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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

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ADAMS COUNTY, OHIO
HISTORY & GENEALOGY
 


 


Source:
Caldwell's Illustrated Historical Atlas
of
Adams County, Ohio

Publ. 1880

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ADAMS COUNTY, OHIO.

CHAPTER II

 LAND GRANTS.
Pg. 10

     The following are the names by which the different bodies of these lands are designated, on account of these different forms of transfers, to-wit:

1. Congress Lands 11. Zane's Grant
2. United States Military 12. Canal Lands
3. Western Reserve 13. Turnpike Lanes
4. Fire Lands 14. Maumee Road Lands
5. Ohio Company's Purchase 15. School Lands
6. Donation Tract 16. College Lands
7. Symme's Purchase 17. Ministerial Lands
8. Refugee Tract 18. Moravian Lands.
9. French Grant 19. Salt Sections
10. Dohrman's Grant 20. Virginia Military Land.

CONGRESS LANDS.

     Congress Lanes are so called because they were sold to purchasers by the immediate agents of the government conformably to laws enacted by Congress.  They are all regularly surveyed townships of six miles square each, under the authority and at the expense of the national government.  In the eastern half of the State, that is, east of the Scioto river, and on a meridian lawn drawn three miles within the eastern limits of Marion and Crawford counties, the ranges are counted from east to west, and the numbers of the townships, from south to north, beginning on the Ohio as a base.  But in the wet half of the State, the ranges begin on the State line of Indiana, and are counted eastwardly, until they reach the other ranges, which are numbered westwardly, as above mentioned, excepting between the two Miami rivers, where the ranges run from south to north, and the numbers of the townships from west to east, that is, from the Great Miami as a base.  In the purchase made in 1818 north of the Greenville treaty line, however, a "base line" is made in about the middle of the tract, on the parallel of the 41st degree north latitude, from which the townships are numbered both north and south.

UNITED STATES MILITARY LANDS.

     Those lands are so called, from the circumstance of their having been appropriated by an act of Congress, of the 1st of June 1793, to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war.  The tract of country embracing these lands is bounded as follows:  Beginning at the north-west corner of the original seven ranges, thence south fifty miles, thence west to the Scioto river, thence up said river to the Greenville treaty line, thence north-easterly with said line, to old Fort Lawrence on the Tuscarawas river, thence due east to the place of beginning, including a tract of about 4,000 square miles, of 2,560,000 acres of land.  It is, of course, bounded north by the Greenville treaty line,  east by the seven ranges of townships, south by the congress and refugee lands, and west by the Scioto river.
     These lands are surveyed into townships of five miles square.  The townships were then again originally surveyed into quarter townships, of two and a half miles square, containing 4,000 acres each.  Subsequently, some of these quarter townships were subdivided into forty lots of 10_ acres each, for the accommodation of those soldiers who held warrants for 100 acres only.  And again, after the time originally assigned for the location of these warrants had expired, certain quarter townships, which had not been located, were divided into sections of one mile square each, and sold by the general government like the main body of congress lands.

WESTERN RESERVE.

     This land, as before slated, was originally granted to Connecticut, by Charles H., in 1662.  This territory is situated in the northeast portion of the State, between Lake Erie on the north, Pennsylvania on the east, the parallel of the 41st degree of latitude on the south, and Sandusky and Seneca counties on the west.  It extends 120 miles from east to west, and will average about 50 miles north and south, though upon the Pennsylvania line it is 68 miles from north to south.  The area is about 3,800,000 acres.  It is surveyed into townships of five miles square.
     After the United States became a nation, the interfering claims of the different States in regard to the original grants made by the Kings of England, as before stated, were likely to become a source of trouble, that might terminate in disastrous results.  When Congress undertook to obtain the titled from the States, of their rights to these territories, it was with difficulty that the consent of Connecticut, to the cession of her rights, could be obtained.  A compromise was finally effected, by which Connecticut retained ___ right to the soil of these 3,800,000 acres, while Congress obtained the right to the Jurisdiciton over it.  They then united this tract to the territory that now forms the State of Ohio.

FIRE LANDS.

