Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 20

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

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133

THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

in some instances, by the carelessness of the officers conducting the sales, or from some other cause, a few sections 16 have been sold; in which case Congress, when applied to, has generally granted other lands in lieu thereof; as, for instance, no section 16 was reserved in Montgomery township, in which Colum- bus is situated ; and Congress afterwards granted therefor section 21 in the town- ship cornering thereon to the southeast.

College townships are three six miles square townships granted by Congress ; two of them to the Ohio Company for the use of a college to be established within their purchase, and one for the use of the inhabitants of Symmes' purchase.

Ministerial Lands .- In both the Ohio Company and in Symmes' purchase every section 29 (equal to one-thirty-sixth part of every township) is reserved as a per- manent fund for the support of a settled minister. As the purchasers of these two tracts came from parts of the Union where it was customary and deemed neces- sary to have a regular settled clergyman in every town, they therefore stipulated in their original purchase that a permanent fund in land should thus be set apart for this purchase. In no other part of the State, other than in these two pur- chases, are any lands set apart for this object.

Salt Sections .- Near the centre of what is now (1847) Jackson county Congress originally reserved from sale thirty-six sections, or one six mile square township, around and including what was called the Scioto salt-licks; also one-quarter of a five mile square township in what is now Delaware county; in all, forty-two and a quarter sections, or 27,040 acres. By an act of Congress of the 28th of December, 1824, the legislature of Ohio was authorized to sell these lands, and to apply the proceeds thereof to such literary purposes as said legislature may think proper ; but to no other purpose whatever.

To the foregoing article of Kilbourne we append Tract No. 61 of the " Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society," by the late Col. CHARLEY WHITTLESEY, and entitled .

SURVEYS OF THE PUBLIC LANDS IN OHIO.

The surveys of the government lands were commenced in July, 1786, under the management of Thomas Hutchins, the geographer of the United States. There were surveyors appointed-one from each State; but only nine entered upon the work in 1786. Among them were Anselm Tupper, Joseph Buell, and John Matthews. Rufus Putnam was appointed from Massachusetts, but was then engaged in surveys in what is now the State of Maine.

The geographer planted his Jacobstaff on the Pennsylvania line at the north bank of the Ohio river. Having been one of the Pennsylvania commissioners on the western boundary in 1784,* he was familiar with the country from the Ohio river to Lake Erie. He ran a line west over the hills of Columbiana and Carroll counties in person, now known as the "Geographer's Line," a distance of forty- two miles. At each mile a post was set and on each side witness-trees were marked. Every six miles was a town corner. From these corners surveyors ran the meridian or range lines south to the Ohio, and the east and west town lines.

Hutchins began the numbers of the sections, or No. 1 at the southeast corner of the township, thence north to the northeast corner. The next tier began with No. 7 on the south line, and so on, terminating with No. 36 at the northwest corner. This system of numbering was followed in the survey of the Ohio Com-

* The best astronomical and mathematical talent of the colonies was employed on the western boundary of Pennsylvania, which had long been contested by Virginia. It was fixed by a transit sighting from hill to hill, the timber cut away, so that the instrument could be reversed and thus cover three stations, often several miles apart. As the monuments put up by the surveyors were nearly all of wood, there were few of them visible in 1796, when the surveyors of the Western Reserve began their work. The vista cut through the woods on the summit of the hills to open the Pennsylvania line had nearly disappeared when the country was cleared for settlement. On this survey, when the Ohio river was reached the Virginia commissioners retired, because that State had ceded the country north of the Ohio.

