Surveys of the Western Reserve

Chapter IV, History of The Western Reserve, by Harriet Taylor Upton, 1910

On the morning of the 5th of July, two boats put back to Fort Erie for some supplies which had been left there, while the surveyors began preparations for the field. On the following day the Indians, who naturally liked pow-wows, and to whom a part of settlers was a curiosity, asked for another coucil. Both sides were in a happy mood. The Indians made speeches full of praise to General Cleaveland, and Paqua presented him with a pipe of peace. This pipe is still in the possession of the family. Although it is hard for a New Englander to "roll out honied words," still the general did the best he could, and made up his deficiency by flattery and the giving of presents. He gave them a string of wampum, silver trinkets, besides twenty dollars worth of whiskey.
On July 7th, the members of the surveying party left Conneaut. They were ambitious not only to do their work quickly, but well. Joyously they started into the unknown wilderness, Porter, Peace and Holley ran the first east line. They found the north corner of Pennsylvania, and ran down five or six miles west of that line.

New Connecticut, Not Heaven

Moses Warren and party had a line farther west. Before the summer was over, it was written of Warren, sometimes, "he was a little less energetic," and other times, "he is indolent." He was either ease-loving or slow. However, the author owes him a debt of gratitude because he wrote a full, clear hand and was a good speller. Manuscripts of long ago try the patience of the readers of today. Both Pease and Holley left copious notes, and from them we learn that the first line they ran caused them much trouble and many vexations, as the land was not covered with huge trees, but with small ones and with thick underbrush; it was impossible to sight at long range. The spring had been a wet one, the streams swollen, and the swamps sometimes impassable. The land lay flat, and on the whole was uninteresting. The horses often wandered off at night and precious morning time was spent corralling them. Sometimes the surveyors waded the swamps and streams, sending the cooks, supplies, horses, and laborers around. This always brought about delay and more or less distress. As the surveyors took the shortest route, they arrived first, and, wet, tired, and hungry, they were obliged to wait for the rest of the party, who were sometimes hours late. Mr. Stow, the commissary, had his trials, first, in finding it hard to obtain fresh supplies, and second, in reaching the various parties in the field. Very often we find notes like: "Ate our last breakfast," or, "Only one more dinner left," or "Had less than a half of a pint of rum left."
The mosquitos and gnats were troublesome. The surveyors complained of "earth gas," and they attributed the fever and ague which came later to this gas, but almost always at the same time mentioned the presence of mosquitoes.
The plan was to find the 41st parallel at the Pennsylvania line, and then run west one hundred and twenty miles. From this base line, five miles apart, lines were to be run north, and later cross lines, parallel with the base line, thus making twenty-four townships across and twelve in the deepest place.
These townships were numbered as ranges, and from the base lines up as towns. Before towns or hamlets were named, they were called by number. Poland was range 1, number 1, Cleveland range 12, number 7. Again and again do we read in diaries and papers: "Went to number4; stopped at Quinby's." Number 4 was not only township 4, but it was range 4.
As the Porter-Holley-Pease party proceeded south they, or their workmen at least, realized that New Connecticut was not a Paradise. The monontonous records show occasional changes. Only when they reached the middle-east of the present Trumbull county and could see the Pennsylvania hills with the valleys in between, they wrote that it was the first time they had seen "over the woods," and they felt cheered. The rest of the route south was a little less troublesome and more interesting. Once they thought they heard the tinkle of a cow bell, and hastened to find it, without success. They believed they had imagined the sound; not so, for there was then a family living in that vicinity. When they reached the Mahoning river they saw some traders in a boat, near the present sight of Youngstown. They talked with them and learned that supplies could be had at Beaver, and that these traders were on their way to Salt Springs, whose praises they sang.

Part of Forty-First Parallel Surveyed

Finally, on July 23rd, they set up a wooden post at the intersection of the 41st parallel and the Pennsylvania line, southeast corner of Poland.
They had been seventeen days running this line. Surely, they had not been idle, and they had overcome grievous obstacles. Their poor instruments showed variations, and they did not have time to prove their work. When the whole survey was finished, they were half a mile out of the way. It was intended that each township should have sixteen thousand acres of land, and not one of them has just exactly that much.
Moses Warren and the other surveyors came up with the Pease-Porter party on the 23rd, and they then separated, beginning five miles apart, and ran the line back to the lake. The return trip was about the same, except that the laborers showed less inclination to work, and the cooks became more irritable.
On the 5th of July the laborers began the erection of a crude log house on the east side of Conneaut creek, which was used for a storehouse. It is referred to in the early history as "Stow Castle." A second house was later erected as a dwelling for the surveyors. It was then expected that Conneaut would be the headquarters.

