HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 41

CHAPTER X.

CIVIL ORGANIZATION.

On the 9th of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair, the newly appointed governor, arrived at Marietta, and, with the help of the judges and secretary, proceeded to organize the northwestern territory. Congress had appointed Winthrop Sargent, secretary, and Samuel Holden Parsons and John Cleves Symmes as judges. The district embraced was a vast one, including all the country lying northwest of the Ohio as far west as the Mississippi. Tbe laws adopted for the governmental needs of the territory were those provided in the celebrated ordinance of 1787, which has been fitly described as having been "a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night," in the settlement and government of the northwestern States.

In 1788 the county of Washington was organized by proclamation of the governor and judges. It included that part of the Western Reserve east of the Cuyahoga river, the old Portage path, and the Tuscarawas river. In the year 1795, Wayne county was established, including, with other territory of vast extent, the remainder of the Reserve not embraced in Washington county. In 1797, Jefferson county was organized., and its boundaries were such as to include all of the Western Reserve east of the Cuyahoga.

Notwithstanding the inclusion of the soil of the Reserve, by act of the territorial government, within the limits of these several counties, civil government

42 - HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.

was not of binding force upon the inhabitants of New Connecticut until the year 1800. Prior to this date, Connecticut and the Connecticut Land Company denied to the United States the right of jurisdiction over the soil of the Reserve, and refused obedience to the laws of the territorial government. (The reasons for this course are given in a former chapter of this work.) Thus it happened that, from 1796-97, the time the first settlers arrived, until May 30, 1800, the pioneers of the Reserve were without municipal laws. Their .conduct was regulated and restrained, and their duties were prescribed, solely by their New England sense of justice and right. There was no law governing the descent and conveyance of real property, or of the transfer of personal goods; there were no regulations for the redress of wrongs or for the protection of private rights. They were literally a law unto themselves. Happily but few cases of misdemeanor arose; but if a settler was guilty of theft, or if he misused his wife, his neighbors constituted a court of justice, and decided what punishment should be inflicted. The offender's back generally furnished the only record of these judicial proceedings.

On the 10th day of July, 1800, the general government having ceded to Connecticut her claim to the soil of the Reserve, and Connecticut on her part having transferred to the general government all right of jurisdiction within the limits of New Connecticut, the Western Reserve was erected into a single county and called Trumbull, in honor of Jonathan Trumbull, then governor of Connecticut. This was effected by proclamation of the governor and judges of the northwestern territory. The county-seat was at Warren. Now had the people of the Reserve a government to which they gladly acknowledged allegiance. The first court of this large county convened in Warren on Monday, August 25, 1800. The following were the first officers of Trumbull county:

John Young, Turhand Kirtland, Camden Cleveland, James Kingsburyo Etiphalet Austin, Esqs., justices of the peace and quorum.

John Leavitt, justice of the peace and judge of probate; Solomon Griswold, Martin Smith, John Struthers, Caleb Baldwin, Calvin Austin, Edward Brockway, John Kinsman, Benjamin Davison, Ephraim Quinby, Ebenezer Sheldon, David Hudson, Aaron Wheeler, Amos Spafford, Moses Park, and John Miner, justices of the peace.

Calvin Pease, Esq., clerk; David Abbott, Esq., sheriff; John Hart Adgate, coroner; Eliphalet Austin, treasurer: John Stark Edwards, recorder.

The following is an extract taken from Judge Turhand Kirtland's diary:

"Monday, 25th.-Went to Warren; took dinner at Adgate's and went to Quinby's; met the judge and justices of the county, when they all took the oath of office, and proceeded to open the court of quarter sessions and court of common pleas, agreeably to the order of the governor. They proceeded to divide the county into eight townships, and appointed constables in each A venire was issued to summon eighteen persons as grand jurors."

These eight townships were as follows: Richfield, Middlefield, Vernon, Youngstown, Warren, Hudson, Painesville and Cleveland. The township of Cleveland, in addition to a large extent of territory east of the Cuyahoga, embraced all of the Reserve lying west of that river. Judge Boynton says:

"On December 1, 1805, the county of Geauga was erected. 1t included within its limits nearly all of the present counties of Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake and Cuyahoga. On the 10th day of February, 1007, there was a more general division into counties. That part of the Western Reserve lying west of the Cuyahoga and north of township No. 4. was attached to Geauga, to be a part thereof, until Cuyahoga should be organized. All of the present county of Lorain, north of Grafton, LaGrange, Pittsfield and Camden, belonged to, and was a part of, the county of Geauga, from February 10, 1807, until January 16, 1810. At that date, 1807, Ashtabula was erected out of Trumbull and Geauga, to be organized whenever its population would warrant it. Also, all that part of Trumbull which lay west of the fifth range of townships, was erected into a county by the name of Portage, and all of the Western Reserve, west of the Cuyahoga, and south of township No. 5, was annexed to, and declared to be a part of Portage. So that all of the present county of Lorain, south of Eaton, Carlisle, Russia and Henrietta belonged to, and was a part of, Portage,* and remained a part of it until January 22, 1811. On the 10th day of February, 1807, the county of Cuyahoga was carved out of Geauga, to be organized whenever its population should be sufficient to require it. On the 16th of January, 1810, the population having become sufficient, the county was declared organized. On February 8, 1809, Huron was erected into a county covering the Fire Lands, but to remain attached to Geauga and Portage, for the time being, for purposes of government.

