| