USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve and early Ohio > Part 4
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THE WESTERN RESERVE
The balance of the Land in the Western Reserve was sold by Connecticut to Phelps and Gorham, of that state, for the sum of One Hundred Thousand Pounds, New England currency. This sum of money became the basis of Connecticut's common school fund, now aggregating upwards of two million dollars.
DEEP RAVINES
ARCAIS ACRES.
FORT WHITTLESEY
The states of Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, each claimed the territory by virtue of royal patents from the King of England. At that early period, the geographical knowledge Europeans had of America was very limited. Patents granted
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THE WESTERN RESERVE
often covered the same territory, or overlapped on each other, creating much confusion and many disputes. Virginia laid claim to this territory, asserted ownership and exercised nominal jurisdiction by establishing the County of Botecourt in 1769, whose western boundary was the Mississippi.
That state's claim was founded on royal grants issued by James the First, bearing dates April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609; and March 12, 1611. New York claimed the territory by virtue of Royal Charters issued by Charles the Second, and bearing date Mar. 2, 1664, and included territory that had been previously granted Massachusetts and Connecticut, hence the conflict of claims between those States, their several charters cov- ering the same soil of Ohio. The Massachusetts title was granted in less than twenty years after the arrival of the Mayflower.
The title of Connecticut was based on a Royal Charter to the Colony issued by King Charles the Sec- ond, Mar. 19, 1631. For some years after the United States had become an independent power these inter- fering claims caused much confusion between the states interested.
On March 1, 1784, the state of Virginia, by her rep- resentatives, duly appointed by her Legislature, as a committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, James Mon- roe, Samuel Hardy and Arthur Lee, waved all title and ownership to the territory, excepting a tract of land called the "Virginia Military District," and surrendered all authority over "the territory of said State lying and being to the north-west of the river Ohio." New York's deed of cession was favorably reported to the Congress
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of the United States on May 1, 1782. The states of Connecticut and Massachusetts not to be outdone by their sister states in patriotism and generosity, soon followed by acts of relinquishment of title and deeds of cession to the United States.
Connecticut, in September, 1786, ceded all her claim to soil and jurisdiction thereof west of the Western Reserve, in the territory northwest of the River Ohio. By consent of Congress Connecticut retained her own- ership in the soil and jurisdictional rights over the Re- serve. These rights upon sale passed to Phelps & Gor- ham, who at once made arrangements to have the land appraised, surveyed and sold, the purchasing parties being largely in the states of Massachusetts, Connecti- cut and New York, and was known thereafter as the Connecticut Land Co. New England people, the land of the Pilgrim and Puritan, became the chief purchasers of the virgin soil, who transferred their mode of society, industry, enterprise and habits of thought to "New Connecticut." The descendants of these people have no equal in intelligence, integrity and good order general- ly. After the title was transferred to the Connecticut Land Company, the subscriptions to the purchase ranged from $1,683 by Sylvanus Griswold, to $168,185 by Oliver Phelps. Each dollar subscribed to this fund entitled the subscriber to one-twelve-hundred-thou- sandth part in common and undivided, of the land pur- chased. The amount of shares was fixed at 400, at $3,000 per share. Certificates were issued to each own- er, showing him to be the owner of such proportion of the entire land, as the amount he paid, bore to the pur- chase price of the whole. Moses Cleveland and a
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6
D
R
R
E Branch
FORT WEYMOUTH
party of 51 surveyors and assistants landed in Ohio, after holding a treaty with the Indians at Buffalo. The surveys of the Reserve Lands were made in the years of 1796 and 1797, or that portion of it lying east of the Cuyahoga River. The draft of the lands east of this river took place prior to 1800. In this draft it re- quired an ownership of $12,903.23 of the original pur- chase money to entitle an owner to a Township.
