Wooster vs. Worcester and Other Spelling Questions

 The Marietta Register, September 8, 1870:

We don't know how many times the Register has stated the fact that the street next above Scammel in Marietta, running back from the Muskingum, is named Wooster Street, and not Worcester, yet the latter appears sometimes, even in official proceedings.

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The Marietta Register, September 22, 1870:

Some discussion in town since the Register of the 8th inst. about the spelling of the name of the street running from the Muskingum, next above Scammel. The Register has always had it Wooster and not Worcester.

All admit that the streets running back from the Muskingum were named for officers of the Revolutionary Army, beginning at the Ohio River: Wayne, Hart, Greene, Butler, Putnam, Scammel, Wooster or Worcester, Washington, Warren, Montgomery.

For whom was the street - Wooster or Worcester - named? We suppose for General David Wooster, killed at Ridgefield, Connecticut, April 1777, at the time of the British Tryon's expedition against Danbury. Does anyone doubt this or known of any Revolutionary officer named "Worcester," for whom the street was probably named? If so, point him out. No one will claim that any history spells the name of the Connecticut General in any other way than Wooster.

But on the original plat of Marietta in the Ohio Company's records, the street is designated "Worcester." Lawyers can judge from this what is the legal title. The law, it may be said, is not a precisely accurate speller, but is governed by the manifest meaning, and either Wooster or Worcester would stand law, according to the circumstances of the case.

Our belief is that on the original plat the spelling should have been Wooster, as General David Wooster spelled his name; and this the more, since the person who drew the plat did not know how to spell. He has on his plat, "Lue," instead of lien; "Harmer," in place of Harmar; "Gardins," for Gardens; and "Capatolium," for Capitolium. And as the town of Worcester, Massachusetts, is pronounced Wooster, what more likely than that this inaccurate speller (who was from the same part of the country as Worcester, Massachusetts) should have spelled General Wooster's name incorrectly as Worcester. The record, let us remark, is attested by General "Rufus Putnam, Surveyor Gen'l," in his own handwriting, yet the plat is not his own work, but that of some Clerk or Secretary.

Quadranus or Quadranaou?

Let us say farther, that on the original plat, the square bounded by Warren, Third, Montgomery and Fourth streets, is "Quadranus," yet in the written records it is given as "Quadranaou." Here is a conflict in the original. Scholars can, if they choose, puzzle their heads in this matter.

Harmar or Harmer?

Some might say that as it is Harmer on the original plat (which gives Worcester), that ought to be the authority. And the late Dr. S. P. Hildreth so spells it in his historical works. Yet the spelling in common use is Harmar, and we believe correct. This - Harmar - is the spelling in Atwater's, Howe's and Taylor's Histories of Ohio; in Judge Burnet's Notes on the Northwestern Territory; in James H. Perkins' Annals of the West; in Timothy Flint's Geography and History of the Western States,1828; in Kilbourn's Ohio Gazetteer, 1821; and in Jedidiah Morse's American Gazetteer, 1798 - seventy-two years ago - we find: "Harmar, a well constructed fort in the N. W. Territory, at the mouth of the Muskingum. It has 5 bastions and 3 cannon mounted, and is garrisoned by 4 companies. It is conveniently situated to reinforce any of the posts up or down the river Ohio."

Besides, we have an autograph letter written to us by a son of General Harmar, who now lives in Philadelphia, who spells his name WILLIAM HARMAR.