OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio -- The Frontier (Part 2) *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 September 30, 2001 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio The Kelley Family Collections Newspaper article, Plains Dealer compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925 And Then They Went West by Darlene E. Kelley 1998 *********************************************************************** Ohio -- The Frontier Part 2 In May, 1792, Connectict set apart 5000,000 acres of the western end of the Reserve for the benefit of citizens who had suffered losses by fire or otherwise during the Revolution, and the area was commonly known as the " Firelands " ( Erie and Huron Counties ). the remaining tract of about 3,000,000 acres was offered for sale by the General Assembly in May, 1795, and the proceeds provided Connecticut with a permanent school fund. Citzens of the State, organized as the Connecticut Land Company, purchased the unsurveyed Western Reserve lands, sight unseen, for $ 1,200,000 or 40 cents an acre, the individual members receiving quitclaim deeds. There were forty nine original shareholders, who gave mortgages for ther interests, payment to become due in five years. The orignal shareholders; Joseph Howland and Daniel L. Coit, $ 30, 461. Elias Morgan ------------------$ 51,402 Caleb Atwater -----------------$ 22,846 Daniel Holbrook ---------------$ 8,750 Joseph Williams ---------------$ 15,231 William Love --------------------$ 10,500 William Judd --------------------$ 16,256 Elisa Hyde and Uriah Tracy --$ 57,400 James Johnson -----------------$ 30,000 Samuel Mather, Jr. ------------$ 18,461 Ephraim Kirby, Elijah Boardman, and Uriel Holmes, Jr. ----------$ 60.000 Samuel Griswold ----------------$ 10,000 Oliver Phelps and Gideon Granger, Jr -----------------------$ 80,000 William Hart ----------------------$ 30,462 Henry Champion II --------------$ 85,675 Asher Miller -----------------------$ 34,000 Robert C. Johnson --------------$ 60,000 Ephraim Root --------------------$ 42,000 Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr ---------$ 19,039 Solomon Cowles -----------------$ 10,000 Oliver Phelps ---------------------$ 168,185 Asahel Hathaway ----------------$ 12,000 John Caldwell and Pegleg Sanford ----------------------------$ 15,000 Timothy Burr --------------------- $ 15,231 Luther Loomis and Ebenezer King, Jr.-----------------------------$ 44,318 William Lyman, John Stoddard, and David King --------------------$ 24,730 Moses Cleaveland ----------------$ 32,000 Samuel P. Lord --------------------$ 14,092 Roger Newberry, Enoch Perkins and Jonathan Brace ---------------$ 38,000 Ephraim Starr -----------------------$ 17,415 Syvanus Griswold ------------------$ 1,683 Joseb Stocking and Joshua Stow -----------------------------------$ 11,423 Titus Street --------------------------$ 22,846 James Bull, Aaron Olmstead and John Wyles ---------------------$ 30,000 Pierpoint Edwards ------------------$ 60,000 For convenience in business transactions, the interests of the land company were placed in the hands of three trustees -- John Caldwell, John Morgan, and Johathan Brace. On the board were Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion II, Moses Cleaveland, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby, Samuel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newberry, all men of prominence in their home state. Ephraim Root became secretary. It was decided by the investors that the Indian claims should be extinguished and that 16,000 acre townships should be speedily laid out and surveyed in lots suitable for sale and settlement. A sawmill and a gristmill were to be erected in each townships at company expense to attract settlers. General Moses Cleaveland, a shareholder, and a man of courage and experience, was selected as superintendent of the Western Reserve surveying party, He was commissioned on May 12, 1796. Vested in the General were broad powers to act and transact business, to make contracts, and to draw on the company treasury as the necessity required. He was a man of action,and early in June his officers and men had been organized for the expedition to Schenectady. The surveying party included; General Moses Cleaveland as superintendent, Augustus Porter, principal surveyor and deputy superintendent, Seth Pease, astronomer and surveyor, Amos Spafford, John Milton Holley, Richard M. Stoddard and Moses Warren as surveyors, Joshua Stow as commissary, and Theodore Shepard as Physician. Employees of the company consisted of the following; Joseph Tinker as boatsman, George Proudfoot, Samuel Forbes, Stephen Benton, Samuel Hungerford, Samuel Davenport, Amzi Atwater, Elisha Ayres, Norman Wilcox, George Gooding, Samuel Agnew, David Beard, Titus V. Munson, Charles Parker, Nathaniel Doan, James Halket, Olney F. Rice, Samuel Barnes, Daniel Shuley, Joseph M'Intyre, Francis Gray, Amos Sawtel, Amos Barber, William B. Hall. Asa Mason, Michael Coffin, Thomas Harris, Timothy Dunham, Shadrach Benham, Wareham Shepard, John Briant, Joseph Landon, Ezekiel Morly, Luke Hachet, James Hamilton, John Lock, and Stephen Burbank. Cleaveland led the first company survey party to the Reserve in 1796 and negotiated a treaty with the Iroquios whereby the tribe gave up claim to all lands east of the Cuyahoga River. He also founded the settlement of Cleveland on tis trip. The surveys of the Reserve took the company several years to complete, but Cleaveland returned to Connecticut later that year and never returned to Ohio. Settlers were slow to purchase Reserve lands. The company had not made provisions for education within the Reserve, and other land was more conveniently available in western New York. Other States also claimed the territory; the title of the land and the right to govern it were disputed. In 1800, a congressional commitee led by John Marshall reported " As the purchasers of the land commonly called the Connecticut Reserve hold their title under the State of