     This is a tract of 781 square miles, or 500,000 acres, in the  western part of the Reserve.  The name originated from the circumstances of the State of Connecticut having granted these lands in 1792, as a donation to certain sufferers by fire, occasioned by the burning of the property of her citizens by the English during the Revolutionary war, particularly at New London, Fairfield and Norwalk.  These lands include the five western-most ranges of the Western Reserve townships.  Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay project so far south as to the leave but the space of six tiers and some fractions of townships between them and the 41st parallel, or a tract of about 30 by 27 miles in extent.
     The tract is surveyed into townships of about five miles square each, and these townships are divided into four quarters.

OHIO COMPANY'S LAND.

     This is a body of land containing about 1,500,000 acres, including however, the donation tract, school lands, &c., lying along the Ohio river, and including Meigs, nearly all of Athens, and a considerable part of Washington and Gallia counties.  This tract was purchased by the government, Oct. 27, 1787, by Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargeant, from the neighborhood of Salem, Massachusetts, as agents for the "Ohio Company" so called which had been formed in Massachusetts, for the purpose of a settlement in the Ohio country.  Only 964,285 acres were ultimately paid for, and, of course, patented.  This body of land was then apportioned out into 817 shares of 1,173 acres each, and a town lot, of one-third of an acre to each share.  These shares were made up to each proprietor, in tracts, one of 640 acres, one of 262, one of 160, one of 100, one of 8, one of 3 acres, besides the before-mentioned town lot.
     Unfortunately for the Ohio Company, owning to their want of topographical knowledge of the country, the body of land selected by them, with some partial exceptions, is the most hilly and sterile of any tract of land of similar extent in the State.

     A great portion of its first settlers were revolutionary officers and soldiers, with their families.  They made their first settlement on the Ohio river, at the mouth of the Muskingum, where they founded the town of Marietta, which was the first important settlement in the State.

THE DONATION TRACT.

Is a body of 100,000 acres set off in  the northern limits of the Ohio Company's tract, and granted to them by Congress, provided they should obtain one actual settler, upon each 100 acres thereof, within five years  from the date of the grant, and that so much of the 100,000 acres aforesaid, as should not be taken up, shall revert to the general government.
     This tract may, in some respects, be considered a part of the Ohio Company's purchase.  It is situated in the northern limits of Washington county.  It lies in an oblong shape, extending nearly seventeen miles from east to west, and about seven and a half miles from north to south.

SYMMES' PURCHASE

     This was a tract of 311,682 acres of land, in the south-western quarter of the State, between the Great and Little Miami rivers.   It borders on the Ohio river, a distance of 27 miles, and extends so far back from the latter between the two Miamis, as to include the quantity lf land just mentioned.  It was patented to John Cleves Symmes in 1794, for 67 cents per acre.  Every section 16, or mile square in each township, was reserved by Congress for the use of schools; and section 29 for the support of religious institutions, besides 15 acres around Fort Washington in Cincinnati.  This tract of country is now one of the most valuable in the State.

REFUGEE TRACT.

     This a body of 100,000 acres of land granted by Congress, Feb. 18, 1801, to certain individuals who left the British provinces during the revolutionary war and espoused the cause of freedom.  It is a narrow strip of country 4½ miles broad from north to south, and extending eastward from the Scioto river 48 miles at Columbus into Muskingum county.  It includes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking and Muskingum.

FRENCH GRANT.

     This a tract of 24,000 acres of land bordering on the Ohio river, in the south-eastern portion of Scioto county.  It was granted by Congress, in  March, 1795, to a number of French families, who lost their lands at Gallipolis, by invalid titles.  It extends from a point on the Ohio river, 1½ miles above, but opposite the mouth of Little Sandy creek in Kentucky, and extending eight miles in a direct line down the river, and from the two extremities of that line, extending back at right angles sufficiently far to include the quantity of land required, which exceeded four and a half iles back.
     Twelve hundred acres additional were afterwards granted, adjoining the above mentioned tract, at its lower end, toward the month of Little Scioto river.  Although the land in question was originally granted exclusively to Frenchman, not more than eight or ten French families permanently settled on it, the other portion of the population being composed of emigrants from Vermont, New Hampshire and other States.  This tract is composed  of the township of Green in Scioto county.