134

THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

pany's purchase and in the Symmes purchase. It was changed to the present system by the act of 1799, without any apparent reason. The towns in the seven ranges were, by law, numbered from the Ohio river northward, and the ranges from the Pennsylvania line westward. In the history of land surveys this is the first application of the rectangular system of lots in squares of one mile, with meridian lines, and corner posts at each mile, where the number of the section, town, and range was put on the witness-trees in letters and figures. It should be regarded as one of the great American inventions, and the credit of it is due to Hutchins, who conceived it in 1764 when he was a captain in the Sixtieth Royal- American regiment, and engineer to the expedition under Col. Henry Bouquet to the Forks of the Muskingum, in what is now Coshocton county. It formed a part of his plan for military colonies north of the Ohio, as a protection against

L Erie

Cleveland

1et Meridian

Congress

Western Reserve

1806

1796

Base Line 41 7 Lat

Lands

Seven

Line

Treaty

1795

Ranges

military

Columbus

Bounty

1786

1788

Symmes

Purchase

Virginia

Military Bounty

Congress

1788

Ohio

Comp

any

Cincinnati

Indians. The law of 1785 embraced most of the details of the new system. It was afterwards adopted by the State of Massachusetts in the surveys of her timber lands in the province of Maine, and by the purchasers of her lands within the State of New York, also by the managers of the Holland purchase in Western New York and the State of Connecticut on the Western Reserve.

Although the Indian tribes had ceded Southern Ohio to the United States, they were bitterly opposed to its survey and settlement by white people. They were so hostile that troops were detailed from Fort Harmar for the protection of surveyors. The geographer's line ended on the heights south of Sandyville, in Stark county, about three miles east of Bolivar. In September, 1786, Major Doughty, of Colonel Harmar's Battalion, advised them that he could not guar- antee their safety. The subdivision of very few townships was completed that year. In 1787 the work was pushed more rapidly. The west line of the seven

Wayne's Congress

Lands

135

THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

ranges, as they have ever since been designated, was continued southward to the Ohio river, a few miles above Marietta, being about fourteen (14) towns or eighty- four miles in length.

The meridian lines of the seven ranges diverged to the right, or to the west, as they were extended southerly. The magnetic variation was seldom corrected. The country was rough, and revengeful savages lurked in the surrounding forest. The work of these brave men should not be closely criticised, even where there are some irregularities.

The variation of the needle in 1786 must have been about (2) two degrees east, decreasing about (2' 30") two and one-half minutes yearly. If the magnetic meridian was followed, the result would be a deviation from the true meridian, and going south would be to the west, and the departure would be sixteen chains, eighty links for each township. No account was then taken of the divergence of meridians, which in working southward amounted in a degree of sixty-nine and one-half miles to about eight chains. Not less than an entire section was offered for sale, and the price was two dollars per acre. Supplies were brought to the lines from Fort Steuben (now Steubenville) through the woods on pack horses. By the act of May 18, 1796, the tract north of the geographer's line to the Western Reserve was directed to be surveyed, but it was not until 1810 that the sections were closed up to that line.

A discussion having arisen between the Connecticut Land Company and the Federal Government, as to the location of the forty-first parallel of latitude, Surveyor-General Professor Mansfield was directed to examine the line, in that year, who advised that it be not disturbed.

After the death of Geographer Hutchins, in April, 1789, the entire management of the surveys devolved upon the Board of the Treasury, until the Constitution of 1787 went into operation, and for some years after. Before the Constitution there was no Federal executive, or cabinet, and executive business was transacted by committees, or boards filled by members of Congress, subject to the direction of Congress. Legislation was a very simple matter. A convention of delegates from the several States, in such numbers as they chose to select and to pay, each State having one vote, constituted the supreme power. Their legislative acts took the form of resolutions and ordinances, which were final. As early as August, 1776, it was resolved to give bounties in land, to soldiers and officers in the war of liberation. A tract was directed to be surveyed for this purpose in Ohio, in 1796. It is still known as the "Military bounty lands," lying next west of the seven ranges, fifty miles down the line to the south, bounded north by the treaty line of 1795, and extending west to the Scioto river. Its southwest corner is near Columbus. For this tract the surveyors were able to bring supplies up the Muskingum and the Scioto rivers in boats. In the bounty lands the townships were directed to be five miles square, with subdivisions into quarters, containing . 4,000 acres. The allotment of the quarter towns was left to the owners.

