Genealogy Data Page 440 (Notes Pages)

Note: First African-American Graduate of Ohio University
By Henry Robert Burke

Copyright 1999. Henry Robert Burke - Marietta, Ohio

Colonel John Means was born in South Carolina, March 14, 1770. He was a planter, officer of the state militia, and member of the South Carolina state legislature. Over time, Col. Means changed his views about slavery . In 1819, he had a bitter disagreement with his church in South Carolina, so he moved to Adams County, Ohio, and brought his twenty-four slaves with him. Upon arrival in Ohio, Col. Means quickly freed his slaves.

Means was a pioneer in the iron industry in Adams County, and was involved in building and operating the first iron furnace in Ohio. He was a member of the Ohio legislature 1825-27, and was married to Ann Williamson who traced her ancestry to Sir Isaac Newton. Col. Means died near Manchester, Ohio, March 15, 1837.

Dyer Burgess was a minister at the Constitution Presbyterian Church about 1840-42. Burgess' second wife was Mrs. Elizabeth Means Voris, the daughter of Colonel John Means. Wilbur Siebert lists Rev. Dyer Burgess as a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Adams County, Ohio. Dyer Burgess lived in West Union, Adams County, prior to moving to Constitution in 1840. While in Constitution, he lived in a brick house on the hill behind the Cutler's Old Stone House. This house burned down in July 1881.

Ephriam Cutler, the founder of Constitution, was also a trustee of Ohio University and in my view Ephriam played the central role in establishing the Underground Railroad along the Ohio River. Burgess' stepdaughter, Elizabeth Voris, married William P. Cutler on November 1, 1849. The Cutler family letters and diaries have many interesting notes concerning Dyer Burgess. Burgess was definitely an eccentric fellow, who was always excited or angry about one cause or another. In 1865, following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Burgess felt sure that he, too, would be assassinated! He died August 31, 1872, and is buried in the Gravel Bank Cemetery.

So from this association came John Newton Templeton, the first African American in Ohio to earn a college degree. He was born on the plantation in South Carolina owned by Colonel John Means. Means freed Templeton's family in 1813, and they moved to Adams County, Ohio with Colonel Means. With the aid and encouragement of Rev. Robert G. Wilson, president of Ohio University (1824-1839), Templeton enrolled at the University in 1824. It is noteworthy that Ohio University, unlike many institutions of higher education at this time, had no restrictive clauses pertaining to race; any male youth who qualified for acceptance was admitted. While working his way trough college, Templeton maintained a superior academic record and was an especially active member of the Athenian Literary Society.

Ohio University can indeed be proud of John Newton Templeton, the first Black American to receive a college degree in the State of Ohio and in the entire area encompassing the old Northwest Territory. On a national scale, Templeton is the fourth Black college graduate, preceded by Edward A. Jones (Amherst College, 1826), John B. Russwurm (Bowdoin College, 1826), and Edward A. Mitchell (Dartmouth College, 1828). In Ohio, Oberlin College began to admit Afro-Americans in 1835.

There are some point that I wish to make concerning information in this article. First it proves that Ephriam Cutler had connections with other Underground Railroad people around the Ohio. Not only did Ephriam and his friends, relatives and associates share a mutual interest in the abolition of slavery, they also clearly believed that African Americans were capable of achieving good education when given the chance.

A lot of credit for this article goes to Linda Showalter of Marietta, and Michel and Connie Perdreau, Web Site http://http://www.seorf.ohiou.edu/~xx057. These folks and many others, have been of tremendous help in my personal struggle to establish the fact that the Ohio River Underground Railroad network was started by Ephriam Cutler at Constitution around 1810, and then spread from there across Ohio.

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Cutler, Ephraim (b. 13 DEC 1767, d. 1853)

Note: Judge Ephriam Cutler and Constitution
by Henry Robert Burke

Copyright 1998. Henry Robert Burke "Window to the Past"

Dr. Manasseh Cutler's eldest son, Ephriam Cutler, was born April 13, 1767. He was brought up in Killingly Connecticut by his grandfather Hezekiah Cutler. He left Killingly, Connecticut on June 15, 1795 with three shares of stock in the Ohio Company lands, and arrived at Marietta, (Ohio) on September 18, 1795. Two of his children died on the trip. In 1799 he moved from Marietta to Waterford in Washington county. In Waterford, he engaged in the mercantile business.

