Summary

“The Ohio Country” introduces the reader to Manasseh Cutler, a middle-aged Puritan reverend from Massachusetts, in the year 1787. His family was well-respected in his town of Ipswich Hamlet, where the Reverend was loved by his peers and admired for his work as a doctor of law, doctor of medicine, and doctor of divinity. His tireless scientific pursuits led to an unsurpassable knowledge of botanical elements, and his graciousness and charm led to his developing political talents as well. In 1786, a meeting at the Bunch of Grapes tavern had led several veteran officers of the Continental Army to concoct a plan to settle much of the wilderness on the continent known as the Northwest Territory, focusing particularly on the fertile lands around the Ohio River. The “spirit of immigration” (9) ran high with men like the Reverend Cutler, for...