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FINE. THS IS REPORTED TO BE THE EARLIEST LETTER IN PRIVATE HANDS FROM THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Ebenezer Sproat (sometimes spelled "Sprout") was a Continental Army officer, son-in-law of famed Revolutionary War Navy Commodore Abraham Whipple, and a pioneer in Ohio Country. He was a founder of Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. According to the Siskin sale catalogue (Bennett), he provided the only early courier service to and from Marietta. This letter was carried on the second trip and is the earliest known in private hands.
Ex Siskin (Image)
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VERY FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE NORTHWEST TERRITORIAL "WAY" MARKING.
Colonel Israel Putnam (1739-1812), one of the original pioneers in the Northwest territory, was a son of General Israel Putnam, "Old Put" of Revolutionary War fame. According to Marilyn Logue (http://wchs-ohio.org/BFL.htm ): "Colonel Putnam and two of his sons arrived in 1788 after crossing the mountains with a wagonload of farming utensils pulled by two yokes of oxen. The next spring Israel and about forty of the Ohio Company associates located their farms on the rich Ohio River bottomlands just a few miles downriver from Marietta; they named their settlement Belle Prairie or 'beautiful meadow' (now called Belpre)." (Image)
FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE. THIS IS THE EARLIEST UNITED STATES TERRITORIAL POSTMARK AND THE ONLY REPORTED COVER FROM THE SOUTHWEST TERRITORY, WHICH EXISTED FROM 1790 TO 1796 AND BECAME THE STATE OF TENNESSEE.
Southwest Territory was created by the Southwest Ordinance from lands that had been ceded to the United States by North Carolina. It existed as an incorporated territory only from May 26, 1790, to June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Tennessee. Its capital was Knoxville. The Siskin sale catalogue (Bennett) states that this is the only documented cover from Southwest Territory.
A FASCINATING INDIAN-RELATED LETTER BEARING THE RARE FORT WINNEBAGO CIRCULAR DATESTAMP AND SENT TO FORT HOWARD. AN OUTSTANDING POSTAL HISTORY ARTIFACT.
In this three-page letter, the writer, a half-Indian named John W. Newcom, petitions the "Chiefs & Warriors of the Mohekunnuk or Stockbridge Tribe" for money -- principal plus nine years' interest -- he claims was taken from him in 1825 when New York State relocated the Stockbridge Tribe. Newcom makes an intriguing reference to "adobted Affricans" he feels should not have been given land grants over him and his family, "but because my father was a white man, many of our people were opposed to my having any right in the nation." Later he states "I hope that our people will no more adopt Affricans into our Tribe for we are so poor our selves..." Newcom also directs that correspondence be sent to the new "Cherokee Post Office", referring to the post office established in January 1833, which changed its name to Chalmers in June 1834.
No markings are recorded for Fort Howard in the ASCC, and any use to or from this pioneer fort is rare (Image)