In May of 1799 Ephriam moved to his 1800 acre farm on Federal creek, where he erected a mill. Shortly thereafter Ephriam Cutler was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Justice of the Peace, by the Northwest Territorial Governor, Arthur St. Clair. He was also appointed a member of the Northwest Territorial Legislature and in 1802 he became Washington county's delegate to the Ohio Statehood Constitutional Convention. His anti-slavery contribution to was made by introducing the section to the Ohio Constitution that excluded slavery from the State and casting the deciding vote for Ohio to enter the Union as a Non-Slave State.

By the time Ohio became a state in 1803, Washington county, Ohio had a small but growing population of anti-slavery advocates. As evidenced by events that had occurred in 1793; the invention of the "cotton gin" by Eli Whitney, and the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, the anti-slavery advocates realized that slavery in the United States was never going to end on its own. With his extensive contacts with Quakers and other anti-slavery advocates throughout Ohio, Judge Cutler began to organize people willing to assist fugitive slaves. It should be noted here, that while the first two events of 1793 relative to slavery had worked against the anti-slavery principle, one very positive event favorable to anti-slavery also had occurred in 1793.

The Upper Providence of Canada (Ontario) had passed legislation to emancipate their slaves and had banned all forms of slavery. This meant that fugitive slaves from the United States could cross the international border into Canada, and avoid recapture under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. Thus Canada became the safe haven for fugitive slaves from the Southern states, especially those close enough to the Ohio river.

In 1806, Judge Ephriam Cutler established his family's home on the bank of the Ohio river, six miles below Marietta, at Constitution. His home became a staging area for fugitive slaves from south of the Ohio river in Virginia. His effort was the model for Ohio's Underground Railroad. In Ohio an informal system of referring fugitive slaves north to friendly havens called "safe houses" throughout Ohio at ten to fifteen mile intervals. By 1810 more settlers in Ohio were becoming aware of the brutalities of slavery as fugitive slaves told their sad and often terrifying stories.

In 1820 Ephriam Cutler became a trustee of Ohio University at Athens, and worked unceasingly to promote the prosperity of that institution. He was known as an advocate for common schools, introducing the first bill in Ohio for the regulation and support of schools. He was the author of the ad valorem system of taxation, which was the foundation of the credit enabling the State to build and maintain canals. He also was involved with duties for the Presbyterian Church. Judge Ephriam Cutler died peacefully at his home in Constitution at the age of eighty-six, in 1853.

The rural community of Constitution, situated on Ohio State Route# 7 in Washington county, Ohio is located six miles south of Marietta and about five miles north of Belpre. Besides its importance as an early Ohio river Underground Railroad station, it was the site of the Constitution Grindstone Co., one of a few companies that supplied huge millstones for Washington county, Ohio, which furnished about 90 percent of the heavy stone grinding wheels nationwide. The work was hard, but for many years it furnished employment for local residents including a number of African-American men living in that part of Washington County. Washington County Road #3 was the old route of the Underground Railroad that ran from Constitution northwest over the hills, across Barnett Ridge and over to the James Lawson UR station at Barlow.

Around 1861 after the American Civil War had begun, several people were killed in a train accident at Constitution when the engine jumped the track. At least two people were killed and several others were seriously injured. A witness was Civil War Veteran, Solomon S. Male, who was riding the train on his way to Harper's Ferry, (West) Virginia to join his unit, the 148th O.N.G.

From 1842-1853 Judge Ephriam Cutler opened and operated the first Post Office in Constitution from his stone house by the Ohio river. What is unique about Constitution is that it was the only place in the United States with a post office named for the U.S. Constitution. The former Zip Code number for Constitution was 45722. The Constitution was closed by the U.S. Postal System in 1974. The last post master there was Mrs. Naomi R. Morris who operated the Constitution Post Office from 1954-1974. In 1988 I was part of a volunteer crew which erected a small Pavilion beside the railroad tracks in Constitution to symbolize the community that once existed there in commeration of Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler and his son Judge Ephriam Cutler who contributed so greatly to African American Freedom in the United States.

In his lifetime, Judge Ephraim Cutler was citizens of both the British Colonies and United States of America (Massachusetts and Ohio). He was a personal acquaintance of George Washington and lived through the administrations of 13 additional presidents; the last being James Polk. From the time of his birth until his death this nation went from being a series of British colonies to a nation that extended to the Pacific Ocean. California, the 34th state, was the last to be admitted to the union (1850) prior to this death in 1853.

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Cutler, Ephraim Sumner (b. 9 APR 1858, d. 5 AUG 1860)

Note: 1860 Census notes Ephraim living with his maternal grandparents

Census: Date: 1860
Place: Warren, Washington, OH

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