USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 8
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When Virginia relinquished her claims to the land north of the Ohio, it reserved certain tracts of land known as Virginia Military Lands and that part of Champaign county east of the Ludlow Line falls within this military land. According to the agreement with Congress Virginia was to have the right to reserve a tract of land lying between the Scioto on the east and the Little Miami on the west. The northern boundary of the said tract was to be a line drawn from the headwaters of the Little Miami to the headwaters of the Scioto.
This line was surveyed by Israel Ludlow in 1802 and it bears his name of this day. It had been ordered surveyed by Congress in the act of May 10, 1800. The map of the state of Ohio issued by Rufus C. Putman, sur- veyor general of the United States, in January, 1804, has this line drawn from the headwaters of the Little Miami northwesterly to the Greenville Treaty Line of 1795. The southern terminus of the line is in Clark county, in the southwest half of section 30, township 7, range 8 (that is, near the boundary between Clark and Madison counties, about three and one-half miles east of South Charleston. ) The line bears about twenty degrees west of north, or it was supposed to; and passing in that general direction through the remainder of Clark it runs through Champaign county and into Logan until it reaches the Greenville Treaty Line. The line in Logan county passes through Bellefontaine, the county seat, about three squares east of the court house, and meets the Greenville Line one-half mile west of the northeast cor- ner of Harrison township.
The Ludlow Line as originally surveyed was run too far to the east: in fact, instead of being twenty degrees west, it was only about seventeen. It was found that the source of the Scioto was several miles further west
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than it was designated by the Congressional Act and then run by Ludlow. In other words, the state of Virginia was not getting as much land for its Revolutionary soldiers as it was supposed to get. The line which was sup- posed to connect the headwaters of the Little Miami and Scioto bore too far to the east and thereby deprived the old soldiers of a considerable tract through Champaign, Logan and Auglaize counties to which they were right- fully entitled. The Ludlow Line of 1803 was known to be inaccurate, but it was several years after it was surveyed before an attempt was made to have it corrected.
CORRECTION OF THE LUDLOW LINE.
The demand for a corrected line was brought to the attention of Con- gress and it was finally ordered resurveyed. The second survey was run by a man by the name of Roberts and that part of the resurveyed line north of the Greenville Treaty Line has since been known as Roberts Line. The old Ludlow Line from its southern point in Clark county to the Greenville Line in Logan county was not changed, but subsequent acts of Congress straightened out the title to several tracts of land which lay beween the Lud- low line as it was incorrectly drawn and the corrected Roberts Line to the west. Two acts of Congress are referred to in the Champaign county records-May 26, 1824, and May 26, 1830-as having been passed to quiet titles to land "between the Ludlow and Roberts Lines. As a matter of fact, the maps of today recognize the Roberts Line graphically only above the Greenville Line; that is, from that line to the headwaters of the Scioto. For the purposes of survey and for the description and definition of all town- ship lines, roads, etc., the old Ludlow Line is still used from the Greenville Line southwesterly to its beginning in eastern Clark county, notwithstanding that it is known to be incorrect. This is done because practically all the sur- veys of the county had been established in relation to it before it was definitely known that it was not a true line. It was felt that it would be unnecessary to resurvey all the land, roads, etc., to conform to the corrected line; and instead, Congress was asked to pass special acts to straighten out such diffi- culties as might ensue from defective titles to land in the narrow strip between the Ludlow and Roberts Lines.
The resurvey of land between the old and new lines is responsible for an endless amount of litigation which has not disappeared even to this day. Many of the surveyors were paid in land warrants, others in land and in some
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cases the surveyors may have been paid in tobacco. The testimony of an old surveyor, E. I .. Morgan, may be brought forward to substantiate the use of tobacco in paying for surveying.
FEES PAID SURVEYORS IN THE OLD DAYS.
