On April 17, 1788,
they began the erection of a blockhouse, which was to be the nucleus of
the new settlement, and a place of defense in case of Indian attack. The
settlement was named Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, the Queen
of France; it prospered from the first, and in a few years was a lively
little village. There were Indian alarms at first, but General Wayne's
victory secured a lasting peace. Putnam served as a brigadier-general in
Wayne's campaign, and was one of the commissioners who negotiated the
peace treaty.
He lived for many years thereafter, and remained to the last the leading
man of the settlement. He was interested in every project for the
betterment of the new Commonwealth, helped to found the Ohio University
at Athens, was one of the drafters of the state constitution, and
founded the first Bible school west of the mountains. A venerable
figure, he died in 1824, having lived to see the valley which he had
entered a wilderness settled by hundreds of thousands, and the state
which he had helped to found become one of the greatest in the Union.
* * * * *
By the end of the eighteenth century, the country between the
Alleghanies and the Mississippi was fairly well known, first through the
explorations of such pioneers as Boone and Clark and Kenton, and, later
on, through the steady advance of civilization, forever throwing new
outposts westward.
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