USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 3
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date thereof, or from such future period, not exceeding two years from the date, as circumstances, in the opinion of the committee, may require, and as may be agreed on between them and the said purchaser or purchasers, with good and sufficient snreties, inhabitants of this State, or with a sufficient deposit of bank or other stock of the United States, or of the particular States, which note or bond shall be taken payable at a period not more remote than five years from the date, or if by annual installments, so that the last installment be payable within ten years from the date, cither in specie or in six per cent., three per cent., or deferred stock of the United States, at the discretion of the committec. That if the committee shall find that it will be most beneficial to thic State, or its citizens, to form several contracts for the sale of said lands, they shall not consummate any of the said contracts apart by themselves while the others lie in a train of negotiation only, but all the contracts which taken together shall comprise the whole quantity of the said lands shall be consummated together, and the purchasers shall hold their respective parts or proportions as tenants in common of the whole tract or terri- tory, and uot in severalty. That said committee, in whatever manner they shall find it best to sell the lands, whether by an entire contract or by several contracts, shall in no case be at liberty to sell the whole quantity for a principal sum less than one million of dollars in specie, or if the day of payment be given, for a sum of less value than one million of dollars in specie, with interest at six per cent. per annum from the time of such sale."
The following were appointed a committee to negotiate the sale : John Tread- well, James Wadsworth, Marvin Wait, William Edmonds, Thomas Grosvenor, Aaron Austin, Elijah Hubbard, and Sylvester Gilbert. These eight persons were selected, one from each of the eight counties of the State. They effected a sale in separate contracts with forty-eight different individuals, realizing for the State the sum of one million two hundred thousand dollars. Most of the pur- chasers made their bargains each separately from the others, although iu some instances several associated together and took their deeds jointly. The contracts made were as follows : with
Joseph Howland, ?
$30,461
Solomon Cowles.
$10,000
Daniel L. Coit,
Oliver Phelps.
168,155
Elias Morgan,
51,402
Ashael Hathaway
12,000
Daniel L. Coit, 5
John Caldwell, {
Peleg Sandford,
Timothy Burr.
15,231
Joseph Williams
15,231
Luther Loomis,
William Low.
10,500
Ebenezer King, Jr., S
William Judd
16,250
William Lyman, )
Elisha Hyde, ?
John Stoddard,
24,730
Uria Tracey, S
David King,
James Johnson
30.000
Moses Cleaveland
Samuel Mather, Jr.
15,461
Samuel P. Lord.
14,092
Ephraim Kirby,
Roger Newbury,
Elijah Boardman,
60,000
Enoch Perkins,
38,000
Uriel Holmes, Jr.,
Jonathan Brace,
Oliver Phelps, 2
Ephraim Starr.
17,415
Solomon Griswold.
10,000
Jabez Stocking, Į
11,423
William Hart
30,462
Joshua Stow,
Titus Street.
22,846
Ashnr Miller
34,000
James Bull,
Aaron Olmstead,
30,000
Ephraim Post.
42,000
John Wyles,
Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr
19,039
Pierpont Edwards
60,000
Amonnting to $1,200,000
The State by its committee made deeds to the several purchasers in the foregoing amounts, each grantee becoming owner of such a proportion of the entire pur- chase as the amount of his contract bore to the total amount. For example, the last-named individual, Pierpont Edwards, having engaged to pay sixty thousand dollars towards the purchase, received a deed for sixty thousand twelve hundred thousandths of the entire Reserve, or one-twentieth part. These deeds were re- corded in the office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut, and afterwards copied into a book, commonly designated as the " Book of Drafts."
The individuals above named formed themselves into a company called the Connecticut Land Company, a brief history of whose doings will be presented in the succeeding chapter.
CHAPTER III.
THE CONNECTICUT LAND COMPANY.
THE members of this company effected an organization on the 5th day of September, 1795. This was done at Hartford, Connecticut. They adopted articles of association and agreement, fourteen in number. Their first article designated the name by which they chose to be known. Article number two provided for the appointment of a committee, consisting of three of their number, -John Caldwell, John Brace, and John Morgan,-to whom each purchaser was
15,000
Caleb Atwater
22,846 S,750
Daniel Holbrook
57,400
Sylvanus Griswold
1,683
Henry Champion (2d)
85,675
Robert C. Johnson.
