamin Tupper , and William Stacy . Anselm Tupper was the second officer of the vessel " Orlando " , built at Marietta in 1803 ; he sailed with the " Orlando " from Marietta down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers , across the Atlantic , and through the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas to Trieste . He then returned home to Marietta . He was the first school teacher in Marietta and the Northwest Territory , was a classical scholar , and was also a poet . Anselm Tupper died on December 25 , 1808 . He is buried with his father and many other American Revolutionary War soldiers and pioneers at Mound Cemetery in Marietta .