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In 1800, through petition, Congress accepted the Western Reserve as part of the United States and con- signed it for jurisdiction purposes to the Northwestern Territory, then in its second grade. However, Connec- ticut did not cede her jurisdictional claim to the West- ern Reserve to the United States until May 30, 1801. The land west of the Cuyahoga became by treaty, in 1805, a part of the United States. These lands were surveyed in 1806-'07 by Abram Tappan, for the Con- necticut Land Company, and Seth Pease for the Govern- ment. The draft of the land west of the Cuyahoga took place April 4, 1807. In this draft it required ownership of $26,087 in the original purchase money to entitle an owner to a Township. The same mode and plan was followed in each draft. The Townships were numbered, and the numbers on separate slips of paper placed in a box. The names of the subscribers who were the own- ers of sufficient amount of purchase money to entitle them to a township, were arranged in alphabetical or- der and when it was necessary for several persons to combine because of not owning severally, a sufficient amount of the purchase money, or a number of shares, to entitle them to a township, the name of the person of the company that stood alphabetically first, was used to represent them in the draft, and in case the small own- ers were unable from disagreement among themselves, to unite, a committee was appointed to select and class the proprietors, and those selected were required to as- sociate themselves together for the purpose of the draft. The township or parcel of land corresponding to the first number drawn from the box belonged to the person whose name stood first upon the list, or to the
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THE WESTERN RESERVE
persons whom he represented. This was the method adopted to sever the ownership in common, and to se- cure to each individual or company of individuals, their interest in severalty. Soon after the conveyance, the land company, to avoid complications arising from the death of its members and to facilitate the transmission of titles, conveyed the entire purchase in trust, to John Morgan, John Cadwell and Jonathan Brice.
After the surveys the owners of lands took posses- sion or placed them in the market. Settlement com- menced, not as in other sections, by eating in on one side and gradually extending to the interior, but it com- menced in nearly every township at once, or at least within a few years. The change was wonderful, the Reserve was filled with the crash of falling trees, log- ging fires burned night and day; ringing ax-strokes sharp, clear-voiced, could be heard in every direction, like funeral bells tolling the passing of the forest; like unto the passing of human souls in troublous times. The openings in the forest widened, and grew yet more wide; the patches grew to be fields, the fields, farms. Then came logging and brush-burning, and later the pulling of stumps, the picking of stones, fence building, and road and bridge building. Some forty years of this work, then the log cabin gave place to the comfortable frame house, the patches to extended, well-fenced fields. The landscape had changed; had been changing for forty years; was to continue to change for the next twenty.
Then came slavery troubles ; the underground rail- road ; the firing on the old flag ; the breaking out of the Civil War, the shrill screams of the fife, the rattle of
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drums, the going forth of father and brother and son to fight for home and God and Country.
And looking backward, what have we accomplish- ed ? A record grand! Glorious! A record never ex- ceeded.
Ohio in 1810, with only 10,000 votes placed in the fields during the war of 1812, more than 25,000 citizen soldiers.
At the first call for troops in 1861, she placed fifty per cent more than she was entitled to. At the end of the war she had a credit of 41,000 more than her quota. As a state, but little better than fifty years old, she placed in the field, 346,326 men in regiments, besides many more not credited. Ohio sent an army half again larger than the greatest army Great Britain ever placed in the field. Ohio's dead alone amounted to 4,000 more than was lost on both sides during the Rev- olutionary War. Ohio paid in local bounties to her citi- zen soldiery to the amount of $23,500,000. Northern Ohio, a little strip across the state only one county wide in one place; less than one fourth of the state, sent 60 full regiments of Infantry, 5 of Cavalry, besides Mc- Laughlin's squadron, 10 batteries of Artillery, besides sharp shooting companies. Northern Ohio furnished one thirtieth of the entire Union force in field from 1861 to 1865.
The Western Reserve as a geographical division is but one seventh of the state in which we reside, yet we have struck great blows for the Union, for human- ity, for liberty and common weal. Ohio's two war Gov- ernors, David Todd and John Brough, were residents of the Western Reserve, and when there was doubt of
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Kentucky being able to fill its quota, Ohio's Governor telegraphed Abraham Lincoln-
"If Kentucky refuses to fill her quota, we will fill it for her."
The Western Reserve contains about 175,000 acres more land than her mother state of Connecticut. Her
CLEVELAND TO CONNEAUT
ROAD FROM
TAUT
CMRANEM
ACRES
ANGIFATA
a
SLATE ROCK
FORT CONNEAUT
1
population exceeds that of Maine, West Virginia and Connecticut. Has a greater population than New Hampshire and Vermont combined, or nearly as much as the joint population of Delaware, Rhode Island and Vermont, and aggregating four times as much as Dela-
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ware alone. It has always carried a prepondering in- fluence in State and National affairs. It has furnished many times its share in Generals, Governors, Supreme Judges, Statesmen, Presidents and learned men in every rank and walk of life. Its blood is made up of the commingled strains of the Pilgrim, the Puritan, the Hollander and the Virginian. All that was pure, that was noble, that was of humanity and of God, we have inherited from them, the first state to be settled by representative Americans, children of the old col- onies ; of Revolutionary sires-a chosen people-chil- dren of destiny. God-risen we have a mission to per- form and when we forget it and all that has made us great we shall sign our death warrant and seal the doom of our children.
