TIMELINE: MARIETTA LEGACY PROJECT(selected entries)
Compiled by Jan Adams and Betsy Cook
Prehistory - The area of southeaster Ohio was occupied by the Hopewell and Adena prehistoric Indian groups. They left behind over 50 acres of earthworks including what is named today as Sacra Via Parkway, Mound Cemetery, and other mounds in Marietta.
Historic Groups – Southeastern Ohio was inhabited mainly by the Delaware and Tuscarawas at the time of the arrival of the Ohio Company ofAssociates.
1715 – France claims area west of Alleghenies.
1744 – Great Britain claims the lands.
1750 – First English expedition led by Christopher Gist into Ohio country.
1753 – End of French and Indian War. British control the lands.
1783 – Treaty of Paris ends the Revolutionary War. British cede Northwest Territory to
the Americans.
1785 – Ordinance of 1785 by Continental Congress. Surveys done for sale of land.
– Fort Harmar built. Purpose was to protect Indians from white settlers and to
protect the land from white squatters. This was a federal fort.
1786 – Ohio Company of Associates formed at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston.
1787 – Williamstown,VA(now WV) settled.
1787 – Northwest Ordinance – Plan for new territory. Arthur St. Clair takes office as
governor of the territory.
1788 – Ohio Company of Associates found Marietta and Washington County is created.
Led by Rufus Putnam.
1788 - First store owned by Dudley Woodbridge (Ohio St.)
1789 – Fort Harmar Treaty signed by Delaware, Wyandott, and Pottawattomie tribes.
1789 – Settlers arrive at Belpre.
1790 – First Masonic Lodge chartered under American authority.
1791 – Campus Martius completed as the Indian Wars in Ohio become hostile. First
Sunday school in NW Territory taught by Mary Bird Lake.
1791 – First tannery owned by Ichabod Nye.
1791 – Big Bottom Massacre frightens Marietta citizens.
1794 – First regular mail delivery. Return Jonathon Meigs, Jr. is postmaster.
1795 – Indian Wars in Ohio end with the Treaty of Greenville in northern Ohio.
1796 – First religious society – First Congregational Church organized.
Oldest congregation in Northwest Territory.
1796 – Harmar Cemetery established. It is the oldest in the NW Territory.
1797 – Muskingum Academy founded.
1799 – First courthouse built. Frame building at Second and Putnam.
1799 – First election held.
1800 – Shipbuilding begins. Knox & Son Boatyards
1801 – Marietta incorporated.
1801 – Ohio GazetteTerritorial and V irginia Herald founded.
1801 - Commodore Abraham Whipple was first man to sails an ocean-going vessel from
the interior U.S.(Marietta) to Cuba, thus opening up inland trade.
One of many fames – Whipple, a naval officer, sank the first British ship of the
American Revolution.
1803 – Ephrian Cutler, who was ill, was carried to the Constitutional Convention in
Columbus. He cast the single vote that kept slavery from becoming legal in Ohio.
1803 – Ohio becomes a state.
1803 – Mound Cemetery established.
1803 – Presbyterianism begins.
1805 – Return Jonathon Meigs, Jr. home built. Meigs was the first prosecuting
attorney, one of three NW Territory judges, Ohio’s first postmaster, fourth
governor, Ohio Supreme Court Judge, U.S. Senator, U.S. Postmaster General.
1806 – Samuel Prescott Hildreth arrives. Physician, historian, scientist
1806 – Underground railroad station located between Marietta and Belpre, founded by
Ephriam Cutler.
1808 – State-chartered Bank of Marietta chartered in Harmar home of David Putnam Sr.
1811 – First steamboat on Ohio River.
1814 – Oil discovered at Duck Creek. Value not recognized.
1815 – John Cotton arrives. Physician,
1817 – First Practical Jeweler, D.B. Anderson (Front and Ohio Sts.)
1817-1823 – Col. Levi Barber, U.S. Congressman
1818 – First Baptist Church organized.
1819 – First agriculture society in Washington County (fair association)
1819 – Marietta mail service begins.
1820 – Marietta Chair Factory founded.
1824 – Steamboat from Marietta to Zanesville.
1825 – Mayor/council form of government begins.
1825 – General Lafayette visits.
1826 – St. Luke’s Episcopal Church organized. In 1856 church built on Second St. by
Marietta architect, John Slocomb.
1826 – First Washington County Agricultural and Mechanical Fair
1826 – Dry Goods store – Dudley Woodbridge –Only remaining Ohio riverfront
structure, Ohio St. Later was site of Labelle Hotel.
1830 – The Institute of Education opens.
1832 – Marietta Collegiate Institute and Western Teacher Seminary chartered.
1833 – Bank of Marietta opens at 101 Putnam St.
1835 – Marietta College chartered.
1837 – First dry goods store
1837 – Harmar incorporated as town.
1837-1890 – Harmar has own postal service.