Connecticut, they cannot submit to the government established by the United States in the Northwest Territory and the jurisdiction of Connecticut could not be extended over them without much inconvenience." Settlers ignored the authority of the governor of the Northwest Territory, while Connecticut refused company pleas that the State exercise the authority, and territorial rights ceded in 1786. On April 28, 1800, President Adams signed the " Quieting Act," in which the U.S. gave Connecticut claim to the Reserve so that the company's land titles be quieted and guarenteed. The bill assumed that Connecticut would then grant the U.S. jurisdiction over the Reserve; that was accomplished on July 10, 1800, when the Western Reserve became Trumbull County, a part of the Northwest Territory. The company divided its lands in drafts in 1796,1802,1807, and 1809. In each draft, some townships were subdivided and sold to benefit the entire company, while others were divided among company proprietors themselves. The three trustees were responsible for making the property deeds. During the early years, slow land sales forced the company to offer settlers moderate rates, free bonus land for running grist and sawmills, and other incentives. Because of company management, not many of the original proprietors made profits. Many of these proprietors had not moved to the Reserve and the company never opened a sales office in Cleveland or anywhere else in the Reserve. The 1809 annual report on the Connecticut School Fund showed that a large amount of interest on the company's debt was unpaid and that the collateral of the original debt was not safe. The debtors, themselves, also were scattered in different States. The company was dissolved with the last draft on Jan 5,1809, when all remaining land was divided among the proprietors. Where to find the Records; From 1800, until officially organized on June 1,1810, the area of Cuyahoga County was part of Trumbell County, and some early records may be found in the office of the Trumbell County Recorder in the Western Reserve Draft Book, pages 5-73. The Litchfield ( Connecticut ) Historical Society has the original Connecticut Land Compnay proceedings. The Connecticut State Library in Hartford has photostatic copies of Western Reserve Deeds 1800-1807 and the proceedngs of the Connecticut Company. The Western Reserve Historical Society also has a fairly complete collection of these early records. After 1843 there was little change in the county bounderies. Now to the story -- Accompanying the party were Elijah Gunn and his wife Anna, who were to have charge of the company stores at Conneaut; Job Stiles and his wife, Tabitha Cumi; Nathan Chapman and Nathan Perry, who provided the surveyors with fresh meat and traded with the Indians. Thirteen horses and some cattle were transported with the expedition. Employees were enlisted in the company service, ( like as they were in the Army for two years, provided it took that long..) After a hazardous journey down swift streams and through uncharted wilderness, the surveyors reached Buffalo Creek on June 22. Here General Cleaveland held diplomatic meetings with the Mohawk and Seneca representatives of the mighty Six Nations. After shrewed persuasion, the Indians relinquished their claim to the lands east of the Cuyahoga River in exchange for 500 pounds New York currency, two beef cattle, and 100 gallons of whiskey. Proceedng westward on June 27, the expedition reached Conneaut Creek on the evening of July 4. Raising the new flag of the new nation, the place was christened Port Independence, with a gunfire salute. Thus Independence Day was celebrated for the first time on the Reserve. There they enjoyed a feast of Pork and beans, six spirited toasts were drunk, the first three being proposed to the President of the United States, the State of Connecticut, and the Connecticut Land Company. The erection of a cabin headquarters called " Stow's Castle " in honor of the commissary manager, was begun the next day. It was a nondescript structure of " " uncouth appearence such as to provoke the laughter of the builders and the ridicule of the Indians." Here Stow retaliated by introducing everyone to a delicious dish of rattlesanke meat, Much to everyones surprise, they were surprised that it tasted much " like a good chicken, and no one got sick." General Cleaveland's preparation for permanent settlement stirred the Massasagoes, an Indian tribe in the vicinity, and they summoned him for an explanation. After considerable discussion, an understanding was reached, with the assurance that they would not be disturbed in their possessions. The pipe of friendship and peace was presented to Cleaveland by Chief Paqua in exchange for wampum, trinkets, and whiskey, valued at about $ 25.00 to seal the agreement. This friendly meeting forestalled future requests for charity and gratuities, especially for " fire water." The land company employees having separated into groups to expedite the surveying of the Western Reserve, Cleaveland and his party journeyed westward on the lake in an open bateau. With him were Commissary Stow and the Stileses, and a hardy men numbering a boatload. Historians claim that the explorers started up the Chagrin River by mistake, believing it to be the Cuyahoga, and discovering their error, their leader named the River Chagrin. This story is however, discredited by the maps found that was made before the Revolution, on which the name Chagrin appears. There is also reports that the early French traders named the stream Chagrin after having suffered a misfortune near its mouth. However the probable source of the name is Shagrin or Shaguin an Indian name meaning " clear water." The final stage of the Historic journey to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River was uneventful and Moses Cleaveland little dreamed that he was nearing the site of a city, that was destined to achieve greatness. ********************************************* to be continued in part 3.