Red and Ivory Leather Slip-on Shoes with Cut-out Vamps
Unknown maker and place of origin, ca. 1790s.
Belonged to Elizabeth "Betsey" Putnam
who possibly wore them in the Northwest Territory.
Collection of the Ohio Historical Society, H77203ab.

 

While many female settlers remain nameless, the cataloguing record of Elizabeth "Betsey" Putnam's shoes identified her as being the daughter of Rufus Putnam. Further research in Washington County records indicates that General Rufus Putnam, his wife, two sons and six daughters were among the residents of Campus Martius, Marietta, who resided at "The Point," an area in or near Fort Harmar, during the period of the Indian Wars between 1790 and 1795. These county records also indicate that Betsey Putman married Joel Craigg on December 7, 1797. As such, Betsey would have been 25 in 1790 and have married at 32. A sense of who she was is hard to grasp through those records, but the Putnam home, which is enclosed in the Campus Martius Museum in Marietta, and Betsey's extremely fashionable 1790s shoes both convey a sense of continuity from her Massachusetts upbringing to her frontier life. Artifacts such as Elizabeth "Betsey" Putnam's high-heeled shoes with pointed toes might not reveal as much as we would want to know about her but they do speak of the early presence of a woman on the untamed frontier and of a sense of continuity in the face of violent conflicts.

 

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Rufus Putnam
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