It was not until 1799 that the surveys wefe again placed in charge of a special officer, with the title of surveyor-general.

General Rufus Putnam, of Marietta, was appointed to the place, which he held until the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union. Putnam was a self-taught mathematician, surveyor and engineer, on whom Washington relied for the con- struction of the lines investing the city of Boston in 1775-1776. He compre- hended at once the rectangular system of surveys, and so did the surveyors of the New England States. He served until the State of Ohio was organized in 1803 and was succeeded by Jared Mansfield, of the United States Military En- gineers. Both these gentlemen were for their times accomplished mathematicians and engineers.

The sale of lands in the seven ranges was so slow, that there was for several years no necessity for additional surveys. At two dollars per acre, and in tracts of not less than a section of 640 acres, the western emigrant could do better in other parts of Ohio and in Kentucky. The purchasers of the Symmes' purchase paid for the entire tract sixty-seven cents per acre. On the Reserve the State of Connecticut offered her lands at fifty cents.

In the Virginia military reservation, the whole was available in State warrants that were very cheap. The Ohio Company paid principally in continental cer- tificates.

136

THE PUBLIC LANDS OF OHIO.

After 1796 the military bounty land came in competition, which could be had in tracts of 4,000 acres for bounty certificates, issued under the resolutions of 1776 and 1780. In 1795 the Western Reserve was sold in a body at about forty cents per acre. These large blocks covered full half of the State of Ohio.

By the act of May 18, 1796, additional surveys were provided for. First: In the district between the Ohio Company and the Scioto river. Here it was found that a correctional meridian was necessary, because of the excess in the sections, abutting on the west line of the company at range fifteen .* The correction was made by establishing a true meridian between ranges seventeen and eighteen with sections of an exact mile square. Between the Ohio river and Hampden, in Vinton county, the correction north and south amounted to a mile. The errors from the variation of the needle were such that quarter sections abutting on the true meridian on the east, were nearly as large as full sections on the west.

There are also discrepancies on the north line of the Ohio Company, especially between Hocking and Perry counties. On the south side the sections overrun in some instances twenty acres. On the north, the government surveys are some- times short 25 to 28 acres. On the county maps in the Symmes' purchase, the section lines present a singular appearance. Their east and west boundaries are the most irregular, especially in the later surveys. This difference is due not so much to the compass as the chain, and the allowance for rough ground. Land was of so little value that very little care was given to the accuracy of surveys.

Secondly : By the same act, seven ranges were to be surveyed on the Ohio river, next west of the first meridian, now in Indiana ; also in the country between this meridian and the great Miami. In both tracts, the towns were numbered from the river northward. Quarter posts were required at each half mile, and the land was offered in half sections, to be divided by the purchaser, the price remaining at two dollars per acre.

It was not until after the war of 1812-15, and the conquest of the Indian ter- ritory north of Wayne's treaty line, that surveys were ordered in the northwest quarter of Ohio. For this tract a base line was run on or near the forty-first parallel of latitude, corresponding to the south line of the Reserve. The ranges were numbered east from the first meridian, being the west line of Ohio, and the towns numbered north and south from the base. It is seventeen ranges east to the west line of the Reserve, and from the Pennsylvania line twenty-one ranges west, making the breadth of the State about 228 miles.

From 1779 to 1785 parties holding Virginia State land warrants located them on the north side of the Ohio. This was done against the law of Virginia and her cession of 1784. The valley of the Hocking river was occupied as far as Logan when, in the fall of 1785, the claimants were removed by the United States troops. Probably these claims had been surveyed. In the Virginia military tract the private surveys were so loose as to be entirely useless for geographical purposes. In order to fix the Little Miami river on the official roaps, an east and west line was run from near Chillicothe through the reservation, connecting the United States surveys from the Scioto river to the Little Miami. According to the present practice there are corrective lines and guide meridians within thirty to fifty miles of each other. The towns and sections are thus made nearly equal by these frequent checks upon errors of chaining, of the variation of the needle, and the convergence of meridians. It was not until 1804 that sales were made in quarter sections, and it was 1820 before the price was fixed at $1.25 per acre, which could be located in half or quarter sections as it has been ever since.

