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97-635: Connecticut relinquished its claim to some of its western lands to the United States in 1786 following the American Revolutionary War and preceding the 1787 establishment of the Northwest Territory . Despite ceding sovereignty to the United States, Connecticut retained ownership of the eastern portion of its cession, south of Lake Erie . It sold much of this "Western Reserve" to a group of speculators who operated as

194-608: A standardized system for surveying the land into saleable lots, although Ohio was partially surveyed several times using different methods, resulting in a patchwork of land surveys in Ohio. Some older French communities' property claims based on earlier systems of long, narrow lots also were retained. The rest of the Northwest Territory was divided into roughly uniform square townships and sections, which facilitated land sales and development. The ordinance also stipulated that

291-611: A Heritage Area. The settlers in northern Ohio repeated the style of structures and the development of towns with which they were familiar in New England; many buildings in the new settlements were designed in the Georgian , Federal , and Greek Revival styles. Towns such as Aurora , Bath , Canfield , Chagrin Falls , Gates Mills , Hudson , Medina , Milan , Norwalk , Oberlin , Painesville , Poland , and Tallmadge exemplify

388-563: A US army by Native Americans in history. About 623 American soldiers were killed in action, and about 50 Native Americans were killed. Although an investigation exonerated him, St. Clair resigned his army commission in March 1792 at the request of President Washington, but continued to serve as Governor of the Northwest Territory. After St. Clair's defeat, In June 1792, President Washington tapped revolutionary war hero Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne to avenge St. Clair and assert sovereignty over

485-641: A large Native American state that would cover most of the Old Northwest. It would be independent of the United States and allied with the British, who would use it to block American westward expansion and to build up their control of the North American fur trade headquartered in Montreal. A new colony, named Charlotina , was proposed for establishment in the southern Great Lakes region before

582-462: A major general. He led a punitive expedition involving two Regular Army regiments and some militia. In October 1791 as an advance post for his campaign, Fort Jefferson (Ohio) , was built under his direction. Located in present-day Darke County in far western Ohio, the fort was built of wood and intended primarily as a supply depot; accordingly, it was originally named Fort Deposit. One month later, near modern-day Fort Recovery , his force advanced to

679-566: A marketing office in the Western Reserve to promote sales of land. Without an organized, concerted sales campaign by the company, their efforts to sell the land were mostly unsuccessful. In fact, only 1000 people had settled in the region by 1800. The other problem that beset the company and hurt land sales was political uncertainty surrounding the Connecticut Western Reserves. The political confusion concerned

776-600: A part of Indiana Territory starting in 1800) began in 1801, through the Cincinnati land office. After the Revolutionary War ended, Rufus Putnam (the "Father of Ohio") and Manasseh Cutler were instrumental in creating the Northwest Ordinance , which opened up the Northwest Territory for settlement. This land was used to serve as compensation for what was owed to Revolutionary War veterans. It

873-553: A population, excluding Native Americans, of over 45,000, and Indiana Territory, a population of about 5,600. By the time of Ohio statehood, there were as many as 50 named towns in Northwest and Indiana Territories, a few, like Vincennes, with thousands of settlers, and dozens of unnamed settlements below the Treaty Line in Ohio. Following settlement of the frontier, the great wave of colonial immigration flowed westward, founding

970-450: A sliver of southeastern Indiana with the formation of Indiana Territory July 4, 1800, it ceased to exist March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio, and the remainder attached to Indiana Territory. Initially, the territory was governed by martial law under a governor and three judges. As population increased, a legislature

1067-408: A wedge-shaped area of present-day Indiana in the southeast known as "the gore". It, along with everything east of the new territory, remained part of the Northwest Territory. This legislation was signed into law by President John Adams on May 7, 1800, and became effective on July 4. On April 30, 1802, Congress passed an enabling act for Ohio that authorized the residents of the eastern portion of

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1164-710: The American Revolutionary War , provisions in the Articles of Confederation , and various treaties preceding the Northwest Indian War including Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) and Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785). The treaty process extended well beyond the War and existence of the Territory as a political entity. European exploration of the region began with French-Canadian voyageurs in

1261-721: The American Revolutionary War . Congress passed the Proclamation of 1783 , which recognized Native American rights to the land. A council held in 1785 at Fort Detroit declared that the confederacy would deal jointly with the United States, forbade individual tribes from dealing directly with the United States, and declared the Ohio River as the boundary between their lands and those of the American settlers. The Northwest Territory's first governor, Arthur St. Clair , sought to end Native American claims to Ohio land and thus clear

