Harris, Thaddeus M.:

$6,250 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR INTO THE TERRITORY NORTHWEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS; MADE IN THE SPRING OF THE YEAR 1803. WITH A GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF ... First edition of one of the earliest separate historical accounts of Ohio, with Rufus Putnam's map, which is the first large folding map of the state of Ohio. One of the other maps shows the headwaters of the Ohio, and another shows plats of land that had been appropriated for military service (also featuring the Moravian Indian towns of Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten, and Salem). This latter map is also attributed to Rufus Putnam, the surveyor general and the dedicatee of Harris' work. Also included is a plan of the town of Marietta and a bird's-eye view of the ancient works on the Muskingum. Harris' journey was undertaken by the author, on doctor's orders, as a cure for "wasting sickness." The cure seems to have worked, and the author lived until 1842, despite the fatalistic final lines of his introduction: "...to the hopes not of the present, but of the future life, I resign myself." The text is also notable for a particularly early discussion of the petroleum deposits near Pittsburgh. Thaddeus Harris (1768-1842) was a minister, librarian of Harvard University, and a founding member of the American Antiquarian Society.A contemporary ownership inscription on the titlepage notes this as William Woodbridge's copy, followed by his daughter's inscription dated 1862. Woodbridge was a Connecticut native who stu

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