Campus Martius Museum, Marietta (Photo by Damaine Vonada)
Location: Second and Washington streets in Marietta, near the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers.
Provenance: After he and other Revolutionary War veterans formed the Ohio Company to purchase and inhabit land in frontier Ohio, General Rufus Putnam led a group of 48 men from New England on a trip down the Ohio River in 1788. Landing at the mouth of the Muskingum River, they established the first organized U.S. settlement in the Northwest Territory and christened it “Marietta” in honor of Marie Antoinette, the French queen who had encouraged her country to support the American Revolution. For shelter and protection from attacks by Native Americans, Putnam and his pioneers erected Campus Martius, a fortified collection of blockhouses and row houses that got its name from the “Field of Mars” where Rome’s citizen-soldiers trained.
Significance: The Marietta settlement effectively launched the nation’s westward expansion, and Campus Martius served as the Northwest Territory’s initial seat of government. After the 1795 Treaty of Greenville ended Ohio’s Indian wars, Campus Martius was dismantled — except for the home of Rufus Putnam, who resided there until his death in 1824. The State of Ohio built a museum on the site in 1928, and the Rufus Putnam House, which still stands on its original location, was enclosed in the south wing.
Currently: Although the Ohio History Connection owns the Campus Martius Museum, a local nonprofit, the Friends of the Museums, operates it. The museum focuses on Ohio settlement and migration; boasts three floors of exhibits; and offers guided tours that introduce visitors to historic gems that include the Rufus Putnam House, an extensive collection of Native American artifacts, and a china cabinet built by Marietta settler Jonathan Sprague. “It’s believed to be the oldest piece of furniture made in Ohio,” says the museum’s marketing director, Christina Tilton.
It’s a little-known fact that: The Ohio Company Land Office, a 1788 log structure that was restored and moved to the museum’s grounds for Ohio’s 1953 sesquicentennial, is the oldest building in the Buckeye State.
