Lorain County, Ohio - Chapter 2: The Connecticut Western Reserve, 1879

Chapter 2: The Connecticut Western Reserve

THE Western Reserve of Connecticut lies between the parallels of 41° and 42° 2' of north latitude, commencing with the western boundary line of Pennsylvania, and extending thence one hundred and twenty miles westward. The entire tract embraces an area of seven thousand four hundred and forty square miles," nearly one-third of which is water. If the whole were land, there would be four million seven hundred and sixty-one thousand six hundred acres. It is composed of the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Portage, Geauga, Lake, Cuyahoga, Medina, Lorain, Huron, Erie, Summit (except the townships of Franklin and Green), the two northern tiers of townships in Mahoning, the townships of Sullivan, Troy, and Ruggles, in Ashland, and several islands lying north of Sandusky, including Kelly's and Put-in-Bay. This is the land portion of the Reserve. 'The portion consisting of water lies between the southern shore of Lake Erie and the forty-second degree of north latitude, and is bounded on the east and west by the same parallels of longitude that form the east and west boundaries of the land portion.

_ There have been numerous claimants to the soil of the Reserve. In addition to the red man's title, France, England, the United States, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut have all, at one time or another, asserted ownership. The claim of France arose by reason of its being a portion of the territory which she possessed by right of discovery. England laid claim to all territory adjoining those districts lying along the Atlantic seaboard, whose soil she possessed by right of occupancy, asserting ownership from sea to sea. The greatest ignorance, however, prevailed in early times as to the inland extent of the American continent. During the reign of James I., Sir Francis Drake reported that, from the top of the mountains on the Isthmus of Panama, he had seen both oceans. This led to the belief that the continent from east to west was of no considerable extent, and that the South Sea, by which appellation the Pacific then was known, did not lie very far removed from the Atlantic. As late as 1740, the Duke of Newcastle addressed his letters to the ''Island of New England." This ignorance of the inland extent of America, gave rise, as we shall see, to conflicting claims of western

* For the facts upon which this chapter is based we are largely indebted to an address delivered by Judge Boynton, at Elyria, July 4th, 1876.

territory. England's valid title to the great west was obtained through conquest, compelling France, in 1713 and 1763, to surrender nearly the whole of her American possessions. Great Britain in her rights of ownership in American soil, and thus came to have a claim to the lands of the Reserve. The claims of Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut were obtained by virtue of charters granted to English subjeets by English sovereigns. The tract of country embraced in the London Company's charter, granted by James I. in 1609, whence arose Virginia's claim, Commenced its boundaries at Old Pomt Comfort, on the Atlantic, and extended two hundred miles south, and two hundred north from this point. From the southernmost point, a line drawn due west to the Pacific formed the southern boundary; from the northernmost point, a line running diagonally northwesterly through Pennsylvania and Western New York, across. the eastern portion of Lake Erie, and terminating finally in the Arctic ocean, formed the northwestern boundary ; and the Pacific Ocean, or what was then called the South Sea, the western boundary. The vast empire lying within these fonr lines included over one-half of the North American continént, and embraced all of what was afterwards known as the Northwestern Territory, including of course the lands of the Reserve.

The claim of Massachusetts rested for its validity upon the charter of 1620, granted by James I. to the Council of Plymouth, and embraced all the territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude. This grant comprised an area of more than a million square miles, and included all of the present inhabited British possessions to the north of the United States, all of what is now New England, New York, one-half of New Jersey, very nearly all of Pennsylvania, more than the northern half of Ohio, and all the country to the west of these States. In 1630, the Earl of Warwick obtained a grant to a part of the same territory, and in the following year assigned a portion of his grant to Lord Brooke and' Viscounts Say and Seal.

In 1664, Charles II. ceded to his brother, the Duke of York, and afterwards King James II. of England, the country from Delaware Bay to the River St. Croix, and afterward it was insisted that the granted territory extended westward to the Pacific. This constituted New York's claim to western territory, of which the lands of the Reserve were a portion. In 1662, the same monarch granted to nineteen patentees an ample charter, from which Connecticut derived her claim to a territory bounded by Massachusetts on the north, the sea on the south, Narraganset Bay on the east, and the Pacific on the west. This grant embraced a strip of land sixty-two miles wide, extending from Narragansett Bay on the east to the Pacific ocean on the west; and the northern and southern boundaries of this tract were the same as those which now form the boundaries at the north and south of the Reserve.

