XIX.

THE CONNECTICUT WESTERN RESERVE.

ONE effect of the release and cession of Western lands that Connecticut made, September 14, 1786, was to leave her in possession of the territory bounded north by the line of 42° 2′, or, rather, the international line, east by the western boundary of Pennsylvania, south by the forty-first parallel, and west by a line parallel with the eastern boundary and distant from it one hundred and twenty miles-supposed, at the time, to be equal in extent to the Susquehanna tract given to Pennsylvania, 1782. Connecticut's claim included both the soil and the jurisdiction. If the territory belonged to her at all, it belonged to her in a sense as full and absolute as any town or county within her present limits. This territory Connecticut was said "to reserve," and it soon came to be called "The Connecticut Western Reserve," "The Western Reserve," etc. These names were popular in their origin, but they were not long in making their way into legal and historical documents. The disposition to be made of these lands became at once an interesting State question.

In October, 1786, a month after the cession, the General Assembly determined to offer the lands lying east of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas Rivers for sale. It accordingly directed that they be surveyed into townships six miles square, fixed terms of sale, dedicated five hundred acres in every township to the support of schools and the same quantity to the support of the Gospel, promised two hundred and forty acres, in fee simple, in every township, to the first minister who should settle in it, and guaranteed peace and good order

to the settlers under the jurisdiction of the State until it should resign its jurisdiction to Congress and local government be established. Beyond the Salt-springs Tract of 24,000 acres, lying in the Mahoming Valley, sold to General S. H. Parsons, which was not surveyed or settled until many years afterward, nothing was done in pursuance of this legislation.

On May 11, 1792, the General Assembly quit-claimed to the inhabitants of several Connecticut towns who had lost property in consequence of the incursions into the State made by the British troops in the Revolution, or their legal representatives when they were dead, and to their heirs and assigns, forever, 500,000 acres lying across the western end of the Reserve, bounded north by the lake shore, said lands to be divided among the grantees in proportion to their respective losses as found and reported by a committee previously appointed by the assembly. The total number of sufferers, as reported, was 1,870, and the aggregate losses, £161,548 11s. 62d. The grant was of the soil only. These lands are known in Connecticut history as "The Sufferers' Lands," in Ohio history as "The Fire Lands." In 1796 the Sufferers were incorporated in Connecticut, and in 1803 in Ohio, under the title, "The Proprietors of the Half-million Acres of Land lying south of Lake Erie." In due time the lands were surveyed into one hundred and twenty tracts, each tract being onefourth of a township, or about four thousand acres. Next, the share-holders were arranged in "classifications,” 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., up to 120; each "classification" footing up one one-hundred and twentieth part of the whole stock, or £1,343 7s. The tracts of land were now apportioned to the "classifications" by lot, and a careful registration made of the results. Nothing remained for the share-holders making up a "classification" to do, but to dispose of the tract of land that they had drawn, in any manner agreeable to themselves: To sell it in an

I There were also some broken tracts that were subdivided, and then added to the 120 to "equalize" them.

undivided form, to divide it among themselves by agreement, or to resort to the courts for proceedings in partition. Connecticut gave no deed to the Fire Lands other than the act of the legislature making the appropriation; and this act, the "classifications," and the record of "drawings," all recorded and made legal evidence by the State, are the ultimate title. An abstract of title, therefore, in Huron or Erie County, O., always begins with a statement of the historical circumstances now recounted. The drawings of the Fire Lands were made November 9, 1808, and their settlement began soon after.

In May, 1793, the Connecticut Assembly offered the remaining part of the Reserve for sale; and in October following it enacted that the moneys received should be a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be appropriated to the several ecclesiastical societies or churches of all denominations in the State, to be by them applied to the support of their respective ministers and schools of education. This legislation caused a profound agitation throughout the State that finally led to its repeal.

In May, 1795, the General Assembly the third time of fered the lands for sale. It fixed terms and conditions, appointed a committee to negotiate the sale, and set apart the proceeds as a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be appropriated to the support of schools.