1837 – Work begins on Muskingum River locks and dams.
1838 – Roman Catholic Church organized. Church completed in 1909 on Fourth St.
1839 – German Methodist Episcopal Church organized. Church built in 1874 at Third
and Wooster Sts.
1839 – St. Paul’s German United Evangelical Church organized.
1840 – First hardware store
1840 – Larchmont built on Second St. for Albigence Waldo Putnam, grandson of
Col. Israel Putnam.
1840 – Harmar Congregational Church organized. Church built in 1847. It is the oldest
church building still in use.
1842 – Marietta Historical Association organized.
1842 – Charles Dickens visits.
1847 – Josiah Cotton returns to Marietta to practice medicine, Civil War surgeon
1847 – Fearing House built for Henry Fearing, son of Paul Fearing, first practicing
lawyer in Northwest Territory.
1849 – Marietta Public Schools reorganized with Superintendent/graded classes
1849 – St. Paul’s Church built, second oldest in Marietta, German-Evangelical ‘Kirche”
1850’s – Abolitionists were active in mid 1800’s. David Putnam of Harmar was a
conductor on the Underground Railroad. Washington County was part of the
network of “roads and stations” between slave states and Canada.
1850 – Marietta High School founded.
1853 – Cotton House built on Fifth St. Home of Dr.Josiah Cotton, Civil War surgeon
1853 – Post office building at 100 Putnam St.
1855 – First furniture store
1855 – Unitarian Church founded. Church completed in 1857.
1855 – The Castle built on Fourth St.
1856 – First parochial school opens.
1856 – Der Marietta Demokrat – First German newspaper with brief circulation time.
1857 – First railroad tracks in Harmar. Marietta/Cincinnati Railroad
1857 – Children’s Home opened by Catherine Faye Ewing at Moss Run, may have been
the first children’s home in the U.S.
1858 - St. Luke’s Lutheran Church organized. Church built in 1901.
1858 – Cisler Brick Company operates.
1859 – Douglas Putnam builds Putnam Villa, In 1895 it was bought by the Knox family,
descendants of owners of Knox Boatyard Co., renamed the Anchorage.
1859 – Covered railroad bridge over Muskingum River
1860 – African Methodist Episcopal Church organized.
1860-1890 – Union Brewery operates.
1861 – First oil well in Washington County at Macksburg
1861-1865 – Camp Marietta is formed. Civil War encampment and training grounds at
Camp Tupper named for Maj. Anselm Tupper, son of Brig. Gen. Benjamin
Tupper, organizer of Ohio Company and one of first settlers.
1861-1903 – Marietta and Williamstown Steam ferries operate. First ferries powered by
“horse and hay”
1862 – Marietta Register founded.
1863 – First National Bank opens. In early 1900’s is leading bank in SE Ohio.
1864 – First issue of the Marietta Times
1866 – Marietta Iron Works formed.
1866 – A.T. Nye & Son Co. moves to the Point. Manufacturing specialty is Leader
Stoves and Steel Ranges.
1867 – Children’s Home opens on Muskingum Dr.
1868 – Bosworth-Biszantz House built at 316 Third St. by M.P. Wells of Bosworth Wells
Co. , bought in 1897 by oilman Frank Biszantz
1868-1904 – Marietta Zeitung – Large circulation German language newspaper.
1873 – First Marietta City Hall completed. Destroyed by fire in 1935.
1873-1890 – Harmar railroad bridge used for trains.
1874 – German M.E. Church founded at Third and Wooster.
1876 – First clothing store
1876 – First black to graduate from Marietta College, Charles Harrison, native of Harmar
1878 – Women’s Christian Temperance Union organized.
1881 – Strecker Brothers Co. –One of largest saddlery manufacturers in U.S.
1881 – The Leader newspaper begins circulation.
1882 – Children’s Home built on Muskingum Dr.
1884 – The Mill opened in Harmar. Produced 100 barrels of flour a day
1888 – Centennials of Founding (April and July)
1889 – First electric street lights
1890 – Beginning of industrial growth. Population doubles over next 10 –15 years.
1890 – Marietta and Harmar rejoined under one government.
1890 – 1903 – Marietta oil boom. Within 50 miles of Marietta there are thousands of
oil wells. Many businesses emerge concerning production of supplies and
transportation for the oil industry. Operations center in Marietta.
1890 – Cleveland & Marietta Railroad operates.
1890 – Elizabeth College opens (women)
1890 – St. Cloud Hotel rebuilt in brick. One of the leading hotels on Front St.
1890 – Union Depot train station operates on Second St.
1890 – Health Board established.
1891 – First woman physician
1891 – Water Works System operates.
1892 – Bellevue Hotel opens. First to have elevator.
1892 – Stevens Organ and Piano Co. opens on Gilman Ave.
1893 – Marietta Commercial College opens.
1894 – First paid fire department.