Thus arose conflicting claims. The extent of territory to which Virginia insisted that she was rightful owner was the largest, and included.all the other claims. That of Massachusetts was next in size, and included the whole region claimed for Connecticut, as did the territory embraced in New York's claim.

The United States did not appear as a contestant until the time of the Revolutionary war, when she, with good reason, insisted that these disputed lands belonged of right to Great Britain's conqueror; that a vacant territory, wrested from a common enemy by the united arms, and at the joint expense and sacrifice of all the States, should be considered as the property of the conquering nation, to be held in trust for the common benefit of the people of all the States. To show how groundless were the claims of these contesting States, it was pointed out that the charters upon which their titles were founded had in some instances been abrogated by judicial proceedings, and the companies to whom they had been given dissolved; that the charters were given at a time when much of the territory, to which ownership was claimed under them, was in the actual possession and occupancy of another power; that all the various grants were made in the grossest ignorance of the inland extent of the American continent; and that George III. had either repudiated the charters of his royal predecessors, or denied to them the right of sovereignty over territory of so vast extent, by issuing a proclamation forbidding all persons from intruding upon lands in the yalley of the Ohio.

Popular feeling ran high. Contentions between. conflicting claimants frequently resulted in bloodshed. The prospects of the American Union were darkened; the ratification of the Articles of Confederation was retarded; the difficulty and embarrassments in prosecuting the war for independence were greatly augmented. Maryland would not become a member of the Union unless the States claiming western territory would relinquish to Congress their title. In the midst of these gloomy and foreboding events, in which disaster to the common cause was more to be feared at the hands of its friends than of its enemies, Congress made a strong appeal to the claiming States to avert the approaching danger by a cessation of contentious discord among themselves, and by making liberal cessions of western territory for the common benefit. New York was the first to respond, and in 1780 ceded to the United States the lands she claimed lying west of a line running south from the western bend of Lake Ontario, reserving an area of nineteen thousand square miles. Virginia, in 1784, relinquished in favor of Congress her title to lands lying northwest of the Ohio, reserving a district of land in Ohio lying between the Scioto and Little Miami, which came to be known as the Virginia Military District, which reservation was made in order to enable Virginia to fulfill pledges to her soldiers in the Revolutionary war of bounties payable in western lands. In 1785, Massachusetts ceded the western territory to which she had been a claimant, reserving the same nineteen thousand square miles reserved by New York, which disputed territory was afterwards divided equally between these two States. Connecticut was the most reluctant and tardy of all the contesting States in sacrificing State pretensions for the common benefit. However, on the 14th day of September, 1786, her authorized delegates in Congress relinquished all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim that she possessed to land within her chartered limits lying west of a line one hundred and twenty miles west of and parallel with the western boundary line of the State of Pennsylvania. The tract of land and water lying west of Pennsylvania for one hundred and twenty miles, and between latitudes 41° and 42° 2' north, was not conveyed, - hence reserved by Connecticut, and hence was called the Western Reserve of Connecticut.

As Connecticut's claim included nearly the whole of the northern half of the present State of Pennsylvania, it infringed upon the rights of the people of the latter State or colony, who alleged ownership by virtue of the charter to William Penn, granted by James II. of England, in 1681. Both States strove for the occupancy of the disputed soil, and Connecticut sold to certain individuals seventeen townships, situated on or near the Susquehanna river, organized the tract into a civil township, called it Westmoreland, and attached it to the probate district and county of Litchfield, in Connecticut. Westmoreland representatives occupied seats in the Connecticut legislature. Pennsylvania protested, and, when the Revolutionary contest closed, sent an armed force to drive the intruders from the lands. The shedding of blood resulted. The controversy was finally submitted to a court of commissioners appointed by congress, upon the petition of Pennsylvania, as provided in the ninth article of the Confederation, which gaye to congress the power to establish a court for the settlement of disputed boundaries.

This court sat at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1787, when the case was tried, and decided against Connecticut. The title to lands lying west of Pennsylvania was not involved in this adjudication, and Connecticut still insisted upon the validity of her claim to lands not ceded by her to the United States.