60,000
Gideon Granger, j
$0,000
44,318
32,600
¢
11
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
required to execute a deed in trust of his share in the purchase, receiving in exchange a certificate from these trustees showing that the holder thereof was entitled to a certain sharc in the Connecticut Western Reserve, which certificate of share was transferable by proper assignment. The form of this certificate is given in Article IX. Article III. provides for the appointment of seven directors, and empowers them to procure an extinguishment of the Indian title to said Reserve ; to cause a survey of the lands to be made into townships con- taining each sixteen thousand acres; to fix on a township in which the first settlement shall be made, to survey the township thus sclected into lots, and to sell such lots to actual settlers only; to erect in said township a saw-mill and a grist-mill at the expense of the company; and to lay out and sell five other townships to actual settlers only. Article IV. obliges the surveyors to keep a regular field-book, in which they shall accurately describe the situation, soil, waters, kinds of timber, and natural productions of each township; said book to be kept in the office of the clerk of said directors, and open at all times to the inspection of each proprietor. Article V. provides for the appointment by the directors of a clerk, and names his duties. Article VI. makes it obligatory upon the trustees to give to each of the proprietors a certificate as named above. Article VII. imposes a tax of ten dollars upon each share to enable the directors to accomplish the duties assigned to them. Article VIII. divides the purchase into four hundred shares, and gives each shareholder one vote for every share up to forty shares, when he shall thereafter have but one vote for every five shares, except as to the question of the time of making a partition of the territory, in determining which every share shall be entitled to one vote. Article X. fixes the dates of several future meetings to be held. Article XI. reads : " 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, accord- ing to quantity, quality, and situation ; and when said commissioners shall have so divided said Reserve, and made a report in writing of their doings to said directors, describing precisely the boundaries of each part, the said directors shall call a meeting of said proprietors, giving the notice required by these articles ; 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 paper, and shall, in the presence of such meeting, 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 designated by such number shall be aparted to such person or persons requesting such a severance, and the said trustces shall, upon receiving a written direction from said directors for that purpose, execute a deed to such person or persons accordingly ; after which, such person or persons shall have no power to act in said company." Article XII. empowers the company to raise money by a tax on the proprietors, and to dispose, upon certain conditions, of so much of a proprietor's interest, in case of delinquency, as shall be necessary to satisfy the assessment. Article XIII. provides for the appointment by the com- pany of a successor to a trustee who may have caused a vacancy in the office by death. Article XIV. places the directors in the transaction of any business of the company under the control of the latter " by a vote of at least three-fourths of the interest of said company."
The following gentlemen were chosen to constitute the board of directors : Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion (2d), Moses Cleaveland, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby, Samuel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newbury. At a meeting held in April, 1796, Ephraim Root was made clerk, and continued to act in this capacity until the dissolution of the company, in 1809. A moderator was chosen at each meeting, and changes of directors were made from time to time.
THE NAMES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CONNECTICUT LAND COMPANY.
The following are the names of the persons who subscribed to the " Articles of Association and Agreement constituting the Connecticut Land Company":
Ashur Miller, Uriel Holmes, Jr., Ephraim Starr, Luther Loomis, Roger Newbury for Justin Ely, Elisha Strong, Joshua Stow,
Joseph Howland, Pierpont Edwards,
James Bull,
Elisha Hyde,
Titus Street,
Uriah Tracey,
William Judd,
William Lyman,
Robert C. Johnson,
Samuel P. Lord,
Daniel Holbrook, Ephraim Root, Solomon Griswold,
Jahez Stocking,
Gideon Granger, Jr., Tephaniah Swift,
Ebenezer King, Jr., Roger Newhury,
Elijah White,
Enoch Perkins, Elijah Boardman, William Hart,
Samuel Mather, Jr.,
Caleh Atwater, Nehemiah Huhhard, Jr., Lemuel Storrs,
Joseph Williams, Peleg Sandford, William M. Bliss, John Stoddard,
William Battle, Benajah Kent, Timothy Burr,
Eliphalet Austin,
Joseph C. Yates, and Samuel Mather, in behalf of themselves and their asso- ciates in Albany, State of New York.