The importance of the Western Reserve as the last stand of Puritanism cannot well be overlooked by men of letters and political economy.
The Western Reserve has a character and an individuality of its own that is not found in any other section of our country. An individuality that in time of National need was to furnish the great men, the courage, the plans and the conscience that was to save the Nation in its hour of most deadly peril and to bear aloft to Victory the hands of our beloved Lincoln. It is really a state within a state.
Alfred Mathews says-"The settlement was huge- ly significant in several ways, but none more so than in the fact that the pioneers of that vast army of occu- pation planted in the New Connecticut of the Western Reserve, the last organized and distinct colony of Pur-
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itanism, which, as such, made a deep and historic im- pression upon the conscience of the country.
"It becomes thus apparent that in numbers, com- mercial importance, geographical extent-in all save mere organization-the Connecticut Western Reserve constitutes the equivalent of a state; while in its unity of purpose and power of influence it has unquestion- abily exercised in the affairs of the Nation and in the broad interest of the people a sway such as few states, large or small, have equaled.
"It is this achievement, in perpetuation of prin- ciples and of individual character as complete as if bounded by state lines, or lofty mountains and wide rivers, and in the unquestioned fact that more than any other similar body of people west of the Alle- ghenies it has impressed the brain and conscience of the people."
Let us give to our children the best we can, for in them lies the hope of a nation truly and forever free. There is a time coming, how soon man knows not, as it all depends on the actors themselves, when the Great American Republic will have need of all the heart and conscience that can be builded up on the Reserve to steer her safely through the breakers which are loom- ing so far away and so mistily ahead. Every genera- tion has its great questions to solve and answer right- ly. God grant that they be met and answered as well in the future as in our golden past.
Judge Tourgee has said: "Words may be false; leaders may seek to deceive; but what a people write in blood upon the page of history is always true." Let the people write the history of the Connecticut Reserve
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so that "he who runs may read," and reading, know what the last organized stand of Puritanism did for the whole glorious American Republic.
ORGANIZATION, EARLY BOUNDARIES AND CHANGES OF THE COUNTIES OF THE WESTERN RESERVE AND FIRELANDS
To thoroughly understand the county boundaries of the Western Reserve, it will be necessary to briefly review the various changes.
In 1769, Virginia, then claiming the "Ohio Country," erected the county of Botetourt, which in- cluded all the land within the present limits of the Reserve. This remained so until that state ceded her right to the Western Territory in 1783.
On July 26, 1788, Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the North-western Territory, by proclamation, estab- lished all the territory east of the Scioto river into the county of Washington.
July 29, 1797, the territorial county of Jefferson was erected; this county included within its limits all the land on the Reserve lying east of the Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga rivers and the Portage path. The fol- lowing boundaries were established with the county seat at Steubenville :
"Beginning on the banks of the Ohio river, where the western boundary of Penssylvania crosses it; and down said river to the southern boundary of the fourth township in the third range (of those seven ranges of townships that were surveyed in conformity to the ordinance of Congress of the 20th of May, 1785), and
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LAKE ERIE
CUYAHOGA RIVER
Mouth of the Cuyahoga as it Appeared at the Time of the Eries. Parallel Lines Show Present Mouth
BOUNDARIES OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
with the said southern boundary west, to the south- west corner of the sixth township of the fifth range; thence north along the western boundary of the said fifth range to the termination thereof ; thence due west to the Muskingum river, and up the Muskingum and Tuscarawas rivers to and with the Portage, between the latter and the Cuyahoga river; thence down the Cuyahoga river; thence down the Cuyahoga to Lake Erie; thence eastward along the shore of the lake to the western boundary of Pennsylvania; and south with the same to the place of beginning."
By what right the territory of the northwest thus drawn and determined these boundaries has never been known, as at that time that part of the Reserve did not belong to the Northwestern Territory.
