USA > Ohio > Mercer County > History of Mercer County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 3
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Ohio Company's Purchase .- The second survey was that of the Ohio Company's purchase, made in pursuance of an act of Congress of July 23, 1785, though the contract was not completed with the Ohio Company until October 27, 1787.
One hundred thousand acres of this tract, called "donation lands," were reserved upon certain conditions as a free gift to actual settlers. Portions of the counties of Washington, Athens and Gallia are within this tract, also the entire county of Meigs. The "donation lands" were in Washington County.
The Symmes Purchase .- The next survey was the Symmes purchase and
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contiguous lands, situated to the north and west of it, and was made soon after the foregoing. The Symmes purchase embraced the entire Ohio River front between the Great Miami and the Little Miami rivers, a distance of 27 miles, and reaching northwards a sufficient distance to include an area of one million of acres. The contract with Judge Symmes, made in October, 1787, was subsequently modified by act of Congress bearing date of May 5, 1792, and by an authorized act of the President of the United States, of September 30, 1794, so as to amount to only 311,682 acres, exclusive of a reservation of 15 acres around Fort Washington; of a square mile at the mouth of the Great Miami; of sections 16 and 29 in each township, the former of which Congress had reserved for educational and the latter for religious purposes; exclusive also of a township dedicated to the interests of a college; and sec- tions 8, II and 26, which Congress reserved for future sale.
Virginia Military District .- The tract of land situated between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, known as the Virginia Military District, was never regularly surveyed into townships, but patents were issued by the President of the United States to such persons (Virginians) as had rendered service on the continental establishment in the Army of the United States (hence the name), and in the quantities to which they were entitled, according to an act of Congress of August 10, 1790. "It embraces a body of 6,570 square miles or 4,204,800 acres of land. The following counties are situ- ated in this tract, namely: Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison, and Union entirely ; and greater or less portions of the following, to-wit : Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Sci- oto, Warren, Greene, Clark, Champaign, Logan, and Hardin."
Western Reserve .- Connecticut ceded all lands in the Northwest, to which she claimed title, to the United States (except the tract which has been known as the "Western Reserve"), by deed of cession bearing date of September 14, 1786; and in May, 1800, by act of the Legislature of said state, renounced all jurisdictional claim to the "territory called the Western Reserve of Connecticut." That tract of land was surveyed in 1796, and later into townships of five miles square, and in the aggregate contained about 3,800,000 acres, being 120 miles long and lying west of the Pennsyl- vania State line, all situated between 41 degrees of north latitude and 42 degrees and two minutes. Half a million of acres of the foregoing lands were set apart by the State of Connecticut in 1792, as a donation to the sufferers by fire (during the Revolutionary War) of the residents of Greenwich, New London, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New Haven and other Con- necticut villages, whose property was burned by the British; hence the name "Firelands," by which this tract taken from the western portion of the Re- serve has been known. It is chiefly situated in Huron and Erie counties, a
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small portion only being in Ottawa County. The entire Western Reserve embraces the present counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Trumbull; also the greater part of Ma- honing and Summit, and very limited portions of Ashland and Ottawa.
French Grant is a tract of 24,000 acres of land bordering on the Ohio River, within the present limits of Scioto County, granted by Congress in March, 1795, to certain French settlers of Gallipolis, who, through invalid titles, had lost their lands there. Twelve hundred acres were added to this grant in 1796, making a total of 25,200 acres.
The United States Military Lands were surveyed under the provisions of an act of Congress, of June 1, 1796, and contained 2,560,000 acres. This tract was set apart to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War; hence the title by which it was known. It is bounded by the seven ranges on the east, by the Greenville treaty line on the north, by the Congress and refugee lands on the south, and by the Scioto River on the west, including the county of Coshocton entire, and portions of the coun- ties of Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Muskingum, Licking, Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Morrow, Knox and Holmes.