Before this organized body of men lay the important work of obtaining a perfect title to their purchase ; of causing a survey of the lands to be made; of making partition of the same ; and then of inducing colonies of men to undertake the settlement.
To these tasks the purchasers addressed themselves in right good earnest. In order to make sound their title they must obtain from the United States a release of the government's claim,-a very just and formidable onc,-and to extinguish the title of the Indian, whose right to the soil rested upon the substantial basis of actual occupancy. Whatever interest Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York may have had in the Western Reserve had passed to the United States, and if none of the claiming States had title, the dominion and ownership were transferred to the general government by the treaty made with Great Britain at the close of the Revolution. There was, therefore, a very reasonable solicitude upon the part of the Connecticut Land Company lest the claim of the United States would, if issue were made, be proven to be of greater validity than that of Connecticut, the company's grantor. Another difficulty made itself felt. When an attempt was made to settle the Reserve, it was discovered that it was so far removed from Connecticut as to make it impracticable for that State to extend her laws over the same, or to make new ones for the government of the inhabitants. Congress had provided in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwestern Territory ; but to admit jurisdiction by the general government over this part of that territory would be a virtual acknowledgment of the validity of the govern- ment's title, and therefore an indirect proof of the insufficiency of the company's title. The right to such jurisdiction was therefore denied, and Connecticut was urged to obtain from the United States a release of the governmental claim. The result was that congress, on the 28th day of April, 1800, authorized the President to execute and deliver, on the part of the United States, letters patent to the governor of Connecticut, releasing all right and title to the soil of the Reserve, upon condition 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 Connecticut Land Company and to those who had purchased from it, and jurisdiction for the purposes of government vested in the United States.
THE EXTINGUISHMENT OF THE INDIAN TITLE.
At the close of the Revolution the general government sought by peaceable means to acquire the red man's title to the soil northwest of the Ohio. On the 21st of January, 1785, a treaty was coucluded at Fort McIntosh with four of the Indian tribes,-the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawas. By this treaty the Cuyahoga and the Portage between it and the Tuscarawas were agreed upon as the boundary on the Reserve between the United States and the Indians. All east of the Cuyahoga was in fact ceded to the United States. The Indians soon became dissatisfied, and refused to comply with the terms of the treaty. On January 9, 1789, another treaty was concluded at Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, between Arthur St. Clair, acting for the United States, and the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Sac Nations, by which the terms of the former treaty were renewed and confirmed. But only a short time elapsed before the Indians violated their compact. Peaceful means failing, it became necessary to compel obedience by the use of arms. Vigorous means for relief and protection for the white settler were called for and enforced. At first the Indians were successful ; but in 1794, General Wayne, at the head of three thou- sand five hundred men, encountered the enemy on the 20th day of August, on the Maumee, and gained a decisive victory. Nearly every chief was slain. The Treaty of Greenville was the result. General Wayne met in grand council twelve of the most powerful northwestern tribes, and the Indians again yielded their claims to the lands east of the Cuyahoga, and made no further effort to regain them.
The Cuyahoga 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 Cuyahoga was purchased. Thus the Indiau 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 ownership of the lands of the Reserve.
Ephraim Kelley, Oliver Phelps,
Thaddeus Levvett,
Solomon Cowles, Jonathan Brace, Daniel L. Coit, 3
Moses Cleaveland,
William Law, James Johnson,
12
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
SURVEY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE.
The title having been perfected, the company made preparations to survey the portion of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga. In the early part of May, 1796, the company fitted out an expedition for this purpose, of which Moses Cleaveland was the leader of a company,-all told of about forty inen,-five of them surveyors, one a physician, and the rest chainmen and axemen.
By previous arrangement they met at Schenectady, New York, at which point they commenced their journey, ascending the Mohawk in four flat-bottomed boats, proceeding by the way of Oswego, Niagara, and Queenstown to Buffalo, reaching the soil of the Reserve on the 4th of July.
