USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 83
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The southern boundary of the United States Military Lands in the City of Columbus corresponds with Fifth Avenue, and constitutes the boundary line between Clinton and Montgomery townships. There are about four thousand square miles, or two million five hundred and sixty thousand acres, in the tract. There are six and onefourth square miles, or four thousand acres, in cach quarter township. The accompanying figure indicates the manner in which the quarter townships are numbered :
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
2
1
3
4
The United States Military Lands lie west of the seven ranges, south of the Greenville treaty line, east of the Scioto River and north of the Congress and Refugee Lands. Clinton, Sharon, Perry, Mifflin, Blendon, Plain and Jefferson townships in Franklin County lie within the district. The act of June 1, 1796, provided that the lands should be divided into quarters two and one half miles square. These quarters are often termed sections. To accommodate soldiers who held onehundredacre warrants some of the quarters were divided into one- hundredacre tracts. The southeast quarter in Plain Township and that portion of Perry Township bordering on the Scioto River are so divided. The surplus remaining after satisfying warrants was divided into sections of six hundred and forty acres. Quarter sections containing one hundred and sixty acres were disposed of by the government as other Congress lands. The lands lying within the north half of Plain Township belonged to this class. Quarter township number three was patented to Johnathan Dayton. He was a member of Congress from Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was probably the largest land owner in the State of Ohio. His possessions within the State were from fifty to sixty thousand acres. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives for two terms between 1793 and 1797, and was elected to the National Senate in 1799. He was a member of the convention which framed the National Constitution. Quarter township number four was patented to George Stevenson. The boundary line between these quarters starts at a point on East Fifth Avenue nearly opposite Mount Pleasant Avenne, and extends north ward through Section Street and Day- ton Avenue. Within these two quarters lies all that part of Columbus north of Fifth Avenue.
The greater part of the City of Columbus lies within what is known as the Refugee Tract. These lands were set apart and granted as a reward to such indi- viduals of the British Provinces as had assisted the colonists in the war of Inde- pendence, and found it agreeable to emigrate from their old homes. In response to a memorial of Brigadier-General Hayden in behalf of himself and other Cana- dian refugees, Congress on April 23, 1783, resolved that, retaining a lively sense of the services of the Canadian officers and men rendered to the United States, it would, whenever it could consistently make grants, in that way reward the officers, soldiers and other refugees from Canada. On April 13, 1785, Congress passed another resolution of similar import. To fulfill the promises embodied in these resolutions, Congress, on April 7, 1798, passed an act entitled " An act for the relief of the refugees from the British Provinces of Canada and Novia Scotia, which directed
635
LANDS AND LAND TITLES.
the Secretary of War to give notice in one or more papers of each of the states of Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, to all persons having claims under those resolutions to transmit to the war office within two years from the passage of the act a just and true account of their claims to the bounty of Congress. The persons entitled to the benefit of this act were :
First, those heads of families, and single persons not members of any such families, who were residents in one of the provinces aforesaid prior to the fourth day of July, 1776, and who abandoned their settlements in consequence of having given aid to the United Colonies or States in the Revolutionary War against Great Britain, or with intention to give such aid, and continued in the United States or in their service during the said war, and did not return to reside in the dominions of the King of Great Britain prior to the twentyfifth day of Novem- ber, 1783; secondly, the widows and heirs of all such persons as were actual residents as aforesaid, who abandoned their settlements and died within the United States, or in their services during the said war : thirdly, all persons who were members of families at the time of their coming into the United States, and who, during the war, entered into their services.