1358-441: The Articles of Confederation so long as these states were allowed to keep their western territory, fearing that those states could continue to grow and tip the balance of power in their favor under the proposed system of federal government. As a concession to obtain ratification, these states ceded their claims on the territory to the federal government: New York in 1780, Virginia in 1784, and Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785. So

1455-688: The Boundary Waters . The region was ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 . Throughout the Revolutionary War , the region was part of the British Province of Quebec and the western theater of the war. It spanned all or large parts of six eventual U.S. states ( Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , and the northeastern part of Minnesota ). Reduced to present-day Ohio, eastern Michigan and

1552-518: The Connecticut Land Company ; they sold it in portions for development by new settlers. The phrase Western Reserve is preserved in numerous institutional names in Ohio, such as Western Reserve Academy , Case Western Reserve University , and Western Reserve Hospital . In the 19th century, the Western Reserve "was probably the most intensely antislavery section of the country". John Brown Jr. called it, in 1859, "the New England of

1649-411: The Northwest Ordinance . A bicameral legislature consisted of a House of Representatives and a Council. The first House had 22 representatives , apportioned by population of each county. The House then nominated 10 citizens to be Council members. The nominations were sent to the U.S. Congress, which appointed five of them as the council. This assembly became the legislature of the Territory, although

1746-526: The Northwest Territory (formally known as the "Territory Northwest of the River Ohio"). The deed of cession was issued on September 13, 1786. As population increased in portions of the Northwest Territory, new states were organized and admitted to the Union in the early 19th century. Connecticut retained 3,366,921 acres (13,625.45 km) in Ohio, which became known as the "Western Reserve". The state sold

1843-725: The Pennamite–Yankee Wars . Nevertheless, the state held fast to its claim on the lands between the 41st and 42nd -and-2-minutes parallels that lay west of the Pennsylvania state border. The claim within Ohio was to a 120-mile (190 km)-wide strip between Lake Erie and a line just south of present-day Youngstown , Akron , New London , and Willard , about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of present-day U.S. Highway 224 . The claim beyond Ohio included parts of Michigan , Indiana , Illinois , Iowa , Nebraska , Wyoming , Utah , Nevada , and California . The eastern boundary of

1940-738: The " Western Reserve Historical Society " and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland . The Western Reserve was arguably the most anti-slavery region of the country in the pre-Civil War period. Many Underground Railroad routes ended with a trip through the Western Reserve to a boat to cross Lake Erie into what is today Ontario . The three oldest sons of the abolitionist John Brown — John Jr. , Jason, and Owen —together with other participants in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry , were all living in Ashtabula County , for security;

2037-597: The 14-county region of the Western Reserve as a National Heritage Area . This is a means to encourage broad-based preservation of such historical sites and buildings that are related to a large historical theme. Such assessment and designation has been significant for recognizing assets, and encouraging new development and businesses, including heritage tourism, often related to adaptive re-use of waterways, and buildings, as well as totally new endeavors. The United States has designated 49 National Heritage Areas, including two in Ohio:

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2134-418: The 17th century, followed by French missionaries and French fur traders. French-Canadian explorer Jean Nicolet was the first recorded European entrant into the region, landing in 1634 at the current site of Green Bay, Wisconsin (although Étienne Brûlé is stated by some sources as having explored Lake Superior and possibly inland Wisconsin in 1622). The French exercised control from widely separate posts in

2231-739: The Allegheny draining into the Allegheny , Monongahela , and Ohio Rivers . Under the arrangement, all the states gave up their land claims west of the Alleghenies to the Federal government save for parts parceled out to each claimant state. Western Pennsylvania was Pennsylvania's part, and the Connecticut Western Reserve was the part apportioned to Connecticut 's claim. The specific Connecticut Western Reserve lands were

2328-504: The Connecticut Land Company was instrumental in the development of the region and left a lasting impact on the landscape. One of the most important legacies of the Connecticut Land Company was the establishment of the settlement of Cleveland. Key Company Figures The ownership of the company was made up of a syndicate of 35 purchasing groups representing a total of 58 individual investors. The leader of this group and

