History of Lorain County, Ohio, Part 2

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia, Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 626

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There have been numerous claimants to the soil of the Reserve. In addition to the red man's title. France, England, the United States, Virginia, Massa- chusetts, New York, and Connecticut have all, at one time or another, asserted ownership. The claim of France arose by reason of its being a portion of the territory which she possessed by right of discovery. England laid claim to all territory ad joining those dis- triets lying along the Atlantic seaboard, whose soil she possessed by right of occupancy. asserting ownership from sea to sea. The greatest ignorance. however. prevailed in early times as to the inland extent of the American continent. During the reign of James I., Sir Francis Drake reported that. from the top of the mountains on the Isthmus of Panama, he had scon both oceans. This led to the belief that the continent from east to west was of no considerable extent, and that the South Sea. by which appellation the Pacific then was known, did not lie very far removed from the Atlantic. As late as 1740, the Duke of Newcastle addressed his letters to the "Island of New England." This ignorance of the inland extent of America, gave rise, as we shall see, to conflicting claims of western

* For the facts upon which this chapter is based we are largely indebted to an address delivered by Judge Boynton, at Elyria, July 4th, 1876.

HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.

territory. England's valid title to the great west was obtained through conquest, compelling France, in 1713 and 1763. to surrender nearly the whole of her American possessions. The United States succeeded Great Britain in her rights of ownership in American soil, and thus came to have a claim to the lands of the Reserve. The claims of Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut were obtained by virtue of charters granted to English subjects by English sovereigns. The tract of country embraced in the London Company's charter. granted by James I. in 1609, whence arose Virginia's claim, commenced its boundaries at Oll Point Comfort, on the Atlantic, and extended two hundred miles south, and two hun- dred north from this point. From the sonthernmost point. a line drawn due west to the Pacific formed the southern boundary; from the northernmost point. a tine running diagonalty northwesterly through Penn- sylvania and Western New York, across the eastern portion of Lake Erie, and terminating tinalty in the Arctic ocean, formed the northwestern boundary ; and the Pacific Ocean, or what was then called the South Sea, the western boundary. The vast empire lying within these four Jines included over one-half of the North American continent, and embraced all of what was afterwards known as the Northwestern Territory, including of course the lands of the Re- serve.

The claim of Massachusetts rested for its validity upon the charter of 1620, granted by James 1. to the Council of Plymouth, and embraced all the territory 'from the Atlantic to the Pacific lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude. This grant comprised an area of more than a million square miles, and included all of the present inhabited British possessions to the north of the United States, all of what is now New England, New York, one-half of New Jersey, very nearly all of Pennsylvania. more than the northern half of Ohio, and all the country to the west of these States. In 1630. the Earl of War- wiek obtained a grant to a part of the same territory, and in the following year assigned a portion of his grant to Lord Brooke and Viscounts Say and Seal.

In 1664, Charles H. ceded to his brother, the Duke of York, and afterwards King James IL. of England, the country from Delaware Bay to the River St. Croix, and afterward it was insisted that the granted territory extended westward to the Pacific. This constituted New York's claim to western territory, of which the lands of the Reserve were a portion. In 1662, the same monarch granted to nineteen patentees an ample charter, from which Connectient derived her claim to a territory bounded by Massachusetts on the north, the sea on the south, Narraganset Bay on the east, and the Pacitie on the west. This grant embraced a strip of land sixty-two miles wide. extending from Narra- gansett Bay on the cast to the Pacific ocean on the west; and the northern and southern boundaries of this tract were the same as those which now form the boundaries at the north and south of the Reserve.

Thus arose conflicting claims. The extent of terri- tory to which Virginia insisted that she was rightful owner was the largest, and included all the other claims. That of Massachusetts was next in size, and included the whole region claimed for Connecticut, as did the territory embraced in New York's claim.