Proof of the facts entitling applicants to the benefit of the act was to be taken before any judge of the Supreme or District Court of the United States, or a judge of the Supreme or Superior Court, or the first justice or first judge of the Court of Common Pleas or county court of any state. At the expiration of fifteen months from the passage of the act and from time to time thereafter it was made the duty of the Secretary of War to lay such evidence of claims as he may have received, before the Secretary and Comptroller of the Treasury, and with them examine the testimony and give their judgment as to what quantity of land ought to be allowed to the individual claimants in proportion to the degree of their respective services, sacrifices and sufferings in consequence of their attachment to the cause of the United States, allowing to those of the first class not more than one thousand acres and to the third class not more than one hundred acres, and to make such intermediate class as in their judgment was proper, and make report thereof to Congress. If any claimant could not be justly classed in any one of the general classes a separate report was to be made of his circumstances, together with the quantity of land that ought to be allowed him, reference being had to the fore- going ratio. There were certain conditions relating to the allowance of claims, one of which was that the claims under the law should not be assignable " until after the report made to Congress as aforesaid, and until the lands be granted to the persons entitled to the benefit of this act." The act further provided that all claims in virtue of the resolutions of Congress that shall not be exhibited as provided by the act within the time limited thereby, should forever thereafter be barred.
On March 16, 1804, the act was revived and continued in force for two years from the last mentioned date. On February 18, 1801, Congress enacted a law directing the Surveyor-General to cause fractional townships of ranges 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22, which join the southern boundary line of the Military Lands, to be subdivided into half sections containing three hundred and twenty acres each, and return a survey and description of the same to the Secretary of the Treasury on or before the first Monday of the following December; and the act set apart and reserved the lands within those townships for the purpose of satisfying the
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
claims of persons entitled to lands under the act of April 7, 1798, above mentioned. The Secretary of the Treasury was required to proceed within thirty days after the survey of the lands had been returned to him to determine by lot in the presence of the Secretaries of State and War the priority of location of the persons entitled to lands. The persons so entitled were to make their location severally on the second Tuesday of January, 1802, and the patents for the lands so located were to be granted in the manner directed for the Military Lands without the payment of any fee. Claims were made and allowed under the act of April 7, 1798, as follows: Martha Walker (widow of Thomas Walker), John Edgar, P. Franeis Cozeau, John Allen and Seth Harding, respectively, 2240 acres each ; Jonathan Eddy and Colonel James Livingston, 1280 acres each ; Thomas and Edward Faulkner, Lieutenant Colonel Bradford, Noah Miller, John Starr, John McGowan and Jonas C. Minot, 960 acres each ; Benjamin Thompson, Joseph Bin- don, Joseph Levittre, Lieutenant William Maxwell, James Price, Seth Noble, John Halstead, 640 acres each. The several tracts of land above mentioned were to be located in half sections by the respective claimants The lands were located by lottery. The numbers representing the different tracts were put in a wheel, and as each name was called out a number was drawn.
Montgomery Township is known as Township Number Five, Range Twenty- two, Refugee Lands, and was surveyed in May, 1799, by John Matthews and Eben- ezer Buckingham, United States Surveyors, in pursuance of the act of Congress entitled "An act providing for the sale of lands in the United States in the terri- tory northwest of the Ohio River and above the mouth of the Kentucky River," which act will be hereafter mentioned. The division of sections into half sections was made in 1801 by Elnathan Schofield, surveyor, in pursuance of the act of Con- gress of February 18, 1801.
By virtue of the foregoing act relating to refugees patents for half sections in Montgomery Township were issued as follows, the numbers denoting the half sec- tions patented : 1, Edward Faulkner; 2, Martha Walker; 3, Martha Walker; 4 and 5, John Starr; 6, Carpenter Bradford; 7, Robert Culbertson, preempted by John De Ruche; 8, Robert Culbertson ; 9, John Halstead ; 10, Martha Walker ; 11, James Price ; 12, Seth Harding; 13, Seth Noble ; 14, Thomas Faulkner; 15. James Livingston ; 16, Carpenter Bradford; 17, Pierre Franeis Cozeau ; 19 and 20, Pierre Francis Cozeau ; 18, William Maxwell; 21, Noah Miller; 22, John Edgar; 23, Joseph Levittre; 24, Jonas Minot ; 25, John Allen; 26, Benjamin Thompson ; 27, John McGowan ; 28, Jonathan Eddy; 29, Joseph Bindon; 30, John Edgar; 31, Seth Harding; 32, Seth Noble; 33, Pierre Francis Cozeau ; 34, James Livingston ; 35, Seth Harding; 36, James Price ; 37, John McGowan; 38, Jonas C. Minot ; 39, Edward Faulkner ; 40, Thomas Faulkner ; 41, Jonathan Eddy ; 42, Thomas Faulk- ner; 43, Martha Walker.