Ata session of the Connecticut lezislature, held at New Haven, in 1786 and in 1787, it was resolved to offer for sale that part of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga, the Portage path, and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, and a committee of three persons was appointed to cause a survey to be made and to negotiate a sale. Nothing, however, was immediately done. On the 10th of February, 1788, however, certain lands lying within the limits of the Reserve were sold to General Samuel H. Parsons, then of Middletown, Connecticut. This was afterwards known as the Salt Spring tract. No survey had been made, but in the description of the land conveyed the numbers of the ranges and townships were designated as if actually defined. General Parsons had explored the country, and had found the location of a salt spring near the Mahoning. He selected his tract so as it should include this spring, from which he expected to manufacture salt and to make his fortune. The entire number of acres thus sold and conveyed to Mr. Parsons, as afterwards determined by the survey made by the Connecticut Land Company, was twentyfive thousand four hundred and fifty. The description in the deed is as follows:

'Beginning at the northeast corner of the first township, in the third range of townships; thence running northwardly on the west line of the second range of said lands to forty-one degrees and twelve minutes of north latitude; thence west three miles; thence southwardly parallel to the west line of Pennsylvania two miles and one-half; thence west three miles to the west line of said third range; thence southwardly parallel to the west line of Pennsylvania to the north line of the first township, in the third range; thence east to the first bound."

- In 1795 Connecticut sold all the Reserve, except the '' Sufferers' Lands" and the Salt Spring tract, to a number of men who came to be known as the Connecticut Land Company. The 'Sufferers' Lands" comprise a tract of five hundred thousand acres, taken from the western end of the Reserve, and set apart by the legislature of the State on the 10th of May, 1792, and donated to the suffering inhabitants of the towns of Greenwich, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New and East Haven, New London, Richfield and Groton, who had sustained severe losses during the Revolution. Upwards of two thousand persons were rendered homeless from the incursions of the British, aided by Benedict Arnold, and their villages pillaged and burned. To compensate them for this great calamity this donation was made to them. The lands thus given are bounded on the north by Lake Erie, south by the base-line of the Reserve, west by 1ts wéstern line, and east by a line parallel with the western line, and at such a distance from it as to embrace one-half million of acres. The counties of Huron and Erie and the township of Ruggles, in Ashland, comprise these lands. An account of each sufferer's Joss was taken in pounds, shillings and pence, and a price placed upon the lands, and each of the suffcrers received lands proportioned to the amount of his loss. These lands finally took the name of '' Fire Lands," from the fact that the greater part of the losses resulted from fire.

The resolution authorizing the sale of the remainder of the Reserve, adopted at a session of the General Assembly, held at Hartford, in May, 1795, is as follows:

" Resolved, By this Assembly, that a committee be appointed to receive any proposals that may be made, by any person or persons, whether inhabitants of the United States or others, for the purchase of the lands belonging to this State lying west of the west line of Pennsylvania as claimed by that State, and the said committee are hereby fully authorized and empowered, in the name and behalf of this State, to negotiate with any such person or persons on the subject of any such proposal. And also to perform and complete any contract or contracts for _ the sale of said lands, and to make and execute, under their hands and seals, to the purchaser or purchasers, a deed or deeds duly authenticated, quitting, in behalf of this State, all right, title, and interest, juridicial and territorial, in and to the said lands, to him or them, and to his or their heirs, forever. That before the executing of said deed or deeds, the purchaser or purchasers shall give their note or bond, payable to the treasurer of this State, for the purchase-money, carrying an interest of six per centum, payable annually, to commence from the date thereof, or from such future period, not exceeding two years from the date, as circumstances, in the opinion of the committee may require, and as may be agreed on between them and the said purchaser or purchasers, with good and sufficient sureties, inhabitants of this State, or with a sufficient deposit of bank or other stock of the United States, or of the particular States, which note or bond shall be taken payable at a period not mrre remote than five years from the date, or, if by annual installments, so that the last installment be payable,within ten years from the date, either in specie, or in six per cent., three per cent., or deferred stock of the United States, at the discretion of the committee. That if the committee shall find that it will be most beneficial to the State, or its citizens, to form several contracts for the sale of said lands, they shall not consummate any of the said contracts apart by themselves while the others lie in a train of negotiation only, but all the contracts which taken together shall comprise the whole quantity of the said lands shall be consummated together, and the purchasers shall hold their respective parts or proportions as tenants in common of the whole tract or territory, and not in severalty. That said committee, in whatever manner they shall find it best to sell the lands, whether by an entire contract or by several contracts, shall in no case be at liberty to sell the whole quantity for a principal sum less than one million of dollars in specie, or if the day of payment be given, for a sum of less value than one million of dollars in specie, with interest at six per cent. per annum from the time of such sale."