* See line A A of plan.

HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN OHIO.

BY GEORGE W. KNIGHT, PH. D.,

Professor of History and Political Science in Ohio State University.

GEORGE WELLS KNIGHT was born June 25, 1858, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, of New York and New England parentage, and through his mother is a lineal descendant of William Bradford, second Governor of the Plymouth colony. He was edu- cated in the public schools of Anu Arbor, being graduated from the high school in 1874, and at the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1878 in the classical course. After studying law for a year at the university he was for two years principal of the high school at Lan- sing, Michigan. He was married in January, 1882, to Mariette A. Barnes, of Lansing, a gradu- ate of Vassar College. Having had from his youth a special fondness for history and political science he returned to Ann Arbor and continued his studies in those lines at the university, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1884. After teaching history for a year in Ann Arbor he was elected professor of history and English literature in the Ohio State University at Columbus, and in 1887, by a rearrangement of the teaching force, became professor of history and political science in the same institution. In 1885 he published through the American Historical Association a work on " The History and Management of Land Grants for Education in the Northwest Territory." In 1887 he was made managing editor of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Quarterly, the official publication of the State Historical So- ciety.

GEO. W. KNIGHT.

COMMON SCHOOL ENDOWMENT AND TAXATION.

IN few regions into which civilization has advanced have the educational be- ginnings been made before settlements were planted and the children actually needed school facilities. The history of education, or of the provisions for it, in Ohio commenced, however, before there was an American settlement northwest _ of the Ohio river or any wave of migration was rolling towards the wilderness between the great lakes and " the beautiful river."

In an ordinance passed by Congress in 1785 for the survey and sale of the western lands, it was provided that section sixteen, or one thirty-sixth, of every township included under the ordinance should be reserved from sale for the maintenance of public schools within the township. This reservation was made not because Congress especially desired to foster education at public expense, but rather as an inducement to migration and the purchase of land by settlers. In 1787 the famous ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory de- clared that "schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," thus pledging both the general government and the future States to provide in some manner for public schools. In the same year, in the contract between the Board of Treasury and the Ohio Company, it was specified that one section in each township of the purchase should be reserved for common schools and " not more than two complete townships " should be "given perpetually for the pur- poses of an university." A little later, by the contract for the Symmes purchase along the Little Miami, one township, in addition to the usual school sections,

(137)

138

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN OHIO.

was set aside for the benefit of "an academy and other public schools and sem- inaries of learning."

Two things should be noted in this connection : First, the foregoing provisions were all made before any settlement was planted within the territory to which they applied ; second, whatever the original intention of Congress may have been, these grants established, once for all, the idea that it is the duty of the American State to provide schools for its children and that it is the part of wis- dom for Congress, both as a land-owner and a governing body, to take measures which shall ensure the establishment and assist in the maintenance by the States of public schools and colleges.

As these lands were at first merely reserved from sale and settlement, no steps were taken by the territorial Legislature to apply them to the intended purpose. When Ohio became a State the school lands already reserved were granted to the State to be disposed of by the Legislature. Provision was also made whereby in the Western Reserve, the United States and the Virginia Military Districts, not included in the earlier legislation, one thirty-sixth of the land should be de- voted to schools. This act terminated the direct relations of the United States to the schools of Ohio and left in the hands of the Legislature a splendid school endowment of 704,000 acres of land.

The Constitution of 1802, repeating the famous educational clause of the or- dinance of 1787, made it the duty of the Legislature to carry out its intent. It also provided that all schools, academies and colleges founded upon or supported by revenues from the land-grants should be open "for the reception of scholars, students and teachers of every grade without any distinction or preference what- ever." The Constitution of 1851 was far more specific and shows by its provisions that there had grown up by that time a positive demand for public schools. In plain terms it declares the duty of the General Assembly to provide by taxation or other- wise " a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State."