The Moravian Lands are three several tracts of 4,000 acres each, situ- ated, respectively, at Shoenbrün, Gnadenhutten and Salem, all on the Tus- carawas River, now in Tuscarawas County. These lands were originally dedicated by an act of Congress, dated September 3, 1788, to the use of the Christianized Indians at those points and by an act of Congress, of July I, 1796, were surveyed and patents issued to the Society of the United Breth- ren, for the purpose above 'specified.
The Refugee Tract is a body of land containing 100,000 acres, granted by Congress February 18, 1801, to persons who fled from the British prov- inces during the Revolutionary War, and took up arms against the mother country and in behalf of the Colonies, and thereby lost their property by confiscation. This tract is 41/2 miles wide, and extends 48 miles eastward from the Scioto River, at Columbus, into Muskingum County. It includes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking and Mus- kingum.
Dohrman's Grant is a township of land six miles square, containing 23,040 acres, situated in the southeastern part of Tuscarawas County. It was given to Arnold Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, by act of Congress, of February 27, 1801, "in consideration of his having, during the Revolutionary War, given shelter and aid to the American cruis- ers and vessels of war."
The foregoing is a list of the principal land grants and surveys during our Territorial history, in that portion of the Northwest that now consti-
GEN. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK
GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE
GEN. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR
GEN. JOSIAH HARMAR
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tutes the State of Ohio. There were canal land grants, Maumee road grants and various others, but they belong to our State, and not to our territorial history.
TREATIES MADE WITH THE INDIANS.
By the terms of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded with the Iroquois or Six Nations (Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras and Oneidas), October 22, 1784, the indefinite claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of the Ohio was extinguished. The commissioners of Congress were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. Corn- planter and Redjacket represented the Indians. This was followed in Jan- uary, 1785, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, by which the Delawvares, Wyan- dots, Ottawas and Chippewas relinquished all claim to the Ohio Valley, , and established the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuyahoga River, and along the main branch of the Tuscarawas to the forks of the said river near Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to the portage between the head-waters of the Great Miami and the Maumee or Miami of the Lakes, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. This treaty was negotiated by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee for the United States, and by the chiefs of the aforenamed tribes. A similar relinquishment was effected by the treaty of Fort Finney (at the mouth of the Great Miami), concluded with the Shawnees, January 31, 1786, the United States commissioners being the same as the foregoing, except the substitution of Samuel H. Par- sons for Arthur Lee. The treaty of Fort Harmar, held by Gen. Arthur St. Clair, January 9, 1789, was mainly confirmatory of the treaties prev- iously made. So also was the treaty of Greenville, of August 3, 1795, made by Gen. Anthony Wayne on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of II of the most powerful tribes of the Northwestern Indians, which reestablished the Indian boundary line through the present State of Ohio, and extended it from Loramie to Fort Recovery, and thence to the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River.
The rights and titles acquired by the Indians under the foregoing treat- ies were extinguished by the general government, by purchase, in pursuance of treaties subsequently made. The Western Reserve tract west of the Cuya- hoga River was secured by a treaty formed at Fort Industry in 1805. The lands west of Richland and Huron counties and north of the boundary line to the western limits of Ohio were purchased by the United States in 1818. The last possession of the Delawares was purchased in 1829; and by a treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1842, by Col. John Johnston and the Wyandot chiefs, that last remnant of the Indian tribes in Ohio sold the last acre they owned within the limits of our State to the general government, and
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retired the next year to the far West, settling at and near the mouth of the Kansas River.
FIRST OFFICERS OF THE TERRITORY.
Congress, in October, 1787, appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, Governor, Maj. Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, and James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and John Armstrong, judges of the Territory. The last named, however, having declined the appointment, John Cleves Symmes was appoint- ed in his stead, in February, 1788. On the 9th of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair arrived at Marietta and, finding the Secretary and a majority of the judges present, proceeded to organize the territory. The Governor and judges (or a majority of them) were the sole legislative power during the existence of the first grade of Territorial government. Such laws as were in force in any of the States, and were deemed applicable to the condition of the people of the Territory, could be adopted by the Governor and judges, and, after publication, became operative, unless disapproved of by Congress, to which body certified copies of all laws thus adopted had to be forwarded by the Secretary of the Territory. The further duty of the judges, who were appointed to serve during good behavior, was to hold court four times a year, whenever the business of the Territory required it, but not more than once a year in any one county.