Mouth of the Cuyahoga River

As soon as all was under way, General Cleaveland started by lake for the Cuyahoga river. He reached his destination the day before the corner post was set in Poland, July 22nd. Among those accompanying him were Stow, the commissary, and Mr. and Mrs. Stiles. There is no record of how this spot pleased the party, although several writers have drawn imaginary pictures and noted possible thoughts. So far as the writer knows, Moses Cleaveland did not commit to paper his first impression. True it is, that many a purchaser of New Connecticut land, who intended to settle near the present site of Cleveland, when he saw the desolate sand of the lake shore and felt the chilly winds, retraced his steps onto the Hiram hills, to the Little Mountain district, or the ridges of Mesopotamia, Middlefield or Bloomfield.
The running of the parallels was troublesome, the work was not finished the first summer, as there was not time to do that and to plat the Cleveland vicinity. The Chagrin river, not being on any of the maps, gave most of the surveyors some trouble, and they all took it for the Cuyahoga, of course. The field work was destructive to shoes and clothes, and, as said before, food was not always certain. Part of the laborers early became dissatisfied with only hard work and little pay, and the company, to ease things, promised them pieces of land and other rewards. Some of them were early discharged, and others left.
On September 16th, Holley writes: "Encamped a little east of the Chagrin river. Hamilton, the cook, was very cross and lazy. Was on the point of not cooking any supper, because the bark would not peel and he knew of nothing to make bread upon. Davenport wet some in the bag."
Thursday, September 22nd: "He discovered a bear swimming across the river." "Munson caught a rattlesnake which was boiled and ate."
September 28th: "I carved from a beech tree in Cuyahoga town, 'Myron Holley, Jr.' and on a birch, 'Milton Holley, 1796. September 26, 1796, Friendship." Apparently the young man was getting homesick.
October 16th: "Came to camp in consequence of hard rain; found no fire; were all wet and cold, but after pushing about the bottle and getting a good fire and supper we were as merry as grigs."

First Houses on Cleveland's Site

During the summer a cabin was put up for Stiles on lot 53, east side of Bank street, where the store of Kinney & Leven now stands. A house for surveyors and a house for stores was erected near the mouth of the Cuyahoga. These were the first hosues built within the present district of Cleveland for permanent occupancy. There had been a number of buildings erected by traders, by companies, by missionaries, and so forth, but they were put together for temporary purposes and were destroyed either by wind and weather or by the Indians. The latter seemed always to rejoice when a chance was offered to burn a vacant building. Colonel James Hillman, who figured conspicuously in the early history of Trumbull county, said he erected a small cabin on the river near the foot of Superior street in 1786. This was ten years before Cleveland was laid out. A party of Englishmen who were wrecked on the lake built a cabin in which they lived for one winter, probably '87. In 1797, as we shall see, James Kingsbury occupied a dilapidated building, put up before '86, for protecting flour which was brought from Pittsburg for Detroit people.

