Squatter

settlements

and the first appearance of civil

government in Ohio.

colonies. It was not long until the Indian town of Pickawillany, near the present location of Piqua in western Ohio, "became a great center of English trade and influence."1

2

At the close of the French and Indian War in 1763
the British settlements did not extend beyond the Appa-
lachian range. But already the English traders and
hunters had begun to swarm into the Ohio valley.3
These had followed the deer paths across the moun-
tains, and were in turn followed by the settlers. By
1780 some primitive settlements existed along the north
bank of the Ohio as far down as the Muskingum, and
even thirty miles back from the river; and a military
officer, sent to break up these colonies of squatters, re-
ported as many as twelve settlements west of the upper
Ohio, among them some of considerable population.
As just mentioned, these settlers were squatters, and
their titles consisted solely in what was called "toma-
hawk right." They made their choice of abode to suit
their fancy and convenience, usually near a spring,
built a hut of some sort, cleared a patch of land for cul-
tivation, and published their claim of ownership by
chopping their initials on the trees at the corners of
their clearings. In one of these early and irregular
settlements (Mercertown) we catch the first glimpse of
civil government in Ohio in the election of two justices
of the peace; while in another, at the mouth of the
Kanawha, what may have been the first Ohio town-plat
is evidenced by the sale of town lots along the river
front at £10 each and on the back streets at £5 each.*
1 Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, 59, 264.

2 Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, I., 102.
Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, 61.

King, Ohio, 191-194

5. ACQUISITION OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY BY

THE UNITED STATES

Revolution

on Ohio

When the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Effects of the the lands between the Ohio and the Great Lakes were claimed in whole or in part by Virginia, Massachusetts, history. Connecticut, and New York. The various claims were of such a conflicting nature that no equitable adjustment seemed possible, while among those States that had no lands in the West there was a feeling that since these lands were being won from England by the united action of all the States, they should belong to the Union and not to the four States having claims therein. Hence, when the Articles of Confederation were submitted to the States for ratification in 1777, Maryland announced that she would not ratify them unless the lands northwest of the Ohio were ceded to the Union. She thus brought to an issue the question whether the western lands, including the Ohio country, were to become national property, or were to fall into the hands of Virginia and the other claimant States. This question was in dispute from 1777 until 1785, and the first practical step towards its settlement was taken by New York in 1780, when that State surrendered its claim to the Confederation.

outlined by

1783.

Washington was not deterred by these disputed claims Ohio first from early suggesting the blocking out of a common- Washington, wealth in the western country. Indeed, his suggestions, made September 7, 1783, form the first approximate geographical sketch of the future State of Ohio; and their adoption by Congress five weeks later, when a region was set apart north of the Ohio River for the exclusive colonization of the white man as distinguished from the

Surrender of

except

certain

reservations.

red, fixed the location, though not the full extent, of the emerging Commonwealth. The westernmost part of the present State was not included within the boundaries defined by Washington. The western limit which he proposed began at the mouth of the Great Miami, followed that river as far as Dayton, thence ran across country to a point within a few miles of the mouth of the Maumee and so down stream to Lake Erie.1

But before Congress could proceed far with its work State claims, of state-making, the claims of the other States had to be silenced. Under the pressure of the non-claimant States, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut ceded their lands to Congress in the years 1784, 1785, and 1786 respectively. The claims of the first and last were the most important, and together embraced the whole of what is now Ohio. But both Virginia and Connecticut retained certain parts of the Ohio territory. The lands retained by the former lay between the Great Miami and Scioto rivers; and were for the most part given in bounties to the Revolutionary soldiers of Virginia. Hence this district has been called the Virginia Military Lands. The reservation kept by the latter comprised three and a quarter millions of acres extending for 120 miles along Lake Erie. This district (5000 square miles) was held for settlement by emigrants from Connecticut, and was later known as the Western Reserve. A great slice of 500,000 acres off the west end of this district was set apart in 1792 for the benefit of the citizens of certain Connecticut towns whose possessions had been destroyed or damaged by the torch of the invading Brit

'R. G. Thwaites on "The Boundaries of Wisconsin," in Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, XI., 451.

ish soldier during the Revolutionary War. The section thus allotted became known as the Fire Lands or the Sufferers' Lands, and includes the present counties of Huron and Erie, besides the adjacent part of the peninsula forming the eastern portion of Ottawa county.

6. CONGRESSIONAL MEASURES for the DevELOPMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY

Ordinance,

1785.

With the exception of these reservations, the Ohio The Land country was incorporated with the Federal domain. The question of the orderly and legal settlement of this region had presented itself to Congress from time to time while the negotiations for the cessions were pending. To provide for such settlement Congress passed two ordinances of incalculable importance in the development of the Northwest. The first of these was the Land Ordinance of 1785, which supplied a system of land surveys for facilitating the sale of public lands, and at the same time laid a broad and deep foundation for the beneficent system of our public schools.1

Across the Ohio River in Kentucky the pioneers had The rectan been allowed to have private surveys made of the lands gular survey. they had chosen, and it often happened that the tracts thus marked out were irregular in shape and size and wrongly recorded at the State land office. Sometimes it was found that several patents had been issued for the same piece of land. Congress tried to prevent such confusion north of the Ohio by providing a new method of survey, on the rectangular or "checkerboard" plan, and a corps of government surveyors was sent to carry it out. The country was divided into ranges of town1 See Chapter IX.

The public school system.

The
Ordinance

of 1787.

ships six miles square, each township being subdivided into sections one mile square and therefore containing 640 acres. The ranges, townships, and sections were to be duly numbered. The surveyors began their work under the protection of Federal troops, but after completing the first seven ranges they were forced to give it up on account of the hostility of the Indians.1 The system of surveys thus inaugurated was gradually extended to other parts of the State, with a few exceptions. The most important of these exceptions were the Connecticut and Virginia reservations.2

The basis for our system of public schools was laid by the provision that one section in each township (section 16 near the center of the township) should be reserved for the support of public schools therein. The framers of the Land Ordinance have received unstinted praise for this provision. John Fiske, the historian, says "no other nation has ever made a gift for schools on so magnificent a scale ;" and Hinsdale points out that this was "the first and greatest of the long series of similar dedications made by Congress to education;" and that "the funds derived from the sale of these original 'school lands' are the bulk of the public school endowments of the five great States of the old Northwest.'

994

The Land Ordinance was intended to attract settlers,

1 Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, I., 133-136; Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, 255-262.

2 In the Connecticut reservation, the townships were made five miles square instead of six. In the Virginia reservation no regular system was introduced; the pre-emptor was entitled to have the number of acres called for by his land-warrant marked out in such form as the existing conditions and his own preference dictated.

8

Fiske, Civil Government in the United States, 86. 'Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, 262.