Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th, Part 9

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1074

USA > Ohio > Mahoning County > Youngstown > Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th > Part 9

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The total number of persons composing the Connecticut Land Company was fifty-seven, there being several included whose names do not appear in the foregoing list. On September 5, 1797, at Hartford, Conn., they adopted four- teen articles of association and agreement, which were as follows :

Article I. It is agreed that the individuals concerned in the purchase made this day of the Connecticut Western Reserve shall be called the Connecticut Land Company.

Article 2. It is agreed that the committee appointed by the applicants for purchasing said Reserve, shall receive from the committee of whom said purchase has been made, each deed which shall be executed to a purchaser, and in their hands shall retain said deed until the pro- prietors thereof shall execute a deed in trust to John Caldwell, Jonathan Brace and John Mor- gan, and the survivors of them, and the last survivor of said three persons and his heirs forever, to hold in trust for such proprietor his share in said purchase, and to be disposed of as directed and agreed in the following articles.

Article 3. It is agreed that seven persons shall be appointed by the company at a meeting to be holden this day at the house of John Lee in Hartford, who shall be a Board of Direc- tors for said company, and that said directors,

or the majority thereof, shall have power at the expense of said company to procure an ex- tinguishment of the Indian title to said Re- serve, if said title is not already extinguished ; to survey the whole of said Reserve, and to lay the same out in townships containing sixteen thousand acres each; to fix on a township in which the first settlement shall be made, to sur- vey that township into small lots in such man- ner as they shall think proper, and to sell and dispose of said lots to actual settlers only. To erect in said township a saw mill and grist- mill at the expense of said company, to lay out and sell five other townships, of sixteen thou- sand acres each, to actual settlers only. And the said trustees shall execute deeds of such part or parts of said six townships as shall be sold by said directors to said purchasers, but in case there shall be any salt spring or springs in said six townships, or in any or either of them, said directors shall not sell spring or springs, but shall reserve the same, together with two thousand acres of land including said spring or springs. Said directors shall also have power to extinguish if possible, the Indian title. if any, to said Reserve, and to make all said surveys within two years from this date, and sooner if possible. And when said Indian title. if any, shall have been extinguished and said

HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY

surveys made, said trustees, or a majority thereof, shall convey to each proprietor of said Reserve, or any member who shall agree, his or their proportion or right therein, in sever- alty ; the mode of dividing said Reserve, how- ever, is to be in conformity to the orders and directions of the major part of the proprietors convened, and holden according to the mode hereinafter marked out.

Article 4. It is also agreed that said di- rectors shall cause the persons employed by them in surveying said Reserve to keep a regular field book, describing minutely and accurately the situation, soil, waters, kinds of timber, and natural productions of each town- ship surveyed by them, which book said di- rectors shall cause to be kept in the office of the clerk of said directors, and the said book shall be open to the inspection of each pro- prietor at all times.

Article 5. It is agreed that said directors shall appoint a clerk, who shall keep a regular journal of all the votes and proceedings of said directors, and of the money disbursed by them for the use of the company ; and said directors shall determine the wages of such clerks; and the said directors shall, once in a year, settle their accounts with the proprietors; and that all moneys received by the directors for taxes and the sale of lands, shall be subject to the disposal and direction of the company.

Article 6. It is agreed that the trustees shall give certificates, agreeable to the form hereinafter prescribed, to all the proprietors in the original purchase made from this State, and that the grantees from said State shall lodge with the trustees the names of the pro- prietors for whom they respectively receive deeds, and the proportion of land to which said proprietors are entitled, a copy of which shall be lodged by the trustees with the clerk of the directors. It is further agreed that all trans- fers made by any proprietors shall be recorded in the book of the clerk of the directors, and no person claiming as an assignee shall be acknowledged as such until his deed shall have been thus recorded.

Article 7. It is agreed, in order to enable said Board of Directors to perform and ac-

complish the business assigned them, that they shall be paid a tax, in the proportion of ten dollars on each of the shares of the company. to the clerk of the directors, to be at the dis- posal of said directors for the purpose afore- said, which said tax shall be paid to said clerk on or before the sixth day of October next.

