United States Military District
Encyclopedia
The United States Military District was a land tract in central Ohio
that was established by the Congress to compensate veterans of the American Revolutionary War
for their service. The tract contains 2539110 acres (10,275.4 km²) in Noble
, Guernsey
, Tuscarawas
, Muskingum
, Coshocton
, Holmes
, Licking
, Knox
, Franklin
, Delaware
, Morrow
, and Marion
Counties.
had little money to pay the soldiers who fought for independence. They made promises of land to induce army enlistment. By resolutions of September 16 and 18, 1776, and August 12, September 22, and October 3, 1780, they proposed to give each officer or private continuously to serve in the United States
army until the close of the war, or until discharged, or to the representatives of those slain by the enemy, the amounts in the table.
Under the Land Ordinance of 1785
, land was made available in the Seven Ranges
for bounties, but this proved inadequate.
40°39′07"N 81°20′05"W, then proceed 50 miles (80.5 km) south along the west edge of the Seven Ranges39°55′14"N 81°19′56"W, then proceed due west to the Scioto River
39°59′23"N 83°04′03"W, then up the Scioto River to the Greenville Treaty Line40°28′02"N 83°11′28"W, then northeast along the Greenville Treaty Line to Fort Laurens
40°39′15"N 81°28′25"W, then up the Tuscarawas River
to a point due west of the Seven Ranges Terminus, then east to the point of beginning. It turned out that the Tuscarawas River leg was unnecessary because Fort Laurens happens to be due west of the Seven Ranges Terminus. This tract contains 2,539,110 acres. Survey of the land began in March, 1797. The land was to be divided into survey township
s five miles (8 km) square (16000 acres), the only instance of a government conducted survey not based on the six mile (10 km) square township standard of the Public Land Survey System
. Each township was divided into quarters of 4000 acres (16.2 km²). Ranges were numbered starting from the meridian
along the east edge, and townships were numbered starting from the baseline
along the south of the tract. The quarter townships were numbered starting with 1 in the northeast and proceeding anti-clockwise. The Act of March 1, 1800 provided for dividing quarter townships into lots of 100 acre (0.404686 km²) each, 880 yards in width by 550 yards in height
On March 3, 1803, the unclaimed land was divided into one miles (1.6 km) square sections
and into half sections, and sold as essentially Congress Lands
by the Chillicothe
and Zanesville
land offices.
By 1823, the United States government had issued 10,958 warrants for service in the Revolutionary War totaling 1549350 acres (6,270 km²), and more were issued under various laws thereafter. These warrants could only be used in the USMD except for those used in the Ohio Company
lands or in the Symmes Purchase
. Veterans who held on to their warrants finally received relief by the act of May 30, 1830, which allowed them to exchange their warrants for land scrip issued in 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) amounts, good for $1.25 an acre on land anywhere in the public domain available for private entry. This act, plus seven other warrant exchange acts, caused more than 12138840 acres (49,124.2 km²) of land scrip to be issued. Researchers will find that land scrip could be bought cheaply, depending on market conditions. Its use in land transactions does not infer the holder was entitled to it by military service. Veterans often sold their land scrip to land jobbers.
also lies in the USMD.
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
that was established by the Congress to compensate veterans of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
for their service. The tract contains 2539110 acres (10,275.4 km²) in Noble
Noble County, Ohio
Noble County is a county located in the state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 14,645. Its county seat is Caldwell. Noble County is named for Rep. Warren P. Noble of the Ohio House of Representatives, who was an early settler there.-History:...
, Guernsey
Guernsey County, Ohio
Guernsey County is a county located in the state of Ohio. As of 2010, the population was 40,087. Its county seat is Cambridge and is named for the Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel, from which many of the county's early settlers came....
, Tuscarawas
Tuscarawas County, Ohio
Tuscarawas County is a county located in the eastern part of the state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 92,582. Its county seat is New Philadelphia...
, Muskingum
Muskingum County, Ohio
Muskingum County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 86,074. Its county seat is Zanesville...
, Coshocton
Coshocton County, Ohio
Coshocton County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 36,901. Its county seat is Coshocton. Its name comes from the Delaware Indian language and has been translated as "union of waters" or "black bear crossing".The Coshocton...
, Holmes
Holmes County, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 38,943 people, 11,337 households, and 9,194 families residing in the county. The population density was 92 people per square mile . There were 12,280 housing units at an average density of 29 per square mile...
, Licking
Licking County, Ohio
Licking County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 166,492. Its county seat is Newark and is named for the salt licks that were in the area....
, Knox
Knox County, Ohio
Knox County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of 2010, the population was 60,921. Its county seat is Mount Vernon and is named for Henry Knox, an officer in the American Revolutionary War who was later the first Secretary of War....
