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In establishing the township and sectional corners, a post is first planted at the intersection; then on the tree nearest the post, and standing within the section intended to be designated, is numbered with the marking iron, the range, township, and number of the section, thus:

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The quarter corners are marked '4 south.'

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Section No. 16 of every township is perpetually reserved for the use of schools, and leased or sold out for the benefit of schools, under the State Government. All the others may be taken up either in sections, fractions, halves, quarters, or half quarters.

For the purpose of selling out these lands, they were divided into eight several land districts, called after the names of the towns in which the land offices were kept, viz: Wooster, Steubenville, Zanesville, Marietta, Chillicothe, etc., etc.

The seven ranges of townships are a portion of the Congress lands, so called, being the first ranges of public lands ever surveyed by the General Government west of of the Ohio river. They are bounded on the north by a line drawn due west from the Pennsylvania State line, where it crosses the Ohio river, to the United States military lands, 42 miles; thence south to the Ohio river, at the southeast corner of Marietta township, thence up the river to the place of beginning.

Questions-What is said in this lesson as to the terms on which Ohio was admitted into the Union? By what names are the principal bodies of lands

in this State designated? Why are Congress Lands so called? How are they surveyed? In what way are they numbered? How are these townships subdivided? The sections? How are sectional corners established and marked? What is said of section sixteen? Of land districts? Of the "Seven Ranges" of townships?

CHAPTER XIII.

OF THE PUBLIC LANDS, CONTINUED THE CONNECTICUT WESTERN RESERVE, ITS HISTORY AND EXTENT-FIRE LANDS, ORIGIN OF NAME, HISTORY AND SURVEY OF-UNITED STATES MILITARY LANDS, THEIR HISTORY AND SURVEY - VIRGINIA MILITARY LANDS, HISTORY OF OHIO COMPANY'S PURCHASE,

EXTENT AND HISTORY OF.

Connecticut Western Reserve, oftentimes called New Connecticut, is situated in the northeast quarter of the State, between Lake Erie on the north, Pennsylvania east, the parallel of the 41st degree of north latitude south, and Sandusky and Seneca counties on the west. It extends 120 miles from east to west, and, upon an average, 50 miles from north to south; although upon the Pennsylvania line it is 68 miles broad, from north to south. The area is about 3,800,000 acres. It is surveyed into townships of five miles square, each. A body of half a million acres is, however, stricken off from the west end of the tract, as a donation, by the State of Connecticut, to certain sufferers by fire in the Revolutionary war.

The manner by which Connecticut became possessed

of the land in question, was the following: King Charles II., of England, pursuing the example of his brother kings, of granting distant and foreign regions to his subjects, granted to the then colony of Connecticut, in 1662, a charter right to all lands included within certain specific bounds. But as the geographical knowledge of the Europeans concerning America, was then very limited and confused, patents for lands often interfered with each other, and many of them, even by their express terms, extended to the Pacific ocean or South sea, as it was then called. 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 New York and Pennsylvania colonies; and, indeed, pretensions to these were not finally relinquished without considerable altercation. And after the United States became an independent nation, these interfering claims occasioned much collision of sentiment between them and the State of Connecticut, which was finally compromised by the United States relinquishing all their claims upon, and guaranteeing to Connecticut the exclusive right of soil to the 3,800,000 acres already described. The United States, however, by the terms of compromise, reserved to themselves the right of jurisdiction. They then united this tract to the the Territory, now State of Ohio.

Fire Lands, is a tract of country so called, of about 781 square miles, or 500,000 acres, in the western part of New Connecticut. The name originated from the circumstance of the State of Connecticut having granted these lands in 1792, as a donation to certain sufferers by fire, occasioned by the English during our Revolutionary war, particularly

at New London, Fairfield and Norwalk. These lands include the five westernmost ranges of the Western Reserve townships. Lake Erie and Sandusky bay project so far southerly as to leave but the space of six tiers and some fractions of townships between them and the 41st parallel of latitude, or a tract of about of 30 by 27 miles in extent.

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This tract is surveyed into townships of about five miles square each; and these townships are then subdivided into four quarters; and these quarter townships are numbered as in the accompanying figure, the top being considered north. And, for individual convenience, these are again subdivided by private surveys into lots of from fifty to five hundred acres each, to suit individual purchasers.

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United States Military Lands are so called from the circumstance of their having been appropriated, by an act of Congress of the 1st of June, 1796, to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war. The tract of country embracing these lands is bounded as follows: Beginning at the northwest corner of the original VII ranges of townships, thence south 50 miles, thence west to the Scioto river, thence up said river to the Greenville treaty line, thence northeasterly with said line to old Fort Laurens, on the Tuscarawas river, thence due east to the place of beginning; including a tract of about 4,000 square miles, or 2,560,000 acres of land. It is, of course, bounded north by the Greenville treaty line, east by the "VII ranges of townships," south by the Congress and Refugee lands, and west by the Scioto river.

These lands are surveyed into townships of five miles square. These townships were then again, originally, surveyed into quarter townships of two and a half miles square, containing 4,000 acres each:-and subsequently, some of these quarter townships were subdivided into forty lots of 100 acres each, for the accommodation of those soldiers holding warrants for only one hundred acres each. And, again, after the time originally assigned for the location of these warrants had expired, certain quarter townships which had not then been located, were divided into sections of one mile square each, and sold by the General Government like the main body of Congress lands.

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The quarter townships are numbered as exhibited in the accompanying figure, the top being considered north. The place of each township is ascertained by numbers and ranges, the same as Congress lands; the ranges being numbered from east to west, and the numbers from south to north.

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Virginia Military Lands are a body of land lying between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, and bounded by the Ohio river on the south. The State of Virgina, from the indefinite and vague terms of expression in its original colonial charter of territory from James I., King of England, in the year 1609, claimed all the Continent west of the Ohio river, and of the north and south breadth of Virginia. But finally, among several other compromises of conflicting claims which were made subsequently to the attainment of our national independence, Virginia agreed to relinquish all her claims to lands northwest of the Ohio river, in favor of the General Gov

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