Hello All!

At 1:00 P.M., Saturday, November 29, 2003, the dedication ceremony for the Judge Ephraim Cutler Historical Marker will be held at the Veto Presbyterian Church, located at the Junction of Ohio State Route #339 and Washington County Road #3.

Judge Ephraim Cutler
by
Henry Robert Burke, Ohio Bicentennial Commission, Underground Railroad and Civil War Advisory Counsel.

Ephraim Cutler was born in 1767 at Edgartown (Martha's Vineyard), Maine, the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler. Ephraim lived much of his early life with his grandfather Hezekiah Cutler in Killingly Connecticut.

Ephraim became a lobbyist for and prominent leader of the Ohio Company and Associates.

Ephraim came to the Northwest Territory at Marietta in 1795.
Appointed a Territorial Judge by Governor Arthur St. Clair.
Chosen as one of three delegates (Ephraim Cutler, Paul Fearing and Rufus Putnam) from Washington County, to the Ohio Constitutional Convention held at Chillicothe in Ross County.

In November 1802, Ephraim Cutler drafted the legislation for the Ohio Constitution that prohibited slavery in Ohio.

On the day the legislation was voted upon, Ephraim Cutler was very ill. Rufus Putnam and Paul Fearing literally carried him to cast his ballot.

Slavery in Ohio was vetoed by a single vote!

He was also a Founding Trustee of Ohio University (Athens, Ohio)and
One of the originators of the Underground Railroad north of the Ohio River.

The community of Veto, located in Dunham Township, Washington County, Ohio was named for Ephraim Cutler’s drafting of the legislation in Ohio’s Constitution that vetoed slavery.

During Ohio’s Bicentennial Year 2003, the Historic Marker commemorating Ephraim Cutler was approved by the Ohio Historical Society.