, Franklin
Franklin County, Ohio
Franklin County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. In 2010 the population was 1,163,414, making it the second largest county in Ohio and the 34th largest county in population in the United States. Franklin County is also the largest in the eight-county Columbus, Ohio...
, Delaware
Delaware County, Ohio
Delaware County is a fast-growing suburban county in the state of Ohio, United States, within the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the United States Census Bureau's 2004 population estimates, Delaware County's population of 142,503 made it the fastest growing county in...
, Morrow
Morrow County, Ohio
Morrow County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. Shawnee people used the area for hunting purposes before white settlers arrived in the early 19th century. Morrow County was organized in 1848 from parts of four neighboring counties and named for Jeremiah Morrow, Governor of...
, and Marion
Marion County, Ohio
Marion County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 66,501. Its county seat is the city of Marion and is named for General Francis "The Swamp Fox" Marion, an officer in the Revolutionary War....
Counties.
History
The CongressCongress of the Confederation
The Congress of the Confederation or the United States in Congress Assembled was the governing body of the United States of America that existed from March 1, 1781, to March 4, 1789. It comprised delegates appointed by the legislatures of the states. It was the immediate successor to the Second...
had little money to pay the soldiers who fought for independence. They made promises of land to induce army enlistment. By resolutions of September 16 and 18, 1776, and August 12, September 22, and October 3, 1780, they proposed to give each officer or private continuously to serve in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
army until the close of the war, or until discharged, or to the representatives of those slain by the enemy, the amounts in the table.
| Bounty (acres) |
Ranks |
|---|---|
| 1100 | Major General |
| 850 | Brigadier General, Director |
| 500 | Colonel, Chief Physician, Purveyor |
| 450 | Lieutenant Colonel, Physician, Surgeon, Apothecary |
| 400 | Major, Regimental Surgeon, Asst. Apothecary |
| 300 | Captain, Surgeons Mate |
| 200 | Lieutenant |
| 150 | Ensign |
| 100 | Non-commissioned Officer, Soldier |
Under the Land Ordinance of 1785
Land Ordinance of 1785
The Land Ordinance of 1785 was adopted by the United States Congress on May 20, 1785. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress did not have the power to raise revenue by direct taxation of the inhabitants of the United States...
, land was made available in the Seven Ranges
Seven Ranges
The Seven Ranges was a land tract in eastern Ohio that was the first tract to be surveyed in what became the Public Land Survey System. The tract is across the northern edge, on the western edge, with the south and east sides along the Ohio River...
for bounties, but this proved inadequate.
Location and Subdivision
On June 1, 1796, Congress created the United States Military District, sometimes called the USMD Lands, or USMD Survey. The boundaries of the district were to start at the northwest corner of the Seven Ranges, now known as the Seven Ranges TerminusSeven Ranges Terminus
Seven Ranges Terminus is a stone surveying marker near Magnolia, Ohio that marks the completion of the first step in opening the lands northwest of the Ohio River to sale and settlement by Americans...
40°39′07"N 81°20′05"W, then proceed 50 miles (80.5 km) south along the west edge of the Seven Ranges39°55′14"N 81°19′56"W, then proceed due west to the Scioto River
Scioto River
The Scioto River is a river in central and southern Ohio more than 231 miles in length. It rises in Auglaize County in west central Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olentangy River, and meets the Ohio River at Portsmouth...
39°59′23"N 83°04′03"W, then up the Scioto River to the Greenville Treaty Line40°28′02"N 83°11′28"W, then northeast along the Greenville Treaty Line to Fort Laurens
Fort Laurens
Fort Laurens was an American Revolutionary War fort in what is now the U.S. state of Ohio.-Overview:The fort was built by General Lachlan McIntosh, in 1778, on the west bank of the Tuscarawas River, now in Tuscarawas County near the town of Bolivar. The fort was intended to be a staging point for...
40°39′15"N 81°28′25"W, then up the Tuscarawas River
Tuscarawas River
The Tuscarawas River is a principal tributary of the Muskingum River, 129.9 miles long, in northeastern Ohio in the United States...
to a point due west of the Seven Ranges Terminus, then east to the point of beginning. It turned out that the Tuscarawas River leg was unnecessary because Fort Laurens happens to be due west of the Seven Ranges Terminus. This tract contains 2,539,110 acres. Survey of the land began in March, 1797. The land was to be divided into survey township
Survey township
Survey township, sometimes called Congressional township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System, refers to a square unit of land, that is nominally six miles on a side...
s five miles (8 km) square (16000 acres), the only instance of a government conducted survey not based on the six mile (10 km) square township standard of the Public Land Survey System
Public Land Survey System
The Public Land Survey System is a method used in the United States to survey and identify land parcels, particularly for titles and deeds of rural, wild or undeveloped land. Its basic units of area are the township and section. It is sometimes referred to as the rectangular survey system,...