2425-567: The Governor of Ohio, William Dennison Jr. , refused to honor Virginia's request for Owen's arrest and extradition. A U.S. Marshall, attempting to serve a warrant requiring Owen to testify before a U.S. Senate committee, reported that without "an armed force" he could not be arrested; "in Ashtabula County...there is a secret and armed organization numbering several hundred." They proclaimed themselves safer there than in any other place in

2522-666: The Iroquois, who gave up all of their land claims east of the Cuyahoga River. He also founded a settlement named after him that would later become the city “Cleveland” due to a cartographic error. Company Background In 1795, the Connecticut Land Company paid the state of Connecticut $ 1.2 million for three million acres of its Western Reserve lands. The $ 1.2 million raised by the state was used to fund public education. This allowed Connecticut to expand its public school system and improve its educational facilities. With regards to

2619-599: The Miami capital of Kekionga. Along the way Wayne's legion built a series of outpost forts including Fort Greene Ville, Fort Recovery and Fort Defiance. Fierce battles occurred around some of these but none of Wayne's forts were ever taken by the Native Americans. In mid 1794, the British constructed Fort Miamis near what is today Toledo, Ohio, to forestall Wayne's putative advance on the British stronghold at Detroit. The final battle of Wayne's campaign occurred within

2716-667: The Montreal-based fur trade. The prohibition of settlement west of the Appalachians remained, contributing to the American Revolution . In February 1779, George Rogers Clark , leading a force of Virginia militia , captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes from British commander Henry Hamilton . Virginia capitalized on Clark's success by laying claim to the whole of the Old Northwest, calling it Illinois County , Virginia, until 1784, when it ceded its land claims to

2813-560: The Muskingum ). Settlement of these areas was spearheaded by Losantiville and Marietta, respectively. In 1792, Congress donated 100,000 acres to Ohio Company as a buffer zone against Native American incursion around the settled area. The vexing land claims by inhabitants of the old French Vincennes Tract were resolved by what was dubbed the 'Vincennes donation lands' embodied in a federal land act of 1791. Federal land sales in Indiana (then

2910-586: The Native Americans in October 1790. A group of squatters had moved up to the area near present-day Stockport now in Morgan County, Ohio and settled along flood plain , or "bottom" land, of the Muskingum River , some 30 miles north of an Ohio Company of Associates settlement at Marietta, Ohio . The Big Bottom massacre occurred on January 2, 1791. Lenape and Wyandot warriors stormed

3007-612: The Northwest Territory through the Land Ordinance of 1785 . The square surveys of the Northwest Territory became a hallmark of the Midwest , as sections , townships, counties (and states) were laid out scientifically, and land was sold quickly and efficiently (although not without some speculative aberrations). Arthur St. Clair was the territory's governor until November 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson removed him from office and appointed Charles Willing Byrd , who served

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3104-490: The Northwest Territory to form a state constitution and government, and be admitted to the Union. When Ohio was admitted as the 17th state on March 1, 1803, the land not included in the new state, including the gore, became part of Indiana Territory, and the Northwest Territory went out of existence. Ongoing disputes with the British over the region were a contributing factor to the War of 1812 . Britain irrevocably ceded claim to

3201-699: The Ohio Canal of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the National Aviation Heritage Area . The NPS study coordinator said that while the region had the historic assets, and there was considerable public support for such a designation, the Western Reserve lacked "a definitive coordinating entity or supporting group," which is required to gain Congressional approval. If such a body develops in the future, it might seek federal designation as

3298-427: The Ohio, Indiana (1783), and Fort Harmar in Ohio (1785). The first settlements were at these locations. The first land grant was to George Rogers Clark in 1781 at Falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side; he went on to found the settlement of Clarksville. The first two land purchases were large tracts of land sold to John Symmes ( Symmes Purchase ) in 1788 and two tracts sold to Ohio Company in 1787 and 1792 ( Purchase on

3395-532: The Ohio. By the time of the territory's dissolution, there were dozens of towns and settlements, a few with thousands of settlers, chiefly along the Ohio and Miami Rivers and the south shore of Lake Erie in Ohio. Conflicts between settlers and Native American inhabitants of the Territory resulted in the Northwest Indian War culminating in General "Mad" Anthony Wayne 's victory at Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The subsequent Treaty of Greenville in 1795 opened

