(Photo provided) A drawing of the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston.

The Way I See It

Art Smith

On Jan. 25, 1786, Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper started promoting the idea of forming the Ohio Company in order to settle land near the Muskingum River. The information appeared in “public prints” and encouraged those interested in being shareholders in the plan to meet at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston.

A book titled “Pioneer History” published in 1848 by S.P. Hildreth does a great job outlining what steps the founders followed to get here. Those steps seem to always involve meeting at one bar or another.

The meeting on March 1 at the Bunch of Grapes tavern in Boston was apparently very successful since they ended up not only getting underwriters but also set up a convention to begin a few days later. At the convention, they set up a series of 13 articles that would help form the new settlement.

The next year or so was spent organizing the company and getting funding in place. On March 8, 1787 the associates met again, at another bar. This time they got together at Bracket’s Tavern. At the meeting, Gen. Rufus Putnam, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and General H. Parsons were named directors, and they came up with the plan to buy the land from the Continental Congress. After negotiations, they ended up with 964,285 acres of what Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, considered “the best part of the whole western county.”

The planning seemed to be a bit of a long-term bar hop. They met again at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern to decide on the size of the still unnamed town they were planning at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers.

In November they met at bar number three, Cromwell’s Head Tavern, in Boston, to decide on the size of house lots. It was then back to Bracket’s Tavern to decide on the makeup of the first party to head to Ohio. According to the plan, the first group would be made up of four surveyors, and 22 men to “attend” the surveyors; six boat builders, four house carpenters; one blacksmith and nine common workers for a total of 48.

At a March 5, 1788, meeting at Rice’s Tavern in Providence, R.I., Rufus Putnam was given “full power to do and transact all matters necessary for the progress of the settlement.” At this point he would have already been on his way to Ohio. All future meetings would be held in Marietta. It is not noted in Hildreth’s book at what bar those meetings would be held.

Taverns in colonial America were more than just drinking locations. They frequently served as gathering places for the community and some also served as courtrooms, trading posts, post offices and inns. Even the president, George Washington, would stay at taverns and inns when traveling.

The first bar where Putnam and the others met, the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, was a popular meeting spot. Paul Revere spent time there as did many other revolutionaries. Today you will find a bar with the same name at the Ohio University Inn in Athens. O.U. was formed by Cutler and Putnam following the discussions at the Boston version of the Bunch of Grapes Tavern.

In Boston, at the location of the original tavern, you can now find a historical marker that reads in part.

Here in 1786 was organized the Ohio Company Pioneer in the development of the great west under the leadership of General Rufus Putnam first township laid out at Marietta Ohio

When George H.W. Bush was campaigning to become president in 1988 he made a stop at the levee in Marietta. He pointed out during his speech that the first tavern in Ohio had been in Marietta. “Make mine Busch,” he told the crowd.

Great and some not-so-great ideas can be hatched at bars and taverns. Rufus Putnam and his associates came with a pretty good one during their “bar hop” 240 years ago.

Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times and The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com.