Manasseh Cutler papers

Manasseh Cutler was born in Killingly, Connecticut on May 3, 1742. He was educated at Yale and graduated in 1765. The following year he taught school in Dedham, Massachusetts where he met and married Mary Balch. The couple moved to Edgartown, Massachusetts where Cutler took over the merchant business of his wife's aunt's deceased husband. A source claims he studied for the bar examination and was accepted. Another source claims he was awarded a master's degree from Yale in 1768.

In October 1768 he began studies for the ministry and returned to Dedham in 1769 to continue divinity studies with his wife's father, Reverend Thomas Balch. He became the minister at Ipswich Hamlet (now Hamilton, MA) in 1771. He kept this post, with interruptions, until his death.

During the American Revolutionary War, Cutler served as an army chaplain and began the study of medicine. His medical studies led to an interest in botany. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at its first meeting in January 1781. He kept notes on his botany projects for many years. A fire destroyed his herbarium, but most of his notebooks survived.

Cutler was also interested in archaeological remains, particularly the mounds of Ohio. He proposed theories regarding their age and purpose. He also made estimates of the elevation of the White Mountains on a trip there in 1784.

Cutler played a key role in the founding of Ohio University. At the close of the Revolutionary War, he participated in drafting the Ordinance of 1787 and personally applied to Congress for the grant of land on which to place a university.

Cutler was awarded an LL.D. by Yale in 1791 and for a brief period he was active in politics, being elected as a member of the Massachusetts General Court in 1800 and serving as a representative to the United States Congress from 1800 to 1804. He died on July 28, 1823 in Hamilton, Massachusetts.