The following were appointed a committee to negotiate the sale: John Treadwell, James Wadsworth, Marvin Wait, William Edmonds, Thomas Grosvenor, Aaron Austin, Elijah Hubbard, and Sylvester Gilbert. These eight persons were selected, one from each of the eight counties of the State. They effected a sale in separate contracts with forty-eight different individuals, realizing for the State the sum of one million two hundred thousand dollars. Most of the purchasers made their bargains each separately from the others, although in some instances several associated together and took their deeds jointly. The contracts made were as follows: with

The State by its committee made deeds to the several purchasers in the foregoing amounts, each grantee becoming owner of suck a proportion of the entire purchase as the amount of his contract bore to the total amount. For example: the last-named individual, Pierpont Edwards, having engaged to pay sixty thousand dollars towards the purchase, received a deed for sixty thousand twelve hundred thousandths of the entire Reserve, or one-twentieth part. These deeds were recorded in the office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut, and afterwards copied into a book, commonly designated as the '' Book of Drafts."

The individuals above named formed themselves into a company called the Connecticut Land Company, a brief history of whose doings will be presented in the succeeding chapter.

The Connecticut Land Company

The members of this company effected an organization on the 5th day of September, 1795. 'This was done at Hartford, Connecticut. They adopted articles of association and agreement, fourteen in number. Their first article designated the name by which they chose to be known. Article number two provided for the appointment of a committee, consisting of three of their number, - John Caldwell, John Brace, and John Morgan, - to whom each purchaser was required to execute a deed in trust of his share in the purchase, receiving in exchange a certificate from these trustees showing that the holder thereof was entitled to a certain share in the Connecticut Western Reserve, which certificate of share was transferable by proper assignment. The form of this certificate is given in Article IX. Article ILI. provides for the appointment of seven directors, and empowers them to procure an extinguishment of the Indian title to said Reserve; to cause a survey of the lands to be made into townships containing each sixteen thousand acres; to fix ona township in which the first settlement shall be made, to survey the township thus selected into lots, and to sell such lots to actual settlers only; to erect in said township a saw-mill and a grist mill at the expense of the company; and to lay out and sell five other townships to actual settlers only. Article IV. obliges the surveyors to keep a regular field-book, in which they shall accurately describe the situation, soil, waters, kinds of timber, and natural productions of each township; said book to be kept in the office of the clerk of said directors, and open at all times to the inspection of each proprietor. Article V. provides for the appointment by the directors of a clerk, and names his duties. Article VI. makes it obligatory upon the trustees to give to each of the proprietors a certificate as named above. Article VII. imposes a tax of ten dollars upon each share to enable the directors to accomplish the duties assigned to them. Article VIII. divides the purchase into four hundred shares, and gives each shareholder one vote for every share up to forty shares, when he shall thereafter have but one vote for every five shares, except as to the question of the time of making a partition of the territory, in determining which every share shall be entitled to one vote. Article X. fixes the dates of several future meetings to be held. Article XI. reads:

''And whereas, some of the proprietors may choose that their proportions of said Reserve should be divided to them in one lot or location, it is agreed that in case one-third in value of the owners shall, after a survey of said Reserve in townships, signify to said directors or meeting a request that such third part be set off in manner aforesaid, that said according to quantity, quality, and situation; and when said commissloners shall have so divided said Reserve, and made a report in writing of their doings to said directors, describing precisely the boundaries of each part, the said directors shall call a meeting of said proprietors, giving the notice required by these articles; and at such meeting the said three parts shall be numbered, and the number of each part shall be written on a separate piece of paper, and shall, in the presence of such meeting, be by the chairman of said meeting put into a box, and a person, appointed by said meeting for that purpose, shall draw out of said box one of said numbers, and the part designated by such number shall be aparted to su-h person or persons requesting such a severance, and the said trustees shall, upon receiving a written direction from said directors for that purpose, execute a deed to such person or persons accordingly; after which, such person or persons shall have no power to act in said company."

Article XII. empowers the company te raise money by a tax on the proprietors, and to dispose, upon certain conditions, of so much of a proprietor's interest, in case of delinquency, as shall be necessary to satisfy the assessment. Article XIII. provides for the appointment by the company of a successor to a trustee who may have caused a vacancy in the office by death. Article XIV. places the directors in the transaction of any business of the company under the control of the latter ''by a vote of at least threefourths of the interest of said company."

The following gentlemen were chosen to constitute the board of directors: Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion (2nd), Moses Cleaveland, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby, Samuel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newbury. At a meeting held in April, 1796, Ephraim Root was made clerk, and continued to in act this capacity until the dissolution of the company in 1809. A moderator was chosen at each meeting,

The Names Of The Members Of The Connecticut Land Company

The following are the names of the persons who subscribed to the '' Articles of Association and Agreement constituting the Connecticut Land Company:"

| William, M. Bliss, Samuel Mather, in be- Samuel Mather, Jr., John Stoddard, | half of themselves Caleb Atwater, William Battle, and their associates Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr., | Benajah Kent, in Albany, State of Lemuel Storrs, Timothy Burr, New York. :

Before this organized body of men lay the important work of obtaining a perfect title to their purchase; of causing asurvey of the lands to be made; of making partition of the same; and then of inducing colonies of men to undertake the settlement.

