Born: 9-Apr-1738
Birthplace: Sutton, MA
Died: 4-May-1824
Location of death: Marietta, OH
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Mound Cemetery, Marietta, OH

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Military, Government

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The Father of Ohio

The American soldier and pioneer Rufus Putnam was born in Sutton, Massachusetts, on the 9th of April 1738 (old style.) His grandfather was a half brother to Israel Putnam's father. He served in the French and Indian War in 1757-60; was a millwright in New Braintree in 1761-1768, during which time he studied surveying; and from 1769 until the War of Independence was a farmer and surveyor. In 1773, with Israel Putnam and two others, he visited West Florida to examine lands which, it was expected, were to be granted to the provincial troops for their services against the French and Indians, and which he charted. He became lieutenant-colonel in one of the first regiments raised after the battle of Lexington, and served before Boston; in March 1776 he was made chief engineer of the works at New York; in August he was appointed engineer with the rank of colonel; and when Congress did not act on his plan (submitted in Oct. 1776) for the establishment of a distinct engineer corps he resigned (Dec. 1776), and in 1777 served in the northern army under Major-General Horatio Gates, commanding two regiments in the second battle of Saratoga. In 1778 he laid out fortifications, including Fort Putnam, at West Point, and in 1779 he served under Major-General Anthony Wayne after the capture of Stony Point. For the remainder of the war he saw little active service. In January 1783 he was commissioned brigadier-general. After the war he returned to Rutland, MA, where he had bought a confiscated farm in 1780. In March 1786 he founded, with other officers of the War of Independence, the Ohio Company of Associates for the purchase and settlement of Western lands. In November 1787, after Congress had made its grant to the Ohio Company, he was appointed by the company superintendent of its proposed settlement on the Ohio, and in 1788 he led the small party which founded Marietta, Ohio. He was a judge of the court of the Northwest Territory in 1790-1796; was a brigadier-general in the army and a commissioner to treat with the Indians in 1792-1793; was surveyor-general of the United States in 1796-1803; and in 1802 was a member of the Ohio state constitutional convention. He died, in Marietta, on the 4th of May 1824. He has been called "The Father of Ohio", and he contributed greatly toward the material building up of the Northwest Territory.

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile

Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications