Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 19

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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The war of 1812 brought nearly all our able-bodied men into the field, which had the effect to hasten a closer relationship between the settlements. In 1810, there were 230,760 inhabitants in Ohio. The vote for Governor in 1812 was 19,752. Probably the enrolled militia was larger than the vote. It is estimated that for different terms of service 20,000 were in the field. War has many com- pensations for its many evils, especially a war of defense or for a principle in which the people are substantially unanimous. Few citizens volunteer for mili- tary service and go creditably through a campaign, its exposures and dangers, whose character is not strengthened. They acquire sturdiness, self-respect and courage. These qualities in individuals affect the aggregate stamina of commu- nities and of states. The volunteers in 1812-14, with a variety of thought, man- ners and dress, engaged in the common cause of public defense, coalesced in a social sense, which led to a better understanding and to intermarriages. At that time very few native-born citizens were of an age to participate in public affairs. Tiffin, the first governor, was a native of England. Senator, and then Governor Worthington was born in Virginia. Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., senator, gover- nor and postmaster-general, in Connecticut ; Jeremiah Morrow, sole member of Congress from 1803 to 1813, then senator and governor, in Pennsylvania; General Harrison, afterwards president of the United States, in Virginia; General McArthur in New York ; and General Cass in New Hampshire. Nearly all the generals of the war of the Rebellion in command of Ohio troops were natives.

When the State had recovered from the sacrifices of the war of 1812, the native element showed itself in public affairs. The Legislature, reflecting the character of its constituents, took high ground in favor of free schools, canals, roads and official integrity. To this day no disgraceful scandal or corruption has been fas- tened upon it, or the executive of the State. Two generations succeeded, their blood more completely mingled, their habits more thoroughly assimilated, their intelligence increased, public communication improved, and in 1861 wealth had not made the people effeminate. Such are the processes which, by long and steady operation in one direction, brought into existence the constituency which rose up to sustain the Federal government. Three hundred thousand men were found capable of filling all positions, high and low, especially that of efficient soldiers in the ranks. For commanders, they had Gilmore, Cox, Stanley, Steed- man, Sill, Hazen, McCook, Rosecrans, McDowell, McPherson, Sheridan, Sherman and Grant, all raised, and except three, born on Ohio soil, and educated at West

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OHIO-SOURCES OF HER STRENGTH.

Point. Was it fortuitous ? I think I perceive sufficient causes working toward this result, not for one generation, or for a century, but reaching back to the Eng- lish people of two or three centuries since. Nations, races and families decay, and it is possible it may be so here; but wherever the broad political foundations laid in Ohio are taken as a pattern, and there is a general mixture of educated Anglo- Saxon stocks, the period of decline will be far in the distance.

On the 4th of March, 1881, three men of fine presence advanced on the platform at the east portico of the Federal capitol. On their right is a solid, square-built man of an impressive appearance, the Chief-Justice of the United States [Morrison R. Waite]. On his left stood a tall, well-rounded, large, self-possessed personage, with a head large even in proportion to the body who is President of the United States [James A. Garfield]. At his left hand was an equally tall, robust and graceful gentleman, the retiring president [Rutherford B. Hayes]. Near by was a tall, not especially graceful figure, with the eye of an eagle, who is the general commanding the army [William Tecumseh Sherman]. A short, square, active officer, the Marshal Ney of America, is there as lieutenant-general [Philip Sheri- dan]. Another tall, slender, self-poised man, of not ungraceful presence, was the focus of many thousands of eyes. He had carried the finances of the nation in his mind and in his heart, four years as secretary of the treasury, the peer of Hamilton and Chase [John Sherman]. Of these six, five were natives of Ohio, and the other a life-long resident. Did this group of national characters from one State stand there by accident? Was it not the result of a long train of agen- cies, which, by force of natural selection, brought them to the front on that occasion ?

THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

BY JOHN KILBOURNE.