THE SECOND GRADE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
After it should be ascertained that 5,000 free male inhabitants actually resided within the Territory, the second grade of Territorial government could, of right, be established, which provided for a Legislative Council, and also an elective House of Representatives, the two composing the law- making power of the Territory, provided always that the Governor's assent to their acts was had. He possessed the absolute veto power, and no'act of the two houses of the Legislature, even if passed by a unanimous vote in each branch, could become a law without his consent. The conditions that authorized the second grade of Territorial government, however, did not exist until 1798, and it was not really put into operation until September, 1799, after the first grade of government had existed for II years.
EARLY LAWS OF THE TERRITORY.
The first law was proclaimed July 25, 1788, and was entitled "An act for regulating and establishing the militia." Two days thereafter the Gov- ernor issued a proclamation establishing the county of Washington, which included all of the territory east of the Scioto River to which the Indian title had been extinguished, reaching northward to Lake Erie, the Ohio River and the Pennsylvania line being its eastern boundary; Marietta, the
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seat of the Territorial government, also becoming the county seat of Washing- ton County. Quite a number of laws were necessarily adopted and published during 1788 and the following year. From 1790 to 1795 they published 64, 34 of them having been adopted at Cincinnati during the months of June, July and August of the last named year, by the Governor and Judges Symmes and Turner. They are known as the "Maxwell Code," from the name of the publisher, and were intended, says the author of "Western Annals," "to form a pretty complete body of statutory provisions." In 1798 II more were adopted. It was the published opinion of the late Chief Justice Chase, "that it may be doubted whether any colony, at so early a period after its first es- tablishment, ever had so good a code of laws." Among them was that which provided that the "common law of England, and all statutes in aid thereof, made previous to the fourth year of James I., should be in full force within the Territory." Probably four-fifths of the laws adopted were selected from those in force in Pennsylvania; the others were mainly taken from the statutes of Virginia and Massachusetts.
ORGANIZATION OF THE SECOND GRADE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 1
The Governor having satisfactorily ascertained that the conditions existed entitling the Territory to the second grade of government, that is, that there were "5,000 free male inhabitants of full age" within the Territory, he, on the 29th day of October, 1798, took the preliminary steps to effect that object, by issuing his proclamation, directing the qualified voters to hold elections for Territorial Representatives on the third Monday of December, 1798. The election was held in pursuance of said proclamation, which resulted in the following gentlemen being chosen to constitute the popular branch of the Territorial Legislature for the ensuing two years :
MEMBERS OF TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE OF 1799-1800.
Return Jonathan Meigs, Washington County. Paul Fearing, Washington County. Solomon Sibley, Wayne County.
John Edgar, Randolph County.
William Goforth, Hamilton County. Jacob Visgar, Wayne County.
William McMillan, Hamilton County. Charles F. Chabert de Joncaire, Wayne Co.
John Smith, Hamilton County. Joseph Darlington, Adams County.
John Ludlow, Hamilton County. Nathaniel Massie, Adams County.
Robert Benham, Hamilton County. James Pritchard, Jefferson County.
Aaron Caldwell, Hamilton County.
Thomas Worthington, Ross County.
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Isaac Martin, Hamilton County. Elias Langham, Ross County.
Shadrach Bond, St. Clair County. Samuel Findlay, Ross County. - John Small, Knox County. Edward Tiffin, Ross County.