To these tasks the purchasers addressed themselves in right good earnest. In order to make sound their title they must obtain from the United States a release of the government's claim, - a very just and formidable one, - and to extinguish the title of the Indian, whose right to the soil rested upon the substantial basis of actual occupancy. Whatever interest Virginia,

Western Reserve had passed to the United States, and if none of the claiming States had title, the dominion and ownership were transferred to the general government by the treaty made with Great Britain at the close of the Revolution. There was, therefore, a very reasonable solicitude upon the part of the Connecticut Land Company, lest the claim of the United States would, if issue were made, be proven to be of greater validity than that of Connecticut, the company's grantor. Another difficulty made itself felt. When an attempt was made to settle the Reserve, it was discovered that it was so far removed from Connecticut as to make it impracticable for that State to extend her laws over the same, or to make new ones for the government of the inhabitants. Congress had provided in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwestern Territory; but to admit jurisdiction by the general government over this part of that territory would be a virtual acknowledgment of the validity of the government's title, and therefore an indirect proof of the insufficiency of the company's title. The right to such jurisdiction was therefore denied, and Connecticut was urged to obtain from the United States arelease of the governmental claim. The result was that congress, on the 28th day of April, 1800, authorized the President to execute and deliver, on the part of the United States, letters patent to the governor of Connecticut, releasing all right and title to the soil of the Reserve, upon condition that Connecticut should, on her part, forever renounce and release to the United States entire and complete civil jurisdiction over the Reserve. 'Thus Connecticut obtained from the United States her claim to the soil, and transmitted and confirmed it to the Connecticut Land Company and to those who had purchased from it, and jurisdiction for the purposes of government vested in the United States.

The Extinguishment Of The Indian Title

At the close of the Revolution the general government sought by peaceable means to acquire the red man's title to the soil northwest of the Ohio. On the 21st of January, 1785, a treaty was concluded at Fort McIntosh with four of the Indian tribes, the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawas. By this treaty the Cuyahoga and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas were agreed upon as the boundary on the Reserve between the United States and the Indians. All east of the Cuyahoga was in fact ceded to the United States. The Indians soon became dissatisfied, and refused to comply with the terms of the treaty. On January 9, 1789, another treaty was concluded at Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, between Arthur St. Clair, acting for the United States, and the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas and Sac

Nations, by which the terms of the former treaty were renewed and confirmed. Butonlyashort timeelapsed before the Indians violated their compact. Peaceful means failing, it became necessary to compel obedience by the use of arms. Vigorous means for relief and protection for the white settler were called for and enforced. At first the Indians were successful; but in 1794, General Wayne, at the head of three thousand five hundred men, encountered the enemy on the 20th day of August, on the Maumee, and gained a decisive victory. Nearly every chief was slain. The Treaty of Greenville was the result. Genéral Wayne met in grand council twelve of the most powerful northwestern tribes, and the Indians again yielded their claims to the lands east of the Cuyahoga, and made no further effort to regain them.

We quote as follows from Judge Boynton's Historical Address, to which we are chiefly indebted for the facts given in this and the preceding chapter:

"The Cuyahoga river and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas. as between the United States and the Indians, constituted the western boundary of the United States, upon the Reserve, until July 4th, 1805, On that day a treaty was made at Fort Industry with the chiefs and warriors of the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Munsee, Delaware, Shawnee and Pottawatomie nations, by which the Indian title to all the lands of the Reserve lying west of the Cuyahoga wasextinguished. By this treaty all the lands lying between the Cuyahoga and the Meridian, one hundred and twenty miles west of Pennsylvania, were ceded by the Indians for twenty thousand dollars in goods, and a perpetual annuity of nine thousand five hundred dollars payable in goods at first cost. And although this annuity remains unpaid, because there is no

Survey Of The Western Reserve

The title having been perfected, the company made preparations to survey the portion of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga. In the early part of May, 1796, the company fitted out an expedition for this purpose, of which Moses Cleaveland was the leader of a company - all told of about forty men - five of them surveyors, one a physician, and the rest chainmen and axemen.