Article 8. It is agreed that the whole of said Reserve shall be divided into four hun- dred shares, and that the following shall be the mode of voting by the proprietors in their meet- ings : Every proprietor of one share shall have one vote, and every proprietor of more than one share have one vote for the first share and then one vote for every two shares till the number of forty shares, and then one vote for every five shares provided that on the question, of the time of making a partition of the territory, every share shall be entitled to one vote.

Article 9. It is agreed that the aforesaid trustees shall, on receiving a deed from any purchaser, according to the tenor of these arti- cles, give to such proprietors a certificate in the following words :

CONNECTICUT LAND COMPANY.

Hartford, September 5, 1795. This certifies that is entitled to the trust and benefit of - twelve-hundredth- thousandths of the Connecticut Western Re- serve, so-called, as held by John Caldwell, Jonathan Brace and John Morgan, trustees, in a deed of trust, dated the fifth day of Sep- tember, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, to hold said proportion or share to -, the said -- , heirs, and assigns, according to the terms, conditions, covenants, and exceptions contained in the said deed of trust and in certain articles of agreement, en- tered into by the persons composing the Con- necticut Land Company, which said share is transferable by assignment, under hand and seal, witnessed by two witnesses, and acknowl- edged by any justice of the peace in the State of Connecticut, or before a notary public or judge of the common pleas in any of the United States, and to be recorded by the clerk of the Board of Directors, which said certificate shall be complete evidence of such person of his right

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

in said Reserve, and shall be recorded by the clerk of the directors in the book which said clerk shall keep for the purpose of registering deeds.

Article 10. It is agreed that the first meet- ing of the said company be at the State House, in Hartford, on Tuesday, the 6th of October next, at two of the clock in the afternoon, at which meeting the mode of making partition shall be determined by the major vote of the proprietors there present, taking such votes by the principle hereinbefore marked out.

It is also agreed that in all meetings of the company the proprietors shall be admitted to vote in person or by their proper attorney. legally authorized; and it is further agreed that there shall be a meeting of the company at the State House, in Hartford, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the Monday next before the second Tuesday in October, 1796, and another meeting of said company, at the same place, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the Tuesday next before the second Tuesday in October, 1797, and that the said directors shall have power to call occasional meetings at such times as they think proper; but such meetings shall always be at Hartford, and said directors shall give notice in some one newspaper in each county in Connecticut where newspapers are published, of the time and place of holding said meetings, whether stated or occasional, by publishing such notification in such papers, under their hands, for three weeks successively, within six weeks next before the day of such meeting.

Article II. And, whereas, some of the proprietors may choose that their proportions of said Reserve should be divided to them in one lot or location, it is agreed that in case one-third in value of the owners shall, after a survey of said Reserve in townships, signify to said directors or meeting a request that such third part be set off in manner aforesaid, that said directors may appoint three commissioners who shall have power to divide the whole of said purchase into three parts, equal in value, according to quantity, quality, and situation ; and when said commissioners shall have so di- vided said Reserve, and made a report in writ- ing of their doings to said directors, describing

precisely the boundaries of each part, the said directors shall call a meeting of said proprie- tors, giving the notice required by these arti- cles ; and at such meeting the said three parts shall be numbered, and the number of each part shall be written on a separate piece of peper, and shall, in the presence of such meet- ing, be by the chairman of said meeting put into a box, and a person appointed by said meeting for that purpose, shall draw out of said box one of said numbers, and the part desig- nated by such number shall be aparted to such person or persons requesting such a severance. and the said trustees shall, upon receiving a written direction from said directors for that purpose, execute a deed to such person or per- sons accordingly ; after which such person or persons shall have no power to act in said com- pany.

Article 12. It is agreed that the company shall have power by a major vote, to raise money by a tax on the proprietors, to be ap- portioned equally to each proprietor according to his interest ; and in case any proprietor shall neglect to pay his proportion of said taxes within fifty days, when the proprietor lives in the State-if out of the State within one hun- dred and twenty days after the same shall have become payable-and, after the publication thereof in the newspapers of this State, in the manner provided for warning meetings, that the directors shall have power to dispose of so much of the interest of such delinquent pro- prietor in said Reserve as may be necessary to pay the tax so aforesaid due and unsatisfied : and, in case any proprietor shall neglect to pay the tax of ten dollars upon a share agreed to by these articles within fifty days after the time of payment, so much of his share as will raise his part of said tax may be sold as aforesaid.

