Beschreibung:

Israel Putnam, 4 ALsS to son David Putnam, Belpre, Ohio, 1795-1798. Israel Putnam -- the son and namesake of the Revolutionary War General and hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill -- settled in Belpre, Washington County, Ohio in the mid-1790s. The four letters in this small collection were all written to his son David (1769-1856), who had remained in their home in Pomfret, Conn. In each, Israel writes of the process of settling his farm (and those of his sons), encouraging David to join them, but concerned in a typically 18th century parental way that his son find his proper work in life and apply himself to it. In the first letter, 1795 Oct. 24, Israel attempts to determine David's intentions. Evidently, David was better educated than others in the family, leading Israel to conclude that settling as a farmer in the west would not suit his tastes. In yr last you talk of sitting in possession of some of our lands before they take a Larger Risk -- I don't know whether you mean a Large Quantity & to be a speculator or sufficient for a farm & so turn farmer. if the former there are fine lands to speculate in around our Purchase, but then I think you need more money than you Comand. If the latter, I have sufficient for all my sons, good farms if they will improve them, but I think that after all yr time & pains spent in learning you will not think of being a Cultivator but will choose to try some other way for a Lively hood. Some have signified their wish that you would come & preach here but what encouragement you might Expect I cannot tell.... If you should think of trying yr fortune here I should advice you loose no time -- you have often found the Disadvantage of being too Late... Three months later, Israel wrote to say that the land surveying was under way: Israel [another son] has built him a house about 5 miles up Muskingum & is to move up this week. We have a verry easy sinter hither too. I told you all I knew about surveying in my last. I can now tell you more that is that the competition of the survey is lift with Genl. Putnam & he hires it done by the mile. The price is from 12 to 20 shillings pr. Mi. according as its Nigh or more Distant. The tours will be some length, the undertaker pays all the people that are necessary that is 2 chain men, a flag man, a Blaser, a hunter & a Packer with 2 horses, a hunter will ask 20 or 25 Dollars Pr. Month & have half the skins... Putnam adds that he would like David to arrange a $100 line of credit for him: I shall want as much money as I can get this spring, for the Boys are all a purchasing Buildings & making their settlement & need all the help Now that I can furnish them. Putnam's next continues with a discussion of surveying: I am apt to think you have verry little conception of the fatigues & inconveniences attending surveying in a New world where you are obliged to Encamp in the woods & take the chance of wind & weather & indifferent fare & worse looking for a month or more at a tour. Its widely different from a day surveying where you have a good cup of tea &c &c a good bed at night, but if you like a tour of that sort I think if you can get a good birth and are early in the Business, you would do better there than here & if you think of a school for a lively [hood] I should think that Connecticut with their [illeg.] would be the most Eligible place... In the last letter, written during the war year July 1798, Israel requests the shipment of some goods, should the risk not be too great. David did, as it turns out, eventually settle in Ohio and apparently found his place in life. A scarce piece of early history associated with a renowned Revolutionary War family. Provenance: Descended Directly in the Putnam-Hildreth Families of Marietta, Ohio Condition: The letters are fragile and show their age, with some separation along the folds, two letters entirely separated at the center fold, and one with erosion at edges and loss of some text. Despite their tattered condition, the lette