In 1793 Virginia passed an act which set forth the fees which might be charged by surveyors. To quote from this act (Henry's Statutes of Vir- ginia, p. 353) : "For every survey by him plainly bounded, as the law (lirects, and for a plan of such survey, after the delivery of such plat, where the survey shall not exceed four hundred acres of land, two hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco; for every hundred acres contained in one survey above four hundred, twelve pounds of tobacco; for surveying a lot in town, twenty pounds of tobacco; and where the surveyor shall be stopped or hindered from finishing a survey by him begun, to be paid by the party who required the survey to be made, one hundred and twenty-five pounds of tobacco; for sur- veying an acre of land for a mill, fifty pounds of tobacco." The act gives details for the paying of the tobacco, but does not specify the kind of tobacco, the presumption being that it was plain leaf tobacco. In case the tobacco was not in hand the surveyor was to receive "tobacco notes or specie at the rate of twelve shillings and six pence for every hundred pounds of gross tobacco."
That this law of old Virginia was still in force in Ohio when land in Champaign county was being surveyed is testified to by E. L. Morgan, one of the first surveyors in the county. In speaking of the Ludlow Line in 1872 he remarked that "Jim Armstrong and I had been paid such fees for our services as surveyors, and all in tobacco, and could we have kept it until now (1872), we would be able to supply the upper and lower ten and their little boys with cigars for a month or more, besides poisoning all the potato bugs in the county." The "Jim" Armstrong referred to was county surveyor, later county treasurer, still later the organizer of a bank and eventually became the president of the first national bank in Urbana.
A DETAIL. REGARDING ISRAEL LUDLOW.
That Israel Ludlow's activities throughout this section of the country had their beginning even as early as territorial days is evidenced by the fol- lowing letter written by him and which is copied from a volume of Cist's "Cincinnati Miscellany, or Antiquities of the West," published in 1845:
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Pittsburgh, December 2ud, 1795.
Dear Sir-The hurry of business, while at Mad River, prevented my enclosing you a power of attorney, to transact my business in my absence. I now write you and fully signify my approbation to such sales and conveyances of lots, in the town of Cincinnati. as you may think proper, and at such prices as you can agree upon. I would pen the request and authorize you, should I not be at Cincinnati early next Spring, to lease to the best advantage my out lots there. Our journey from Mad River to this place was long and tedious, arising from high waters; some detention on account of the Indians; we were obliged to have a talk with all that fell in our way, and had also a very bushy country to travel through-but have the pleasure to Inform you, that a good road may be had from Cincinnati to this place, the distance less than three hundred miles-would be under particular obligations to you, if you would endeavor to prevent the destruction of fences around my out lots. Am, sir.
With due respect and esteem, your obedient servant,
ISRAEL LUDLOW. MIR. JOEL WILLIAMS.
It will be remembered that in 1795 Congress concluded a treaty with the Indians following the battle of Fallen Timbers. This treaty was signed at Greenville, Ohio, and is known in history as the Greenville treaty and the - line marking the division between the Indian lands and those relinquished by them to Congress was known as. the Greenville Treaty Line. From the above letter of Ludlow, it would seem that he might have had something to do with the establishment of this line. Certainly, this letter shows con- clusively that he was surveying in Ohio several years before he laid out the line which bears his name to this day.
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CHAMPAIGN COUNTY IN 1805.
Map showing the county as divided into three townships by the associate judges on April 20, 1805. The present limits of Champaign county are indicated by broken lines.
Greenville Treaty Line of 1795
The MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP of April 20, 1805 included all of the present townships of Adams, Johnson, Jackson, Harrison, Concord and Mad River in Champaign county; also the townships in Clark and Logan counties West of the line dividing congressional townships 4 and 5.
The SALEM TOWNSHIP of April 20, 1805 included all of the present county ;of Champaign East of the line dividing congressional townships 4 and 5 and that part of Logan county South of the Greenville Treaty
Line
The SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP of 1805 was a strip seven miles wide extending across the southern part of the county. Its northern limit was four miles south of the present southern boundary of Champaign county.