JOHN KILBOURNE was born in Berlin, Connecticut, August 7, 1787, graduated at Vermont Uni- versity, and emigrating West was occupied for several years as Principal of Worthington College, Franklin county, of which his uncle, James Kilbourne, the famed surveyor and founder of the Scioto Company, was the president trustee. Subsequently he removed to Columbus and engaged in anthorship and book selling and publishing, and there died March 12, 1831, aged forty-four years. He published a "Gazetteer of Vermont," a "Gazetteer of Ohio," a map of Ohio, a volume of "Public Documents Concerning the Ohio Canals," and a " School Geography."

The article upon "The Public Lands of Ohio," which here follows slightly abridged from the original, is from his "Ohio Gazetteer," the first edition of which appeared in 1816. It went through severai editions and was a work of great merit and utility. This article on the lands was carefully written, and having heen copied into the first edition of the "Ohio Historical Collections," was highly valued hy many of its readers. We are glad to reproduce it here with this preliminary notice of the anthor.

IN most of the States and Territories lying west of the Allegheny mountains, the United States, collectively as a nation, owned, or did own, the soil of the country, after the extinguishment of the aboriginal Indian title. This vast national demain comprises several hundreds of millions of acres; which is a bountiful fund, upon which the general government can draw for centuries, to supply, at a low price, all its citizens with a freehold estate.

When Ohio was admitted into the Federal Union as an independent State, one of the terms of admission was, that the fee-simple to all the lands within its limits, excepting those previously granted or sold, should vest in the United States. Different portions of them have, at diverse periods, been granted or sold to various individuals, companies and bodies politic.

The following are the names by which the principal bodies of the lands are designated, on account of these different forms of transfer, viz. :

1. Congress Lands. 8. Symmes' Purchase.

2. U. S. Military.

3. Virginia Military.

4. Western Reserve.

11. Dohrman's Grant.

18. Ministerial do.

5. Fire-Lands. 12. Zane's do.

6. Ohio Co.'s Purchase.

13. Canal Lands.

20. Salt Sections.

Congress Lands are so called because they are sold to purchasers by the imme- diate officers of the general government, conformably to such laws as are, or may be, from time to time, enacted by Congress. They are all regularly surveyed into townships of six miles square each, under authority, and at the expense of the National government.

All Congress lands, excepting Marietta and a part of Steuben- ville district, are numbered as follows :

VII ranges, Ohio Company's purchase, and Symmes' pur- chase, are numbered as here exhibited :

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19. Moravian do.

7. Donation Tract. 14. Turnpike Lands.

15. Maumee Road Lands.

9. Refugee Tract. 16. School do.

10. French Grant. 17. College do.

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THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

The townships are again subdivided into sections of one mile square, each containing 640 acres, by lines running parallel with the township and range lines. The sections are numbered in two different modes, as exhibited in the preceding figures or diagrams.

In addition to the foregoing division, the sections are again subdivided into four equal parts, called the northeast quarter section, southeast quarter section, etc. And again, by a law of Congress, which went into effect in July, 1820, these quarter sections are also divided by a north and south line into two equal parts, called the east half quarter section, No. and west half quarter section, No. , which contain eighty acres each. The minimum price has been reduced by the same law from $2.00 to $1.25 per acre, cash down.

In establishing the township and sectional corners, a post is first planted at the point of intersection ; then on the tree nearest the post, and standing within the section intended to be designated, is numbered with the marking iron, the range, township and number of the section, thus :

R 21 R 20

T 4 T 4

S 30+

]+S 31

The quarter corners are marked 1-4 south, merely.

R 211

+R 20

T 3

1 S 6

Section No. 16, of every township, is perpetually reserved for the use of schools and leased or sold out, for the benefit of schools, under the State government. All the others may be taken up either in sections, fractions, halves, quarters, or half quarters.

For the purpose of selling out these lands, they are divided into eight several land districts, called after the names of the towns in which the land offices are kept, viz .: Wooster, Steubenville, Zanesville, Marietta, Chillicothe, etc., etc.

The seven ranges of townships are a portion of the Congress lands, so called, being the first ranges of public lands ever surveyed by the general government west of the Ohio river. They are bounded on the north by a line drawn due west from the Pennsylvania State line, where it crosses the Ohio river, to the United States Military lands, forty-two miles; thence south to the Ohio river, at the southeast corner of Marietta township, thence up the river to the place of begin- ning.

