Connecticut Western Reserve
The Connecticut Western Reserve was land claimed by Connecticut in the Northwest Territory in what is now northeastern Ohio. In her deed of cession (the states gave up their western claims in exchange for federal assumption of the Revolutionary War debt) dated September 13, 1786, Connecticut retained more than 3 million acres (12,000 km²). In 1796, Connecticut sold 3 million acres (12,000 km²) of the reserve to the Connecticut Land Company but the Indian title to the reserve had not been extinguished then. Clear title was not obtained until the Greenville Treaty in 1795 and the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805. The west end of the reserve included the 500,000 acre (2,000 km²) "Firelands or Sufferers Lands" reserved for residents of several New England towns destroyed by British-set fires during the Revolutionary War.
Claims
Although forced to surrender the Pennsylvania portion of its sea-to-sea land grant following the Yankee-Pennamite Wars and the intercession of the federal government, Connecticut held fast to its right to the lands between the 41st and 42nd-and-2-minutes parallels that lay west of the Pennsylvania border.
Within the state of Ohio, the claim lay between Lake Erie and a line just below Youngstown, Akron, New London and Willard, about three miles south of the present-day U.S. Highway 224. Beyond Ohio the claim included parts of what would become Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California.
Following the American Revolutionary War, the states surrendered their western lands in exchange for federal assumption of their war debt. Connecticut ceded her claims on September 14, 1786, but "reserved" a 120-mile strip south of Lake Erie. The United States Congress accepted the reservation and thus was born the Western Reserve.
Architecture
Architectural influence can still be seen there (The Western Reserve Style), predominantly in the style of windows (six small panes over one large pane in a double-hung window).
Culture
Many street, business, and organization names still reflect the region's Western Reserve origin, including Case Western Reserve University, an important university in Cleveland.
Sources
- Hatcher, Harlan, Western Reserve: The Story of New Connecticut in Ohio, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1949.
See also
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