Southern limit established on line between Ranges 8 and 9.
CHAPTER III.
COUNTY ORGANIZATION.
The first appearance of Champaign county in the annals of history was made when the Legislature of the state of Ohio passed the act of February 20, 1805, which provided for the creation of a county bearing that name, its formal organization to take place on the first of the following month. The first limits of the county were much more extensive than the county has today, as may be seen by the wording of the act creating the county. There is so much geographical ambiguity in the act describing the original limits of the county that it is impossible to delineate with any certainty the limits of the county as set forth in the act of February 20, 1805. The difficulty in defining these original limits arises from the fact that the framers of the act described the bounds not by township, range and section lines, neither by reference to natural features, but solely with reference to counties previously established. To quote the act :
ACT ESTABLISHING THE COUNTY OF CHAMPAIGN.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc., That so much of the counties of Green and Franklin, as comes within the following boundaries, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate and distinct county, which shall be known by the name of Champaign, viz: beginning where the range line between the eighth and ninth ranges, between the Great and Little Miami, intersects the eastern boundary of the county of Green, and to continue six miles in the county of Franklin; thence north to the state line; thence west with said line until it intersects the said eastern boundary of the county of Montgomery; thence to the place of beginning.
Sec. 2. That from and after the first day of March next, the said county of Cham- paigu, shall be vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities of a separate and distinct county ; provided, always, that all actions and suits which may be pending on the first day of March next, shall be prosecuted and carried into final Judgment and exe- cution, and all taxes, fees, fines and forfeitures which shall be due, shall be collected in the same manner as if this act had not been passed.
Sec. 3. That the temporary seat of Justice for said county, shall be at the town of Springfield, at the house of George Fithen. [Fithian] until the permanent seat of justice be fixed according to law.
Sec. 4. That this act shall commence and be in force, from and after the first day of March next.
(6)
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CONFUSION REGARDING ORIGINAL BOUNDS.
It would take an expert cartographer to delineate on the map of the state the limits above described. First, it is necessary to determine the location of the eighth and ninth ranges and the limits of the Montgomery county of 1805; secondly, the limits of Greene and Franklin as they existed at the same time. In fact the only definite line described in this act of 1805 is the north- ern boundary and yet even this line is not given definite eastern and western limits. Again, while the act specifically states that the northern limit in 1805 was the state line, it seems certain that the men who framed the act did not take into consideration the Greenville Treaty line of 1795. As a matter of fact the state Legislature had no right to organize counties out of territory to which the Indians had not yet relinquished their title. Since the land immediately north of this line of 1795 was still in the possession of the Indians in 1805, it follows, perforce, that the limits of Champaign county in 1805 could not have extended farther north than the Greenville Line of 1795.
The addition of all this extensive tract north of the Greenville Treaty Line to the Champaign county of 1805 was in pursuance of the policy of the Legislature to add to each regularly organized county of the northern tier certain portions of Indian or unorganized territory, the territory so attached to be under the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the organized county. In 1805 Champaign was the farthest county to the north in the western part of the state and it was necessary to attach all the territory north to the state line to it in order to give the protection of the state to the few settlers who might have settled within the territory in question.
There is nothing in the local commissioners' records to indicate that there was any attempt to organize townships in the portion north of the Green- ville Line. On the other hand the fact that Champaign county did have some kind of jurisdiction over the tract north of the present limits of the county and to the state line is shown by records of townsites in the region in question. There is a townsite recorded in the local records which stood on the present site of Toledo, and there can be no question that Champaign county once had civil and criminal jurisdiction over the territory now within the present city of Toledo. There are other fugitive references to land titles in the section north of the Greenville Line, but it cannot be said that the history of Champaign county had much more than a sentimental connection with Toledo.
The county commissioners organized township after township between
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1805 and 1817, but in no one of the twenty-five townships is there any indi- cation that they considered the northern limits of the county extending beyond the Greenville Treaty Line.