By previous arrangement they met at Schenectady, New York, at which point they commenced their journey, ascending the Mohawk in four flat-bottomed boats, proceeding by the way of Oswego, Niagara and Queenstown to Buffalo, reaching the soil of the Reserve on the 4th of July.

The names of this surveying-party, a company of fifty-two persons, all told, are as follows: Moses Cleaveland, the Land Company's agent; Joshua Stow, commissary; Augustus Porter, principal surveyor; Seth Pease, Moses Warren, Amos Spafford, Milton Holley and Richard M. Stoddard, surveyors; Theodore Shepard, physician; Joseph Tinker, principal boatman; Joseph McIntyre, George Proudfoot, Francis Gray, Samuel Forbes, Elijah Gunn, wife and child, Amos Sawtel, Samuel Hungerford, Amos Barber, Stephen Benton, Amzi Atwater, Asa Mason, Michael Coffin, Samuel Davenport, Samuel Agnew, Shadrach Benham, William B. Hall, Elisha Ayers, George Gooding, Norman Wilcox, Thomas Harris, Timothy

It is a noteworthy coincidence that this advanceguard of the army of civilization that was soon to people the territorial limits of the Reserve, first touched her soil on the anniversary of America's independence. Thus, in this signal manner, did a new colony, destined to play so important a part in the future of the nation, begin its existence on the same day of the same month in which the nation itself began to exist. Nor were these sons of Revolutionary fathers oblivious of the day which not only commemorates the birth of their country's freedom, but should henceforth be to them and their posterity the anniversary of the day on which their pilgrimage ended, and on which began their labors, toils and sufferings for the establishment, in the wilderness of Ohio, of homes for themselves and their children. Animated with emotions appropriate to the occasion, these Pilgrim Fathers of the Western Reserve celebrated the day with such rude demonstrations of patriotic devotion and joy as they were able to invent.

They gathered together in groups on the eastern bank of the creek now known as the Conneaut; they pledged fidelity to their country in liquid dipped from the pure waters of the lake; they discharged from two or three fowling-pieces the national salute; they ate, drank, and were merry, blessing the land which many of them had assisted in delivering from British -oppression; and they may have indulged in glowing predictions as to the future greatness and glory of the colonies they were about to plant. Could one of their number who shared their fancies, but who liyed to see no part of them realized, behold today the changes which have proceeded in so wonderful a manner, we think that he would admit that the boldest anticipations of the little party of 1796 were but a feeble conception of the reality. However difficult it might be for him to understand the stages of the process by which so great a transformation has taken place, the actual truth would still present itself for his contemplation. What would astonish him most would be, not the conquest of forests, but that they have been succeeded by the numerous thriving cities and villages and the multitudinous homes of the prospering farmer, established on neariy every quarter-section of land in this county; that distance has been annihilated by the use of steam and the consequent acceleration of speed; that wealth and population have been so rapidly cumulative; that the community is so opulent and enlightened; that education is fostered by so admirable a system of free schools; that intelligence is universally diffused by so many representatives of a free press; that moral opinion has gained such ground; that religion is sustained by the

They christened the place where occurred these demonstrations of patriotism and joy, Fort Independence, and the following are the toasts which they drank:

Reserve, and ascertained the point where the fortyfirst degree of north latitude intersects the western line of Pennsylvania, and from this line of latitude as a base, meridian lines five miles apart were run north to the lake. Lines of latitude were then run five miles apart, thus dividing the Reserve into townships five miles square. As the lands lying west of the Cuyahoga remained in possession of the Indians until the Treaty of Fort Industry, in 1805, the Reserve was not surveyed at this time farther west than to the Cuyahoga and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas, a distance west from the western line of Pennsylvania of fifty-six miles. The remainder of the Reserve was surveyed in 1806. The Land Company made a contract with Abraham Tappan and Anson Sessions, in 1805, for the survey of the lands of the Reserve between the Sufferers' lands and the Cuyahoga. The limited width of range nineteen, embracing in Lorain county the townships of Brownhelm, Henrietta, Camden, Brighton and Rochester, is proof of the fact that the Reserve is less than one hundred and twenty miles in length. Judge Boynton says:

