Ebenezer Battelle

Ebenezer Battelle (1754–1815) was an American Revolutionary War veteran, a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, and a settler of Marietta, Ohio, in the late 18th century.

Advertisement for Noah Webster's Grammatical Institutes, for sale by Ebenezer Battelle, bookseller, State Street, Boston, 1784

Biography

Battelle was born in 1754 in Dedham, Massachusetts, to Ebenezer Battelle (d.1776) and Prudence Draper.[1] He attended Harvard College (class of 1775); schoolmates included Fisher Ames[2] and Benjamin Bourne.[3]

He "was a volunteer at the battle of Lexington. ... [In 1776, he] served nineteen days at Castle Island, Dec. 11 to Dec. 30, 1776; went on the expedition to Providence, R.I., May 8 to July 8, 1777; re-enlisted, and served from March 23 to April 5, 1778, and was commissioned captain of the Eighth Company in the Suffolk Regiment, July 2, 1778. He was promoted to be major, April 1, 1780, and became colonel of the Boston regiment in 1784." He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in 1786.[1] He was also town clerk for a total of two years, having first been elected in 1778,[4] and selectman for two terms, with his first election the same year.[5]

Portrait of Anna Durant, wife of Ebenezer Battelle; by Gilbert Stuart, 1810 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

After the war Battelle sold and published books[6] from his shop in Boston on State Street (ca.1783-1785)[7] and Marlboro Street (1785-ca.1787).[8][9] In addition to books imported from London, he stocked American publications such as Isaiah Thomas' Almanack[10] and Noah Webster's Grammatical Institutes.

Battelle married Anna Durant; children included Ebenezer Battelle (b.1778) and Thomas Battelle (b.1781).[1] Battelle and his family settled in Marietta, Ohio, around 1789.[11]

See also

• List of booksellers in Boston

References

1. Roberts. History of the Military company of the Massachusetts, now called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. 1637-1888, Volume 2. A. Mudge & son, printers, 1897.
2. Letter from Fisher Ames to Rufus Putman, 1791. Memoirs of Rufus Putnam and certain official papers and correspondence. Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1903.
3. Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University, 1636-1915. Harvard University Press, 1915
4. Worthington 1827, p. 79.
5. Worthington 1827, p. 79-81.
6. WorldCat. Battelle, Ebenezer 1754-1818
7. Boston Evening Post, Sept. 13, 1783
8. Massachusetts Centinel, Feb. 2, 1785
9. Massachusetts Spy, April 12, 1787
10. Massachusetts Spy, Nov. 6, 1783
11. An oration, delivered at Marietta, April 7, 1789, in commemoration of the commencement of the settlement formed by the Ohio Company. By Solomon Drown, Esq. M.B. / Early American Imprints, Series 1, no. 21802

Works cited

• Worthington, Erastus (1827). The history of Dedham: from the beginning of its settlement, in September 1635, to May 1827. Dutton and Wentworth. Retrieved November 8, 2019.

Further reading

• Battelle family. In: History of Ohio: the rise and progress of an American state, Volume 6. Century History Co., 1912.