The United States did not appear as a contestant until the time of the Revolutionary war, when she, with good reason, insisted that these disputed lands belonged of right to Great Britain's conqueror; that a vacant territory, wrested from a common enemy by the united arms, and at the joint expense and sacrifice of all the States, should be considered as the property of the conquering nation, to be hell in trust for the common benefit of the people of all the States. To show how groundless were the claims of these contesting States, it was pointed out that the charters upon which their titles were founded had in some instances been abrogated by judicial proceedings, and the companies to whom they had been given dissolved; that the charters were given at a time when much of the territory, to which ownership was claimed under them, was in the actual possession and occupancy of another power: that all the various grants were made in the grossest ignorance of the inland extent of the American continent; and that George Ill. had either repudiated the charters of his royal predecessors, or denied to them the right of sovereignty over territory of so vast extent, by issuing a proclamation forbidding all persons from intruding upon lands in the valley of the Ohio.

Popular feeling ran high. Contentions between conflicting claimants frequently resulted in bloodshed. The prospects of the American Union were darkened; the ratification of the Articles of Confederation was retarded; the difficulty and embarrassments in prose- enting the war for independence were greatly ang- mented. Maryland would not become a member of the Union unless the States claiming western territory would relinquish to Congress their title. In the midst of these gloomy and foreboding events, in which disaster to the common cause was more to be feared at the hands of its friends than of its enemies, Con- gress made a strong appeal to the claiming States to avert the approaching danger by a cessation of con- tentions discord among themselves, and by making liberal cessions of western territory for the common benefit. New York was the first to respond, and in 1480 ceded to the United States the lands she claimed lying west of a line running south from the western bend of Lake Ontario, reserving an area of nineteen thousand square miles. Virginia, in 1784, relinquished in favor of Congress her title to lands lying northwest of the Ohio, reserving a district of land in Ohio lying between the Seioto and Little Miami, which came to be known as the Virginia Military District, which reservation was made in order to enable Virginia to fulfill pledges to her soldiers in the Revolutionary war of bounties payable in western lands. In 1785, Massachusetts ceded the western territory to which

HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.

she had been a claimant, reserving the same nineteen thousand square miles reserved by New York, which disputed territory was afterwards divided equally be- tween these two States. Connecticut was the most reluctant and tardy of all the contesting States in sacrificing State pretensions for the common benetit. However, on the 14th day of September, 1786. her authorized delegates in Congress relinquished all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim that she possessed to land within her chartered limits lying west of a line one hundred and twenty miles west of and parallel with the western boundary line of the State of Pennsylvania. The tract of land and water lying west of Pennsylvania for one hundred and twenty miles, and between latitudes 41° and 42' 2' north, was not conveyed,-hence reserved by Con- netient, and hence was called the Western Reserve of Connecticut.

As Connectient's elaim included nearly the whole of the northern half of the present State of Pennsyl- vania, it infringed upon the rights of the people of the latter State or colony, who alleged ownership by virtue of the charter to William Penn, granted by James 11. of England, in 1681. Both States strove for the occupancy of the disputed soil, and Connec- tieut sold to certain individuals seventeen townships, situated on or near the Susquehanna river, organized the tract into a civil township, called it Westmore- land, and attached it to the probate district and county of Litchfield, in Connecticut. Westmoreland repre- sentatives occupied seats in the Conneetient legisla- ture. Pennsylvania protested, and, when the Revolu- tionary contest closed, sent an armed force to drive the intruders from the lands. The shedding of blood resulted. The controversy was finally submitted to a court of commissioners appointed by congress. upon the petition of Pennsylvania, as provided in the ninth article of the Confederation, which gave to congress the power to establish a court for the settlement of disputed boundaries.

This court sat at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1787, when the case was tried, and decided against Connecticut. The title to lands lying west of Pennsylvania was not involved in this adjudication, and Connectient still insisted upon the validity of her claim to lands not ceded by her to the United States.