In the September

1 The Connecticut School Fund, which amounts to something more than two million dollars, consists wholly of the proceeds of those lands and of capitalized interest. Hon. C. D. Hine, the Secretary of the State Board of Education, questions the current opinion that this fund has promoted the cause of public education. He says:

"The School Fund derived from the sale of Western lands yielded an income last year of $120,855, which amounts to 80 cents for each person of the school-age. The average expense of educating each of these persons throughout the State is $10.31, so that the fund now furnishes about eight per cent. of the total cost. In those towns and cities where the people insist upon good schools, no reliance is placed upon these permanent funds. Indeed, the history of our State shows conclusively that at the time when the fund was most productive, yielding $1.40 or $1.50 for each person of the school-age, and when towns depended upon it,

following this legislation the committee sold the lands in a body, without survey or measurement, to thirty-five purchasers, who severally agreed to pay stipulated sums that, together, made up twelve hundred thousand dollars, the price of the tract agreed upon. The committee made as many deeds as there were purchasers. The deed granted to the purchaser, in behalf of the State of Connecticut, and to his heirs forever, all right, title, and interest, "juridical and territorial," in and to a certain number of twelve hundred-thousandths of the lands. described, to be held by the said purchaser as tenant in common of said whole tract or territory with the other purchasers, and not in severalty. The number of undivided shares that each purchaser received was the same as the number of dollars that he had agreed to pay toward the purchase-money. The term “purchaser” is here used in the legal sense; the number of persons interested in the purchase being much larger than the number of purchasers. The sale was made on credit; the purchasers at the time gave their bonds for the amount of the several contracts, with personal security, but afterward they gave mortgages on the lands.

Such are some of the more important facts pertaining to the largest land-sale, so far as the quantity of land sold is concerned, ever made in the State of Ohio. It was a large transaction of any kind for the time. Moreover, it was fol

as they generally did, for the support of their schools, the schools themselves were poor and short. In fact, this was the darkest period of our educational experience. A very striking deterioration took place as soon as the fund became productive and the income began to be distributed. Before that period schools had been maintained at least six months, and at most nearly the whole year, according to the size of the district. After, and not long after, this new source of income was opened, the usual length of schools was reduced to only three months, or just the time that this fund would maintain the schools. The sums which came as gratuities relieved the people of responsibility and deadened their interest, until the schools were continued only so long as the charity lasted. Happily, the danger from this direction is passed and cannot return. The fund has probably reached its greatest productiveness, and the per capita will constantly decrease. The public schools must draw their sustenance from the people who are directly or indirectly benefited by them."-The Nation, No. 1076.

lowed at once by events of far more than a temporary or local interest.

The purchasers of the Reserve, most of them belonging to Connecticut, but some to Massachusetts and New York, were men desirous of trying their fortunes in Western lands. Oliver Phelps, perhaps the greatest land-speculator of the time, was at their head. September 5, 1795, they adopted articles of agreement and association, constituting themselves the Connecticut Land Company. The company was never incorporated, but was what is called to-day a "syndicate." They divided the stock into four hundred shares of $3,000 each. They determined to survey the lands into townships of five miles square. They appointed seven directors and three trustees, with defined powers and functions. In April, 1796, the company adopted a very elaborate method of partitioning the lands. Six townships should be offered for sale for the benefit of the company as such. Four townships should be surveyed into four hundred tracts of one hundred and sixty acres each, to be distributed among the share-holders by lot. The remaining lands should be divided into "equalized" parcels, to be distributed in the same way: (1) A certain number of the best townships should be set apart as standard townships; (2) certain other townships and parts of townships should be cut up into tracts, to be added (3) to the remaining townships to equalize them with the best ones.

In the spring of the same year the directors sent out the first party of surveyors, consisting, all told, of fifty persons. The party assembled at Schenectady, and ascended the Mohawk to Fort Stanwix, whence most of them passed, with the boats and stores, over the portage to Wood Creek, and then down that stream, Oneida Lake, and Oswego River to Lake Ontario; but some made their way by Canandaigua, then the Western outpost of civilization on that route, to Buffalo Creek. The British garrison holding Fort Oswego caused those who went by that route some inconvenience, calling out from one of the surveyors the observation: "Such are