Connecticut Western Reserve, oftentimes called New Connecticut, is situated in the northeast quarter of the State, between Lake Erie on the north, Pennsylvania east, the parallel of the forty-first degree of north latitude south, and Sandusky and Seneca counties on the west. It extends 120 miles from east to west, and upon an average fifty from north to south : although, upon the Pennsylvania line, it is sixty-eight miles broad, from north to south. The area is about 3,800,000 acres. It is surveyed into townships of five miles square each. A body of half a million acres is, however, stricken off from the west end of the tract, as a dona- tion, by the State of Connecticut, to certain sufferers by fire, in the revolutionary war.

The manner by which Connecticut became possessed of the land in question was the following: King Charles II., of England, pursuing the example of his brother kings, of granting distant and foreign regions to his subjects granted to the then colony of Connecticut, in 1662, a charter right to all lands included within certain specific bounds. But as the geographical knowledge of Europeans concerning America was then very limited and confused, patents for lands often interfered with each other, and many of them, even by their express terms, ex- tended to the Pacific ocean, or South sea, as it was then called. Among the rest, that for Connecticut embraced all lands contained between the forty-first and forty-second parallels of north latitude, and from Providence plantations on the east, to the Pacific ocean west, with the exception of New York and Pennsylvania colonies ; and, indeed, pretensions to these were not finally relinquished without considerable altercation. And after the United States became an independent nation, these interfering claims occasioned much collision of sentiment between

130

THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

them and the State of Connecticut, which was finally compromised by the United States relinquishing all their claims upon, and guaranteeing to Connecticut the exclusive right of soil to the 3,800,000 acres now described. The United States, however, by the terms of compromise, reserved to themselves the right of juris- diction. They then united this tract to the Territory, now State of Ohio.

Fire-Lands, a tract of country so called, of about 781 square miles, or 500,000 acres, in the western part of New Connecticut. The name originated from the circumstance of the State of Connecticut having granted these lands in 1792, as a donation to certain sufferers by fire, occasioned by the English during our revo- lutionary war, particularly at New London, Fairfield and Norwalk. These lands include the five westernmost ranges of the Western Reserve townships. Lake Erie and Sandusky bay project so far southerly as to leave but the space of six tiers and some fractions of townships between them and the forty-first parallel of latitude, or a tract of about thirty by twenty-seven miles in extent.

This tract is surveyed into townships of about five miles square each ; and these townships are then subdivided into four quarters ; 4 3 1 2 and these quarter townships are numbered as in the accompanying figure, the top being considered north. And for individual conven- ience these are again subdivided, by private surveys, into lots from fifty to five hundred acres each, to suit individual purchasers.

United States Military Lands are so called from the circumstances of their hav- ing been appropriated, by an act of Congress of the 1st of June, 1796, to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war. The tract of country embracing these lands is bounded as follows : beginning at the north- west corner of the original VII ranges of townships, thence south 50 miles, thence west to the Scioto river, thence up said river to the Greenville treaty line, thence northeasterly with said line to old Fort Laurens, on the Tuscarawas river, thence due east to the place of beginning ; including a tract of about 4,000 square miles, or 2,560,000 acres of land. It is, of course, bounded north by the Greenville treaty line, east by the "VII ranges of townships," south by the Congress and Refugee lands, and west by the Scioto river.

These lands are surveyed into townships of five miles square. These town- ships were then again, originally, surveyed into quarter townships of two and a half miles square, containing 4,000 acres each ; and subsequently some of these quarter townships were subdivided into forty lots of 100 acres each, for the accom- modation of those soldiers holding warrants for only 100 acres each. And again after the time originally assigned for the location of these warrants had expired, certain quarter townships, which had not then been located, were divided into sections of one mile square each, and sold by the general government like the main body of Congress lands.

4 1

The quarter townships are numbered as exhibited in the accom- panying figure, the top being considered north. The place of each township is ascertained by numbers and ranges, the same as Congress lands ; the ranges being numbered from east to west, and the num- bers from south to north.

