Ohio Company. There were two Ohio Companies in American history. The purpose of each was to colonize the Ohio River Valley.
The first Ohio Company
was formed in 1747. It is sometimes called the Ohio Company of Virginia. Its members included London merchants and wealthy Virginians. Among them were George Washington’s brothers, Lawrence and Augustine Washington. In 1749, King George II granted the company 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares) west of the Allegheny Mountains in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and on both sides of the Ohio River. The company surveyed the Ohio River Valley. It traded with Indians, built storehouses and roads, and established the first fort at the forks of the Ohio. In 1753, a settlement called Gist’s Plantation was founded near Mount Braddock, Pennsylvania. The French destroyed the company’s strongholds in 1754. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) blocked efforts to settle in the west. The company went out of business in 1792.
The second Ohio Company
was the more important. Its official name was the Ohio Company of Associates. It was organized at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston on March 1, 1786. Eleven delegates, elected by persons interested in the venture, set up the company. They planned to raise up to $1 million in Continental money by selling shares. Each share cost $1,000 in Continental money, which was almost worthless, plus $10 in gold or silver. Within a year the company distributed 250 shares. The company appointed Manasseh Cutler, Rufus Putnam, and Samuel Parsons to petition the Congress of the Confederation to sell it a tract beyond the Ohio River. Congress approved, and later passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (see Northwest Ordinance ).
At first the Ohio Company contracted to buy 11/2 million acres (610,000 hectares) at 662/3 cents an acre. But because of financial difficulties, these terms were never fully carried out. Congress finally granted title to 750,000 acres (304,000 hectares) in what is now southeastern Ohio. The agreement provided that 214,285 acres (86,718 hectares) could be bought with army warrants, and that 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) were to be offered free to settlers. One section of each township was reserved for schools, one for religion, and three sections for future disposal by Congress. This last term was designed to keep speculators from monopolizing the territory. Two townships of 46,080 acres (18,648 hectares) were set aside “for the support of an institution of higher learning.” This institution was founded at Athens, Ohio, in 1804, and became Ohio University.
The Ohio Company appointed Rufus Putnam as its superintendent. He led an advance party of 47 surveyors, carpenters, boatbuilders, blacksmiths, and laborers to lay out a town where the Muskingum and Ohio rivers joined. The group arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum on April 7, 1788. It founded there the first settlement under the Northwest Ordinance, and named it Marietta in honor of Queen Marie Antoinette of France. The settlers also built a fort called Campus Martius to protect their village. On July 15, Governor Arthur St. Clair established the first capital of the Northwest Territory at Marietta. By April, 1789, three new settlements had been established. The Ohio Company completed its land operations by 1797. It divided its assets among the shareholders, but did not go out of business until about 1832.
