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CHAPTER VI.
LANDS AND SURVEYS.
CONGRESS LANDS-DOHRMAN'S GRANT-THE UNITED STATES MILITARY DISTRICT- ITS EXTENT-THE LOCATION OF QUARTERS BY SPECULATORS-SUBDIVISION OF CERTAIN QUARTERS INTO ONE HUNDRED ACRE LOTS-CONVERSION OF THE UNAPPROPRIATED RESIDUE TO CONGRESS LAND-WESTERN RESERVE SCHOOL LANDS-MORAVIAN TRACTS-SURVEY OF THE GREENVILLE TREATY LINE.
THE greater part of Tuscarawas County forms a portion of that tract of land known as the United States Military District. Besides the land included within that district, there are, within this county, the three Moravian tracts, an account of which has been given under the Moravian missions, and a strip three miles wide forming the eastern edge of the county, which is Congress land and part of the tract known as the seven ranges. The first legislation of the Continental Congress, respecting the disposition of lands northwest of the Ohio River, was an ordinance passed May 20, 1785, providing for the survey of townships to be six miles square. This ordinance resulted in the survey of seven ranges of townships, bounded on the north by a line drawn due west from the Pennsylvania State line, where it crosses the Ohio River, for the distance of forty-two miles; thence south to the Ohio River at the southeast corner of Marietta Township, Washington County, and thence up to the river to the place of beginning. This tract comprises all of Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont and Monroe Counties, most of Carroll and small portions of Tuscarawas, Columbiana, Guernsey, Noble and Washington. The portion included in Tuscarawas County is in Warren, Rush, Union and Mill Townships, and comprises the western half, or three western tiers of sections, of Range 7, Townships 13, 14 and 15. Congress lands are so called because they are sold to purchasers by the immediate officers of the General Government, conformably to laws and regulations enacted by Congress.
Dohrman's Grant is a six-mile-square tract, consisting of Township 13, Range 7, of the seven ranges. It was granted by Congress in 1787, to Arnold Henry Dohrman, formerly a wealthy Portuguese merchant in Lisbon, for and in consideration of his having, during the Revolutionary war, given aid and shelter to American cruisers and vessels of war. One half of the grant is in Tuscarawas County, being the east portions of Rush and Mill Townships; the other half lies in Harrison County.
As an inducement to faithful and continued service in the Revolutionary war, the Continental Congress passed a resolution September 16, 1776, granting to soldiers and officers who should serve during the war or until dis-
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charged, or to their representatives, lands, to be provided in the following proportions: To a Colonel, 500 acres; to a Lieutenant Colonel, 450 acres; to a Major, 400 acres; to a Captain, 300 acres; to a Lieutenant, 200 acres; to an Ensign, 150 acres; each non-commissioned officer and soldier, 100 acres. By resolution of August 12, 1780, the above provision was extended to other officers.
For the purpose of satisfying the warrants given for land in consequence of the above resolution, by act of June 1, 1796, Congress directed the survey of the following tract: "Beginning at the northwest corner of the seven ranges of townships and running thence fifty miles due south; thence due west with (to) the main branch of the Scioto River; thence up the main branch of the said river to the place where the Indian boundary line crosses the same; thence along this line to the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence up said river to the point where a line run due east and west from the place of beginning will intersect the said river; thence along the line so run to the place of beginning." The language is geographically inaccurate, for when the Greenville or Indian boundary line reaches the site of Fort Laurens, there is no need of ascending the Tuscarawas to reach a point due west from the place of beginning. The act further provided for the survey of the tract into townships of five miles square, and the division of the townships into quarters, two and a half miles square, containing 4,000 acres each. Besides the land included in Tuscarawas, this United States Military District included all of Coshocton, the greater part of Holmes, Delaware, Licking, Guernsey and Knox, the northern portion of Muskingum, about one-half of Morrow, the northeastern portion of Franklin, and a fraction of Noble County. This tract was surveyed into quarter townships, under the direction of the United States Surveyor, during the years 1797 and 1798.
