Manasseh Cutler

Manasseh Cutler (May 13, 1742 – July 28, 1823) was an American Congregational clergyman, scholar, and Federalist politician whose career spanned the Revolutionary era and the early decades of the United States. Born in Killingly in the Connecticut Colony, he grew up in New England during a period of mounting tension between the colonies and Great Britain. He entered Yale College and graduated in 1765. Within a year of his graduation he married Mary Balch, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Balch of Dedham, Massachusetts. Through this marriage he became connected to a prominent clerical family; Mary’s sister Hannah married Jabez Chickering, making Cutler the uncle of their son, also named Jabez Chickering.

After Yale, Cutler worked in several occupations before entering the ministry. He taught school in Dedham, engaged in mercantile pursuits, and occasionally appeared in court as a lawyer. During this period he studied theology under his father‑in‑law, Thomas Balch, minister of Dedham’s Second Parish Church, preparing himself for ordination. In 1771 he was settled as pastor of the Congregational church in the parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts, which in 1793 became the separate town of Hamilton. He remained pastor of this church from 1771 until his death in 1823, supplementing his ministerial duties with wide-ranging intellectual and scientific interests.

Cutler was actively involved in the American Revolutionary War as a clergyman and chaplain. For a few months in 1776 he served as chaplain to the 11th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel Ebenezer Francis, raised for the defense of Boston. In 1778 he became chaplain to General Jonathan Titcomb’s brigade and took part in General John Sullivan’s expedition to Rhode Island. Soon after his return from this campaign he undertook medical training to augment the modest income of a country minister, and he thereafter practiced medicine in addition to his pastoral work. In 1782 he established a private boarding school, which he directed for nearly a quarter of a century, educating young men in classical and practical subjects. His scientific curiosity led him into geology, astronomy, meteorology, and botany; in 1784 he headed a geological party that named the highest peak in the northeast Mount Washington, and he later became recognized as one of the first Americans to conduct significant botanical research.

Cutler’s interests extended to learned societies and higher education. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781, reflecting his reputation as a man proficient in the theology, law, and medicine of his day and as a careful scientific investigator. In 1785 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, the leading scientific society in the new nation. Yale University recognized his attainments by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1789. In 1813 he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society, further underscoring his standing in the intellectual life of the early republic. He maintained a friendship with Benjamin Franklin and kept detailed notes during the Constitutional Convention about his visits to Franklin’s residence in Philadelphia and the scientific curiosities and “wonders” Franklin displayed there.

Beginning in the mid‑1780s, Cutler played a pivotal role in the westward expansion of the United States and the organization of the Northwest Territory. On March 1, 1786, he attended a meeting at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston with Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, and Samuel Holden Parsons to form the Ohio Company of Associates, a land company composed largely of Revolutionary War veterans. This association led to a contract, later approved by the Confederation Congress, that sold about five percent of what would become the State of Ohio to the company. The contract included a provision setting aside two townships in the center of the purchase for a university; these “College Lands,” located in Appalachia, formed the basis for higher education in the region. The following year, as agent of the Ohio Company of Associates, Cutler negotiated a major contract with Congress by which his associates—former soldiers holding Certificates of Indebtedness for their wartime service—might purchase one and a half million acres of land at the mouth of the Muskingum River.

During the Continental Congress, Cutler took a leading part in drafting the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the fundamental law for the government of the Northwest Territory. He was particularly influential in framing its provisions prohibiting slavery in the new territories, and he wrote the section that barred slavery in the Northwest Territory. The ordinance was formally presented to Congress by Massachusetts delegate Nathan Dane, but Cutler’s behind‑the‑scenes work was crucial to its passage. To secure support, he influenced and won the votes of key congressmen by making them partners in his land company. He also helped reshape the structure of territorial government by changing the office of provisional governor from an elected to an appointed position, enabling him to offer the post to the president of Congress, Arthur St. Clair. His efforts in securing lands for education and in shaping the legal framework of the territory led later generations to regard him as a founder of Ohio University; he is “rightly entitled to be called ‘The Father of Ohio University,’” and the National Historic Landmark Cutler Hall on that campus bears his name.

Cutler’s national prominence and Federalist sympathies eventually drew him into formal political life. As a member of the Federalist Party representing Massachusetts, he contributed to the legislative process during two terms in the United States House of Representatives. He served as a Federalist representative in Congress from 1801 to 1805, a significant period in American history that encompassed the early years of the Jefferson administration and the consolidation of the new federal government. In Congress he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Massachusetts constituents while bringing to national debates the perspective of a clergyman, educator, and western land developer. His legislative service formed part of his broader public career, which linked New England religious and intellectual traditions with the political and territorial growth of the young republic.

In his later years Cutler continued his pastoral work in Hamilton, Massachusetts, and remained engaged with scholarly and civic affairs. He lived to see the Northwest Territory divided into new states and the early development of the institutions he had helped to found. Cutler died on July 28, 1823, in Hamilton, Massachusetts, having served as pastor there for more than half a century. His family continued his public legacy: three of his descendants became members of the United States Congress, and one became vice president. His son Ephraim Cutler was a prominent Ohio legislator; Ephraim’s son William P. Cutler (1812–1889) served in Congress; Rufus Dawes (1838–1899), the son of Sarah (Cutler) Dawes, daughter of Ephraim Cutler, also served in Congress and was the father of Vice President Charles Gates Dawes and of Congressman Beman Gates Dawes (1870–1953). Through his ministry, scientific work, role in the Northwest Ordinance, and congressional service, Manasseh Cutler left a lasting imprint on both New England and the American West.