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Introduction to Ohio Land History

4 Apr 2003

Introduction

Ohio's land history is an unusual patchwork, deriving from its location to the immediate west of the safely settled (and newly free) states. Virginia was the original 'owner' of the Ohio lands (as well as those of other states in the midwest). But there were overlapping claims, particularly from Connecticut (!), which extended its bounding latitudes through New York and Pennsylvania into the Ohio territory and westward.

Thomas Jefferson, remarkably forward thinking and always the expansionist, proposed in 1784 a plan for carving out new states in the vast territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. Part of the proposal dealt with the radical idea of surveying the land into square tracts. The appeal of this idea was to eliminate the numerous legal battles caused by overlapping claims, common in the states that used the metes and bounds surveying system. Jefferson's proposal was modified through the legislative process and eventually turned into the Land Ordinance of 1785.

Through this measure Ohio became the experimental site of the new public land surveying and sale system. But it was muddied by prior claims from Virginia and Connecticut, and the need to set aside lands for Revolutionary War claims. So, a number of different surveying systems were employed and a variety of speculators, military bounty claimants, and individuals acquired lands in the Ohio Territory. The mistakes that were made and the lessons that were learned culminated in the Land Ordinance of 1796 which laid out the surveying and numbering scheme used for all remaining public lands. Successive additions to U.S. lands, starting with Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803, enlarged the area that came under the 1796 ordinance. Today 30 states use this system.

Outline of Ohio Land History

• In the mid-1760's Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, top quality surveyors imported from England, resolved the simmering border dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania by surveying an agreed boundary line into the wilds of the Appalachians. But, they were stopped 30 miles short of the western edge of Pennsylvania because of the danger of Indian attacks. The Mason-Dixon line was the most accurately surveyed line in colonial America and it therefore became the reference point for the public land surveys that followed.
• With the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Virginia and other states were asked to cede their western land claims to the fledgling government, which later used them to create the Northwest and Southwest Territories. In 1784 Virginia relinquished its claim to lands to the northwest of the Ohio River in exchange for being able to award bounty lands (land grants in lieu of payment for military service) in Ohio's "Virginia Military District" (see next). Connecticut made a similar arrangement and ceded its claims in exchange for granting lands in the "Western Reserve and Firelands".
• The Virginia Military District opened in 1794, though surveys were done there starting in the 1780s. The first patent was granted there in 1796. The District was located between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers in the south-central portion of the state. Virginia issued bounty land grants there until Ohio achieved statehood in 1803. Land in the Virginia Military District necessarily used the Virginia surveying system of metes and bounds.
• The Land Ordinance of 1785 was Congress's attempt to coordinate the surveying and sale of land north of the Ohio River with the aim of raising sorely needed cash. The land was to be surveyed into 6 mile square townships, and those townships were to be divided into 1 mile square 'lots'. Half the land was to be sold as townships and half as lots. This scheme featured a different numbering scheme than that defined by the Land Ordinance of 1796 (see below). The 36 lots (sections) in a township counted northward from the southeast corner of the township, east to west.
• During the summer of 1785, Thomas Hutchins, David Rittenhouse and Andrew Ellicott (future surveyor of Washington, D.C.) who had earlier completed the Mason-Dixon survey of Pennsylvania's southern line, 'turned the corner' and surveyed north to the Ohio River, establishing the border between Pennsylvania and Virginia (now West Virginia). Attempts to survey a range of townships west of the Ohio was cut short because of the threat of Indian attacks. These first public lands, "The Seven Ranges" (approximately Carroll, Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont, and Monroe Cos.) were sold at auction in 1787 and fetched a disappointing $100,000.
• The Connecticut Western Reserve opened in 1786. It was located in the northeast corner of the state (Huron Co. and all counties to its north and east) and was surveyed into 5 mile square townships that were further subdivided, usually into 25 one mile square sections. The Firelands, in present day Huron and Erie Cos., were opened in 1792. Their townships were divided into four sections numbered south to north, east to west.
• The Northwest Territory was formally created by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It detailed the form of territorial government and the steps by which a territory could apply for statehood.
• Congress, in a move to speed up the survey and sale of Ohio land, agreed to sell large tracts to the Ohio Company (in 1787 and 1792 in Athens, Meigs, and adjoining counties) and to John Cleves Symmes (in 1794 in parts of Hamilton, Butler, and Warren counties.) These developers then subdivided, surveyed, and sold their tracts. Some bounty warrants were honored, wholly or partially, as payment for tracts.
• The Land Ordinance of 1796 was passed. It defined the surveying system to be used by all future public land surveys. In this system the townships are 6 miles square, composed of 36 one mile square sections, each of which may be subdivided into quarters or smaller. The numbering of the sections is serpentine, starting in the northeast corner of the township. Townships are identified as being north or south of a baseline and in a range east or west of a longitudinal meridian line.
• The Land Ordinance also created the Congressional Military Tract in the heart of Ohio. The survey system used was one of 5 mile square townships, and the minimum purchase was 1/4 township (about 4000 acres), much larger than the standard military bounty warrant of 160 acres. This had the effect of decreasing the value of the warrant and encouraging speculation in land warrants.
• The Ohio Land Office opened in 1800 and began selling land to individuals.
• Ohio became a state in 1803.

Further Reading

• The Mapmakers, John Noble Wilford, Random House, 1981
• Land and Property Research in the U.S., Wade Hone, 1997.
• Thomas Aquinas Burke, Ohio Lands, A Short History

[The information in this article was compiled from the above sources.]