ARRIVAL OF THE SURVEYORS.
The records of the Ashtabula Historical and Philosophical Society contain an interesting narrative made by Judge Stow of the journey of this surveying- party, and from this we gather what follows in relation to the expedition.
At the time the party commenced its journey, Fort Oswego, which they were compelled to pass, was garrisoned by the British. They anticipated difficulty in heing able to get beyond the fort. At Fort Stanwix, however, they had the good fortune to be overtaken hy Captain Cozzens, who had been sent by the British minister, Mr. Bond, with open dispatches to all his majesty's officers and sub- jects, announcing the ratification by both governments of Jay's Treaty, and that the navigation of the lakes should henceforth be free to all American vessels. They now anticipated no trouble. Captain Cozzens took passage on board Judge Stow's boat, and they ascended Wood creek toward Lake Ontario. When arrived at Oswego, however, permission to pass the fort was denied on the ground that his instructions were positive, and, without the sanetion of his superior officer, then at Niagara, he was powerless to grant the request.
Mr. Stow's instructions from the Land Company were not in any event to attempt to run by the fort ; hut if permission were withheld, to lie in wait until further orders from the company should he received. But the climate was unhealthy ; the soldiers in the garrison were many of them sick, and some of them dying ; time was precious, and the anxiety to reach the Reserve was great. After much deliberation, it was almost the unanimous voice of the party to attempt the passage. The boats were floated down to within four miles of the fort, when they were hauled into a small bay and secreted among the bushes. One of the boats was then relieved of the greater part of its cargo, manned with douhle oars, and, with the agent (Mr. Stow) on board, moved down to the fort. The British officer in command of the fort evidently supposed that the boat was on its way to Fort Niagara to obtain the consent of the officer in command at that point to make the passage, and the crew were not disturbed. The garrison was thrown off its guard hy this stratagem, and at dead of night the other boats passed the fort unobserved, and joined their companions on the waters of Lake Ontario. The following incident of the voyage will be of interest :
" The first boat had proceeded as far as to Sodus, where the little fleet intended to make a harbor. A sudden storm arose, and overtook the boats before they could reach Sodus. Night had come on, and the darkness was intense ; the storm became more and more violent, and the situation was one of imminent peril. Beacon-fires were built by the crew of the boat which had landed, but it was impossible for the rest of the boats to make the harbor. The situation of the agent at this moment was intensely painful. His companions were in a perilous situation, and it was out of his power to afford them any relief. They were but a short distance from a dangerous shore, and the next billow might dash their little barks in pieces. Besides, he had assumed the responsibility of running by the fort, and, although successful in that attempt, yet if the hoats were cast away or lost, the whole responsibility of the catastrophe would rest upon him. In this state of suspense and alarm, a man from one of the boats came running from the beach with the intelligence that all was lost.
" No anxiety could be greater or suffering more intense than that of the men on shore. They ran up and down the beach to see if it were not possible to render some assistance or gain some tidings from their companions. They found thrown upon the shore a gun and oar, which they recognized as belonging to Captain Beard, who was in charge of one of the boats. This increased their alarm. The next moment, however, they met Captain Beard himself, and anxiously asked if all were lost. He replied that nothing was lost but a gun and an oar ! No lives were lost. The boats sustained much injury, and one was so badly damaged it could not be repaired and was abandoned."
Without more adventure worthy of note Mr. Stow and his comrades reached the mouth of Conneaut creek in the early part of July, 1796.
The names of this surveying-party, a company of fifty-two persons, all told, are as follows : Moses Cleaveland, the Land Company's agent ; Joshua Stow, commissary ; Augustus Porter, principal surveyor ; Seth Pease, Moses Warren, Amos Spafford, Milton Holley, and Richard M. Stoddard, surveyors; Theodore
Shepard, physician ; Joseph Tinker, principal boatman ; Joseph McIntyre. George Proudfoot, Francis Gray, Samuel Forbes, Elijah Gunn, wife, and child, Amos Sawtel, Samuel Hungerford, Amos Barber, Stephen Benton, Amzi Atwater, Asa Mason, Michacl Coffin, Samuel Davenport, Samuel Agnew, Shadrach Benham, William B. Hall, Elisha Ayers, George Gooding, Norman Wilcox, Thomas IIarris, Timothy Dunham, Wareham Shepard, David Beard, John Briant, Titus V. Munson, Joseph Landon, Olney F. Rice, James Hamilton, John Lock, James Halket, Job V. Stiles and wife, Charles Parker, Ezekiel Morley, Nathaniel Doan, Luke Hanchet, Samuel Barnes, Daniel Shulay, and Stephen Burbank.