3492-648: The Reserve had not been extinguished. Clear title was obtained east of the Cuyahoga River by the Greenville Treaty in 1795 and west of the river in the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805. The western end of the reserve included the Firelands or "Sufferers' Lands", 500,000 acres (2,000 km) reserved for residents of several New England towns which had been destroyed by British-set fires during

3589-643: The Revolution ended, land-hungry migrants started moving west. A gateway trading post developed as the town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania , which was a key outfitting center west of the mountains. Other wagon roads, such as the Kittanning Path surmounting the gaps of the Allegheny in central Pennsylvania, or trails along the Mohawk River in New York, enabled a steady stream of settlers to reach

3686-413: The Revolutionary War and lacking authority to tax under the Articles of Confederation , planned to raise revenue from the methodical sale of land in the Northwest Territory. This plan necessarily called for the removal of both Native American villages and squatters from lands west of Appalachia, loosely, the territory called "Ohio Country" and beyond. Resistance from indigenous tribes, who were supported by

3783-474: The Revolutionary War. The next year, the Land Company sent surveyors led by Moses Cleaveland to the Reserve to divide the land into square townships , 5 miles (8.0 km) on each side (25 square miles (65 km). Cleaveland's team also founded the city of Cleveland along Lake Erie, which became the largest city in the region. ( The first "a" was dropped ; spelling of names was not standardized at

3880-542: The U.S., or even in Canada. This area of Ohio became a center of resource development and industrialization through the mid-20th century. It was a center of the steel industry, receiving iron ore shipped through the Great Lakes from Minnesota, processing it into steel products, and shipping these products to the east. This industry stimulated the development of great freight lakers, as the steam ships were known, including

3977-735: The United States after the American Revolution . Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance , it was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory . At the time of its creation, the territory included all the land west of Pennsylvania , northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River below the Great Lakes , and what later became known as

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4074-601: The Virginia Military District and Connecticut Western Reserve. The first area to be surveyed was the Seven Ranges along the eastern border of Ohio in 1786–1789. Direct sales of federal lands to individual homesteaders started here. In some cases, the government granted or donated land for special purposes. Settlement followed the forts, whether garrisoned or not. Lack of a garrison meant that threat of Native American attack had become negligible. This

4171-507: The West". The Reserve encompassed all of the following Ohio counties: Ashtabula , Cuyahoga , Erie and Huron (see Firelands ), Geauga , Lake , Lorain , Medina , Portage , Trumbull ; and portions of Ashland , Mahoning , Ottawa , Summit , and Wayne . Prior to the arrival of European colonists, the land surrounding the southern shore of Lake Erie was inhabited by the Erie people . At

4268-437: The Western Reserve in 1800. The United States absorbed it into the Northwest Territory , which organized Trumbull County within the boundaries of the Reserve. Warren, Ohio is the former county seat of the Reserve and identifies itself as "the historical capital of the Western Reserve." Later, several more counties were carved out of the territory. The name "Western Reserve" survives in the area in various institutions such as

4365-453: The Western Reserve to the Connecticut Land Company in 1796 (or possibly 12 August, 2 September, or 5 September 1795) for $ 1,200,000. The Land Company were a group of investors who were mostly from Suffield, Connecticut . The initial eight men in the group (or possibly seven or 35) planned to divide the land into homestead plots and sell it to settlers from the east. But the Indian titles to

4462-617: The city of Cleveland . The Deeds for the land were executed as follows: Company Introduction The Connecticut Land Company was a company set up by a group of private investors in 1795 with the aim of making a profit from land sales. Towards that end, the company bought a large portion of the eastern part of the Western Connecticut Reserves. However, poor company management and political uncertainty led to weak land sales, slow economic development, and ultimately company failure in 1809. Despite its short existence,

4559-623: The close of a war against the Iroquois from 1654 to 1656, the Erie were almost completely annihilated. Their towns were destroyed, and any survivors were assimilated into neighboring tribes, mainly the Seneca . After the American Revolutionary War, Connecticut was forced by the federal government to surrender the Pennsylvania portion ( Westmoreland County ) of its " sea-to-sea grant " following

4656-405: The company was forced to lower prices and give away free land in order to encourage settlement. The problems that forced the company to lower prices would ultimately force the company into bankruptcy. Company’s Problems One of the problems that befell the Connecticut Land Company was company mismanagement. Sales efforts by the company were not centrally organized. The company did not even set up