The Refugee Tract embraces about one hundred thousand acres of land. It extends southward a distance of four and onehalf miles from Fifth Avenue extended eastward, and from the Scioto River fortyeight miles eastward, except- ing, however, the lands lying west of Township Twentytwo (about the west line of the farm of Daniel Thomas.) It is south of the United States Military Lands
637
LANDS AND LAND TITLES.
and north of the Congress Lands. The townships included within the tract, hav- ing an extent north and south of but four and onehalf miles, are fractional. The sections are numbered as in Congress Lands.
That part of the territory included in the corporate limits of the City of Columbus lying west of the Scioto is within the Virginia Military District. The lands of that District were reserved by Virginia in her deed of cession to satisfy the claims of her troops who served in the continental line in the War of Inde- pendence. On August 16, 1790, Congress enacted a law entitled "An act to enable the officers and soldiers of Virginia line on continental establishment to obtain title to certain lands lying northwest of the river Ohio between the Little Miami and Scioto." This act, after reciting the insufficiency of good land southeast of the Ohio, assigned by the laws of Virginia to satisfy her troops for the bounty land due them in conformity to such laws provides that, for the purpose of locating for such troops the land remaining due them between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, the Secretary of War shall return to the Executive of the State of Virginia the names of such officers, noncommissioned officers and privates of the line of that state, as served in the army of the United States on the continenal establish- ment during the war, and who, in conformity to the laws of that State are entitled to bounty lands, and shall also return the number of acres to the line by reason of such laws. The agents of these troops were authorized to locate between the rivers named such a number of acres of good land as, with the number already located between those rivers and southeast of the Ohio, would, in the aggregate, equal the amount to be returned by the Secretary of War to the Executive of Vir- ginia. The remaining sections of the act as amended June 9, 1794, provided :
That all and every officer and soldier of the Virginia line on the continental establish- ment, his or their heirs er assigns, entitled to bounty lands on the north west side of the river Ohio between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, by the laws of the State of Virginia and included in the terms of cession of the said state to the United States, shall, on producing the warrant or a certified copy thereof and a certificate under the seal of the office where the said warrants are legally kept that the same or a part thoreof remains unsatisfied, and on pro- ducing the survey, agreeably to the laws of Virginia, for the tract or tracts for which he or they may be entitled as aforesaid to the Secretary of the Department of War, such officer or soldier his or their heirs or assigns shall be entitled to and receive a patent for the same from the President of the United States, anything in any former law to the contrary notwithstand- ing ; Provided, that no letters patent shall be issued for a greater quantity of land than shall appear to remain due on such warrant, and that before the seal of the United States shall be affixed to such letters patent, the Secretary of the Department of War shall have endorsed thereon that the grantee therein named or the person under whom he claims was originally entitled to such bounty lands, and every such letters patent shall be eountersigned by the Secretary of State and a minute of the date thereof and the name of the grantee shall be entered of record in his office in a book to be specially provided for that purpose.50
Holders of Virginia Military warrants were permitted to locate any lands within the district which had not already been located. The district was not divided into townships, and was not surveyed in any regular form. Many of the surveys fell short in quantity, others overlapped each other. Confusion and liti- gation necessarily resulted. The first surveyors in the Virginia Military District were accustomed to add or throw in a percentage in their surveys. Sometimes as
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
much as ten per cent. was thus added.51 The lines specified in the patents, when run between the established corners, were generally of greater length than desig. nated. As a result, the government was frequently cheated out of large tracts of land. "The Virginia Military District," says Professor R. W. McFarland, " was surveyed in a manner wonderful to behold. It would scarcely be exaggeration to say that ever surveyor ' did that which was right in his own eyes but wrong in the eyes of everybody else.' Unlike the modern ' walkist ' who has so many miles and one lap, these lines have all lap and no miles. The worst case falling under my personal notice was a tract calling for ninety acres, the given metcs and bounds of which enclosed over 1,600 acres. This might be given as a noble exam- ple of ' making the land hold out.' ''52
That portion of Columbus lying west of the river is within surveys numbered 1393 and 2668. Survey 1393 was entered by Lieutenant Robert Vance and assigned by him to Lucas Sullivant, to whom a patent was thereafter issued by John Quincy Adams, President of the United States, March 20, 1800. Hugh Stev- enson, a colonel in the Virginia line on continental establishment, entered survey number 2668; it was assigned by him to Lucas Sullivant. A patent was issued to Lucas Sullivant for the lands within that survey on May 14, 1800, by John Quincy Adams, President of the United States.