Work Stopped for the Year

The cold fall days warned the party that they must stop work. They were not satisfied with the results, and neither was the Land Company. The latter had spent $14,000 and apparently had little to show for it. The southern boundary of their territory had not been run west after the fourth range. A large tract had not been surveyed at all. All of the territory "east of Cuyahoga, west of the fourth meridian, and south of the sixth parallel" was still not touched. None of the six townships intended for sale were ready except in the neighborhood of Cleveland. However, the surveyors had done the best they could under the conditions, and one can read between the lines of their ordinary surveyor notes an intense desire to be at home.
Holley says: "Tuesday, Oct. 18th, we left Cuyahoga at three o'clock and seventeen minutes for home. Left Job Stiles and his wife and Joseph Landon with provisions for the winter." Porter, Holley and Shepard rowed along the lake shore by moonlight. Pease walked, taking notes of the coast. (Pease was a poor sailor.) The pack horses were to go back to Geneva. Atwater and others took them by land. So anxious were these young men to reach home that they arose one morning at 2:00 a.m. and another at 3:00 a.m., and arrived at Conneaut by Friday, the 21st. They left Fort Erie October 23rd at 1:30 a.m. and arrived at Buffalo at 10:30, where they struck a fire "and were asleep in less than thirty minutes." As they proceeded and their desire for home increased, their hours of travel were longer. Once they rowed all night. They reached Irondequoit Friday, the 27th. Here somehow they got out of the channel and had to jump into the water up to their waists and push the boat thirty rods. Wading in the water waist deep the last of October is neither pleasant nor safe. On the 29th they separated at Canandaigua. When we remember that Holley was only eighteen years old, and all of them were young men with education, or older men without experience or education, we believe that most of them did their duty "in that state of life in which it shall please God to call them." Porter was the chief surveyor, as we have seen. Neither he nor Holley returned with the party the next year. They became brothers-in-law later. Holley settled in Salisbury, Connecticut, and his son, Alexander H., became governor. Moses Cleaveland did not return, either, though he retained his interest, more or less, in the Western Reserve. At one time he purchased an interest in the Salt Spring Tract, of Parsons. His brother, Camden, married a Miss Adams, and many of their descendants and connections live in Trumbull county.
When the winter in its wanton fury set in, there were in Cleveland only Job Stiles and his wife. Richard Landon, one of the surveying party, had expected to spend the winter with them, and it is not known why he left. Edward Paine, for whom Painesville was named, took his place in this cabin. It is a tradition that in this cabin, during the winter, a child was born, the mother being attended only by a squaw, but this has never been fully verified. Supplies had been left in Cleveland, and the Indians were exceedingly good to the settlers, so even if it was a hard winter for the three, there were some mitigating conditions. Mr. and Mrs. Stiles, who is described as a capable, courageous woman, lived to a good old age.

First Independent Adventurer

Aside from a few people at Fort Erie, there were no white people between Buffalo and "the French settlement on the River Raisin," except those of Cleveland and Conneaut. Soon after General Cleaveland and party arrived at Conneaut, James Kingbury, his wife and three children, appeared. He was the first "independent adventurer" who took up his residence on the Reserve. They had come from New Hampshire, stopping possibly in New York for a little time. His wife was Eunice Waldo, a woman of strong and pleasing personality. In the early fall, the Land Company cleared about six acres of land, sowed it in wheat, and this was probably the first wheat raised by white men on the Western Reserve, and Kingsbury is credited with being the first to thrust a sickle into the wheat field, planted ont he soil of the country. Just what Kingsbury did through the summer, we are not told, but when all the surveying party had disappeared, he and his family occupied one of the cabins, presumably "Stow Castle," Mr. and Mrs. Gun, the other. Mr. Kingsbury found it necessary to go back to New Hampshire, and he went on horseback to Buffalo. He expected to be gone, at the latest, six weeks. His trip was uneventful, but as soon as he reached his destination he was taken with a fever, probably the kind which the surveyors had suffered, and it ran a long course. He had left with his family a nephew thirteen years old, a cow and a yoke of oxen. During the early part of his stay, the Indians furnished the family with meat, and Mr. and Mrs. Gun were kind to them. Even when the husband's fever subsided his great weakness rendered it impossible for him to travel, and his anxiety as to his family retarded his progress. There being no communication at any time, Mrs. Kingsbury had the same anxiety for him, and in addition she was starving to death. At this crisis a son was born to her, Mrs. Gun being with her at the time. As this child is reported to be the first child born in the Western Reserve, we are led to think that the families of Kingsbury and Stiles became mixed in the minds of some recorders, and that there was no child born during that winter to Cleveland, and that this was the first.
Before Mr. Kingsbury was able to travel, he set out and reached Buffalo the 3rd of December. This winter was a severe one, and the snow was over five feet deep in the lake region. However, Mr. Kingsbury, with an Indian guide, traveled toward his family as fast as he could. His horse became disabled, but still he staggered along and reached his cabin Christmas eve. Mrs. Kingsbury had recovered enough to be up and had decided to leave with her family for Erie Christmas day. "Toward evening a gleam of sunshine broke through the long-clouded heavens, and lighted up the surrounding forest. Looking out she beheld the figure of her husband approaching the door." So weak was she that she relapsed into a fever, and her husband, nearly exhausted, was obliged, the first minute he could travel, to go to Erie for provisions. The snow was so deep he could not take the oxen, and he drew back a bushel of what on the sled. This they cracked and ate. Presently the cow died and the oxen were killed eating poisonous boughs. The low state of the mother's health and the death of the cow caused the starvation of the two-months old baby. Tales have appeared in newspapers in regards to this incident which stated that as Mr. Kingsbury entered his door on his return he saw the baby dead on its little couch and the mother dying. The child did not die until a month after Mr. Kingsbury reached home.