4753-539: The continued British presence in the Northwest Territory, presented a continuing obstacle for American expansion. The area making up the Ohio Country had been contested for over a century, beginning with the 17th-century Beaver Wars . The Western Confederacy , or Western Indian Confederacy , was a loose confederacy of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the United States created following

4850-533: The convention to form a constitution for the State of Ohio. In the 1800 United States census , following the passage of an organic act by the 6th U.S. Congress creating the Indiana Territory in 1800, seven counties in the Northwest Territory reported the following population counts: According to the 1800 Census of the United States, the Northwest Territory (i.e. the pending state of Ohio) had

4947-406: The eastern parts of the newly chartered Connecticut Western Reserve of the former " Ohio Country " and a prized-part of the Northwest Territory )—a post-American Revolutionary period region, that was part of the lands-claims settlement adjudicated by the new United States government regarding the contentious conflicting claims by various Eastern Seaboard states on lands west of the gaps of

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5044-458: The events of Pontiac's War , after which the Crown issued the Proclamation of 1763 , which prohibited white colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains . This action angered American colonists interested in expansion, as well as those who had already settled in the area. In 1774, via the Quebec Act , Britain annexed the region to the Province of Quebec in order to provide a civil government and to centralize British administration of

5141-432: The expression of these styles and traditional New England town planning. For instance, Cleveland's Public Square reflects the traditional New England central town green. Notes Bibliography Further reading Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory , also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio , was formed from unorganized western territory of

5238-417: The federal government. Britain officially ceded the area north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachians to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris (1783) , but the British continued to maintain a presence in the region as late as 1815, the end of the War of 1812 . Several states (Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut) had competing claims on

5335-431: The first steel ships in the 20th century. Railroads took over some of the freight and commodity transportation from the lake ships. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these cities attracted hundreds of thousands of European immigrants and migrants (both black and white) from the rural South to its industrial jobs. At the request of Congress in 2011, the National Park Service prepared a feasibility study for declaring

5432-412: The focus of the Northwest Indian War, the driving events in the early evolution of the territory. Integration of the Northwest Territory into a political unit, and settlement, depended on three factors: relinquishment by the British, extinguishment of states' claims west of the Appalachians, and usurpation or purchase of lands from the Native Americans. These objectives were accomplished correspondingly by

5529-418: The following decades. It encompassed what became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. Putnam, in the Puritan tradition, was influential in establishing education in the Northwest Territory. Substantial amounts of land were set aside for schools. Putnam had been one of the primary benefactors in the founding of Leicester Academy in Massachusetts, and similarly, in 1798, he created

5626-523: The former Northwest Territory with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the Northwest Territory, and defined its boundaries, form of government, and administrative structure. In particular, it defined the bodies of government, established the legal basis of land ownership, provided for abolition and transfer of state territorial claims, made rules for admission of new states, established public education, recognized and codified 'natural rights', prohibited slavery, and defined

5723-439: The government on July 15, 1788, at Marietta . In 1790, he renamed the settlement of Losantiville Cincinnati , after the Society of the Cincinnati , and moved the administrative and military center to Fort Washington . As Governor, he formulated the Maxwell's Code (named after its printer, William Maxwell ), the first written criminal and civil laws of the territory. Maxwell's Code consisted of thirty-seven different laws with

5820-420: The governor retained veto power. Article VI of the Articles of Compact within the Northwest Ordinance prohibited the owning of slaves within the Northwest Territory. Territorial governments evaded this law by use of indenture laws. The Articles of Compact prohibited legal discrimination on the basis of religion within the territory. The township formula created by Thomas Jefferson was first implemented in

5917-664: The great cities of the eventual 6 states of the Territory which is now the midwestern United States early in the 19th century: Detroit (<1800), Cleveland (1796), Columbus (1812), Indianapolis (1822), Chicago (1833), Milwaukee (1846), Minneapolis (1847). A Federalist , St. Clair hoped to see two states made of the old Ohio Country to increase Federalist power in Congress . He was resented by Ohio Democratic-Republicans for his apparent partisanship, high-handedness and arrogance in office. In 1802, his opposition to plans for Ohio statehood led President Thomas Jefferson to remove him from office as territorial governor. He thus played no part in