All lands within the city lying south of the Refugee Tract are known as Congress Lands, and are so termed because they were sold to purchasers by the National Government through its officers in accordance with the laws of the United States. In pursuance of " An act providing for the sale of lands of the United States in the territory north west of the river Ohio and above the mouth of the Kentucky River,"53 enacted by Congress May 18, 1796, and the acts amendatory thereto, these lands were surveyed into townships six miles square, and the corners of the townships were marked with progressive numbers from the beginning. Each distance of one mile between such corners was also distinctly marked, the marks being different from those of the township corners. The townships were subdivided into sections containing as nearly as possible six hundred and forty acres each, by running through the township parallel lines each way at the end of every two miles, and by marking a corner on each of such lines at the end of every mile. The sections were numbered respectively beginning with number one in the north- east section and proceeding west and east alternately through the townships with progressive numbers, the last being number thirtysix. The following diagram indicates the manner of numbering the sections :
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LANDS AND LAND TITLES.
6|
5
4
3
2
1
7
8
9
10
11
12
18
17
16
15
14
13
19
20
21
22
23
24
30
29
28
27
26
25
31
32
33
34
35
36
The sections were further subdivided into quarters termed the northeast, south- east, northwest, sounthwest quarter. By act of Congress passed April 24, 1820, and which went into operation July 1, 1820, the quarter sections were further equally divided by north and south lines into halfquarter sections. The law, however, did not apply to fractional sections less than one hundred and sixty acres. The price of land was fixed by the act at one dollar and twentyfive cents per acre. The price had previously been two dollars per acre. The surveyors were further required to mark on a tree near each section corner and within the section the number of such section and the number of the township within which it was located. The range was also marked, although the act does not seem to have required that to be done. John Kilbourne says in his Ohio Gazetteer: " In establishing the township and sectional corners a post is first planted at the point of intersection ; then on the tree nearest the post and standing within the section to be designated, is numbered with the marking iron the range, township and number of section, thus :
R. 21
R. 20 T. 4
T. 4
S. 36
S. 31
R. 21
R. 20
T.
3
T. 3
S.
1
S. 6
The quarter corners are marked ¿ S. merely."54
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
East of the Great Miami River the ranges are counted from east to west and the townships are numbered from south to north. A range is a row or line of townships lying between two successive meridian lines six miles apart. Montgomery Town- ship, although not in the Congress Lands, is in range twentytwo, counting from the point at which the Ohio River crosses the Pennsylvania line, and is known as Township Number Five, counting from the south northward. The rectangular system of surveying is the most perfect which has been devised, but it was not fully matured when applied to Ohio. In referring to the Ohio surveys Professor R. W. McFarland says :
If there is anything bad in this regard Ohio has it ; if anything good, Ohio failed to get it. In the Western Reserve is one system, in the seven ranges another; it changes in the Ohio Company's purchase, varies in the United States Military District, has no head or tail in the Virginia Military District, changes again west of the Great Miami, and going north- ward beyond the Greenville treaty line we find another way as far east as the west line of the Reserve, thence eastward, south of the Reserve, a hop and skip method is found.65
The passage of the "Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River" was the most important act performed by Congress under the Articles of Confederation. That ordinance, among other things, established the laws of descents, endowed widows of onethird part of their deceased husbands' estates, provided for the disposition of estates "by wills in writing signed and sealed by the person in whom the estate may be, he being of full age, and attested by three witnesses;" and for the conveyance of real estate " by lease and release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed and delivered by the per- son, being of full age, in whom the estate may be, and attested by two witnesses." A law adopted from the statutes of Pennsylvania, which was published June 18, 1795, and went into effect August 1, 1795, established the office of Recorder. The same law prescribed the manner of acknowledging deeds and repealed the provis- ions of the Ordinance of 1787, requiring deeds to be witnessed. Deeds executed between August 1, 1795 and June 1, 1805, were valid without any subscribing witnesses if acknowledged by the grantor.5
The organization of the State of Ohio, and the location of its capital on the high bank of the Scioto opposite Franklinton having been treated in preceding chapters, these subjects need not here be particularly referred to further than to state some incidental facts which directly relate to the tenure of land.