These three counties, Botetourt, Washington and Jefferson, only held questionable jurisdiction, as the State of Connecticut laid claim to its territory within the "Ohio Country," known as "New Connecticut." In 1786 that state ceded to the United States all her claim to the soil and jurisdiction west and south of what is now known as the "Western Reserve," and the "Firelands" of Connecticut. Congress confirmed that state's title to the above reservations, consequently neither Congress nor any power created had any authority to create geographical boundaries, or assume jurisdictional powers within the above named reserva- tions.
From 1786 to 1801, the citizens of the Reserve were a people without a country. The United States did not own the soil, nor have any jurisdictional rights over the same. Connecticut, although she still held
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BOUNDARIES OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
jurisdiction over the territory, had sold the soil, estab- lishing with the proceeds thereof her school fund, but she had not provided this little republic with either laws, or courts or any form of government. The east- ern half was not yet a part of the Northwestern Terri- tory and was not subject to its laws and regulations. The settlers found themselves without the support of a central government or a high political power on which to lean for support in time of trouble or distress.
Some thirty-five of the townships which had been surveyed by the Connecticut Land Company in 1796 and '97 contained settlements in 1800; the estimated population being one thousand souls. In that year, a petition was circulated and signed, praying Congress of the United States to accept this lonely orphan, and enroll it as a part of the United States of America, at- taching it for judicial purposes to the Northwestern Territory which had attained to its second grade of territorial government September, 1799, after eleven years of government in the first grade. Congress, in December, 1800, accepted the trust, although Connecti- cut did not cede her claim to the Western Reserve until May 30, 1801.
July 10, 1800, Trumbull County was erected from part of the territory embraced in the County of Jeffer- son. This new county contained all the land of the Western Reserve, with the county seat at Warren. The official boundary as established read as follows :
"Beginning at the completion of the 41st degree of north latitude, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and running from thence by a line to be drawn north, parallel to and
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BOUNDARIES OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
one hundred and twenty miles west of the said west line of Pennsylvania, and to continue north until it comes to 42 degrees, 2 minutes latitude; thence with a line to be drawn east until it intersects the said west- ern boundary of Pennsylvania; thence with the said western boundary of Pennsylvania south to the com- pletion of the 41st degree of north latitude; and from thence west to the place of beginning."
All counties of the Western Reserve were a part of Botetourt and Washington counties ; Ashtabula, Trum- bull, Mahoning, Lake, Geauga, Portage and that part of Cuyahoga County lying east of the Cuyahoga River, as well as that part of Summit lying east of the Cuya- hoga, and Tuscarawas rivers and the "Portage Path" was a part of Jefferson county. All the counties in the Reserve were formerly a part of Trumbull county.
In 1805 Geauga county was formed from Trumbull county, and included all the land from the Cuyahoga River eastward to the Pennsylvania line, and south- ward to the south line of townships numbered five. This embraced all the territory now included in Ash- tabula, Lake and that portion of Cuyahoga lying east of the river of that name, and also a portion of Summit. June 7, 1807, Ashtabula was formed from Geauga and Trumbull counties. On the same date, June 7, 1807, Portage County was formed from Trumbull and includ- ed all that part of the Western Reserve lying west of the fifth range of townships. The official boundaries are given as follows:
"That all that part of the county of Trumbull which lies west of the fifth range of townships be erect- ed into a separate county by the name of Portage. That
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BOUNDARIES OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
the courts of said county of Portage shall be holden at the house of Benjamin Tappan until a permanent seat of justice shall be established. That all that part of the Connecticut Western Reserve that lies west of the Cuyahoga River and south of the townships numbered five, shall be annexed to and become a part of the coun- ty of Portage. Provided, that the money arising to the county from a tax on land, within the said district, shall be appropriated by the commissioners of Portage county, and expended in laying out and making roads and erecting bridges, within the boundaries of said dis- trict west of Cuyahoga."
The territory of Medina, the better part of Sum- mit, about half of Lorain and a part of Ashland coun- ties became a part of Portage, but the money collected by a tax on land to be laid out on making roads and building bridges west of the Cuyahoga River. Thus did our early legislators build for civilization.
The fifth county formed, that of Cuyahoga, was organized in May, 1810, and the territory was taken from Geauga.