"On January 22, 1811, the boundary line of Huron was extended east, on the line now dividing Camden and Henrietta, Pittsfield and Russia, Carlisle and LaGrange, to the southwest corner of Eaton ; and from there, north on the line dividing Carlisle and Eaton, and Elyria and Ridgeville, to the northwest corner of Ridgevilte; thence west to Black river, and down the same to the lake. On the day that these lines were so altered and extended, the legislature extended the south line of Cuyahoga county, from the southwest corner of Strongsville, west to the southwest corner of Eaton; thence north, between Eaton and Carlisle, to the northwest corner of Eaton; and from that point, west between Elyria and Carlisle, to the east branch of Black river, and down the same to the lake. Here was a conflict in boundaries. The boundary of Huron county included alt of Elyria, extending east to Ridgeville; and the boundary of Cuyahoga included within its limits that part of Elyria lying east of the east branch of the river. The river was the dividing line between the two counties, in the one act; and the line between Elyria and Ridgeville was the dividing line in the other. This conflict was removed at the next session of the legislature, by adopting the township line, instead of the river, as the boundary line between the two counties, at this point. This adjustment of boundaries gave to Huron county the townships now known as Elyria, Cartisle, Russia. Henrietta, Brownhelm. Amherst, and all of Black River, and Sheffield lying west of the river; and to Cuyahoga county, Eaton, Columbia, Ridgeville, Avon, and all of the townships of Black River and Sheffield lying east of the river. At that date, 1811, the territory now comprising the county of Lorain, belonged to the counties of Huron, Cuyahoga. and Portage. "The county of Huron, although established in 1809, and extended east of Black River in 1811, was annexed to Cuyahoga in 1810, for judicial and other purposes, and remained so annexed untit January, 1815, when it was organized, and assumed control of its own affairs.

" On the 18th day of February, 1812, Medina was formed, and comprised all of the territory between the eleventh range of townships and Huron county, and south of townships No. 5. It therefore included alt of the present county of Lorain, south of Eaton, Carlisle, Russia and Henrietta. On the 14th day of January, 1818, that county was organized, and its local government put into operation, it remaining in the interim. from the date of its formation to the date of its organization, attached to the county of Portage, for county purposes. On the 26th of December, 1822, Lorain county was established. 1t took from the county of Huron the territory embraced in the townships of Brownhelm, Henrietta, Amherst, Russia, Elyria, and Carlisle; and those parts of the townships of Black River and Shetfield that lie on the west of Black River, and from the county of Cuyahoga the townships of Troy, (now Avon), Ridgevitle, the west half of Olmsted, (then called Lenox), Eatono Columbia, and those parts of Black River and Sheffield lying east of the river; and from the county of Medina, Camden, Brighton, Pittsfield, LaGrange, and Wellington. The county, as originally formed, embraced seventeen and one-half townships, which, until the county was organized, were to remain attached to the counties of Medina, Huron, and Cuyahoga, as formerly. It was, however, organized independently, and went into operation on the 21st day of January, 1821. 1n the organization of the county, it was provided that the first officers should be elected in April, 1824; and at that etection, that part of Lenox that was brought into Lorain, should vote at Ridgeville, and that part of Brighton, lying previously in Medina, should vote in the adjoining township of Wellington.

"On January 29, 1827, the boundary lines were changed. The townships of Grafton, Penfield, Spencer, Homer, Huntington, Sullivan, Rochester, and Troy-some of them organized and some not-were detached from Medina, and annexed to, and became a part of, Lorain; and the half of Lenox, belonging to Lorain, was set off to Cuyahoga, to be a part of Middlebury, until otherwise provided. Upon the formation of Summit, in 1810, the townships of Spencer and Homer were reattached to Medina; and upon the formation of Ashland county, in February, 1846, Sullivan and Troy were detached from Lorain, and made a part of that county.

HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 43

Prior to this, and on the 29th of January, 1827, an act was passed, fixing the northern boundary of the county. The mode of forming and organizing counties had been such as to leave unsettled the northern limit of the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga, Cuyahoga and Lorain. And in matters involving the exercise of criminal jurisdiction of offences committed on the lake, in the vicinity of the shore, the question was of too much practical importance to be left in doubt. The treaty between the United States and Great Britain fixed the line running through the middle of the lakes, as the dividing line between the two countries. Connecticut had reserved the land between thee 41̊ north latitude, and 42̊ and 2'. The course and shape of Lake Erie were such that the parallel of 42̊ and 2' would cross the middle line of the lake; and adjoining Ashtabula, that degree of latitude would be south of, and adjoining Lorain, north of the boundary line between Canada and the United States. This carried the northern boundary of Lorain to the middle of Lake Erie, without regard to the northern limit of the Western Reserve."