Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 48344-h.htm or 48344-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48344/48344-h/48344-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48344/48344-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/benjaminofohiost00otis [Illustration: Map to illustrate the Story of Benjamin of Ohio] BENJAMIN OF OHIO A Story of the Settlement of Marietta by JAMES OTIS [Illustration: logo] New York -:- Cincinnati -:- Chicago American Book Company Copyright, 1912, by James Otis Kaler. BENJAMIN OF OHIO. W. P. I FOREWORD The author of this series of stories for children has endeavored simply to show why and how the descendants of the early colonists fought their way through the wilderness in search of new homes. The several narratives deal with the struggles of those adventurous people who forced their way westward, ever westward, whether in hope of gain or in answer to "the call of the wild," and who, in so doing, wrote their names with their blood across this country of ours from the Ohio to the Columbia. To excite in the hearts of the young people of this land a desire to know more regarding the building up of this great nation, and at the same time to entertain in such a manner as may stimulate to noble deeds, is the real aim of these stories. In them there is nothing of romance, but only a careful, truthful record of the part played by children in the great battles with those forces, human as well as natural, which, for so long a time, held a vast portion of this broad land against the advance of home seekers. With the knowledge of what has been done by our own people in our own land, surely there is no reason why one should resort to fiction in order to depict scenes of heroism, daring, and sublime disregard of suffering in nearly every form. JAMES OTIS. CONTENTS PAGE BENJAMIN'S STORY 9 THE OHIO COMPANY 10 RUFUS PUTNAM 13 COLONEL PUTNAM, THE ENGINEER 15 THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 16 BUILDING A FLEET 18 CAMPUS MARTIUS 19 THE ARRIVAL OF GENERAL PUTNAM 21 THE WORK OF THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 23 CLEARING THE LAND 25