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6014-408: The head of the Connecticut Land Company was Oliver Phelps. He was the single largest investor in the company and the head manager of this investment project. Another key figure in the company was Moses Cleaveland, one of the company’s first directors. He was in charge of conducting the first company survey of the Western Connecticut Reserves in 1796. Moses Cleaveland successfully negotiated a treaty with

6111-403: The incomplete blockhouse and killed eleven men, one woman, and two children. (Accounts vary as to the number of casualties.) Rufus Putnam wrote to President Washington that "we shall be so reduced and discouraged as to give up the settlement [Marietta following the Big Bottom disaster]." In March 1791, St. Clair succeeded Harmar as commander of the United States Army and was commissioned as

6208-466: The land area of the United States at the time of its creation. It was inhabited by about 45,000 Native Americans and 4,000 non-native traders, mostly of French Canadian , British or Irish descent . Among the tribes inhabiting the region were the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Wyandot, Ottawa and Potawatomi. Notably, the Miami capital along with British trading posts was at Kekionga at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana. Neutralizing Kekionga became

6305-571: The land purchased by the company, it was divided into 1.2 million shares. On September 5, 1795, the company adopted articles of association, and each purchasing group was given a proportional share of the land commensurate with the amount of capital invested. The main purpose of the Connecticut Land Company was the pursuit of profits through the sale of the lands to both land speculators and settlers. Land would usually be sold many times between speculators and investors before it would be sold to someone who would actually settle it. Due to weak land sales,

6402-409: The land rights and applicability of laws to the Native Americans. At first, the territory had a modified form of martial law . The governor was also the senior army officer within the territory, and he combined legislative and executive authority . But a supreme court was established, and he shared legislative powers with the court . County governments were organized as soon as the population

6499-480: The land titles granted by the Connecticut Land Company. This was meant to encourage and speed up settlement and development of the region. Although this act resolved the problem of political uncertainty, continued poor company management meant that few settlers came. More significant development of the region would have to wait until after the War of 1812. Company Bankruptcy As a result of weak land sales stemming from company mismanagement and political uncertainty,

6596-399: The location of Native American settlements near the headwaters of the Wabash River . On November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket . More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, known as " St. Clair's Defeat " and many other names. It remains the greatest defeat of

6693-466: The majority of the territory became public land owned by the U.S. government. Virginia and Connecticut reserved two areas to use as compensation to military veterans: the Virginia Military District and the Connecticut Western Reserve Thomas Jefferson's Land Ordinance of 1784 was the first organization of the territory by the United States; it provided a process for dividing the territory into individual states. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established

6790-427: The near west and the lands bordering the Mississippi. This activity stimulated the development of the eastern parts of the eventual National Road by private investors. The Cumberland–Brownsville toll road linked the water routes of the Potomac River with the Monongahela River of the Ohio/Mississippi riverine systems in the days when water travel was the only good alternative to walking and riding. Most of

6887-516: The northeastern part of Minnesota. Lands west of the Mississippi River were the Louisiana Province of New Spain, formerly New France, acquired by the United States in 1803 by the Louisiana Purchase . Lands north of the Great Lakes were part of the British Province of Upper Canada . Lands south of the Ohio River constituted Kentucky County, Virginia , admitted to the union as the state of Kentucky in 1792. The area included more than 300,000 square miles (780,000 km ) and comprised about 1/3 of

6984-501: The northeastern part of the greater Mississippi drainage basin lands just west of those defined as part of Pennsylvania's claims settlement ( Western Pennsylvania ). The Western Reserve is located in Northeast Ohio with its hub being Cleveland . In 1795, the Connecticut Land Company bought three million acres (12,000 km ) of the Western Reserve. Settlers used the guidelines of the Land Ordinance of 1785 , which demanded

7081-452: The organizing of the state of Ohio in 1803. The first Ohio Constitution provided for a weak governor and a strong legislature , in part a reaction to St. Clair's method of governance. In preparation for Ohio's statehood, Congress split the Northwest Territory into two sections in 1800. A new territory, Indiana Territory , encompassed all land west of the present Indiana–Ohio border and its northward extension to Lake Superior , except for

7178-529: The owners survey the land before settlement. In 1796, the company began surveys and sales on property east of Cuyahoga. The original proprietors, 57 of the wealthiest and most prominent men in Connecticut, included Oliver Phelps , the largest subscriber and chief manager of the project. In 1796, one of the largest shareholders, Moses Cleaveland , planned a settlement on the banks of the Cuyahoga River with Seth Pease . This planned settlement would become