The Sad First Burial

A reliable old man, who was about eighty-four years old in 1874, in talking of the hardships of the people of New Connecticut, said: "But the ahrdest day's work I ever did was the one in which I got ready to bury my boy." There were then no hearses, no coffins, no undertakers, no grave-diggers, but there were tender, loving friends, all of whom were ready to do all in their power. But the first family of the Reserve was without such comfort. Mr. Kingsbury, entirely alone (when the Guns left, we do not know), was obliged to do everything there was to be done for his dead baby. He, and his thirteen-year-old nephew, found a box, and, laying the body in it, carried it to the top of a hill, where Mrs. Kingsbury, on her bed, could raise herself enough to see the body lowered to the grave. When this sad duty had been performed, and Mr. Kingsbury returned to the house, he found his wife unconscious, and for two weeks she took no notice of anything going on. Mr. Kingsbury, still feeble, was nearly discouraged, when suddenly the severe north winds were supplanted by southern breezes, and in the atmosphere was a slight promise of spring. Early in March, when he was hardly able to walk, he took an old rifle which his uncle had carried in the War of the Revolution, and went into the woods. Presently, a pigeon appeared. He was no marksman. He was so anxious, however, to get something which was nourishing to his wife that the tears fairly came to his eyes when he shot and saw the bird fall. He made a broth and fed her, and saved her life.
From this on, the family grew slowly better, and when the surveying party came back in the spring, all were well enough to accompany it to Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury occupied a cabin earlier referred to and later built a cabin on the east side of the public square. In the fall of that year a more comfortable cabin was built, further to the east. Here his family was well, decidedly better than the settlers who dwelt near the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Some time afterwards he built quite a nice frame dwelling. The first crop he raised was on the ground near the public square. He had three children: Mrs. Sherman, Amos and Almon. He lived to be eighty years old, and his wife seventy-three. He had a military commission in New Hampshire, with the rank of colonel. In 1800 he was appointed judge of the court of quarter sessions of the peace for the county of Trumbull, and in 1805 he was elected a member of the legislature. His letters written to Judge Kirtland of Poland at this time, now in the possession of Miss Mary Morse, are most dignified and business-like. He was a close friend of Commodore Perry and General Harrison. It is said the day before the battle of lake Erie, he was with Perry, and the latter asked him what he thought ought to be done. The judge replied: "Why, sir, I would fight."
From all accounts it seems that Judge and Mrs. Kingsbury were exemplary citizens and that the suffering and distresses which came to them their first winter in the new land were wiped out by the happy, joyous years which followed.

Three Heroines Rewarded

It is a pleasant fact to record that the three women who came to the Western Reserve the first winter of its existence courageously bore the hardships, shared the sorrows and conducted themselves in a heroic manner. The Connecticut Land Company realized this and presented to Mrs. Gun one one-hundred acre lot; to Mrs. Stiles, one city lot, one ten-acre lot and one one-hundred-acre lot. The company also gave to James Kingsbury and wife one one-hundred-acre lot.

The Survey of 1797

The principal surveyor of the party of 1797 was Seth Pease, who had occupied the position of astronomer and surveyor the year before. He was born at Suffield, 1764, married Bathsheba Kent, 1785, died at Philadelphia, 1819. From Pease Genealogical Record we learn: "He was a man of sterling worth, accurate and scientific. He was a surveyor general of the United States for a series of years and afterwards assistant postmaster general under Postmaster General Gideon Granger (his brother-in-law) during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison." He has descendants of his own in the central part of the state, and the sons of Frederick Kinsman, of Warren, are his grand-nephews.
Early in the spring he organized a party and proceeded west. Of those who accompanied him, the following had been with him the year before: Richard M Stoddard, Moses Warren (who despite the report of his easy-going ways must have satisfied the company or he would not have been re-employed), Amzi Atwater, Joseph Landon, Amos Spafford, Warham Shepard, as surveyors. Employed in other capacities, Nathaniel Doan, Ezekial Morley, Joseph Tinker, David Beard, Charles Parker. Mr. Pease not only had the management of the party but the care of the funds as well. He left home on the 3rd day of April and had more inconvenience than the party of the first year, because the company was not so willing to keep him in funds. He says but for the financial help of Mr. Mathers he would have been many times greatly embarassed. Six boats started up the Mohawk on April 20th, and on April 25th were re-enforced at Fort Schulyer by Phideas Baker and Mr. Hart's boat. They received other recruits at several places, and on April 30th Mr. Pease obtained his trunk, which he had left at Three River Point the year before. Arriving at Irondequoit, May 4th, others joined the party. On May 6th he interviewed Augustus Porter, hoping to induce him to take charge of the party for the summer. In this he was not successful. One of his men on the following day deserted because of homesickness. They proceeded from Canandaigua in two parties, one going by land and the other by lake, and arrived at Fort Niagara on May 14th. The following day boats went back to Irondequoit for the rest of the stores. When the lake party reached Buffalo on May 19th, they found the land party had been there two days. They reached Conneaut on May 26th and put the boats into the creek. In the night a cry was raised that during the storm the boats had broken loose and gone into the lake; fortunately this proved to be a mistake. On May 29th Spafford began surveying, and reached the Cuyahoga June 1st. The Kingsbury family was found in a very low state of health at Conneaut, but the Stiles and Gun households were very well at Cleveland. Mr. Gun was at that date back in Conneaut. On the third day of June, in attempting to ford the Grand river, one of the land party, David Eldredge, was drowned. We find the following entry: "Sunday, June 4th. This morning selected a piece of ground for a burying ground, the north parts of lots 97 and 98; and attended the funeral of the deceased with as much decency and solemnity as could be expected. Mr. Hart read church service. The afternoon was devoted to washing." Thus have life and death always gone hand in hand.