Virginia Military Lands are a body of land lying between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, and bounded upon the Ohio river on the south. The State of Virginia, from the indefinite and vague terms of expression in its original colonial charter of territory from James I., king of England, in the year 1609, claimed all the continent west of the Ohio river, and of the north and south breadth of Virginia. But finally, among several other compromises of conflict- ing claims which were made, subsequently to the attainment of our national inde- pendence, Virginia agreed to relinquish all her claims to lands northwest of the Ohio river, in favor of the general government, upon condition of the lands, now described, being guaranteed to her. The State of Virginia then appropriated this body of land to satisfy the claims of her State troops employed in the continental line during the revolutionary war.

This district is not surveyed into townships or any regular form; but any individual holding a Virginia military land warrant may locate it wherever he chooses within the district, and in such shape as he pleases wherever the land shall not previously have been located. In consequence of this deficiency of

131

THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

regular original surveys, and the irregularities with which the several locations have been made, and the consequent interference and encroachment of some loca- tions upon others, more than double the litigation has probably arisen between the holders of adverse titles, in this district, than there has in any other part of the State of equal extent.

Ohio Company's Purchase is a body of land containing about 1,500,000 acres ; including, however, the donation tract, school lands, etc., lying along the Ohio river ; and including Meigs, nearly all of Athens, and a considerable part of Washington and Gallia counties. This tract was purchased of the general gov- ernment in the year 1787, hy Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargeant, from the neighborhood of Salem, in Massachusetts, agents for the "Ohio Company," so called, which had been then formed in Massachusetts for the purpose of a settle- ment in the Ohio country. Only 964,285 acres were ultimately paid for, and of course patented. This body of land was then apportioned out into 817 shares of 1,173 acres each, and a town lot of one-third of an acre to each share. These shares were made up to each proprietor in tracts, one of 640 acres, one of 262, one of 160, one of 100, one of 8, and another of 3 acres, besides the before-mentioned town lot.

Besides every section 16, set apart, as elsewhere, for the support of schools, every section 29 is appropriated for the support of religious institutions. In addition to which were also granted two six miles square townships for the use of a college.

But unfortunately for the Ohio Company, owing to their want of topographical knowledge of the country, the body of land selected by them, with some partial exceptions, is the most hilly and sterile of any tract of similar extent in the State.

Donation Tract is a body of 100,000 acres set off in the northern limits of the Ohio Company's tract, and granted to them by Congress, provided they should obtain one actual settler upon each hundred acres thereof within five years from the date of the grant; and that so much of the 100,000 acres aforesaid, as should not thus be taken up, shall revert to the general government.

This tract may, in some respects, be considered a part of the Ohio Company's purchase. It is situated in the northern limits of Washington county. It lies in an oblong shape, extending nearly 17 miles from east to west, and about 7} from north to south.

Symmes' Purchase, a tract of 311,682 acres of land, in the southwestern quarter of the State, between the Great and Little Miami rivers. It borders on the Ohio river a distance of 27 miles, and extends so far back from the latter between the two Miamis as to include the quantity of land just mentioned. It was patented to John Cleves Symmes, in 1794, for 67 cents an acre. Every 16th section, or square mile, in each township, was reserved by Congress for the use of schools, and sections 29 for the support of religious institutions, besides 15 acres around Fort Washington, in Cincinnati. This tract of country is now one of the most valuable in the State.

Refugee Tract, a body of 100,000 acres of land granted by Congress to certain individuals who left the British provinces during the revolutionary war, and es- poused the cause of freedom. It is a narrow strip of country 42 miles broad from north to south, and extends eastwardly from the Scioto river 48 miles. It has the United States XX ranges of military or army lands north, and XXII ranges of Congress lands south. In the western borders of this tract is situated the town of Columbus.

French Grant, a tract of 24,000 acres of land bordering upon the Ohio river, in the southeastern quarter of Scioto county. It was granted by Congress, in March, 1795, to a number of French families, who lost their lands at Gallipolis by invalid titles. Twelve hundred acres, additional, were afterwards granted, adjoining the above-mentioned tract at its lower end, toward the mouth of Little Scioto river.