Medina was formed Feb. 18, 1812, but was not organized until April, 1818. In 1811, the west line of the eleventh range of townships was designated as the western boundary of Portage County. Medina was taken from Portage and after it was formed was at- tached to that county for judicial purposes until its organization in 1818; but Portage continued its west- ern boundary until 1827, when the following boundary was established :
Beginning on the south line of the Connecticut Western Reserve, at the point where the Tuscarawas
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BOUNDARIES OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
River intersects the same; thence down northerly fol- lowing the middle of said Tuscarawas river, to the range line between the eleventh and twelfth ranges, as run by the Connecticut Land Company; thence north on the course of the range line last foresaid, to the north line of the township numbered four; thence east on the north line of number four, in the eleventh range, to the middle of the Cuyahoga River; thence down the middle of said river to the north line of the township numbered five in said ranges."
This took a slice from Cuyahoga and Geauga, while Medina included part of Lorain and Ashland Counties.
Lorain was formed Dec. 26, 1822, and was taken from Medina and Huron Counties.
Summit was organized Mar. 3, 1840, and was taken from Medina, Portage and Stark Counties.
Lake County was formed Mar. 6, 1840, and taken from Geauga and Cuyahoga.
Mahoning was organized in 1846 and was taken from Trumbull and Columbiana Counties. It was named from the Indian name of Ma-hon-ink, "at the lick" or at the salt spring. Portage was named from Portage Path, while Cuyahoga came from the river of that name.
A small part of Ashland County belongs to the Reserve, while a small portion of Ottawa belongs to the Firelands of the Western Reserve.
Ashland County was organized Feb. 26, 1846, and was taken from Richland, Wayne, Lorain and Huron counties.
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BOUNDARIES OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
Ottawa County was organized Mar. 6, 1840, and was taken from Sandusky, Erie and Lucas. The bal- ance of the Firelands, Erie and Huron were organized as follows: Huron, 1815; Erie, 1838.
PIONEERS OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
"Our forest life was rough and rude, And dangers closed us 'round,
But here amid the green old trees, Freedom we sought and found. O, free and manly lives we led, 'Mid verdure or 'mid snow, In the days when we were pioneers A hundred years ago."
"We felt that we were fellowmen; We felt we were a band,
Sustained here in the wilderness By heaven's upholding hand. And when the solemn Sabbath came, We gathered in the wood, And lifted up our hearts in prayer To God, the only Good,
Our temples then were earth and sky ; None other did we know
In the days when we were pioneers A hundred years ago." -Wm. D. Gallagher.
The dwellings of the pioneers of the Western Re- serve outside of the rude bark or brush shack, consist- ed solely of the log cabin.
The log cabins were generally 12x14, or 14x16 feet in size, built of logs a foot or more in diameter, laid up like the cobhouse of the children, except being notched at the corner so the logs laid close together, the spaces between the logs were filled with wooden wedges or else plastered with stiff clay. The roof was covered
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PIONEER CABIN
PIONEERS
with clap-boards, or long shingles, riven very thin, and about six feet long, held on by weight poles placed on each tier, a ridge pole in the center. The floors were made out of puncheons, split off the logs, and roughly hewn with a broadax. Doors were made of heavy puncheons, crossed and cater-cornered by other strong timbers ; the hinges were wooden ones made heavy and of tough material. The door was secured by one or more heavy cross bars. The windows were made by sawing out one or more logs, making a small hole which was covered with slats and oiled paper . Bed-steads were made from tough dog-wood poles, with only one, or at the most, two posts; the bottoms made from wov- en elm bark or tough hickory slats. Chairs were usual- ly three legged, made to fit the inequalities of the floor, and were only rude puncheon benches. The cupboard was made by driving wooden pins in the logs and lay- ing boards upon them. The table was usually a rude frame covered with puncheons. If a cabin possessed a loft, the floor was made by loosely laid puncheons, and was reached by a ladder, sometimes from the out- side, sometimes from the inside; if there was no ladder wooden pins were driven in the logs at one corner of the cabin; a sure if not an easy way to reach the loft. The fire-place occupied the greater part, if not the whole of one end of the cabin. This was made of rough, or undressed stone, laid up in mortar, but more usually stiff clay ; the chimney was composed of the same ma- terial, or in some instances, of sticks laid crosswise and well plastered with clay, both inside and out. A lug- pole was across the inside of the chimney, on which to hang the chain, or if the chain was missing, a rough
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