Article 13. In case of the death of any one or more of the trustees, the company may ap- point a successor to such deceased person or persons in said trust ; and, upon such appoint- ment being made, the surviving trustee or trustees, shall pass a deed or deeds to suchi successor or successors, to hold the premises as co-trustees with the surviving trustees, in the manner as the original trustees held the same. Article 14. It is agreed that the directors.

HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY

in transacting the business of said company ac- cording to the articles aforesaid shall be sub- ject to the control of said company by a vote of at least three-fourths of the interest of said company.

The first Board of Directors consisted of Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion 2d, Moses Cleveland, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby, Samuel Mather, Jr., and Roger New- bury. William Hart was moderator of the first meeting. At a meeting of the company on the first Tuesday in April, 1796, Ephraim Root was appointed clerk, which office he continued to hold until the company was dissolved in 1809. A moderator was chosen at each meet- ing to preside at that meeting, and the direc- tors were changed from time to time. A mode of partition was agreed upon at the meeting held in April, 1796.

The persons who subscribed to the "Articles of Association and Agreement constituting the Connecticut Land Company" were as follows : Ashur Miller Roger Newbury

Uriel Holmes, Jr.

for Justin Ely

Ephraim Starr

Elisha Strong

Luther Loomis

Joshua Stow

Solomon Cowles

Jabez Stocking

Daniel L. Coit

Jonathan Brace

Pierpoint Edwards Titus Street R. C. Johnson Ephraim Kelly

Joseph Howland James Bull William Judd

Samuel P. Lord

Gideon Granger, Jr.

Oliver Phelps

Moses Cleveland

Enoch Perkins

Samuel Mather, Jr.

Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr.

William Hart Lemuel Storrs Caleb Atwater

Joseph Williams

William M. Bliss

Peleg Sandford John Stoddard Benajah Kent

William Battle

Timothy Burr

Eliphalet Austin Samuel Mather James Johnson Uriah Tracey

Joseph C. Yates William Law Elisha Hyde

William Lyman

Ephraim Root

Daniel Holbrook

Solomon Griswold

Thaddeus Levvet

Roger Newbury

Ebenezer King, Jr. Elijah White.

In behalf of themselves and their associates in Albany, New York.

THE EXCESS COMPANY.

Oliver Phelps, the heaviest investor in the Reserve, had been owner with Benjamin Gor- ham of an extensive tract or land in Western New York, which they sold to Robert Livings- ton of Philadelphia. The Reserve at that time being supposed to contain more than 4,000,000 acres, Livingston, who had sold his New York lands to a Holland company, proposed with Phelps and others to take the excess, or sur- plus, over 3,000,000 acres. This scheme, which contained a large element of speculation, proved so attractive that an "Excess Company" was formed, the shares of which were eagerly sought. The largest owner in this company was General Hull, who became conspicuous in the war of 1812 by his surrender of Detroit. There was great dissatisfaction among the shareholders when it was discovered from the surveys that the company had no "excess" lands whatever, the total amount proving to be less than 3,000,000 acres.

THE COMPANY'S TITLE PERFECTED.

Immediately after their organization the Connecticut Land Company found themselves confronted by several important tasks. These were, to obtain a perfect title to their purchase, and to survey and make partition of their lands. To perfect their title it was necessary for them to obtain a full release of the claim of the United States to the soil of the Reserve, and also to extinguish the Indian title. Through the treaty made with Great Britain at the close of the Revolutionary War, the United States had come into possession of whatever interest Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York may have had in the Western Reserve under the terms of their Colonial charters, and though long disregarded by Connecticut, this was a very real and substantial claim. With the responsibilities of their great enterprise upon them the Associates were under some solicitude as to whether it might not, upon trial, prove

Zephaniah Swift

Elijah Boardman

EEE

PELEEL

DELASON AVENUE PUBLIC SCHOOL, YOUNGSTOWN

PUMPING STATION, YOUNGSTOWN

REUBEN McMILLEN FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, YOUNGSTOWN