"This tier of townships is gore-shaped, and is much less than five miles wide, cireumstances leading the company to divide all south of Brownhelm into tracts, and use them for purposes of equalization. The west line of range nineteen, from north to south, as originally run, bears to the west. and between it and range twenty, as indicated on the map, there is a strip of land, also gore-shaped, that was left in the first instance unsurveyed, the surveyors not knowing the exact whereabouts of the eastern line of the "half million acres" belonging to the Sufferers. In 1806, Amos Spafford, of Cleveland, and Almon Ruggles, of Huron, were agreed on by the two companies to ascertain and locate the line between the Fire Lands and the lands of the Connecticut Company. They first surveyed off the '' half million eres" belonging to the Sufferers, and, not agreeing with Seth Pease, wao had run out the base and west line, a dispute arose between the two companies, which was finally adjusted before the draft by establishing the eastern line of the Fire Lands where it nowis, This left a strip of land east of the Fire

The Appointment Of An Equalizing Committee

After this survey was completed, the Land Company, in order that the shareholders might share equitably as nearly as possible the lands of the Reserve, or to avoid the likelihood of a part of the shareholders drawing the best and others the medium and others again the poorest of the lands, appointed an equalizing committee, whose duties we will explain.

_ The amount of the purchase-money, one million two hundred thousand dollars, was divided into four hundred shares, each share value being three thousand dollars. The holder of one share, therefore, had one four-hundredth undivided interest in the whole tract, and he who held four or five or twenty shares had four or five or twenty times as much interest undivided in the whole Reserve as he who held but one. As some townships would be more valuable than others, the company adopted, at a meeting of shareholders at Hartford, Connecticut, in April, 1796, a mode of making partition, and appointed a committee of equalization to divide the Reserve in accordance with the company's plan. The committee appointed were Daniel Holbrook, William Shepperd, Jr., Moses Warren, Jr., Seth Pease and Amos Spafford, and the committee who made up their report at Canandaigua, New York, December 13th, 1797, were William Shepperd, Jr., Moses Warren, Jr., Seth Pease and Amos Spafford.

The directors of the company, in accordance with Article III. of the Articles of Association, selected six townships to be offered for sale to actual settlers alone, and in which the first improvements were designed to be made. The townships thus selected were numbers eleven, in the sixth range; ten, in the ninth range; nine, in the tenth range; eight, in the eleventh range; seven, in the twelfth range; and two, in the second range. These townships are now known as Madison, Mentor and Willoughby, in Lake county; Euclid and Newburgh, in Cuyahoga county; and Youngstown in Mahoning. Number three, in the third range, or Weathersfield, in Trumbull county, was omitted from the first draft made by the company owing to the uncertainty of the boundaries of Mr. Parsons' claim. This township has sometimes been called the Salt Spring township. The six townships above named were offered for sale before partition was made, and parts of them were sold.

Excepting the Parsons claim and the seven townships above named, the remainder of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga was divided among the members of the company in accordance with the following

Mode Of Partition

The four best townships in the eastern part of the Reserve were selected and surveyed into lots, an average of one hundred lots to the township. As there were four hundred shares, the four townships would yield one lot for every share. When these lots were drawn, each holder or holders of one or more shares participated in the draft. The committee selected township eleven, in range seven, and townships five, six and seven, in range eleyen, for the four best townships. These are Perry, in Lake county, Northfield, in Summit connty, Bedford and Warrenville, in Cuyahoga county.

Then the committee proceeded to select from the remaining townships certain other townships that should be next in value to the four already selected, which were to be used for equalizing purposes. The tracts thus selected being whole townships and parts of townships, were in number twenty-four, as follows: six, seven, eight, nine and ten, in the eighth range; Six, seven, eight and nine, in the ninth range; and one, five, six, seven and eight, in the tenth range; and sundry irregular tracts, as follows: number fourteen, in the first range; number thirteen, in the third range; number thirteen, in the fourth range; number twelve, in the fifth range; number twelve, in the sixth range; number eleven, in the eighth range; number ten, in the tenth range; number-six, in the twelfth range; and numbers one and two, in the eleventh range. These tracts are now known as Auburn, Newbury, Munson, Chardon, Bainbridge, Russell and Chester townships, in Geauga county; Concord and Kirtland, in Lake county; Springfield and Twinsburg, in Summit county; Solon, Orange, and Mayfield, in Cuyahoga county. The fractional townships are Conneaut gore, Ashtabula gore, Saybrook gore, Geneva, Madison gore, Painesville, Willoughby gore, Independence, Coventry and Portage. After this selection had been made they selected the average townships, to the value of each of which each of the others should be brought. by the equalizing process of annexation. The eight best of the remaining townships were taken, and were numbers one, five, eleven, twelve and thirteen, in the first range; twelve, in the fourth range; eleven, in the fifth range; and six, in the sixth range. They are now known as Poland, in Mahoning county; Hartford, in Trumbull county; Pierpont, Monroe, Conneaut, Saybrook, and Harpersfield, in Ashtabula county; and Parkman, in Geauga county. These were the standard townships, and all the other townships of inferior value to these eight, which would include all the others not mentioned above, were to be raised to the value of the average townships by annexations from the equalizing townships. These last named were cut up into parcels of various sizes and values, and annexed to the inferior townships in such a way as to make them all of equal value in the opinion of the committee. When the committee had performed this task, it was found that, with the exception of the four townships first selected, the Parsons tract, and the townships that had been previously set aside to be sold, the whole tract would amount to an equivalent of ninety-three shares. There were, therefore, ninety-three equalized townships or parcels to be drawn for, east of the Cuyahoga.