At a session of the Connecticut legislature, held at New Haven, in 1286 and in 1787, it was resolved to offer for sale that part of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga, the Portage path, and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, and a committee of three persons was appointed to canse a survey to be made and to negotiate a sale. Nothing, however, was immediately done. On the 10th of February, 1788, however, certain lands lying within the limits of the Reserve were sold to General Samuel II. Parsons, then of Middletown. Connecticut. This was afterwards known as the Salt Spring tract. No survey had been made, but in the description of the land conveyed the numbers of the ranges and townships were designated

as if actually defined. General Parsons had explored the country, and had found the location of a salt spring near the Mahoning. He selected his tract so as it should include this spring, from which he expected to manufacture salt and to make his fortune. The entire number of acres thus sold and conveyed to Mr. Parsons, as afterwards determined by the survey made by the Connecticut Land Company. was twenty- five thousand four hundred and fifty. The descrip- tion in the deed is as follows:

" Beginning at the northeast corner of the first township, in the third range of townships; thence running northwardly on the west line of the second range of said lands to forty-one degrees and twelve minutes of north latitude; thence west three miles; thence southwardly parallel to the west line of Pennsylvania two miles and one-half; thence west three miles to the west line of said third range; thence southwardly parallel to the west line of Pennsylvania to the north line of the first township, in the third range; thence east to the first bound."

In 1295 Connectieut sold all the Reserve, except the .. Sufferers' Lands" and the Salt Spring tract, to a number of men who came to be known as the Con- necticut Land Company. The "Sufferers' Lands" comprise a traet of five hundred thousand acres, taken from the western end of the Reserve, and set apart by the legislature of the State on the 10th of May, 1792, and donated to the suffering inhabitants of the towns of Greenwich. Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New and East Haven. New London, Richfield and Groton, who had sustained severe losses during the Revolution. Upwards of two thousand persons were rendered homeless from the ineursions of the British. aided by Benedict Arnold, and their villages pillaged and burned. To compensate them for this great calamity this donation was made to them. The lands thus given are bounde l on the north by Lake Erie, south by the base-line of the Reserve. west by its western line, and east by a line parallel with the western line. and at such a distance from it as to embrace one-half million of acres. The counties of Huron and Erie and the township of Ruggles, in Ashland, comprise these lands. An account of each sufferer's loss was taken in pounds, shillings and pence, and a price placed upon the lands, and each of the sufferers received lands proportioned to the amount of his loss. These lands finally took the name of " Fire Lands," from the fact that the greater part of the losses resulted from fire.

The resolution authorizing the sale of the remain- der of the Reserve, adopted at a session of the General Assembly, held at Hartford, in May, 1795, is as follows:

" Resolved, By this Assembly, that a committee be appointed to re- ceive any proposals that may be made, by any person or persons, whether inhabitants of the United States or others, for the purchase of the lands belonging to this State lying west of the west line of Pennsyl- vania as claimed by that State, and the said committee are hereby fully authorized and empowered, in the name and behalf of this State, to nego- linate with any such person or persons on the subject of any such pro- posal. And also to perform and complete any contract or contracts for the sale of said lands, and to make and execute, under their hands and seals, to the purchaser or purchasers, a deed or deeds duly authenti- cated, quitting, in behalf of this State, all right, title, and interest, juridicial and territorial, in and to the said lands, to him or them, and to his or their heirs, forever. That before the executing of said deed or deeds, the purchaser or purchasers shall give their note or bond, paya- ble to the treasurer of this State, for the purchase-money, carrying an

HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OIIIO.

interest of six per centum, payable annually, to commence from the date thereof, or from such future period, not exceeding two years from the date, as circumstances, in the opinion of the committee may re- quire, and as may be agreed on between them and the said purchaser or purchasers, with good and sufficient sureties, inhabitants of this State, or with a sufficient deposit of bauk or other stock of the United States, or of the particular States, which uote or hond shall be taken payable at a period not mrre 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, either in specie, or in six per cent., three per cent., or deferred stock of the United States, at the discretion of the committee. That if the committee shall find that it will be most bene- ficial to the 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 territory, aud not in severalty. That said com- mittee, 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 nego- tiate the sale: John Treadwell, 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 indi- viduals, 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 in some instances several associated together and took their deeds jointly. The contracts made were as follows: with

Joseph Ilowland, }

$30,461

Solomon Cowles $10,005

Daniel L. Coit,

Elias Morgan, 51,402

Daniel L. C'oit, S

Caleb Atwater. 22.846

Peleg Sandford, )

Timothy Burr 15,231

Joseph Williams.