As originally enacted, lands could be located in this district only by quarter townships of 4,000 acres each, and the evils of this provision of the law soon became manifest. As the warrants held by Revolutionary soldiers for small tracts could not be located, they were held in low esteem, and speculators made a business of purchasing them for a trifle, until a sufficient number of them were obtained to enter a quarter township. It is said that many a warrant for one hundred acres or more has been sold for a quart of rum. Within what is now Tuscarawas County, thirteen quarters were located and entered. They are as follows: The third quarter of Township 10, Range 1, now the southwestern part of Sandy Township, granted by President John Adams to Godfrey Haga by a patent dated March 28, 1800, and signed at Philadelphia.
The first quarter of Township 10, Range 2, the northeastern portion of Lawrence Township, granted under date of May 23, 1800, to Abraham Moser, of Washington County, Penn., and to Thomas Boucle, of Lancaster, Penn., tenants in common.
The fourth quarter of Township 10, Range 2, now constituting the southeast part of Lawrence, Township, was entered by Jonathan Dayton, a United States Senator from New Jersey.
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The third quarter of Township 9, Range 2, situated in Dover Township and including the village of Dover, was granted to Col. James Morrison, of Lexington, Ky., by patent of April 22, 1800.
The fourth quarter of Township 9, Range 2, comprising about 4,000 acres in the eastern part of Dover and the northwestern part of Goshen Townships, was granted to John C. Reich, John Shropp and Christian Lange, by patent dated March 28, 1800.
The first quarter of Township 8, Range 2, in Goshen Township, including New Philadelphia, was granted to Godfrey Haga, by President Adams, March 28, 1800.
The second quarter of Township 8, Range 2. comprising the southeastern portion of Dover Township, besides a small part of western Goshen and of northern York, was granted to John Heckewelder by patent bearing date March 28, 1800.
The first quarter of Township 7, Range 1, comprising the northern part of Mill Township, together with a small fraction of Union, was granted by patent to David Galbraith, who was a New York merchant, and to Thomas Elms, tenants in common.
The second quarter of Township 7, Range 1, constituting the northeast corner of Warwick Township, a tract of about 4,000 acres, was granted to William Alman, of Washington County, Penn., by patent dated February 17, 1801.
The third quarter of Township 7, Range 1, now forming the southeastern part of Warwick Township, was granted to John Heckewelder March 28, 1800.
The fourth quarter of Township 7, Range 1, located wholly in Mill Township, and including the village of Uhrichsville, was entered by John Rathbone, a merchant of New York City.
The second quarter of Township 6, Range 2, containing 3,662 acres, and comprising the northeast corner of Salem and the northwest portion of Clay Township, was granted to Godfrey Haga, March 28, 1800.
The second quarter of Township 5, Range 3, constituting the northwest portion of Oxford Township, was entered by John Beaver in 1800.
Excepting the eastern half of Township 7, Range 1, which is watered by Stillwater Creek, all these quarters are located on the Tuscarawas River, and include nearly all the fine bottom lands found in the county.
At length the claims of soldiers and their representatives were recognized, and an act of March 1, 1800, provided for the survey of fifty sections or quarter townships, unlocated, into 100-acre lots for the convenience of those holding warrants for small amounts. Within Tuscarawas County there are about eighteen quarter townships, divided into 100-acre lots. The survey was made within a few years after the passage of the act, and though much of the land was still entered by speculators, quite a number of soldiers or their descendants, by the provisions of this act, secured for themselves homes in the then far West.
It soon became evident that the warrants issued were not sufficient to enter
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this entire tract, and in consequence, by an act of March 3, 1803, the unappropriated lands of the military district were ordered to be surveyed into half sections, and the land office, for their sale east of the eleventh range, was located at Zanesville. The sections are one mile square and contain 640 acres each. At first this land could be purchased only in quarter sections of 160 acres, but by subsequent legislation eighty acres and afterward forty acres might be entered.
In 1802, in the act passed by Congress, authorizing the organization of the State of Ohio, among other inducements, that Ohio should not tax Congress lands until five years after they had been sold, it was proposed that Section 16 of every Congressional township should be granted to such township for the use of schools. Tho Ohio Convention accepted the proposition with the important condition that "a like donation, equal to the one thirty-sixth part of the lands in the United States Military Tract, shall be made for the support of schools within that tract, and also that a donation of the same kind, or such provision as Congress shall deem expedient, shall be made to the inhabitants of the Connecticut Reserve," and with similar conditions for the benefit of schools within other tracts in the State.
