Ephraim Cutler

Ephraim Cutler (1767-1853) arrived in Marietta from Connecticut in 1795. Prominent in southeast Ohio, Cutler was appointed judge of the court of common pleas and justice of the peace, surveyed land for the Ohio Company, and was a trustee of Ohio University. In 1802, Cutler was chosen as a Washington County delegate to Ohio’s constitutional convention in Chillicothe. A contested issue at the convention was whether to permit or exclude slavery in the new state of Ohio. As a member of the committee that introduced Article VIII, or the bill of rights, of Ohio’s Constitution, Cutler drafted Section 2, which specifically excluded slavery or involuntary servitude in Ohio on the basis that the Ordinance of 1787 forbade it. The section passed through the convention by one vote. Veto Lake was named for Cutler’s role in having slavery vetoed in Ohio.

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