Cutler was born in
Killingly in the
Connecticut Colony. In 1765, he graduated from
Yale College and after being a school teacher in
Dedham and a merchant – and occasionally appearing in court as a lawyer – he decided to enter the
ministry. He married Mary Balch within a year of graduating from Yale. Cutler studied under Mary's father,
Thomas Balch, the minister at Dedham's Second Parish Church, for the ministry. From 1771 until his death, he was
pastor of the
Congregational church in what was the parish of
Ipswich, Massachusetts until 1793, now
Hamilton. For a few months in 1776, he was 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 expedition he trained in medicine to supplement the scanty income of a minister. In 1782, he established a private boarding school, directing it for nearly a quarter of a century. In 1784 a geological party, headed by Manasseh Cutler, named the highest peak in the northeast Mount Washington. and the
Northwest Ordinance In 1786, Cutler became interested in the settlement of western lands by
American pioneers to the Northwest Territory. On March 1, 1786, Cutler attended a meeting at the
Bunch of Grapes Tavern with
Rufus Putnam,
Benjamin Tupper, and
Samuel Holden Parsons to form the
Ohio Company of Associates, which led to a contract being drawn up, later approved by the
Confederation Congress, that sold about five percent of what was to become the
State of Ohio to this group of Revolutionary War Veterans. Provisions of the contract included setting aside
two townships in the center of the purchase for a university; these "
College Lands" are in
Appalachia. The following year, as agent of the
Ohio Company of Associates that he had been involved in creating, he organized a contract with Congress whereby his associates (former soldiers of the Revolutionary War) might purchase one and a half million acres (6,000 km2) of land at the mouth of the
Muskingum River with their Certificate of Indebtedness. During the Continental Congress, Cutler took a leading part in drafting the famous
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the
Northwest Territory, particularly its prohibitions regarding
slavery in the new territories, which was finally presented to Congress by Massachusetts delegate
Nathan Dane. In order to smooth passage of the Northwest Ordinance, Cutler influenced and won the votes of key congressmen by making them partners in his land company . By changing the office of provisional governor from an elected to an appointed position, Cutler was able to offer the position to the president of Congress,
Arthur St. Clair. Cutler was friends with
Benjamin Franklin, and kept detailed notes during the
Constitutional Convention about his visits to Franklin's
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania residence and the wonders Franklin kept there. From 1801 to 1805, Cutler was a
Federalist representative in Congress. Cutler was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781. Besides being proficient in the theology, law and medicine of his day, he conducted painstaking astronomical and meteorological investigations and was one of the first Americans to conduct significant
botanical research. He is considered a founder of
Ohio University and the
National Historic Landmark Cutler Hall on that campus is named in his honor. In 1785, Cutler was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society. He received the degree of
Doctor of Laws from Yale University in 1789. Manasseh was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813. Cutler died in 1823 at Hamilton, Massachusetts. Three of his descendants were members of the U.S. Congress-and one vice president: •
William P. Cutler [1812-1889] son of Ephraim Cutler •
Rufus Dawes [1838-1899] father of Vice President
Charles Gates Dawes and
Beman Gates Dawes; he was the son of Mrs. Sarah (Cutler) Dawes daughter of
Ephraim Cutler •
Beman Gates Dawes [1870-1953] son of Congressman Rufus Dawes Image:DepartureOfThePioneers.jpg|Departure of pioneers from Manasseh Cutler's parsonage in 1787 Image:ForTheOhio.jpg|Manasseh Cutler prepared this wagon for the first pioneers to the Ohio Country ==See also==