DOHRMAN'S GRANT.

     This is a six mile square township of land, containing 23,010 acres, situated in the south-east portion of Tuscarawas county.  It was given to Arnold Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, by act of Congress, of Feb. 27, 1801, "in consideration of his having, during the revolutionary war, given shelter and aid to the American cruisers and vessels of war."

MORAVIAN LANDS.

     These are three several tracts of 4,000 acres each, originally granted by the old continental Congress, in July, 1787, and confirmed by the act of Congress, of June 1, 1796, to the Moravian brethren, at Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, in trust and for the use of the christianized Indians living thereon.  They are laid out in nearly square forms, on the Muskingum river, in what is now Tuscarawas county.  They are called by the names of Schoenbrun? Guadenhutten, and Salem tracts.  The Indians have long since left them.

ZANE'S TRACTS.

     These are three several tracts of one mile square each - one on the Muskingum river, which includes the city of Zanesville - one at the crossing of the Hocking river, on which the town of Lancaster is land out  - and the third on the left bank of the Scioto river, opposite Chillicothe.  They were granted by Congress, in May, 1796, to Ebenezer Zane, on condition that he should open a road through them form Wheeling, Virginia to Maysville, Kentucky.
     There were also three other tracts, one mile square each, granted to Isaac Zane, in 1802, in consequence of his having been taken prisoner by the Indians when a boy, during the revolutionary war, and living with them most of his life, and having during that time, performed many acts of kindness and beneficences to wards the American people.  These tracts are situated in Champaign county, on King's creek, from three to five miles north-west of Urbana.

THE MAUMEE ROAD LANDS.

     These are a body of lands, averaging two miles wide, lying along, one mile on each side of the road from the Maumee river at Perrysburg, to the western limits of the Western Reserve, a distance of about 46 miles, and comprising nearly 60,000 acres.  They were originally granted by the Indian owners, at the treaty of Brownsville, in 1808, to enable the United States to make a road on the line just mentioned.  The general government never moved in the business until February, 1823, when Congress

[Pg. 11]
passed an act, making over the aforesaid lands to the State of Ohio, provided she would, within four years thereafter, make and keep it in repair, a good road throughout the aforesaid route of 46 miles.  This road the State government opened out, obtained the land and sold it.

TURNPIKE LANDS.

     These are forty-nine sections, amounting to 31,360 acres, situated along the western side of the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike, in hte eastern parts of Seneca, Crawford and Marion counties.  They were originally granted by an act of Congress, on the 3d of March, 1827, and more especially, by an a supplementary act the next year.  The considerations, for which these lands were granted, were that the ail stages, and all troops and property of the United states, which should ever be moved and transferred along this road, should pass free of toll.

OHIO CANAL LANDS.

Congress by an act, passed on the 24th of May, 1828, granted to the State of Ohio 300,000 acres of land to aid the State in completing her canals, and also a quantity “equal to one-half of five sections in width on each side of said canal,” (the Miami canal) so far as it passes through the public lands, north of the old Greenville treaty line, and this is estimated at 106 miles, thereby making the quantity of mud thus granted 340,000 acres—or 810,000 acres in all. provided that all troops and property of the United States transported thereon, shall pass free of toll, as in the case of the before mentioned turnpike lands.
     For both t lie canal and turnpike lands, the Governor made deeds to the individual purchasers.

SCHOOL LANDS.

