Ohio Company of Associates

On this site the United States in Congress Assembled on July 13, 1787 enacted an ordinance for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, by which it was dedicated forever to freedom under another ordinance passed here by the same body on July 27 of the same month. Manasser Cutler, acting for the Ohio Company of Associates, an organization of soldiers of the Revolutionary Army, purchased from the Board of Treasury for settlement a portion of the waste and vacant land of the territory on April 7, 1788. Rufus Putman, heading a party of forty eight, began the first settlement at Maretta and on July 15 Arthur St. Clair as first governor established civil government in the territory. From these beginnings sprang the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

New York, New York · United States