7275-554: The plan for the construction of the Muskingum Academy (now Marietta College ) in Ohio. In 1780, the directors of the Ohio Company appointed him superintendent of all its affairs relating to settlement north of the Ohio River. In 1796, he was commissioned by President George Washington as Surveyor-General of United States Lands. In 1788, he served as a judge in the Northwest Territory's first court. In 1802, he served in

7372-412: The position until Ohio became a state and elected its first governor, Edward Tiffin , on March 3, 1803. The Supreme Court consisted of (1) John Cleves Symmes ; (2) James Mitchell Varnum , who died in 1789, replaced by George Turner , who resigned in 1796, and was replaced by Return Jonathan Meigs Jr. ; and (3) Samuel Holden Parsons , who died in 1789, replaced by Rufus Putnam , who resigned 1796, and

7469-505: The region, where British subjects outnumbered Americans throughout the 1790s. The following year, the Treaty of Greenville secured peace on the western frontier and opened most of southern and eastern Ohio for American settlement. Sporadic westward emigrant settlements had already resumed late in the war after the Iroquois Confederacy 's power was broken and the tribes scattered by the 1779 Sullivan Expedition . Soon after

7566-595: The region, which they claimed as New France ; among these was the post at Fort Detroit , founded in 1701. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the Indian Reserve in the 1763 Treaty of Paris , after being defeated in the French and Indian War . From the 1750s to the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812, the British had a long-standing goal of creating an Indian barrier state ,

7663-451: The reserve follows a true meridian along Ellicott's Line , the boundary with Pennsylvania. The western boundary veers more than four degrees from a meridian to maintain the 120-mile width, due to convergence. Connecticut gave up western land claims following the American Revolutionary War in exchange for federal assumption of its debt, as did several other states. From these concessions, the Articles of Confederation government organized

7760-511: The right to govern the land and the legitimacy of the land titles. There were disputes between the Northwest Territory and the state of Connecticut over who had the right to govern the land purchased by the company. In addition, the company wanted Connecticut to guarantee the land titles that the company issues, but Connecticut refused. As a result of this uncertain surrounding the legality of land titles and jurisdiction, many would-be settlers decided not to come. Making settlement even less attractive

7857-625: The scope of this fort. The military campaign of Gen. Wayne against the Western Confederacy, who were supported by a company of troops from Lower Canada, culminated with victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Following the battle, in fall 1794, Wayne's army marched unopposed to Kekionga where they constructed Fort Wayne, a defiant symbol of U.S. sovereignty in the heart of Native American Country. Jay's Treaty , in 1794, temporarily helped to smooth relations with British traders in

7954-415: The stipulation that the laws had to have been passed previously in one of the original thirteen states. The laws restructured the court system then in effect in the Northwest Territory. They also protected residents against excessive taxes and declared that English common law would be the basis of legal decisions and laws in the Northwest Territory. The young United States government, deeply in debt following

8051-750: The territory and its successors was settled by emigrants passing through the Cumberland Narrows , or along the Mohawk Valley in New York State. The Continental Congress' title to the lands north of the Ohio River was derived from the Treaty of Paris (1783), the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, and the cessions of four states. Settlement was through several means: squatters, direct U.S. government land sales to settlers, sales of tracts of land to land companies, and state sales of land to veterans in

8148-430: The territory would eventually form three to five new states. Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which created the Northwest Territory, General St. Clair was appointed governor. When the territory was divided in 1800, he briefly served as governor of the Northwest Territory remnant that included Ohio, the eastern half of Michigan, and a sliver of southeastern Indiana called "The Gore". St. Clair formally established

8245-444: The territory: Virginia claimed all of the portion that was formerly Illinois Country and Ohio Country; Massachusetts claimed the portion that is now southern Michigan and Wisconsin; Connecticut claimed a narrow strip across the territory just south of the Great Lakes; New York claimed an elastic portion of Iroquois lands between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The western boundary of Pennsylvania was also ill-defined. Virginia's jurisdiction