Dohrman's Grant is one six mile square township, of 23,040 acres, granted to Arnold Henry Dohrman, formerly a wealthy Portuguese merchant in Lisbon, for and in consideration of his having, during the revolutionary war, given shelter and aid to the American cruisers and vessels of war. It is located in the south- eastern part of Tuscarawas county.

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THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

Moravian Lands are three several tracts of 4,000 acres each, originally granted by the old Continental Congress, July, 1787, and confirmed, by the act of Con- gress of 1st June, 1796, to the Moravian brethren at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, in trust and for the use of the Christianized Indians living thereon. They are laid out in nearly square forms, on the Muskingum river, in what is now Tusca- rawas county. They are called by the names of the Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem tracts.

Zane's Tracts are three several tracts of one mile square each-one on the Muskingum, which includes the town of Zanesville-one at the cross of the Hocking river, on which the town of Lancaster is laid out-and the third, on the left bank of the Scioto river, opposite Chillicothe. They were granted by Con- gress to one Ebenezer Zane, in May, 1796, on condition that he should open a road through them from Wheeling, in Virginia, to Maysville, in Kentucky.

There are also three other tracts, of one mile square each, granted to Isaac Zane, in the year 1802, in consideration of his having been taken prisoner by the Indians, when a boy, during the revolutionary war, and living with them most of his life; and having, during that time, performed many acts of kindness and beneficence toward the American people. These tracts are situated in Champaign county, on King's creek, from three to five miles northwest from Urbana.

The Maumee Road Lands are a body of lands averaging two miles wide, lying along one mile on each side of the road from the Maumee river at Perrysburg to the western limits of the Western Reserve, a distance of about 46 miles; and comprising nearly 60,000 acres. They were originally granted by the Indian owners, at the treaty of Brownstown in 1808, to enable the United States to make a road on the line just mentioned. The general government never moved in the business until February, 1823, when Congress passed an act making over the aforesaid land to the State of Ohio ; provided she would, within four years there- after, make and keep in repair a good road throughout the aforesaid route of 46 miles. This road the State government has already made; and obtained posses- sion and sold most of the land.

Turnpike lands are forty-nine sections, amounting to 31,360 acres, situated along the western side of the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike, in the eastern parts of Seneca, Crawford, and Marion counties. They were originally granted by an act of Congress on the 3d of March, 1827, and more specifically by a supplementary act the year following. The considerations for which these lands were granted were, that the mail stages and all troops and property of the United States which should ever be moved and transported along this road shall pass free from toll.

The Ohio Canal lands are lands granted by Congress to the State of Ohio to aid in constructing her extensive canals. These lands comprise over 1,000,000 of acres, a large proportion of which is now (1847) in market.

School Lands .- By compact between the United States and the State of Ohio, when the latter was admitted into the Union, it was stipulated, for and in con- sideration that the State of Ohio should never tax the Congress lands until after they should have been sold five years ; and in consideration that the public lands would thereby more readily sell, that the one-thirty-sixth part of all the territory included within the limits of the State should be set apart for the support of common schools therein. And, for the purpose of getting at lands which should in point of quality of soil be on an average with the whole land in the country, they decreed that it should be selected by lot, in small tracts each, to wit: that it should consist of section 16, let that section be good or bad, in every township of Congress lands ; also in the Ohio Company, and in Symmes' purchases ; all of which townships are composed of thirty-six sections each; and for the United States military lands and Connecticut Reserve, a number of quarter townships, two and one-half miles square each (being the smallest public surveys therein then made), should be selected by the Secretary of the Treasury, in different places throughout the United States military tract, equivalent in quantity to the one-thirty-sixth part of those two tracts respectively. And for the Virginia mili- tary tract, Congress enacted that a quantity of land equal to the one-thirty-sixth part of the estimated quantity of land contained therein should be selected by lot, in what was then called the " New Purchase," in quarter township tracts of three miles square each. Most of these selections were accordingly made; but,

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 19

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006