S we shall have frequent occasion to refer to the Western Reserve in the course of the following work, we give here a brief description and historic account of it. This notice is collected from several sources, and presented somewhat abridged.

      This district of country, also called Connecticut Western Reserve, and New Connecticut, is situated in the north-east part of the State of Ohio. It is bounded on the north by Lake Erie, east by Pennsylvania, south by the 41st parallel of north latitude, and on the west by Sandusky and Seneca counties. It extends 120 miles from east to west, and averages about 50 from north to south. Its greatest breadth is at the east end, extending on the Pennsylvania line 68 miles. The area includes about 3,000,000 acres. It embraces the following counties, viz.: Ashtabula, Trumbull, north part of Mahoning, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahoga, Summit, Medina, Lorain, Erie, and Huron.

      Connecticut became possessed of the land in question in the following manner: King Charles II. of England, pursuing the example of other sovereigns, granted to the colony of Connecticut, in 1662, a charter-right to all lands in the new world included within certain specified limits. But as the [13] geographical knowledge of Europeans concerning America was very limited and confused, patents for lands often interfered with each other, and many of them, by their express terms, extended to the Pacific Ocean, or mythical "South Sea," which the Pacific Ocean was thought to be. Among the rest, that for Connecticut embraced all lands contained between the 41st and 42d parallels of north latitude, and from Providence Plantations on the east to the Pacific Ocean west, with the exception of the colonies of New York and Pennsylvania; and, indeed, pretensions to these were not finally relinquished without considerable altercation. When the colonies, as the result of the Revolutionary War, became a united and independent nation, these interfering claims occasioned much collision between the Federal Government and several of the States; with no one more than Connecticut. Negotiations were pending for several years before a compromise was finally effected. In September, 1786, the State of Connecticut ceded to the United States her claim, both of soil and jurisdiction, to all her charter-lands lying west of the present western limits of the "Western Reserve." On the 30th of May, 1801, she also ceded her jurisdictional claims to all the territory called the "Western Reserve of Connecticut," when, in fulfillment of the compact then formed, the President conveyed, by patent, the fee of the soil to the Governor of the State of Connecticut, for the use of grantees and purchasers claiming under her. This tract, including the "Fire Lands," by a proclamation by Gov. St. Clair, September 22, 1800, was all erected into one county, and named Trumbull, in honor of two [14] successive governors of Connecticut. Of this mammoth county Warren was the seat of justice.

      In May, 1795, the Legislature of Connecticut appointed a commission to issue proposals and make sale of the lands she had "reserved" in the Northwest Territory, afterward Ohio. This committee sold the lands to sundry citizens of that State and of other States. In September of that year the title was confirmed to the purchasers by deeds of conveyance. The purchasers proceeded to survey into townships, of five miles square, the whole of this tract lying east of the Cuyahoga, the Indians still asserting their claims to the portion of it lying west of that river. By a treaty with them at Fort Industry, near Sandusky, in 1805, their claim was finally extinguished in favor of the grantees of Connecticut.

      The State of Connecticut sold out the lands to the contractors at 40 cents per acre, receiving for the sale one million two hundred thousand dollars. This money, permanently invested, constitutes her school fund. The State gave only a quit-claim deed transferring only such title as she possessed, and leaving all the Indian titles of the "Reserve" to be extinguished by the purchasers.

      On the 4th of July, 1796, the first surveying party of the Western Reserve landed at the mouth of Conneaut Creek--the Plymouth of the Western Reserve. Patriotic sons of revolutionary sires, and some, themselves, the participants in that immortal struggle, they prepared to give "to the day its due, and to patriotism its awards." With their tin cups dipping from the broad lake the crystal waters with [15] which to pledge the national honor, with the ordnance accompanyment of a few fowling-pieces, they discharged the national salute. They called the place Fort Independence.

      "A cabin was erected on the bank of Conneaut Creek, and in honor of the commissary of the expedition, was called 'Stowe Castle.' At this time the whole inhabitants west of the Genesee River and along the coasts of the lakes, were as follows: The garrison at Niagara, two families at Lewiston, one at Buffalo, one at Cleveland, and one at Sandusky. There were no other families east of Detroit, and with the exception of a few adventurers at the 'Salt Springs' of the Mahoning, the interior of New Connecticut was an unbroken wilderness.

      "The work of surveying was commenced at once. One party went southward on the Pennsylvania line to find the 41st parallel, and began to survey; another, under Gen. Cleaveland, coasted along the lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, which they reached on the 22d of July, and there laid the foundation of the chief city of the Western Reserve. A large portion of the survey was made during that season, and the work was completed the following year."

      The surveying party numbered fifty-two persons, among whom were two females and one child. As these individuals were the advance of after millions of population, their names become worthy of record, and are therefore given, viz.: Moses Cleaveland, agent of the company; Augustus Porter, principal surveyor; Seth Pease, astronomer and surveyor; Moses Warren, Amos Spafford, Milton Hawley, [16] Richard M. Stoddard, surveyors; Joshua Stowe, commissary; Theodore Shepard, physician; Joseph Tinker, principal boatman; Joseph McIntyre, George Proudfoot, Francis Gay, Samuel Forbes, Elijah Gunn, wife and child, Amos Sawten, Stephen Benton, Amos Barber, Samuel Hungerford, William B. Hall, Samuel Davenport, Asa Mason, Amzi Atwater, Michael Coffin, Elisha Ayres, Thomas Harris, Norman Wilcox, Timothy Dunham, George Goodwin, Shadrach Benham, Samuel Agnew, Warham Shepard, David Beard, John Bryant, Titus V. Munson, Joseph Landon, Job V. Stiles and wife, Charles Parker, Ezekiel Hawley, Nathaniel Doan, Luke Hanchet, James Hasket, James Hamilton, Olney F. Rice, John Locke, and four others whose names are not mentioned. [17]

[EHD 13-17]