Survey Commenced in Earnest

When a garden had been made, the surveying began in earnest, headquarters at Cleveland. The commissary department of the party of much more satisfactory the second year than the first, but there was much more sickness. On the 25th day of June Mr. Pease began running the unfinished line, marking the lower boundary of the Reserve.
Amzi Atwater, in speaking of the second trip, makes this curious and interesting notation: "In passing down this stream (Oswego), which had long been known by boatmen, we passed in a small inlet stream two large, formidable looking boats or small vessels which reminded us of a sea-port harbor. We were told that they were, the season before, conveyed from the Hudson river, party by water and finally on wheels, to be conveyed to Lake Ontario; that they were built of the lightest material and intended for no other use than to have it published in Europe that vessels of those dimensions had passed those waters to aid land speculations." Thus early did some Yankees attempt to interest(?) Englishmen in western commerical enterprises.

Amzi Atwater

Amzi Atwater, born in New Haven in 1776, was early thrown upon his own resources, as his father lost his health in the war for Independence. He learned to read and write, but was early "hired out" to an uncle for sixty dollars a year. At one time he went to visit this uncle, Rev. Noah Atwater, who was a successful teacher of young men. Upon invitation he spent the winter there, studying surveying. His title in the first Connecticut Land Company's employees was that of "explorer's assistant." He started from Connecticut on food and alone, to meet Shepard at Canandaigua. He had charge of the cattle and pack horses and went the entire distance on land. He served in almost every capacity. When the survey was finished here, he worked at his profession in the east, and in 1800, accompanied by his brother, came to Mantua. He bought a farm on the road between Mantua and Shalersville, on the Cuyahoga, and there he lived and died. Judge Ezra B. Taylor, of Warren, now in his eighty-seventh year, remembers Judge Atwater well, having first seen him when he was a boy thirteen years old. He describes him as a gentle, dignified, influential person, who was known to almost all the early residents of Portage county. He died in 1851, at the age of seventy-six.