     By compact between the United States and the State of Ohio, when the latter was admitted, it was stipulated, for and in consideration that the State should never tax the Congress lands, until after they had been sold five years, and inconsideration that the public lands would thereby more readily sell, that the one thirty-sixth part of all the territory included within the limits of the State, should be set apart, for the support of common schools therein.  And for the purpose of getting at lands, which should, a point of quality of soil, be on an average with the whole of the land in the country, they decreed that at should be selected by lot, in small tracts, that to effect this fairly, it should consist of section number 16, let that section be good or bad, in every township of  Congress land, and also in the Ohio Company's land, and in Symmes' purchases, all of which townships are composed of thirty-six sections each, and for the United States Military Lands and Western Reserve, a number of quarter township, two and a half miles square each.. (being the smallest surveys then made) should be selected by the secretary of the Treasury, in different places, throughout the United States military tract, equivalent in quality to the one thirty-sixth part of those two tracts respectively.  And for the Virginia military tract, Congress enacted that a quantity of land equal to the one thirty-sixth part of the estimated quantity of land contained therein, should be selected by lot, in what was called the "New Purchase," now comprising Wayne, Richland, and part of Holmes and Marion counties, in quarter township tracts of three miles square each.  Most of these selections were accordingly made, but in some instances, by the carelessness of the officers conducting the sales, or from some other cause, a few sections, 16, had been sold, in which case, Congress, when applied to, generally granted other lands in lieu thereof, as for instance, no section 16 was reserved in Montgomery township, in which Columbus is situated, and Congress afterwards granted therefore, section  21, in the  township cornering thereon to the south-east.  Furthermore, as the Virginia military tract was found to be much larger than was at first supposed there was not really school lands enough set off for this district.  It lacked two quarter townships or 18 sections.
     All these lands were vested in the Legislature, in trust, for the people for school purposes.

COLLEGE TOWNSHIPS.

     These lands are embraced in three townships, six miles square each, granted by Congress, two of them to the Ohio Company, for the use of a college to be established within their purchase - and one for the use of the inhabitants of Symmes' purchase.
     The two in the Ohio Company's purchase, are situated near the center of Athens county, and constitute a considerable part of the permanent funds of the Ohio University at Athens.  That one belonging to Symmes' purchase, composes the north-western township in Butler county.  Its income is appropriated to the Miami University, which is erected thereon.  This university was chartered in 1809, and located in the town of Oxford, which is situated in the foregoing township of land, granted by Congress for its support.
     These lands were really no donation, but were a part of the considerations inducing the Ohio Company, and J. C. Symmes to make their purchases.

MINISTERIAL LANDS.

     In both the Ohio Company's and Symmes purchase, every section 29 - equal to one thirty-sixth part of every township - was reserved as a permanent fund, for the support of a settled minister.  As the purchasers of these two tracts came from parts of the union where it was customary and deemed necessary to have a regular settled clergyman in every town, they therefore stipulated in their original purchase, that a permanent fund, in land, should thus be set apart for this purpose.  In no other part of the State than in these two purchases, are any lands set apart of this purpose.

SALT SECTIONS.

     Near the centre of Jackson county, Congress originally reserved from sale, thirty-six sections, or one six mile square township around and including what was called the Scioto Salt Licks, also one quarter of a five mile square township in what is now Delaware county, in all, forty-two and a quarter sections, or 27,040 acres.  By an act of Congress, of the 28th of December, 1824, the Legislature of Ohio was authorized to sell these lands, and apply the proceeds thereof, to such literary purposes as the Legislature may think proper, but to no other purpose whatever.

VIRGINIA MILITARY LANDS.

     This is one of the largest and most important reservations of lands made by the States which ended territorities to the general government.
     This tract of land is situated between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers.  It embraces within the limits, Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison and Union counties, entirely, and portions of Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Warren, Greene, Clark, Champaign, Logan and Hardin.  It embraces a body of 6,570 square miles, or 4,201,800 acres of land.
     As stated elsewhere, Virginia had, during the progress of the revolutionary war, promised here officers and soldiers serving in the continental line, large bounties in land.  When she ended her territory north-west of the Ohio to the general government, she reserved enough of the land to fulfill her engagements with her troops who had served in the continental army.  Hence the name, "Virginia Military Lands."
     Notwithstanding the United States had, after the cession by the several States, of their claims to the western territory, made several treaties with the Indians, by which their titles to their lands seemed to have been extinguished, yet the tribes still maintained an attitude of extreme and relentless hostility, which continued until after Wayne's victory in 1794, completely crushed their hopes and humbled their pride.
     It was while the Indians were still in this hostile attitude, that the first lodgement of the whites was made in Adams county, at Manchester in 1791.

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