POST OFFICE AND CENTRAL SCHOOL, YOUNGSTOWN

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

more valid than that of Connecticut, the com- pany's grantor. They were also greatly in need of a regular and adequate form of government. They found themselves too far away from Connecticut for the laws of that State to be put into successful operation ; and to profit by the Ordinance of 1787, which had been passed by Congress for the government of the North- west Territory, it would have been necessary for them to admit the validity of the General Government's claim, and, as a consequence the insufficiency of their own title, which depended upon that of Connecticut. In January, 1797, the company resolved that they would apply to the legislature of Connecticut to erect the Western Reserve into a county, under a tem- porary government and suitable laws, to be ad- ministered at the sole expense of the proprie- tors. At the same meeting they appointed Daniel Holbrook, William Shepperd, Jr., Moses Warren, Jr., Seth Pease and Amos Spafford, a committee to divide such part of the lands as were free from Indian claims, in accordance with the mode of partition that had been previously agreed upon. At the October meeting in the same year the directors and trus- tees were given power to pursue such measures as they should deem calculated to procure legal and practical government over the territory be- longing to the company. Nothing effectual, however, was done in consequence of these resolutions, and the State of Connecticut did not attempt to exercise any jurisdiction over the territory. Connecticut was then urged to obtain from the United States a release of the Governmental claim. "The result was that Con- gress, on the 28th day of April, 1800, author- ized the President to execute and deliver on the part of the United States, letters patent to the government of Connecticut, releasing all right and title to the soil of the Reserve, upon con- dition that Connecticut should, on her part, forever renounce and release to the United States entire and complete civil jurisdiction over the Reserve. Thus Connecticut obtained from the United States her claim to the soil, and transmitted and confirmed it to the Con- necticut Land Company and to those who had purchased from it, and jurisdiction for the

purposes of government vested in the United States." The inhabitants of the Reserve thus found themselves provided with a wise and equitable form of government in the Ordin- ance of 1787, to which brief allusion will here be made.

ORDINANCE OF 1787.

A temporary plan of government for the Western territory had been reported by Mr. Jefferson and adopted by Congress in April, 1784; but being found ineffective, it was re- pealed by the Ordinance of 1787, which cre- ated a practical machinery of government for immediate use, provided for the creation of the long-promised new States, and defined those high principles of civil polity which have con- tinued in successful operation down to the present day. They included religious liberty, the right of habeas corpus, trial by jury, pro- portional representation in the legislature, and the privileges of the common law. Article III contained these words: "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessarry to good gov- ernment, and to the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall for- ever be encouraged." It was also provided that the navigable waters should be free to all the inhabitants of the territory and of the United States, without tax, impost, or duty. Slavery was prohibited, and it was declared "that the said territory and the States which may be formed therein shall forever remain a part of this Confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the Articles of Confed- eration, and to such alterations therein as might be made, and to the laws enacted by Congress." With this Ordinance, which was, in fact, a model constitution, the settlers in the North- west were provided with a solid foundation upon which they might proceed to build a stable and enduring society, secure from any future danger of radical alterations on the assumption of Statehood, or from the needs of a larger and more complex population.

EXTINCTION OF TIIE INDIAN TITLE.

As yet no proper means had been taken to secure the Indian title to lands west of the Ohio, though Congress had established a Board

HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY

of Commissioners for that purpose in 1784. These officials, however, instead of seeking peace and friendship through the Great Coun- cil of the Northwestern Confederacy, which now held annual meetings near the Rapids of the Maumee, adopted a policy of dealing with the tribes separately. Thus the treaties of Fort Stanwix, in October, 1784; Fort McIntosh, in January, 1785; Fort Finney, in January, 1786, and Fort Harmar, in January, 1789, had been made only with gatherings of unauthorized and irresponsible savages. The error of the com- missioners was pointed out in a memorable remonstrance sent to Congress by the Council of the Confederates, in December, 1786, and bore fruits in numerous raids and murders perpetrated upon the settlers of the Govern- ment lands by the very tribes who were ignor- antly reported and supposed to have ceded the territory. It led later to more general and widespread hostilities, involving the defeat of General Harmar's expedition in 1790, and the more disastrous defeat of St. Clair, in Novem- ber, 1791, after which no white man's life was safe on the frontier until Wayne's great vic- tory over the Indians at the battle of the Fallen Timber, August 20, 1794. The thoroughness of Wayne's methods so impressed the savages that they concluded with him the treaty of Greenville, which brought peace and security to the settlers. It was never violated by any of the Indian tribes who were parties to it. By it the Indians yielded their claims to the lands east of the Cuyahoga, and thereafter the Cuya- hoga river and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas constituted the boundary between the United States and the Indians upon the Reserve until July 4, 1805. "On that day a treaty was made at Fort Industry, by which the Indian title to all the Reserve west of the Cuya- hoga was purchased. Thus the Indian title to the soil of the Reserve was forever set at rest, and no flaw now existed in the Connecticut Land Company's claim to the ownership of the lands of the Reserve."

