(Photo provided from hmdb.org) Monument to the first 48 settlers at Front and Butler Streets.Jervis Cutler appears on the right hand panel.

April 7, 1788, Marietta’s founding date: The original pioneer work party of 48 souls arrived in flatboats at the Muskingum River. Jarvis Cutler was the youngest at age 19. He leaped ashore first – thereby claiming to be the “first” settler. So began his new often-unsettled life.

Like early versions of GPS apps, Jervis seemed to be constantly “recalculating.” During his life, he spent time in France (before Marietta), Marietta, Simrill’s Ferry PA, Waterford OH, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Marietta again, Chillicothe and Bainbridge OH, Newport KY, New Orleans, New England- to recover from Yellow Fever, Marietta for the third time, and Nashville. He died in Evansville IN.

Jervis’ father, Manasseh Cutler, was instrumental in planning the Marietta settlement. Nov. 21, 1787: “Went to Boston, Jervis with me. Attended a meeting of the…Ohio Company at Brackett’s Tavern.” On December 3, the pioneers left for Ohio. “Jervis went off in good spirits.” Manasseh asked Rufus Putnam to “…give Jervis such counsel and advice as you would your own.”

What did Jervis Cutler do upon arriving at Marietta? He left – to run a school at Simrill’s Ferry PA, where some Marietta-bound families were staying temporarily. Spring 1789: He joined the Waterford settlement. John Gardner’s land adjoined his; together they cleared their land.

Danger was present, but Jervis managed to evade it. One day, while he was away at Marietta, Shawnee Indians kidnapped Gardner. He was bound but well fed and was offered a Shawnee squaw as a wife if he stayed. No thanks, he thought, defiant yet afraid. He escaped and straggled into Waterford just as Jervis returned, unaware of his friend’s travail.

There was another narrow escape. Jervis joined a surveyors’ crew in the fall of 1789 to see more of the country. He got his wish, though not as he planned. While hunting game for the surveyors he lost his way. As daylight faded, he built a fire next to a beech tree and fell asleep with his companion dog. The fire ignited part of the tree and a flaming branch fell on him, causing serious burns. He wandered on, despairing that he’d survive. Wild game was plentiful – turkeys, buffaloes, deer – but elusive. The third night out he was forced to eat a “half starved possum,” which even his dog refused. Days later, feasting on a fine turkey buoyed his spirits. Finally, after 8 days he rejoined the surveyors.

Things then went downhill for Jervis. Food shortage, lack of income, and mounting debt forced him to sell his property in the winter of 1790. He wrote to his father, “Things not turning out as I expected, I was obliged to live terribly poor….” He returned to Massachusetts, discouraged. And yet…the Ohio Country still beckoned. Jervis Cutler returned with his wife in 1802.

Jervis found success as a fur trader in Chillicothe OH and later in Bainbridge. There he joined the Ohio Militia in 1806 as Captain, later Major. In 1808 he was appointed a Captain in the U S Army. Sadly, his Army service was cut short in 1809. After transfer to New Orleans, he contracted Yellow Fever which left him weak, “reduced to a mere skeleton”. Also, the U S Senate did not approve his Captain’s commission due to a clerical error – and politics. Echoes of today?

Jervis had artistic talent. During his recovery from Yellow Fever, he taught himself engraving. He said later, “…I had no tools fit to work with and never saw an engraver at work in my life.” That craft became a fulfilling vocation: engraving for books, business cards, and bank notes. He finally found some peace and stability that had eluded him for so long. He died in 1844 at age 76 in Evansville, Indiana.