8342-614: The time.) In 1798 surveyors laid out the Girdled Road, indicated by girdled trees, which ran from Cleveland to the Pennsylvania state line near Lake Erie. A modern portion of Girdled Road still exists by that name . The territory was originally named "New Connecticut" (later discarded in favor of "Western Reserve"), and settlers began to trickle in during the next few years. Youngstown was founded in 1796, Warren in 1798, Hudson and Ravenna in 1799, Ashtabula in 1803, and Stow in 1804. Connecticut finally ceded sovereignty over

8439-461: The way for settlement particularly in southern and western Ohio. The Northwest Territory included all the then-owned land of the United States west of Pennsylvania , east of the Mississippi River , and northwest of the Ohio River . It incorporated most of the former Ohio Country except a portion in western Pennsylvania, and eastern Illinois Country . It covered all of the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as

8536-479: The way for white settlement. In 1789, he succeeded in getting certain Native Americans to sign the Treaty of Fort Harmar , but many native leaders had not been invited to participate in the negotiations or had refused to do so. Rather than settling the Native Americans' claims, the treaty provoked an escalation of the "Northwest Indian War" (or "Little Turtle's War"). Mutual hostilities led to a campaign by General Josiah Harmar , whose 1,500 militiamen were defeated by

8633-559: The western frontier. Wayne was commissioned to form a new army of 5120 professional soldiers, dubbed the "Legion of the United States". Wayne recruited and trained his army in Pennsylvania, and moved them to southwestern Ohio in fall of 1793. There they were joined by the Kentucky Militia under Major General Charles Scott . Over the next ten months, the armies marched north up the Great Miami and Maumee River valleys toward

8730-497: Was at Putnam's recommendation that the land was surveyed and laid out in townships of six miles square. He organized and led the first group of veterans to the territory. They settled at Marietta, Ohio , where they built a large fort called Campus Martius . Putnam and Cutler insisted the Northwest Territory be a free territory, with no slavery. The Northwest Territory doubled the size of the United States, and establishing it as free of slavery proved to be of tremendous importance in

8827-523: Was extended westward to a point five degrees of longitude (about 260 miles) from the Delaware River and the western boundary extended to run due north from the westernmost extent of the Mason–Dixon line to the 43rd parallel. This incorporated the eastern part of Ohio Country as western Pennsylvania, and set the eastern boundary of federal lands. "Unlanded" states, such as Maryland, refused to ratify

8924-460: Was formed as were a succession of counties, eventually totaling thirteen. At the time of its creation, the land within the territory was largely undisturbed by urban development. It was also home to several Native American cultures, including the Delaware , Miami , Potawatomi , Shawnee , and others. There were a handful of French colonial settlements remaining, plus Clarksville at the Falls of

9021-483: Was limited to a few French settlements at the extreme western edge of the territory. Massachusetts's and Connecticut's claims were effectively lines on paper. New York had no colonial settlements or territorial government in the claimed lands. The western border of Pennsylvania, previously assumed to run in a north by northeast zigzag, was resolved in 1780 by the Continental Congress. The Mason–Dixon line

9118-464: Was replaced by Joseph Gilman . There were three secretaries: Winthrop Sargent (July 9, 1788 – May 31, 1798); William Henry Harrison (June 29, 1798 – December 31, 1799); and Charles Willing Byrd (January 1, 1800 – March 1, 1803). Connecticut Land Company The Connecticut Company or Connecticut Land Company (est. 1795) was a post-colonial land speculation company formed in the late eighteenth century to survey and encourage settlement in

9215-476: Was sufficient, and these assumed local administrative and judicial functions. Washington County was the first of these, at Marietta in 1788. This was an important event, as this court was the first establishment of civil and criminal law in the pioneer country. As soon as the number of free male settlers exceeded 5,000, the territorial legislature was to be created, and this happened in 1798. The full mechanisms of government were put in place, as outlined in

9312-509: Was that the US government did not recognize the Western Reserve as part of the Northwest Territory until 1800. In practice this means that the US government did not provide settlers with legal or military protection. Then, on April 28, 1800, the Quieting Act was signed by President Adams into law. The Quieting Act established Connecticut’s right to govern the land and guaranteed the legality of

9409-659: Was true everywhere in Ohio before 1800 except the northwest sector above the Greenville Treaty line. It became true in Indiana after the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811; by 1813 Battle of the Thames where Tecumseh was defeated and killed, the frontier had essentially moved to west of the Mississippi. The first U.S. military garrisons in the territory were Fort Patrick Henry, Vincennes, Indiana (1779), Fort Clark at Falls of

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