The above-named gentlemen met at Cincinnati on the 22nd of January, 1799, and nominated 10 men, whose names they forwarded to the United
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States Congress, five of whom were to be selected by that body to constitute the Legislative Council of the Territory. They then adjourned to meet on the 16th of September, 1799. On the 22nd of March, 1799, either the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives or the President of the United States, chose from among those whose names had been sug- gested to them the following gentlemen, to compose the first Legislative Council of the Northwest Territory, their terms of office to continue five years, any three of whom to form a quorum: Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, Hamilton County ; Henry Vandenburg, of Vincennes, Knox County ; Robert Oliver, of Marietta, Washington County ; James Findlay, of Cincinnati, Ham- ilton County ; and David Vance, of Vanceville, Jefferson County. The Ordi- nance of 1787 named Congress as the authority in whom was vested the right to select five from the list of 10 persons to constitute the Territorial Council. But it will be borne in mind that said ordinance was passed by a Congress that legislated in pursuance of the Articles of Confederation, while yet we had neither President nor United States Senate, hence authority was given to Congress to make the selection. But it is highly probable that the afore- said authority was subsequently transferred to the President, or to the Sen- ate, or to them jointly.
FIRST COUNCIL AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Both the Council and House of Representatives met at Cincinnati, Sep- tember 16, 1799, and effected a permanent organization. The Council per- fected its organization by the election of the following officers: President, Henry Vandenburg; secretary, William C. Schenck; door-keeper, George Howard; sergeant-at-arms, Abraham Cary. The House of Representatives completed its organization by electing, as its officers, the following gentle- men : Speaker of the House, Edward Tiffin ; clerk, John Riley ; door-keeper, Joshua Rowland; sergeant-at-arms, Abraham Cary.
Thirty bills were passed at the first session of the Territorial Legislature, but the Governor vetoed II of them. They also elected William Henry Harrison, then Secretary of the Territory, a delegate to Congress, by a vote of II to 10 that were cast for Arthur St. Clair, Jr., son of the Governor, then a promising young lawyer of Cincinnati, and who then held the office of Attorney-General of the Territory. The first session of the Territorial Leg- islature was prorogued by the Governor, December 19, 1799, until the first Monday of November, 1800. at which time they reassembled and held the second session at Chillicothe, which, by an act of Congress, of May 7, 1800, was made the seat of the Territorial government, until otherwise ordered by the Legislature. This, the second session of the Territorial Legislature, was of short duration, continuing only until Dcember 9, 1800.
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On May 9, 1800, Congress passed an act establishing the Indiana Terri- tory, with boundaries including the present States of Indiana and Illinois, and William Henry Harrison having accepted the office of Governor of said Territory, it devolved upon the Territorial Legislature, at its second session, not only to elect a delegate to Congress to fill the vacancy occasioned by his resignation, but also to elect a delegate to serve during the succeeding Con- gress. William McMillan was elected to fill the vacancy and Paul Fearing, of Marietta, was elected to serve from the 4th of March, 1801, to the 4th of March, 1803. By the organization of the Indiana Territory, the counties of St. Clair, Knox and Randolph were taken out of the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territory, and with them, of course, Henry Vandenburg, of Knox County, president of the Council; also Shadrach Bond, of St. Clair County; John Small, of Knox County, and John Edgar, of Randolph County, mem- bers of the popular branch of the Legislature.
On the 23rd of November, 1801, the third session of the Territorial Legislature was commenced at Chillicothe, pursuant to adjournment. The time for which the members of the House of Representatives were elected having expired, and an election having been held, quite a number of new members appeared. The Council remained nearly as it was at the previous sessions, there being not more than two changes, perhaps only one, that of Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, Wayne County, who took the place of Henry Vandenburg, thrown into the new Territory. Robert Oliver, of Marietta, Washington County, was chosen president of the Council in place of Henry Vandenburg. The officers of the House of Representatives were as follows : Speaker, Edward Tiffin; clerk, John Riley; door-keeper, Edward Sherlock. The third session of the Legislature continued from the 24th of November, 1801, until the 23rd of January, 1802, when it adjourned to meet at Cincin- nati on the fourth Monday of November following, but that fourth session was never held, for reasons made obvious by subsequent events.
Congress, on the 30th of April, 1802, had passed "An act to enable the people of the eastern division of the Territory northwest of the river Ohio to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes." In pursuance of the aforesaid enactment, an election had been ordered and held throughout the eastern portion of the Territory, and members of a constitutional convention chosen, who met at Chillicothe on the first day of November, 1802, to perform the duty assigned them. When the time had arrived for commencing the fourth session of the Territorial Legislature, the aforesaid constitutional convention was in session and had evidently nearly completed its labors, as it adjourned on the 29th of said month. The members of the Legislature (eight of whom were also members
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of the convention) therefore, seeing that a speedy termination of the Terri- torial government was inevitable, deemed it inexpedient and unnecessary to hold the proposed session.