SURVEY OF THE RESERVE.

In the early part of May, 1796, the com- pany fitted out an expedition to survey that

portion of the Reserve lying east of the Cuya- hoga river. This party consisted of about fifty persons, including General Moses Cleaveland, superintendent; Augustus Porter, principal surveyor and deputy superintendent; Seth Pease, astronomer and surveyor; Amos Spaf- ford, John Milton Holley, Richard M. Stod- dard and Moses Warren, surveyors; Joshua Stow, commissary, and Theodore Sheppard, physician. There were thirty-seven employees who had been engaged as chainman, axemen and boatmen, and whose names were respect- ively, Joseph Tinker (principal boatman), George Proudfoot, Samuel Forbes, Stephen Benton, Samuel Hungerford, Samuel Daven- port, Amzi Atwater, Elisha Ayres, Norman Wilcox, George Gooding, Samuel Agnew, Da- vid Beard, Titus V. Munson, Charles Parker, Nathaniel Doan, James Halket, Olnet F. Rice, Samuel Barnes, Daniel Shulay, Joseph McIn- tyre, Francis Gray, Amos Sawtel, Amos Bar- ber, William B. Hall, Asa Mason, Michael Coffin, Thomas Harris, Timothy Dunham, Shadrach Benham, Wareham Shepard, John Briant, Joseph Landon, Ezekiel Morly, Luke Hanchet, James Hamilton, John Lock, and Stephen Burbank. There were also Elijah Gun and his wife, Anna, who came with the surveyors and took charge of Stow's castle at Conneaut; Job P. Stiles and his wife Tabitha, who took charge of the Company's stores at Cleveland, and two men-Chapman and Perry -who furnished the surveyors with fresh beef and traded with the Indians. There were also one or more children.

The party proceeded in flat-bottomed boats up the Mohawk river, and Wood Creek, to- wards Lake Ontario. At Oswego there was a British fort, which they were obliged to pass by a strategem, permission to do so having been refused by the officer in charge, in the absence of the regular commandant. Once on the waters of Lake Ontario they proceeded by way of Niagara and Queenstown to Buffalo. Here on June 23d they attended a council of the Six Nations, made presents to the Indians, and exchanged speeches with Red Jacket, Cap- tain Brandt and others. Several of the chiefs took dinner with the commissioners. On this

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

occasion Red Jacket delivered himself of some remarks on the subject of religion, which, as they probably embodied the sentiments of many, if not most, of the Indians, are here reproduced in substance. "You white people make a great parade about religion. You say you have a book of laws and rules which was given you by the Great Spirit; but is this true? Was it written by his own hand and given to you? No, it was written by your own people. They do it for deception. Their whole wishes center in their pockets; all they want is money. White people tell us they wish to come and live among us as brothers, and teach us agriculture. So they bring imple- ments of industry and presents, tell us good stories, and all seems honest. But when they are gone all appears as a dream. Our land is taken from us, and still we don't know how to farmı it."

From Buffalo the party journeyed by way of Lake Erie to the mouth of Conneaut creek, where they landed on July 4, 1796. As these pioneers of the Western Reserve, and the advance-guard of civilization, thus first touched soil on Independence Day, the birth-day of the Nation, it was doubly fitting that the occasion should be properly celebrated. This they ac- cordingly proceeded to do with such means as they had at hand. In the Journal of Gen- eral Moses Cleaveland is found the following reference to the occasion :

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th, Part 9

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1074

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1074