19 Facts About Ephraim Cutler

Ephraim Cutler was an early Northwest Territory and Ohio political leader and jurist.

Ephraim Cutler loved to read, but did not attend Yale College, as had his father, because the American Revolutionary War made such "impracticable," although he later often regretted his lack of formal education and would frequently misspell words in his letters.

In that year his father Manasseh Ephraim Cutler had helped convince the Congress of the Confederation to pass the Northwest Ordinance, which established a political framework for settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

Manassah Ephraim Cutler was a leader of the Ohio Company of Associates, a land company which bought a large tract in what is southeast Ohio.

Ephraim Cutler became a sales agent for the company, and sold twenty subscriptions.

Meanwhile, his younger brother Jervis Ephraim Cutler had left for Marietta, Ohio in 1787, but by 1794 returned to New England to marry.

Ephraim Cutler died of tuberculosis on November 3,1807, but insisted that Cutler remarry.

Ephraim Cutler followed the advice, writing to and eventually marrying Sally, who bore several children.

Leah Ephraim Cutler fell and broke two ribs, and her husband contracted dysentery, but recovered in a rented room in the blockhouse of Campus Martius.

Ephraim Cutler settled company business in Marietta that autumn and Rufus Putnam paid him $100 to survey land in the Donation Tract.

Ephraim Cutler received commissions from Governor Arthur St Clair, becoming captain of the militia, Justice of the Peace and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.

In 1800, the Legislature of the Northwest Territory named Ephraim Cutler to examine and lease the School Lands sections in his part of the territory, which involved a great deal of travel.

Ephraim Cutler convinced the people of Ames Township to establish the Western Library Association in 1804, one of the earliest libraries formed in the Northwest Territory.

Ephraim Cutler died November 3,1807, and Cutler sent his nine-year-old son Daniel to Massachusetts to live with his grandparents.

Ephraim Cutler lobbied vigorously for the interests of Ohio University, where he was a Trustee from 1820 to 1849.

In later years, Ephraim Cutler was a delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1835 in Pittsburgh, and 1837 in Philadelphia, and in 1839 he was a delegate representing the Sixth Congressional District of Ohio at the National Convention of the Whig Party in 1839.

Ephraim Cutler helped to organize and participated in the Underground Railroad.

In spring of 1853, Ephraim Cutler fell from a horse, and after four months of invalidism, he succumbed on July 8,1853.

Ephraim Cutler was an upright judge, an intelligent legislator, a good neighbor, a public-spirited citizen, an affectionate father, a sincere Christian, and an honest, true man.