. Each township was divided into quarters of 4000 acres (16.2 km²). Ranges were numbered starting from the meridian
Meridian (geography)
A meridian is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface from the North Pole to the South Pole that connects all locations along it with a given longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by its latitude. Each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude...
along the east edge, and townships were numbered starting from the baseline
Baseline (surveying)
In the United States Public Land Survey System, a baseline is the principal east-west line that divides survey townships between north and south. The baseline meets its corresponding meridian at the point of origin, or initial point, for the land survey...
along the south of the tract. The quarter townships were numbered starting with 1 in the northeast and proceeding anti-clockwise. The Act of March 1, 1800 provided for dividing quarter townships into lots of 100 acre (0.404686 km²) each, 880 yards in width by 550 yards in height
On March 3, 1803, the unclaimed land was divided into one miles (1.6 km) square sections
Section (United States land surveying)
In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System , a section is an area nominally one square mile, containing , with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid....
and into half sections, and sold as essentially Congress Lands
Congress Lands
The Congress Lands was a group of land tracts in Ohio that made land available for sale to members of the general public through land offices in various cities, and through the General Land Office...
by the Chillicothe
Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States.Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio and is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name Chalahgawtha, meaning "principal town", as it was a major settlement of...
and Zanesville
Zanesville, Ohio
Zanesville is a city in and the county seat of Muskingum County, Ohio, United States. The population was 25,586 at the 2000 census.Zanesville was named after Ebenezer Zane, who had constructed Zane's Trace, a pioneer road through present-day Ohio...
land offices.
Claims
In the USMD, as elsewhere in the surveyed lands, many veterans sold their warrants to speculators or jobbers at a fraction of their true value. Of the 1043460 acres (4,222.7 km²) claimed by land warrant, 569542 acres (2,304.9 km²) were patented to just 22 persons. The actual location of the 262 quarter townships claimed by military warrants was determined by a drawing. Few absentee owners ever visited their land, and fewer still spent any time on it. They sold it, sight unseen, as a speculative venture, often paying no regard to any attachment of sale made by Ohio officials for delinquent taxes.By 1823, the United States government had issued 10,958 warrants for service in the Revolutionary War totaling 1549350 acres (6,270 km²), and more were issued under various laws thereafter. These warrants could only be used in the USMD except for those used in the Ohio Company
Ohio Company of Associates
The Ohio Company of Associates, also known as the Ohio Company, was a land company which is today credited with becoming the first non-American Indian group to settle in the present-day state of Ohio...
lands or in the Symmes Purchase
Symmes Purchase
The Symmes Purchase, also known as the Miami Purchase, was an area of land in Southwestern Ohio in what is now Hamilton, Butler, and Warren Counties. It was purchased by Judge John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey from the Continental Congress...
. Veterans who held on to their warrants finally received relief by the act of May 30, 1830, which allowed them to exchange their warrants for land scrip issued in 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) amounts, good for $1.25 an acre on land anywhere in the public domain available for private entry. This act, plus seven other warrant exchange acts, caused more than 12138840 acres (49,124.2 km²) of land scrip to be issued. Researchers will find that land scrip could be bought cheaply, depending on market conditions. Its use in land transactions does not infer the holder was entitled to it by military service. Veterans often sold their land scrip to land jobbers.
Exclusions
The Moravian Indian Grants at the Tuscarawas County villages of Schoenbrunn, Gnaddenhutten and Salem are independent 4000 acres (16.2 km²) surveys, not on the same grid, within the USMD. Part of the independent “Muskingum River Survey” of Zane's TractsZane's Tracts
Zane's Tracts were three parcels of land in the Northwest Territory of the United States, later Ohio, that the federal government granted to Ebenezer Zane late in the 18th century, as compensation for establishing a road with ferry service over several rivers....
also lies in the USMD.
See also
- Ohio LandsOhio LandsThe Ohio Lands were the myriad grants, tracts, districts and cessions which make up what is now the U.S. state of Ohio. The Ohio Country was one of the first settled parts of the Midwest, and indeed one of the first settled parts of the United States beyond the original 13 colonies...
- Historic regions of the United StatesHistoric regions of the United StatesThis is a list of historic regions of the United States.-Colonial era :-The Thirteen Colonies:* Connecticut Colony* Delaware Colony* Province of Georgia* Province of Maryland...
- Military Tract of 1812Military Tract of 1812In May 1812, an act of Congress was passed which set aside bounty lands as payment to volunteer soldiers for the War against the British...
- a similar tract set aside for War of 1812War of 1812The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
veterans.