It is a noteworthy coincidence that this advance-guard of the army of civiliza- tion that was soon to people the territorial limits of what is now known as " Old Ashtabula," first touched her soil on the anniversary of America's independence. Thus in this signal manner did a new colony, destined to play so important a part in the future of the nation, begin its existence on the same day of the same month in which the nation itself began to exist. Nor were these sons of Revolutionary fathers oblivious of the day which not only commemorates the birth of their country's freedom, but should henceforth be to them and their posterity the anniversary of the day on which their pilgrimage ended, and on which began their labors, toils, and sufferings for the establishment in the wilderness of Ohio of homes for themselves and their children. Animated with emotions appropriate to the occasion, these Pilgrim Fathers of the Western Reserve celebrated the day with such rude demonstations of patriotic devotion and joy as they were able to invent.
They gathered together in groups on the eastern bank of the creek now known as the Conneaut ; they pledged fidelity to their country in liquid dipped from the pure waters of the lake; they discharged from two or three fowling-pieces the national salute; they ate, drank, and were merry, blessing the land which many of them had assisted in delivering from British oppression; and they may have indulged in glowing predictions as to the future greatness and glory of the colo- nies they were about to plant. Could one of their number who shared their fancies, but who lived to see no part of them realized, behold to-day the changes which have proceeded in so wonderful a manner, we think that he would admit that the boldest anticipations of the little party of 1796 were but a feeble con- ception of the reality. However difficult it might be for him to understand the stages of the process by which so great a transformation has taken place, the actual truth would still present itself for his contemplation. What would astonish him most would be, not the conquest of forests, but that they have been succeeded by the numerous thriving cities and villages and the multitudinous homes of the prospering farmer, established on nearly every quarter-section of land in this county ; that distance has been annihilated by the use of steam and the conse- quent acceleration of speed; that wealth and population have been so rapidly cumulative ; that the community is so opulent and enlightened ; that education is fostered by so admirable a system of free schools ; that intelligence is univer- sally diffused by so many representatives of a free press; that moral opinion has gained such ground; that religion is sustained by the convictions of an enlightened faith, and that the happiness of the people is universal and secure.
They christened the place where occurred these demonstrations of patriotism and joy Fort Independence, and the following are the toasts which they drank :
1st. The President of the United States.
2d. The State of Connecticut.
3d. The Connecticut Land Company.
4th. May the Port of Independence and the fifty sons and daughters who have entered it this day be successful and prosperous !
5th. May these sons and daughters multiply in sixteen years sixteen times fifty !
· 6th. May every person have his howsprit trimmed and ready to enter every port that opens !
The surveyors proceeded to the south line of the Reserve, and ascertained the point where the forty-first degree of north latitude intersects the western line of Pennsylvania, and from this line of latitude, as a base, meridian lines five miles apart were run north to the lake. Lines of latitude were then run five miles apart, thus dividing the Reserve into townships five miles square. As the lands lying west of the Cuyahoga remained in possession of the Indians until the Treaty of Fort Industry, in 1805, the Reserve was not surveyed at this time farther west than to the Cuyahoga and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas, a distance west from the western line of Pennsylvania of fifty-six miles. The remainder of the Reserve was surveyed in 1806. The surveyors began, as we have seen, at the southeast corner of the Reserve, and ran parallel lines north from the base-line and parallel lines west from the Pennsylvania line five miles apart. The meridian lines formed the ranges, and the lines of latitude the town- ships. The southeast corner of what is now Ashtabula County is thirty-five miles distant from the southeast corner of the Reserve, and the southeast township
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