10,500

William Judd

16,250

William Lyman,

Elisha Hyde, l

57,400

John Stoddard, David King,

Moses Cleaveland 32,600

Ephraim Kirby,

Roger Newbury. /

Elijah Boardman,

60,000

Enoch Perkins, 38,000

Uriel Holmes, Jr., )

Jonathan Brace, )

Oliver Phelps,

Ephraim Starr 17,415

80,000 Gideon Granger.

Sylvanus Griswold 1,683

Solomon Griswold 10,000

Jabez Stocking, 1 11,423

William Hart 30,462

Joshua Stow,

Titus Street 22,846

Ashur Miller 34,000

James Bull,

Robert C. Johnson 60,000

Aaron Olmstead, 30,000

Ephraim Post 12,000

John Wyles,

Pierpont Edwards 60,000

Amounting 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 purchase as the amount of his contract bore to the total amount. For example: the last-named indi- vidual, 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 recorded 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 organi- zation 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 required to execute a deed in trust of his share in the purchase, receiving in exchange a certificate from these trustees showing that the hohler thereof was entitled to a certain share in the Connecticut Western Reserve, which certificate of share was transferable by proper assignment. The form of this certificate is given in Article LX. Article Ill. 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 containing each sixteen thousand acres; to fix on a township in which the first settlement shall be made, to survey the township thus selected into lots, and to sell such lots to actual settlers only; to ereet in said township a saw-mill and a grist mill at the expense of the company; and to lay out and sell tive other town- ships to actual settlers only. Article IV. obliges the surveyors to keep a regular fiekl-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 inspec- tion of each proprietor. Article V. provides for the appointment by the direetors 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 propor- tions 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 re- quest 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 valne,

Daniel Holbrook 15,231

8.750

Luther Loomis.

44,318

William Law

Ebenezer King, Jr., }

21,730

Uria Tracey. f

James Johnson 30,000 Samnel Mather. Jr

18,461 1 Samuel P. Lord 14,09

Henry Champion 20 85,675

Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr ... 19,039

Oliver Phelps 168.180

Ashael Hathaway 12,000

John Caldwell, 15,000

HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.

according to quantity, quality, and situation: and when said commis- sioner's shall have so divided said Reserve, and made a report in writing of their doings to said dirretors, 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, br 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 severaner. and the said trustees shall, upon receiving a written direction from said directors for that purpose, execute a deed to such person or per- sons accordingly ; after which, such person or persons shall have no power to act in said company."

Article XH. 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 in- terest, in case of delinquency, as shall be necessary to satisfy the assessment. Article XIII. provides for the appointment by the company 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 consti- tute the board of directors: Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion (2nd), Moses Cleaveland, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby. Samuel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newbury. At a meeting held in April, 1:96, Ephraim Root was made clerk, and continued to in act 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 Agree- ment constituting the Connecticut Land Company:"

Ashur Miller,

Joseph Howland,

Pierjumt Edwards,

James Bull,

James Johnson, Elisha Hyde,

Uriah Tracey,

Roger Newbury for Justin Ely. Elisha Strong, Jushua Stow,

Robert (. Johnson,

William Lyman, Daniel Holbrook. Ephraim Root,

Jahez Stocking,

Oliver Phelps, Gideon Granger, Jr., Tephanich Swift, Moses Cleaveland,

Solomon Griswold, Thaddeus Levvett, Ebenezer King, Jr., Roger Newbury, Elijah White,

Daniel L. Cuit

Enoch Perkins, Joseph Williams,

Eliphalet Austin, Joseph C. Yates, and

Elijah Boardman, William Hart,

Peleg Sandford, William M Bliss,

Samnel Mather, in be-

Samuel Mather. Jr.,

lohn Standard, William Battle,

('aleh Atwater,

Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr ..

Benajah Kent,

lemuel Storrs.

Timothy Burr.

half of themselves and their associates in Albany, State of New York.

Before this organized body of men lay the impor- tant work of obtaining a perfect title to their purchase; of cansing 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

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History of Lorain County, Ohio, Part 2

Author: Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia, Williams brothers Number of Pages: 626

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia, Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 626