The Territorial government was ended by the organization of the State government, March 3, 1803, pursuant to the provisions of a constitution formed at Chillicothe, November 29, 1802, by the following named gentle- men; Joseph Darlington, Israel Donalson and Thomas Kirker, of Adams County ; James Caldwell and Elijah Woods, of Belmont County; Philip Gatch and James Sargent, of Clermont County ; Henry Abrams and Emanuel Carpenter, of Fairfield County; John W. Browne, Charles Willing Byrd, Francis Dunlavy, William Goforth, John Kitchel, Jeremiah Morrow, John Paul, John Riley, John Smith and John Wilson, of Hamilton County ; Ru- dolph Bair, George Humphrey, John Milligan, Nathan Updegraff and Basil Wells, of Jefferson County; Michael Baldwin, Edward Tiffin, James Grubb, Thomas Worthington and Nathaniel Massie, of Ross County; David Abbott and Samuel Huntington, of Trumbull County; and Ephraim Cutler, Ben- jamin Ives Gilman, Rufus Putnam and John McIntire, of Washington County. Joseph Darlington, of Adams County ; Francis Dunlavy, Jeremiah Morrow and John Smith, of Hamilton County; John Milligan, of Jefferson County ; Edward Tiffin, and Thomas Worthington, of Ross County; and Ephraim Cutler, of Washington County, were the eight gentlemen of the last Territorial Legislature that were also elected members of the constitutional convention.
LOCAL COURTS AND COURT OFFICERS.
Among the earliest laws adopted by the Territory of Ohio was one which provided for the institution of a county court of common pleas, to be composed of not less than three nor more than five judges, commissioned by the Governor, who were to hold two sessions in each year. Pursuant to its provisions, the first session of said court was held in and for Washington County, September 2, 1788. The judges of the court were Gen. Rufus Put- nam, Gen. Benjamin Tupper and Col. Archibald Crary. Col. Return Jona- than Meigs was clerk and Col. Ebenezer Sproat was sheriff. Elaborate de- tails of the opening of this, the first court held in the Northwest Territory, have come down to us, showing it to have been a stylish, dignified proceeding. Briefly, "a procession was formed at the Point (the junction of the Mus- kingum with the Ohio River) of the inhabitants and the officers from Fort Harmar, who escorted the judge of the court, the Governor of the Territory and the Territorial judges to the hall appropriated for that purpose, in the northwest blockhouse in 'Campus Martius.'" "The procession," says Mitch- ener, "was headed by the sheriff, with drawn sword and baton of office."
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"After prayer by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the court was organized by reading the commissions of the judges, clerk and sheriff; after which the sheriff pro- claimed that the court was open for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by their peers, and then in pur- suance of the laws and evidence in the case."
On the 23rd day of August, 1788, a law was promulgated for establish- ing "general courts of quarter sessions of the peace." This court was com- posed of not less than three nor more than five justices of the peace, appointed by the Governor, who were to hold four sessions in each year. The first session of this court was held at "Campus Martius" September 9, 1788. The commission appointing the judges thereof was read. Gen. Rufus Putnam and Gen. Benjamin Tupper, says Mitchener, constituted the justices of the quorum, and Isaac Pearce, Thomas Lord and Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., the assistant justices; Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, Sr., was clerk. Col. Ebenezer Sproat was sheriff of Washington County 14 years. The first grand jury of the Northwest Territory was impaneled by this court, and con- sisted of the following gentlemen: William Stacey (foreman), Nathaniel Cushing, Nathan Goodale, Charles Knowles, Anselm Tupper, Jonathan Stone, Oliver Rice, Ezra Lunt, John Matthews, George Ingersoll, Jonathan Devol, Jethro Putnam, Samuel Stebbins and Jabez True.
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