1895 – St. Mary Catholic School built on S. Fourth St.
1895 – Marietta has at least 30 saloons.
1896 – Electric Company operates.
1896 – Horsedrawn streetcars replaced by electric railways.
1897 – First Valley Gem built at Knox Boatyards.
1898 – Eighteen steel arches installed over Front St.
1898 – Muncipal Light Co. operates.
1898 – Marietta Paint and Color Co. opens. Specializes in wood finishing materials,
advertised in New England papers.
1898 – Marietta Brewery opens. Formerly the Union Brewery.
1899 – German National Bank opens.
1899 – Grace Hospital opens on Third St.
1899 – Norwood annexed to city adding businesses: Ohio Valley Wagon Co., Acme
Brick Co.
1899 – Sterling Brick Co. operates on Montgomery St.
1900 – Tiber Way building was shaped to conform to RR track. Named for the stream
which ran underneath it. Some floors houses Marietta Sanitarium.
1900 – Marietta Distillery opens on Greene St.
1902 – Tornado causes much damage.
1902 – YMCA formed.
1903 – Williamstown Bridge constructed.
1908 – Marietta voted for local liquor prohibition.
1910 – Jewish Synagogue organized.
1911 – Hippodrome Theater, vaudeville stage on Second St.
1912 – Local prohibition repealed.
1912 – New Post Office is built in Ice Harbor lot on Front St.
1913 – Marietta suffers its largest flood.(January, March)
1914 – Ohio National Guard Armory built, served as departure point for soldiers leaving
for WWI, WWII, and Korea.
1915 – Leidecker Tool Co. receives large government contract to make explosives to be
tested in Washington D. C.
1917 – B & O Railroad discontinues passenger service between Marietta and Belpre
1918 – Washington County Public Library built.
1918 – Lafayette Hotel built.
1918 – New Hippodrome Theater at 222 Putnam St. One of the Mid-West’s largest
vaudeville stages, Renamed the Colony Cinema in 1949.
1920-1929 – Tourism is “Basic Industry” of Marietta.
1923 – Paved highway made to join Marietta with National Highway (Rt. 40) for easier
access to Columbus and other major cities.
1924 – Charles G. Dawes becomes Vice-President of the U.S. under Calvin Coolidge. He
also had received the Nobel Peace Prize.
1927 – Girls Monday Club renamed the Betsy Mills Club
1928 – Third Marietta High School built on hill .
1929 – System of locks and dams completed on Ohio River.
1929 – Marietta Memorial Hospital opens.
1931-1935 – George C. White, oilman and banker,, serves as governor of Ohio.
1934 – Marietta Osteopathic Hospital was formed
1937 – City Hall built on Putnam St. .
1937 – Second largest flood occurs in Ohio River Valley
1938 – Celebration of the Northwest Territory Sesquicentennial. President Franklin
Roosevelt speaks in Muskingum Park. “Start Westward” monument, by
Guzton Borglum, of Mount Rushmore fame, was dedicated.
1941 – Camp for conscientious objectors established near Reno
1946 – B.F. Goodrich opens
1947 – Parkersburg/Marietta Interurban Rail System ended.
1950 – Dravo Corporation opens
1953 – Ohio Company Land Office is moved to Campus Martius Museum. It is the
oldest building in the Northwest Territory.
1955 – W.P.Snyder Jr. ,one of the last working sternwheelers, docks in
Marietta as a part of local museums.
1957 – Marietta hosts the world premiere movie, Battle Hymn, about local hero, Dean
Hess. Rock Hudson, who played Hess, attended the event.
1957 – C. William O’Neill elected governor. Was the only Ohioan to head all three
branches of state government.
1963 – First attempts by city with urban renewal
1965 – Selby Hospital opens on Colegate Dr.
1966 – Fourth Marietta High School built between Colegate and Muskingum Dr.
1967 – Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks at Marietta College.
1968 – Interstate 77 comes through Marietta thanks to S. Durwood Hoag who was
instrumental in making that happen.
1968 – Railroad traffic on bridge across Muskingum ends.
1968 – Lock One at Marietta is removed.
1970 – A disasterous fire occurs at Harmar House Nursing Home resulting in new
national fire standards for nursing homes.
1974 – Ohio River Museum opens.
1983 – Nancy Hollister becomes first woman mayor. She is a direct descendent of
Col. Israel Putnam. Later becomes State Representative and Lieutenant Governor
Of Ohio.
1987 – Bicentennial Plaza dedicated to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and Marietta’s 200th birthday.
1987 – Walkway across bridge on Muskingum River opens.
Information Sources:
Washington County Chapter Ohio Genealogical Society
The Birthplace of the Northwest Territory 1788-1938 (1938)
City Into Town by Andrew Cayton and Paula Riggs (1991)
Century Review of Marietta Ohio under Marietta Board of Trade (1900)
Images of America: Marietta by Larry N. White and Emily B. White (2004)