Botetourt, which lies on the said waters of the Mississippi, shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by the said county court, for the purpose of building a court house and prison for said county.
     Connecticut also held claim for a portion of this territory extending to the Pacific coast, granted by Charles II, April 23, 1662.  Massachusetts had similar claims, so also had New York.
     From the vague and indefinite ideas of the English government in regard to the geography of the "New World," these grants were not clearly defined or described, and, sometimes, they overlapped.  This was likely to lead to disputes and wrangling among the claimants that would be difficult to decide.
     IN the Legislature of Connecticut was; asserted the undoubted and exclusive right of jurisdiction, and it "Resolved that his excellency, the Governor, be desired to issue his proclamation, declaring and asserting the right of his State to all the lands, within the limits aforesaid, and strictly forbidding all persons to enter or settle thereon, without special license or authority, first obtained from the General Assembly of this State."
     In consequence of this state of affairs, Congress, in 1784, addressed a recommendation to all the States having territorial claims in the West, asking them to cede their lands to the Confederacy, to aid the payment of the debts incurred during the revolution, and to promote the harmony of the Union.
     In accordance with this recommendation, Virginia, on the first day of March, 1784, by her delegates in Congress, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, deeded all her rights in the territory northwest of the Ohio to the United States.
     On the first day of March, 1781, New York ceded all her claims to the northwest territory to the general government; and, on the 18th day of April, 1785, Massachusetts ceded to the United States, all her claims to the western territories.
     On the 14th of September, 1786, the delegates from Connecticut executed a deed of cession, in accordance with the terms proposed by Congress; thus the title to the whole of the territory northwest of the Ohio became the property of the government.  This vast domain contained several hundred millions of acres.
     When Ohio was admitted into the Union as an independent State, one of the terms of admission was, that the fee simple to all the lands within its limits, except those previously granted or sold, should vest in the United States.  Different portions of these lands had or have at different periods been grated or sold to various individuals,  companies or bodies politic.

LAND GRANTS

     The following are the names by which the different bodies of these lands are designated, on account of these different form of transfers, to-wit:
1. Congress Lanes
2. United States Military
3. Western Reserve
4. Free Lands
5. Ohio Company's purchase
6. Donation Tract
7. Symmes' Purchase
8. Refugee Tract
9. French Grant
10. Dohrman's Grant
11. Zane's Grant
12. Canal Lands
13. Turnpike Lands
14. Maumee Road Lands
15. School Lands
16. College Lands
17. Ministerial Lands
18. Moravian Lands
19. Salt Sections
20. Virginia Military Land.

CONGRESS LANDS.

     Congress Lands 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 into 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 the meridian line 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 west half of the State, the ranges begin on the State line of Indiana, and are counted eastwardly, until they reach the

J. M. Boughner, Recorder
 

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

     These lands are so called from the circumstance of their having been appropriated by an Act of Congress, of the 1st of June, 1796, 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 northwest 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 northeasterly 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, or 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 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 11 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 stated, was originally granted to Connecticut by Charles II, 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 fifty miles north and south, though upon the Pennsylvania line it is sixty-eight 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 title from the States of their rights to these territories, it was with difficulty that the consent of Connecticut to the cession of her 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 her right to the jurisdiction over it.  They then united this tract to the territory that now forms the State of Ohio.

FIRE LANDS

     This is a tract 781 squares 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 leave but the space of six tiers and some fractions of townships between them and the 41st parallel, or a tract of about thirty by twenty-seven miles in extent.
     This tract is surveyed into townships of about five miles square each, and these townships are divided into four quarters.

OHIO COMPANY'S LAND

THE DONATION TRACT

SYMMES' PURCHASE

     This was a tract of 311,682 acres of land in the southwestern quarter of the State, between the Great and Little Miami rivers.  It borders on the Ohio river a distance of twenty-seven miles, and extends so far back from the latter, between the two Miamis, as to include the quantity of land just mentioned.  It was patented to John Cleves Symmes, in 1794, for sixty-seven 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 fifteen acres around Fort Washington in Cincinnati.  This tract of country is now one of the most valuable in the State.

REFUGEE TRACT

     This is a body of 100,000 acres of land, granted by Congress, February 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, four and a half miles broad from north to south, and extending eastward from the Scioto river forty-eight miles at Columbus, into Muskingum county.  It includes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking and Muskingum.

FRENCH GRANT

     This is a tract of 24,000 acres of land bordering on the Ohio river, in the southeastern 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, one and one-half 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 miles back.
     Twelve hundred acres additional were afterwards granted, adjoining the above-mentioned track, its lower end, toward the mouth of Little Scioto river.  Although the land in question was originally granted exclusively to frenchmen, 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 Greene, in Scioto county.

DOHRMAN'S GRANT

     This is a six-mile square township of land, containing 23,040 acres, situated in the southeast portion 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 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 Schcenbrun, Gnadenhusten 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 laid out - and the third on the left bank of the Scioto river, opposite Chillicothe.  They were granted by Congress in May, 1726, to Ebenezer Zane, on condition that he should open a road through them from 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 beneficence towards the American people.  These tracts are situated in Champaign county, on King's creek, from three to five miles northeast of Urbana.