Ohio Co. and Fort Cumberland

Fort Cumberland grew from the Ohio Company's efforts to speculate in land, establish a fur trade with Indians between this area and the Ohio Valley, and meet British demands for enforcing land claims there. Chartered in 1749, the company received 500,000 acres west of the Allegheny Mountains in the Ohio Valley from King George II of Great Britain, and its owners included Lawrence and Augustine Washington, George Mason, Thomas Lee, Lt. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, and Thomas Cresap of Oldtown, Maryland. To secure the grant, the company had to settle families, build a fort, and maintain a garrison against Indians. Christopher Gist explored the lands, made maps, and arranged treaties with Indians, and he and others later settled below the site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. French claims to the Ohio Valley were much more valid than British claims, and Governor Duquesne of New France began building forts to enforce them; some British settlers were imprisoned and some posts were looted and destroyed. Actions by Governors Duquesne and Dinwiddie and their representatives made the French and Indian War certain, and a worldwide conflict soon followed. The company built a small storehouse, or trading post, at Will's Creek in 1750, and in 1752 built the New Storehouse on the Ridgeley side of the Potomac River, where it served as a fort, trading post, and home for company agents, with Thomas Cresap helping manage the local post. The company appeared to treat Will's Creek Settlement as part of its grant, believed it lay in Virginia, and surveyed land east and west of Will's Creek into a town with streets and lots called Charlottesburg in honor of Princess Charlotte Sophia, future bride of King George III of Great Britain. Because of continuing trouble with the French, Colonel Innes built Fort Mount Pleasant near the meeting of Will's Creek and the Potomac River, and after Governor Sharpe of Maryland visited, he ordered a larger fort built on the hill nearby. General Braddock later named it Fort Cumberland in honor of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II, Captain-General of the British Army, and "Butcher of Culloden."

Cumberland, Maryland · United States