To entitle a shareholder to the ownership of an equalized township it was necessary for him to be the proprietor of twelve thousand nine hundred and three dollars and twenty-three cents of the original purchase of thecompany. 'This division by draft took place on the 29th of January, 1798.

The committee appointed to make partition of the lands west of the Cuyahoga divided the entire tract into forty-six parts, for the purchase of one of which the sum of twenty-six thousand six hundred and eighty-seven dollars was required. This draft took place April 4, 1807, and the mode of procedure was the same as in the first draft. 'The townships were numbered from one to forty-six, and the numbers on slips of paper placed in a box. The names of shareholders were arranged in alphabetical order, and in those instances in which an original investment was insufficient to entitle such investor to an equalized township, he formed a combination with others in like situation, and the name of that person of this combination that took alphabetic precedence was used in the draft. If the small proprietors were, from disagreement among themselves, unable to unite, a committee was appointed to select and classify them, and those selected were compelled to submit to this arrangement. If after they had drawn a township they could not agree in dividing it among them, this committee, or another one appointed for the purpose, divided it for them. That township which the first number drawn designated belonged to the first man on the list, and the second drawn to the second man, and so on until all were drawn. Thus was the ownership in common severed, and each individual secured his interest in severalty. John Morgan, John Cadwell, and Jonathan Brace, the trustees, as rapidly as partition was effected, conveyed by deed to the several purchasers the lands they had drawn.

"The lands of Lorain county, that were taken for the purpose of equalizing townships of inferior value, were those of Rochester Brighton, Camden, Black River, and that part of Henrietta that did not originally belong to Brownhelm. Tract eight in range nineteen, being partly in Brighton and partly in Camden, consisting of three thousand seven hundred acres, was annexed to LaGrange, to equalize it. Tract number three in LaFayette township, Medina county, consisting of four thousand eight hundred and ten and one-half acres was annexed to Penfield. Tract one, in gore four, in range eleven, consisting of two thousand two hundred and twenty-five acres, was annexed to Eaton. Tract two, in gore four, range eleven, consisting of two thousand six hundred and fifty acres, was annexed to Columbia; one thousand seven hundred acres, in tract four, in Rochester, were annexed to Huntington; two thousand seven hundred and sixty nine acres, in fraction number three in range eleven, in Summit county, were annexed to Ridgeville; four thousand six hundred acres in tract nine, in Camden, were annexed to Grafton; four thousand acres, tract seven, in Brighton, were annexed to Wellington; four thousand three hundred aeres, in tract three, gore six, range twelve, were annexed to Russia; fifteen hundred acres in tract fourteen, in Henrietta, were annexed to Sheffield; three thousand acres in tract eleven, ln Camden, were annexed to Pittsfield; tract three consisting of four thousand and fifty acres, in Rochester, was annexed to Elyria; four thousand acres in tract two, in Black River, were annexed to Amherst; Bass Islands, numbers one and two, and Island number five, lying north of Erie county, consisting of two thousand and sixtythree acres, were annexed to Avon; and Kelley's Island, consisting of two thousand seven hundred and forty-seven acres, was annexed to Carlisle."'

The Various Drafts

The first draft was made January 29, 1798, and was for that portion of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga. In this draft the lands drawn were divided into ninety-three parts, each representing twelve thousand nine hundred and three dollars and twentythree cents.

The second draft was made in 1802, and was for such portions of the seven townships omitted in the first draft as remained at that time unsold. This draft was divided into ninety shares, representing thirteeen thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents of the purchase-money.

The third draft was made in 1807, and was for the lands of the company lying west of the Cuyahoga, and was divided into forty-six parts, each representing twenty-six thousand six hundred and eighty-seven dollars.

A fourth draft was made in 1809, at which time the surplus land, so called, was divided, including sundry notes and claims arising from sales that had been effected of the seven townships omitted in the first drawing.