Marietta 1788 & Today! Wow

Every year since the first 48 settlers arrived at the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers to found Marietta, Ohio, on April 7, 1788, the citizens of that wonderful town have celebrated that date: April 7. I was not there for the dinner this year, but I did go down to show my respect and appreciation for the people who made Marietta possible including George Washington, Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the big names. Rev. Cutler is especially interested.
All these people who settled Marietta, incidentally, were from New England, mostly Massachusetts. Many had been generals in the Continental Army. So, it was an illustrious group of men and some strong women who made Marietta work.
The efforts these men made that finally led to the creation of the Northwest Territories from which six states came, is intriguing and incredible to read about. You can find a lot about all of their efforts and them on the web. But also the names not so well known include John Mathews, who became a surveyor and then a businessman, and William Duer, who has been much maligned but who I do not believe was deserving of his bad reputation. He helped put Marietta together by including another large section of land on which Gallipolis, Ohio now stands.
I must say, too, my drive down from April 7, 2012, from Columbus, Ohio to Marietta was breath-taking. I drove along the Muskingum River all the way from Zanesville south, and, oh wow! How beautiful the Ohio country side is this time of year. Truly breathtaking. scenery. Oh, and Marietta is a wonder with all the markers denoting the efforts of the significance of those first settlers. I post here just a few of the photos I took.
I also stopped and saw "Big Bottom," the place where Indians massacred about a dozen settlers on Jan. 2, 1791 to start an Indian war that lasted until 1794--the war which, sadly, the Indians finally lost. They were to continue to lose theirs wars to save their lands all the way across the country. But, no one, not the US government, the US Army, anyone could stop it. The drive and push of settlers for new lands were just too, too strong.
The pictures above begin with a diagram of the first settlement that showed the fortified town at the tip of the east bank of the Muskingum River, behind it Campus Martius or "field of war" the fort built to protect settlers during the Indian Wars, two rows of clay walls 15 feet tall and about the width of a modern highway that stretched from the Muskingum River to a high mound, maybe a quarter of mile away. Other illustrations are of other Indian mounds the new settlers found there. They, the two walls and the mounds, all built by pre-historic Indians intrigued the settlers then as they do people today.
The next photo features three figures, Rufus Putnam, the real strength behind the founding of Marietta, and Arthur St. Clair, the first and only governor of the Northwest Territories. Not sure who the third person is. This sculpture was made by the same fellow who chiseled out the heads of the president son Mt. Rushmore. One of those presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, saw this statue in Marietta as did another Roosevelt who became president, Franklin D. Below that is a photo of the famous two horned church in Marietta, the first Congregational Church west of the mountains. The original church burned. This is a replica of it. Striking to see.
Below that is Big Bottom, the site of where settlers built a block house, but because of their not finishing it and not having lookouts posted, were subsequently killed by Indians. It is on the Muskingum River between Zanesville and Marietta. I'd always wanted to see this spot. It is very peaceful today. But, oh, the bloody day the Indians killed all those people! Those killed included a woman and her two children.

George Washington’s death and last words

I found this interesting, so I share.
From the book, “George Washington’s Diaries,” subtitle, “An Abridgement,” Dorothy Twohig, editor

He took ill Thursday, Dec. 12, 1799. He believed he had ague or a form of malaria.

The account of his last words come doctors who attended him.

One of the doctors noted that Gen. Washington about half past four in the afternoon on the day he died asked that Mrs. Washington be called. Once at his side, Washington told her to take from his desk two wills that he had had prepared and to bring them to him.

He looked at one, told her it was and old one and said it should be burned. A little later he said,

“I find I am going, my breath cannot last for long. I believed from the first that the disorder would prove fatal. Do you arrange and record all my late military letters and papers? Arrange my accounts and settle my books, as you know more about them than anyone else, and let Mr. Rawlings finish recording my other letters which he has begun.” It is unclear from the text who exactly he is speaking to or about, except perhaps the doctors.

Later the doctors went into his room at his bedside, and the general said , “Doctor, I die hard; but I am not afraid to go, I believed from my first attack that I should not survive it; my breath cannot last long.”

And still later, he said , “I feel myself going, I thank you for your attentions; but I pray you to take no more trouble with me, let me go off quietly; I cannot last long.”

The doctors found that all they had done had no effect.

About 10 o’clock in the evening he made several attempts to speak, and at length said:

“I am just going! Have me decently buried; and do not let my body be put in the vault in less than three days after I am dead. Do you understand me?” When the doctor replied he did, Gen. Washington replied, “Tis well.”

He was buried on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1799 in the family vault at Mt. Vernon