On Dec. 18, 1788, a letter from Gen. Rufus Putnam "to a Gentleman at Worcester, (Mass.)" appeared in Boston's Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser, describing the progress of Putnam and his party from the Ohio Company as they laid out plans for the city of Marietta.
More than two centuries later, Marty Seufer, a Williamstown councilman and Wood County administrator, purchased an original copy of that paper through an eBay auction.
"I'm basically just an amateur, but I often check online for items related to local history," Seufer said on Tuesday.
"I was really freaked out; this isn't something you get every day. And I was more amazed that a paper that was read by people 221 years ago had survived all that time," he said.
Seufer said the document is Putnam's firsthand account describing the landing party that arrived here in April 1788, marking the founding of Marietta.
"He describes developing lots for the settlement and talks about the different crops they planted that first year and how well they grew," Seufer said. "Then he describes the fort being built, what it's going to be like and how many people could live there."
Last week, Seufer and his brother, Mike, showed the newspaper to Bill Reynolds with the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums.
"He has a really great treasure of local history," Reynolds said. "The letter basically is telling about how things were going here in the first year of the settlement.
"Putnam once wrote Gen. George Washington a similar letter, describing the town as 'a most beautiful pile of buildings,'" Reynolds added.
Putnam's intent in writing such letters was to promote the sale of land acquired by the Ohio Company, Reynolds said.
"The effort was a stock venture and the company had borrowed a ton of money from the government, so they needed investors," he said. "But after a couple of years, the Indian wars started and it became almost impossible to sell the land to anyone."
Seufer agreed.
"You have to wonder if there wasn't this fear due to the Indian presence," he said. "But (Putnam's letter) seems to say, 'Come on, it's OK.'"
Reynolds said he was glad that Seufer had obtained the document, although Reynolds himself had also placed a bid for the same paper on eBay.
"The condition of the paper is absolutely perfect," he said. "Clearly there were several people interested in the document, in addition to myself."
Reynolds said the museum staff is happy to help people identify historical artifacts they may have.
"Once in a while, people will bring something in or they'll ask us how to preserve an item," he said. "We're here to help if we can."