The best evidence in proof of this statement lies in the fact that the com- missioners in the townships they organized in what is now Logan county recognized the 1795 line as the northern limit of the county and in the town- ships of Jefferson, Lake, Harrison, Miami and Zane, no part of any of these five townships lay north of the 1795 line. Additional refutation of the tradi- tion that Champaign county extended north of this line is found in the descrip- tion of Zane township as set forth in the commissioners' records of Cham- paign county in 1814; "Beginning at the southeast corner of Jefferson town- ship; thence north to the Indian boundary ; hence with said boundary to the Delaware county line; thence south with said line to Wayne township; west to the place of beginning." This description gives Zane township the limits of the present Perry and Zane townships of Logan county.
LIMITS OF COUNTY PRIOR TO 1818.
There seems to be no way to define the limits of the Champaign county of 1805 and the uncertainty which existed one hundred years ago in regard to county lines has not entirely disappeared even to this day. In 1888 the surveyor of Champaign county made a detailed survey of the line between Champaign county on the one side and Madison and Union counties on the other. The line which he determined does not coincide in all particulars with any of the various lines established in preceding surveys. Even since that year other attempts have been made definitely to establish the eastern line of the county-but in vain. The best local authorities today agree that the southeastern corner of the county is not definitely established and further- more there does not appear to be any means of establishing it. Five differ- ent stones, established by as many different surveyors, mark this uncertain, wavering southeastern corner of the county.
The difficulty which has attended the orientation of the eastern limits of the county is due, of course, to the fact that it falls within that portion of the state which is surveyed by metes and bounds. In that part of the state where the rectangular system of surveying does not obtain there is, and always has been, an endless amount of confusion and litigation due to the inability of surveyors to follow with any degree of exactness the surveys of the first surveyors of the state.
The Ludlow Line traverses Champaign county from the southeast to
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the northwest and all that part of the county east of it falls in the old metes- and-bounds system of surveying, while that to the west is all surveyed accord- ing to the rectangular system. Little difficulty is experienced in the sur- veys of that part of the county surveyed by the latter system. It has already been mentioned that the local commissioners' records are missing from . the organization of the county in 1805 up to 1818 and this fact renders it impossible to trace the formation of the townships, define their boundaries or set forth with any certitude the limits of the civil divisions of the county prior to 1818.
Prior to the creation of Champaign county in 1805 the following coun- ties had been defined by the governor of the Northwest Territory (between 1788 and 1799) and the Legislature of the Northwest Territory (between 1799 and 1803) :
Washington
. July 27, 1788
Hamilton
. January 4, 1790
Wayne
August 6, 1796
Adams
. July 10, 1797
Jefferson
. July 29, 1797
Ross
August 20, 1798
Trumbull
July 10, 1800
Clermont
December 9, 1800
Fairfield
December 9, 1800
Columbiana
March 25, 1803
Franklin
April 30, 1803
Gallia
April 30, 1803
Franklin
. April 30, 1803
Greene.
May, 1, 1803
Montgomery
. May 1, 1803
Scioto
May 1, 1803
Warren
May 1, 1803
Butler
May 1, 1803
In 1805 the Legislature created three new counties: Geauga, Highland and Champaign. As will be seen from the above table nine counties were created in 1803 and it was out of parts of counties previously organized that Champaign county was created by the legislative act of February 10, 1805.
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RELATION TO NEIGHBORING COUNTIES.
Champaign county stands in a peculiar relation to the six counties which adjoin it. It is, as it were, the mother county of Miami, Madison, Clark, Logan, Shelby and Union, although it did not give of its territory to assist in the formation of all of these six counties. The difficulty of defining the original limits of Champaign county renders it no less difficult to show how much of Champaign was detached and made a part of contiguous counties. There is no question concerning the southern and western limits of the county and as far as a legal northern limit is concerned it could have no other than the Greenville Treaty Line of 1795. This line may be defined in its course through Logan county as the line between Harrison and McArthur townships. That part of the state north of this line was still in the hands of the Indians in 1805 and consequently could not have been included within any county organ- ized by the Legislature. If, as the words of the act seem to indicate, the county did extended to the state line it would have included the counties of Hardin, Hancock, Wood and Lucas, as well as parts of Auglaize, Allen, Put- nam, Henry, Fulton, Wyandot and Union.