Such have been the organic provisions and constitutional obligations assumed by the people of Ohio in regard to public education. What has the State done in fulfilling these duties ? As Ohio was the first State coming into possession of an extensive land endowment for education, she had no precedents to follow and could look to no older State for ideas concerning its management. Only the in- come arising from the proceeds of the lands could be expended. The fund itself must remain intact forever. The policy of leasing the lands was first adopted, and all laws on the subject until 1827 provided for leases of various periods and terms, the rents "to be impartially applied to the education of the youths" in the several townships. The character of the leases, the low appraisals of the lands and the terms of payment authorized show conclusively that during the greater part of this time the interests of the lessees were more carefully guarded by the Legislature than were those of the schools. Several special legislative committees were appointed between 1820 and 1825 to investigate abuses in the management of the school lands, and as a result the policy of leasing was abandoned and provision made for selling the lands and investing the proceeds. It was expected that by this change the school fund would be benefited and the income increased. The statute-books and executive reports from this time con- tain a curious mixture of wise and unwise suggestion and legislation and many complicated transactions concerning this trust fund. Without stopping to re- count these measures, not all of them creditable to the wisdom and honor of the General Assembly, it may be said that nearly all of the school lands have long since been sold, and that those unsold are under perpetual lease at an extremely low rental. As fast as the lands were sold the proceeds were paid into the State treasury, and the State has pledged itself to pay six per cent. interest thereon forever, the interest being annually distributed among the various townships and districts for school purposes. As a matter of fact the fund itself has been bor- rowed and spent by the State and the annual interest is raised by taxation. The fund thus exists only on the books of the State and merely constitutes a legal and moral obligation on the part of the people to tax themselves a certain amount annually for school purposes. That this disposition of the fund was never con- templated when the grant was made cannot be questioned. Of the original grant of 704,488 acres about 665,000 acres have been sold, producing a fund of $3,829,-

139

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN OHIO.

551.06, which yielded an income in 1887 of $229,392.90, to which should be added the rents of the unsold lands, making a total income from the Congressional land- grant of about $240,000.

In the course of a careful study of this subject a few years since the writer of the present sketch reached the following conclusions :

" That the possibilities of the grant have not been realized is acknowledged and regretted by all. The great underlying cause was one by no means peculiar to Ohio or to the times-the failure to appreciate the responsibility imposed upon the State in guarding this immense trust. It seems undeniable that many of her lands were forced into market in advance of any call for their sale. So long as the State was the guardian of the property it ought not to have sanctioned proceedings which sold land for five, ten or twenty per cent. of what might have been realized.

" Yet, even though much has been wasted, the grants have been instrumental, in a degree that cannot be estimated in mere dollars and cents, in promoting the cause of education. Perhaps the greatest benefit rendered by the funds has been in fostering among the people a desire for good schools. The funds have made practicable a system of education which without them it would have been im- possible to establish."

For many years both before and after the land grant began to produce any in- come, whatever schools were in existence in Ohio were sustained wholly or prin- cipally by private subscription, and by rate .bills paid by those whose children attended the schools. These were hardly public schools and certainly not free schools since, like academies or denominational colleges, they were open only to those who could afford to pay for the tuition.

In 1821 the first law was passed that authorized the levying of a tax for the support of schools. By this law authority was given for the division of townships into school districts, and for the election of district school committees, who might erect school-houses and lay a school tax not greater than one-half the State and county tax. While this law committed the State to the idea of taxation for the support of schools it was a permission, not a compulsory law, and was not de- signed to make "free public schools ;" for the proceeds of the tax were to be used only for buying land, erecting buildings, and " making up the deficiency that may accrue by the schooling of children whose parents or guardians are unable to pay for the same." The day of free schools had not yet arrived. But the idea of local taxation for the maintenance of schools has developed from 1821 to the present, and in 1887 the local taxes in Ohio for school purposes aggregated $7,445,399.02.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 20

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