The Warren Field Notes

The author of this work has been able to secure from Mrs. Julia Warren, of Rockford, Illinois, whose husband was the grandson of Moses Warren, some heretofore unpublished notes from his field book. Mrs. Warren has the entire record, and an important collection of facts it is.
"Moses Warren, Jr. left Connecticut May 1, 1796, on the schooner 'Lark,' for the Connecticut Reserve. The party reached Schenectady May 12th; there loaded forty-four boats under the order of Mr. Porter for 'Fort Stanwix.' On July 4th, the boats reached Walnut Creek, three miles from the neck, with a fine beach all the way to Coneought. Plenty of springs of good water. About Elk creek the land is high and is called Elk Mountain. We found the shore line of Pennsylvania twenty-five miles from Delaware, and after traveling about four miles found the west line, passed it. Eight in our company, and gave three cheers for New Connecticut. About two miles farther is Coneought creek, at which place we arrived at 5 P.M. At 6 the boats and cattle arrived and a federal salute is fired and a volley for 'New Conn.' The enlivening draughts went round in plenty, five or six toasts were drank, 'The President,' 'The Conn. Land Co.,' 'Port Independence,' and the 'Sons of Fortitude that by preserverance have entered it this day,' & c; and in the future this place is to be called 'Port Independence.'
"The land looks well, the timber is plenty, here we encamp and conclude to make our first storehouse. On July 6th they laid the first log of the first house in New Connecticut." [This is what they thought, but we have seen that they were mistaken.]
On Sunday, July 10, 1796, is the following entry: "General Cleaveland, Mr. Stow and Captain Buckland go to Ash de Bouillon [notice the spelling of Ashtabula Creek] on discovery and all hands at rest once more; the hands seem more inclined to whist and all fours than the Gospel."
On Saturday, June 10th, 1797: "Started from Cleveland to run the E and W line No. 5 from the corner left by Mr. Pease last year, to Pennsylvania, being forty miles; then to run E and W line No. 2 from Penn to Cuyahoga. Have three pack horses with stores of various kinds; pork 100 lbs., flour 320 lbs., etc. With me is Col. Wait, Solomon Giddings; chainmen John Hine and Samuel Keeney; axemen John Doran and Eli Canfield; pack horseman Thomas Green; also to return in ten days with the grey mare. The horses Hannah and Peggy remain with me. West east with Shepard and his party to the east line of Cleveland; then south to No. 6, 10th range; then east till past the Sugar Orchard, and camped on Sugar creek. Good feed for the horses, and the land hereabout is excellent, being No. 7, 11th range. Northern and middle part of the line between Cleveland and No. 7 is strong beach land, but not very tempting."
Under date June 12th is a note, as follows: "The post that I set last year in the 9th meridian was thrown down and all the marks cut out with a Tomahawk. I set a new one and remarked it yesterday."
Under date of Aug. 15th, while they were near Mahoning hill and creek: "The muskitos are the plentiest I ever found them and, like the furnace of the King of Babylon, heated with 7-fold rage. I never was so tormented with them before. (Their wrath increases as their time grows short.) So greedy they were they as to light on the Company's glass and try to pierce it with their bills; I suppose deceived by the agitation of the needle and expecting blood instead of magnetism."
The records of the second party of surveyors are more distressing than those of the first. Nearly every entry mentions illness. Mr. Pease obliged to discontinue his journal because of his fearful chills and fever. Warren seemed to have escaped, or at least, he does not mention it. During this summer occasional prospectors appeared at Conneaut, at Cuyahoga, and the placed in between. "The three gentlemen we saw the other day going to Cleveland hailed us. As they contemplated becoming settlers, we furnished them with a loaf of bread." Generous!
Sunday, October 8: "Opened second barrel of pork. Found it very poor, like the first, considering almost entirely of head and legs, with one old sow belly, teats two inches long, meat one inch thick."
The party was at Conneaut October 22nd, on their way home. There they met Mr. John Young, of Youngstown, who brought them word of the drowning of three acquaintances at Chatauqua, the murdering of a man on Big Beaver, and like news. The party, in several divisions, then proceeds eastward, arriving in Buffalo November 6. The winter snows had begun. The party continued to Canandaigua and dispersed, Mr. Pease remaining some time to bring up the work.
The survey is practically finished.
The facts in regard to the distribution of land, the Connecticut Land Company, and so forth, are of great interest, but there is not space to tell of them here. How, and when, and by whom these lands were purchased will, in part, be told later.
In the unpublished journal of Turhand Kirtland is a letter written by Samuel Huntington, under date of April 12, 1806, in which he says: "At town meeting I am told there was much abuse of the Land Company. *** A harrange from C. *** and sent them and all their agents to the D_e_l. Those who were mad were in the majority. *** I think you will have a warm time when you come here."

Some Facts About the Reserve

With the close of this narrative which so vividly portrays the numerous difficulties attending the survey of the Western Reserve, it may be well to call attention to a few facts. The territory of the present counties embraced in the old Reserve has an area of 5,280 square miles. It is the narrowest at the east end of Huron and Erie counties. The extreme northwest land of the Reserve is the Isle of St. George, which is seventeen miles farther north than Cleveland, and very near to the parallel that passes through the villages of Painesville and Jefferson, and over the spot famous for Perry's victory. As a rule, the townships on the Reserve are five miles square, but this is not true of those bordering on the Lakes. There are two hundred and eighteen townships on the Reserve - more than one-seventh of the number in the State of Ohio.

Lake County Ohio GenWeb Site

Western Reserve History Page

Ohio County Information Page