While the southern, western and northern limits of the original Cham- paign county are clearly defined, there is a lamentable confusion in estab- lishing the original eastern boundary of the county. The framers of the act organizing the county could not have set forth a more ambiguous line if they had tried. The only certainty concerning the eastern line is that it begins at the southeast corner of the county on a line which is an extension of the line dividing ranges 8 and 9; furthermore, this eastern line extends six miles into Franklin county from the northeastern corner of Greene county, wherever that corner may be, and thence due north to the state line. This east line passed through Madison and Union counties which were later cut off of Franklin.
Champaign county is bordered by Madison and Union counties on the east, Madison county bordering Champaign from the southeastern corner of the county northward to a distance of about one mile south of the line dividing the townships of Rush and Goshen. The remainder of the eastern side of the county joins Union county. That part of the eastern boundary of Champaign county bordering on Madison was first defined by the act of February 16, 1810, at which the Madison county was created by the Legislature. At that time Madison included what is now Union county and it was not until after the creation of Union ten years later that the entire eastern boundary of Champaign was fixed.
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Union county came into existence with the act of January 10, 1820, but its creation did not in any way change the old boundary line which had existed between Champaign and Franklin, a line which had been established in 1807. Champaign county is bound on the west by Shelby and Miami counties, the former to the north and the latter to the south. When Miami county was created January 16, 1807, it was given its present eastern boundary and there has been no change since it was established in that year. Shelby county was created on January 7, 1819, and the boundary line between it and Champaign remains as it was established in the beginning.
The line between Champaign and Clark counties was defined when Clark was organized by the legislative act of December 26, 1817. Clark was com- posed of territory taken from the organized counties of Champaign, Madi- son and Greene. The southern line of Champaign as defined in 1805 was the dividing line between ranges 8 and 9, a line which is eleven miles below the present Champaign-Clark line. This 1805 line may be also defined as an extension of the present boundary between the townships of Greene and Springfield in Clark county.
The line between Champaign and Logan counties was first defined by the legislative act of December 30, 1817, and has remained unchanged for . the past hundred years. It was defined in the following language: "Begin- ning on the east line of Miami county, between sections number thirty-three and thirty-four in the third township, thirteenth range, and running east twelve miles with the sectional line between the third and fourth tier of sections; thence south one mile; thence with the section line between the second and third tier of sections in said range, to the line between the United States land and the Virginia Military land [i. e., to the Ludlow Line] ; and thence east to the line of Champaign county."
TOWNSHIPS OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
The statement has been previously made that there were twenty-five townships organized in Champaign county between 1805 and 1818, in which latter year Logan county was set off from the north and Clark county from the south. It is not possible to give definite boundaries to these townships or show how the county looked at the time it was divided into this many townships. No records are available prior to 1818 to show the order in which the townships were organized. The first record in the auditor's office giving the limits of townships appears in the road records of 1818 and there may be seen the indefinite boundaries of the townships then in existence. They
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are given on the succeeding pages in the order in which they appear on the original records. In each instance the county of which they are now a part is indicated :
Bethel-Bounds of Bethel township are as follows, to-wit: On the east by Boston and German townships; on the north by the middle of the tenth range; on the west by the counties of Miami and Montgomery; and on the south by the county of Greene. [Clark ].
Boston-Bounds of Boston township is contained in the fourth original survey town- ship in the ninth range, to-wit: On the north by German township; on the west by Bethel township; on the south by Greene county; and on the east by Springfield town- ship. [Clark].
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