Congress, by act of March 3, 1803, assented to these conditions and appropriated eighteen quarter townships in the United States Military District "for the use of schools within the same." None of these eighteen quarter townships, comprising about the one thirty-sixth part of the United States Military District, lie within Tuscarawas County. By the provisions of the same act, fourteen quarter townships, also situated in the United States Military District, were granted " for the use of schools in that tract commonly called the Connecticut Reserve." Of the fourteen, eight were situated within the bounds of Tuscarawas County, viz. : The third quarter of township 9, and the fourth quarter of Township 10. Range 1; the first and second quarters of Township 9, Range 2; the second and third quarters of Township 9, Range 3; the first quarter of Township 9, and the fourth quarter of Township 10, Range 4. These Connecticut Reserve school lands were surveyed into square lots of 160 acres each, and leased until 1831, when they were sold and the proceeds became a part of the irreducible school fund of Ohio for the Western Reserve. The land office was located at Millersburg, Ohio, and Harvey Rice was the appointed land agent.
After the retrocession of the Moravian tracts to the United States in 1824, by act of Congress passed the same year, a lot in each tract, not exceeding the one thirty-sixth hart of the land, was set apart for the use of the schools in these tracts, in the same manner that lands in other districts had been granted for the same purpose.
The land in the bend of the Tuscarawas River, about 600 acres, annexed to Tuscarawas in 1847, from Stark County, is Congress land, fractions of Sections 25, 26, 35 and 36, of Township 9, Range 9.
Upon the tax duplicate of Tuscarawas County for 1880, 356,740 acres of land were entered. Of this about 50,000 acres compose the land that was entered in tracts approximating 4,000 each; 12,000 acres is Moravian land;
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32,000 acres is Connecticut Reserve School Land; 160.000 acres is Congress land in the United States Military District; about 70,000 acres in 100-acre tracts, and about 34,000 acres Congress land in the seven ranges.
THE GREENVILLE TREATY LINE.
A portion of the northern boundary line of Tuscarawas County is the Greenville treaty line. This line was first established at a treaty with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas and Ottawas, held at Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785, in which George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee were the United States Commissioners. The third article of the treaty established the boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware nations in the following terms : " To begin at the mouth of the River Cuyahoga, and run thence up the said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of Muskingum; then down the said branch to the forks at the crossing-place above Fort Lawrence (Laurens); then westerly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs in! o the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French in 1752; then along the said portage to the Great Miami or Ome River, and down the southeast side of the same to its mouth, thence along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of Cuyahoga." All the land within these bounds, except several small reservations, was to be the territory of the Delawares, Wyandots and such of the Ottawa nation as then lived therein.
Indian hostilities were resumed soon after and the treaty broken. The disastrous expeditions of St. Clair and Harmar followed, then the victory of Gen. Wayne. Having completely subdued the Western tribes, Gen. Wayne assembled the Indian chiefs at Greenville (now in Darke County), and there, August 3, 1795, concluded a treaty of peace in which it was stipulated that " the general boundary line between the lands of the United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes shall begin at the month of the Cuyahoga River, and run thence up the same to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River, thence down that branch to the crossing-place above Fort Laurens, thence westerly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami River, running into the Ohio, at or near which fork stood Loramie's store, and where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio and St. Mary's River, which is a branch of the Miami, which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash; thence southerly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucke or Cuttawa River."
The survey of this line was commenced near the mouth of Sandy Creek, continuing westerly in a straight line. It forms the northern boundary line of Tuscarawas County west of the river. The record of the original field notes, in the possession of County Surveyor O. H. Hoover, contains this entry : "Sunday, July 9, 1797.-Began a survey of the line, according to the treaty by Gen. Wayne of August 3. 1795, at the crossing-place of the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River above Fort Lawrence." The notes of the survey fol low this entry.