Receipt to Rufus Putnam, 21 May 1792
Receipt to Rufus Putnam1
Philadelphia May 21. 1792
Received by the hands of General R. Putnam a deed executed by Rufus Putnam M Cutler,2 Robert Oliver3 & G Greene4 purporting to be a conveyance to me of five shares of the land of the Ohio Company of Associates & bearing date the 14th of May 1792.5
Alexander Hamilton
ADS, Dawes Memorial Library, Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio.
1. Putnam was a veteran of the American Revolution and one of the founders of the Ohio Company. See H to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., October 3, 1802, note 3 (printed in this volume).
2. Manasseh Cutler, a Congregational clergyman and botanist from Massachusetts, was in Philadelphia at this time attending a three-day meeting of the board of directors of the Ohio Company. See H to Thomas Jefferson, May 12, 1792 (, XI, 396–97). One of the founders of the Ohio Company, he helped draw up its original articles of agreement. Through skillful lobbying in Congress, he was probably more responsible than any other individual for securing the land grant to the Ohio Company in July, 1787. In December, 1787, he set out for the Ohio country to aid in the establishment of the first settlements by the company. He returned to Massachusetts in 1789.
3. Oliver, a veteran of the American Revolution from Massachusetts, was a director of the Ohio Company.
4. Griffin Greene, a veteran of the American Revolution, a Rhode Island merchant, and a director of the Ohio Company, moved to Marietta, Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, in 1788.
5. For an excerpt from this conveyance, which has not been found, see the enclosure and note 7 to H to Wolcott, October 3, 1802 (printed in this volume).