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The Muskingum River forms at the confluence of the Tuscarawas and Walhoning rivers at Roscoe Village and flows south approximately 100 miles to the Ohio River at Marietta. During the first half of the nineteenth century, fugitive slaves from Virginia crossed the Ohio River and followed the Underground Railroad lines north toward Canada. Four Underground Railroad lines converged in Roscoe Village on the Muskingum River. The first followed the river north out of Marietta through Rainbow and Waterford. An Ohio River crossing at Belpre connected runaways with the Muskingum River at Putnam in Muskingum County. Two others came from the west through Granville in Licking County and New Concord in Muskingum County. From Roscoe Village, fugitive slaves sometimes traveled from station to station along the Ohio-Erie Canal that was completed in 1825. The canal ended at Lake Erie where the runaway slaves were assisted in crossing into Canada.
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The Zanesville lock, canal, and dam were part of a series of eleven such built on the Muskingum River from Marietta to Ellis, north of Zanesville, from 1836 to 1841. The improvements made the shallow river navigable by steamboats. The State of Ohio funded the project as part of the Ohio Canal System. The locks are approximately 35 feet wide and 160 feet long. The river improvements spurred the development of industry in Zanesville, including pottery manufacture, shipbuilding, and grain milling. From Zanesville, goods could be shipped north to the Ohio Canal and Lake Erie. Products could also be sent south to Marietta and then east to Pittsburgh or southwest to New Orleans. Steamboats brought in manufactured goods, staples, mail, and entertainment. After 1880, competition from railroads caused a gradual decline in the river traffic. Today the locks remain in operation for the enjoyment of pleasure boaters.
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Following the American Revolution, the new Federal government, in need of operating funds, sold millions of acres of western lands to land companies. One such company, the Ohio Company of Associates, brought settlement to Marietta in 1788. Two years later, despite warnings of Native American hostility, an association of 36 Company members moved north from Marietta to settle “Big Bottom,” a large area of level land on the east side of the Muskingum River. The settlers were acquainted with Native American warfare, but even so, built an unprotected outpost. They did not complete the blockhouse, put pickets around it, or post a sentry. On January 2, 1791, a war party of 25 Delaware and Wyandot Indians from the north attacked the unsuspecting settlers, killing nine men, one woman, and two children. War raged throughout the Ohio Country until August 1794 when the tribes were defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
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With a mission to protect citizens at home and aboard, the Ohio National Guard was originally established as the Northwest Territory Militia in Marietta on July 25, 1788, and has fought in every war since the War of 1812. Built in 1914, this Ohio National Guard Armory served both as Regimental and Company B, 7th Infantry, O.N.G. Headquarters. Later Company A, 166th Infantry, 37th Division, occupied the dual-purpose armory. The armory served Washington County as a departure point for soldiers leaving for service in World War I, World War II, and Korea. The armory also served the area in times of crisis and celebration, often used by the Red Cross, Marietta College, and other civic groups.
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One of Ohio’s earliest proponents of women’s rights, Frances Dana Gage (1808-1884) was born in Marietta and married McConnelsville attorney James L. Gage in 1829. She immersed herself in the major social issues of the day – temperance, abolition, and universal suffrage – while raising eight children. At a women’s rights convention in 1850, Gage gained national attention by proposing that the words “white” and “men” be removed from Ohio’s constitution. She later served as the editor of an Ohio agricultural journal, as an educator for newly emancipated African Americans, and wrote children’s tales under the pen name “Aunt Fanny.” An enormously influential woman, Gage led the way for Ohio’s next generation of social activists.
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In April 1797, a committee of Marietta citizens, led by General Rufus Putnam, met to establish an academy suitable for preparatory instruction for their youth. Muskingum Academy, completed late that year, became the first institution of its kind in the Northwest Territory, providing “classical instruction… in the higher branches of an English education.” Its first instructor was David Putnam, a 1793 Yale graduate. The building also served as the home of the Congregationalist Church until 1808. Growing and expanding with Ohio’s first city, the academy served Marietta’s educational needs for more than thirty years as the forerunner of Marietta College.
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Meriwether Lewis arrived in Marietta on September 13, 1803. His descent of the Ohio River aboard a keelboat began his expedition to explore the West. Included among his crew was 18-year old George Shannon of Barnesville, the only member of the Corps of Discovery known to have been from Ohio. While in Marietta, Lewis wrote a letter to President Thomas Jefferson. In updating his journal, he wrote,”This evening was visited by Colo. [Griffen] Green the Postmaster at this place.” On September 14, Lewis and his party camped in Washington County, one mile above the mouth of the Little Kanawha River. The following morning they continued down river to rendezvous with William Clark. On October 14, they arrived at the Falls of the Ohio in the Indiana Territory, where Clark lived with his older brother George Rogers Clark.
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Born in Massachusetts in 1805, Sala Bosworth spent all but nineteen years of his eighty-five years in Washington County. After studying at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, he returned to the county to paint many full size and miniature portraits of prominent Washington County citizens. His historical drawings were used in Samuel P. Hildreth’s Pioneer History. He is also known for his mural in what is now the Unitarian Universalist Church in Marietta. Bosworth moved to Cincinnati late in life and started to paint with watercolors. He died there in 1890. Charles Sullivan also studied at the Philadelphia Academy and became a fast friend of Bosworth after coming to Washington County in 1833. While he also painted portraits, he excelled in his landscapes, including views of Blennerhassett Island, the Blennerhassett mansion, and the mounds at Marietta. Sullivan died in Marietta in 1867.