At an early date there was some important litigation affecting the titles to large tracts of land in and near Columbus. The title of Lyne Starling and. of those claiming under him in halfsection twentyfive was called in question by proceedings instituted in both the State and National courts. John Allen, the patentee of halfsection twentyfive, conveyed that halfsection in 1801 to G. W. Allen. The patent was issued in 1802 and the deed was executed and acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses before R. C. Shannon, a justice of the peace of Portsmouth, New Hamsphire, but was not of record. Shannon made a copy of the deed in his notarial book. G. W. Allen mortgaged the premises to one Langdon on September 18, 1805. At the February term of the Common Pleas Court of Franklin County, Ohio, 1809, a judgment was attained upon scire facias upon the
Louis Perler
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LANDS AND LAND TITLES.
mortgage, execution was sued out against the premises and a sale thereof was made by the Sheriff to Lyne Starling, whose deed bore date of July 11, 1809. This deed contained no recital of an appraisement of the value of the mortgaged premises, and there was no evidence offered on the trial that such appraisement was in fact made. The heirs of John Allen denied the validity of the sale to G. W. Allen and the authentication of the mortgage given to Langdon, and particularly excepted to the sale of Starling on the ground that there was no evidence of the appraisement of the premises. One suit was determined in the Supreme Court of Ohio (3 Ohio 107, 178) and in the United States Court for the District of Ohio. The suits were instituted against the owners who claimed title through Lyne Starling, and were defended by him. He was at first represented by Henry Clay, and afterwards by Henry Bald- win, of Pittsburgh. In 1826 the suits were determined in his favor. The Allen heirs, prior to the commencement of the above suits, instituted proceedings in ejectment for the recovery of the premises in the United States courts. One of the suits was decided against them, and the other failed for want of prosecution. In 1846 Starling quieted the title to the same premises against William Neil and the heirs of John Allen. Neil had obtained a conveyance of a 'oneeighth interest in the tract from some of the Allen heirs.57 In deciding one of the above cases (3 Ohio, 107) the Supreme Court held that, although John Allen had sold his interest in the halfsection prior to the issue of his patents, his conveyance passed the title to his grantce. The provision in the act of Congress of April 7, 1798, above quoted, providing that no claim under that law should be assignable until the lands were granted to the persons entiled to the benefit of the act, was construed to give the right to the government to declare a forfeiture if a claim was assigned before the patent issued, but the government having waived such right and having perfected the title by issuing the patent, the patentee and his grantee became sub- ject to the principles of the common law and the title acquired by G. W. Allen was good.
About the time the title to halfsection twentyfive was in dispute, that of the owners of halfsection twentysix was also assailed. The halfsection was patented by Benjamin Thompson and conveyed by him to James Strawbridge, who executed a power of attorney to John McDowell authorizing him to sell the prem- ises. On March 12. 1808, McDowell as attorney in fact conveyed the halfsection to Alexander McLaughlin and John Kerr. The instrument recited a conveyance from McDowell for Strawbridge instead of from Strawbridge to McDowell, his attorney in fact. The deed was signed "John McDowell, Attorney in fact for John Strawbridge." Attached to the deed was a receipt for the purchase money. About 1825, Anthony W. Cooley obtained quitclaim deeds from the heirs of James Strawbridgess conveying their interest in the halfsection. Proceedings in eject- ment were instituted by him, but at the April term of the Court of Common Pleas of the year 1827, in a suit in which MeLaughlin and Kerr were plaintiff's and Cooley and the Strawbridge heirs were defendants, the title of the plaintiffs was quieted.
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