Marietta Turns 233

MARIETTA, OH — Today is Marietta’s birthday. On this day 233 years ago, the City of Marietta was officially founded. Mayor Josh Schlicher cut the cake to commemorate his city’s birthday and city employees were there to sing happy birthday to Marietta.

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Marietta, Ohio has a rich history, but some don’t know how rich. Mayor Schlicher sat down to explain a little bit about what makes this city so special. He explained that this is the day that Rufus Putnam and other former Revolutionary War officers set foot on the banks of Marietta as pioneers, and established this city as the first permanent settlement of the Northwest Territory. “The Northwest Territory was just a huge territory at the time.” This was the first official westward expansion after the establishment of the original 13 colonies. “In 1787 the group of pioneers started this journey from Massachusetts and arrived here.”

Local historian Harley Noland explained that Marietta became a new settlement because of the Ordinance of 1787. “That created the Northwest Territory.” He said the fledgling nation of America was dealing with an issue after winning the war, they were broke and owed back pay to officers.

George Washington had surveyed Marietta years before the Revolutionary War. “He had been hired by the Colonial Governor of the British Crown Colony of Virginia to come down the Ohio River and survey.” At that time Virginia was considering expanding West of the Ohio River.

Noland explained that things changed quite a bit from there. “George Washington became General George Washington who won our Revolutionary War and became our first president.” As the first president, he wanted to make good on our first debt. “Which would have been pay owed to those officers that helped him win the war.”

So being a large country that was cash poor, Washington used resources at the disposal of the nation to pay these officers, land. “But land was as good as money.” He explained that was one reason the Northwest Territory was created in the first place, to have more land. “To trade for back pay owed to these officers.” He says this is why we have more Revolutionary War officers buried at Mound Cemetery than any other cemetery. “Many people come here to Marietta to trace their family’s histories at Mound Cemetery.”

Scott Britton Executive Director of the Castle Museum shared a fun story about George Washington and Marietta. A Scottish ambassador once asked where George Washington would recommend folks wanting to move to the new colonies go. “Washington’s reply was ‘If I were a young man just starting out in life, or of an older man with a family to make provisions for, I know of no better place than at the mouth of the Muskingum.’”

Noland said Marietta was a terrifically planned city that had been in the works for years ahead of time. “The cross streets in Marietta have names on them, those are names of those officers.” Many of whom settled in Marietta. “What some people don’t know is that this was a totally planned community.” Before those pioneers ever came here, they had sent surveyors to measure the land where the city would be built. “That’s why we have such a regular rectangular grid of city streets, and the parks are common lands that line our riverbanks.”

Schlicher says their settlement obviously paved the way for the likes of Campus Martius and Fort Harmar. “All the areas of history we have now in Marietta.” The move to Marietta was the first movement that led to the founding of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota. “It was a vast territory, and most people don’t realize that it was all started in Marietta.”

Noland wanted it to be known that the founding settlers of Marietta were very respectful of the Native Americans in that they didn’t destroy the major Native American earthworks. “Many of which are still here.” The mound at Mound Cemetery, Sacra Via, and Quadranaou are still around and protected. “All those Native American earthworks in other cities were leveled. They kept them and preserved them here in Marietta.”

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