Under the leadership of Rufus Putnam, 48 men, departed New England during the severe winter of 1787/88 and made their
way west through the mountains to Sumrill’s Ferry on the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania. There they spent the winter
building two huge flatboats and three canoes to take them down the Youghiogheny to the Monongahela River and then down
the Ohio River to their destination, a point of land at the mouth of the Muskingum River. Here, these pioneers would
establish the first settlement in the territory northwest of the Ohio River and name it Marietta.
Among these early pioneers, who opened the door to western settlement of the United States, were many heroic men and
officers of the American Revolution. George Washington said, “I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were
men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community.” General Lafayette, the Frenchman who fought alongside
the colonists during their struggle for independence said, “I knew them well. I saw them fighting for their country. They were
the bravest of the brave. Better men never lived.”
This book contains the true stories of these great men and other pioneers who withstood Indian Warfare, starvation,
sickness, death and deprivation to establish themselves in the wilderness of the early American frontier and begin the
westward expansion of the greatest nation on earth.
A companion book for “Pioneer History” by S. P. Hildreth first published in 1848.
Click on its image below to be taken to its webpage.
way west through the mountains to Sumrill’s Ferry on the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania. There they spent the winter
building two huge flatboats and three canoes to take them down the Youghiogheny to the Monongahela River and then down
the Ohio River to their destination, a point of land at the mouth of the Muskingum River. Here, these pioneers would
establish the first settlement in the territory northwest of the Ohio River and name it Marietta.
Among these early pioneers, who opened the door to western settlement of the United States, were many heroic men and
officers of the American Revolution. George Washington said, “I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were
men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community.” General Lafayette, the Frenchman who fought alongside
the colonists during their struggle for independence said, “I knew them well. I saw them fighting for their country. They were
the bravest of the brave. Better men never lived.”
This book contains the true stories of these great men and other pioneers who withstood Indian Warfare, starvation,
sickness, death and deprivation to establish themselves in the wilderness of the early American frontier and begin the
westward expansion of the greatest nation on earth.
A companion book for “Pioneer History” by S. P. Hildreth first published in 1848.
Click on its image below to be taken to its webpage.
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