Manasseh Cutler, Class of 1765 (1742-1823). Cutler, an enterprising minister, led a group called the Ohio Company of Associates in an effort to settle what would become Ohio. In 1787, Cutler arranged for the purchase of 1.5 million acres of Ohio land. He also advised Congress on the provisions of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the law that would govern the region; he is credited with helping to craft the provision that prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory. In 1804 Cutler, a noted botanist, co-founded Ohio University, the Territory’s first university. A three-cent stamp issued in 1937 for the Northwest Territory Sesquicentennial depicts Cutler and fellow Ohio Company associate Rufus Putnam.