Founding of Marietta, Ohio
- When
- 1788
- Where
- Confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers; Town of Marietta; Marietta settlement area
- Episodes
- 3
On April 7, 1788, 48 men of the Ohio Company of Associates led by General Putnam arrived at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, founding Marietta as the first permanent United States settlement in the Northwest Territory.
Episodes
- Naming of Marietta
The settlers named the town for Marie Antoinette, the French queen who had aided the American independence cause.
- Arrival at the Muskingum Confluence
Forty-eight Ohio Company of Associates men under General Putnam reached the rivers' confluence on April 7, 1788.
- Population by End of 1788
By the end of 1788, 137 people populated the Marietta area, and Washington praised the settlement's auspicious start.
Background and detail
Background. Eager to develop additional lands, the new United States government decided to pay veterans of the Revolution with warrants for land in the Northwest Territory, which was organized under federal authority in 1787 by the Northwest Ordinance. By 1787, George Washington owned 30,000 acres on the east side of the Ohio River.
Founding of the Settlement. On April 7, 1788, 48 men of the Ohio Company of Associates, led by General Putnam, arrived at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers. Bringing the first government sanctioned by the United States for the area, they established the first permanent U.S. settlement in the newly established Northwest Territory, in what would later become the state of Ohio.
Naming and Early Growth. The Americans named Marietta in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, who had aided the colonies in their battle for independence from Great Britain. By the end of 1788, 137 people populated the area, and George Washington remarked that no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which had just commenced at the Muskingum.
People involved
- General Putnam · Leader of the Ohio Company of Associates party that founded Marietta
- Ohio Company of Associates · Group of 48 men who established the settlement
- George Washington · Landowner and commentator on the settlement
- Marie Antoinette · Queen of France, namesake of Marietta
Sources
- Marietta, Ohio Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.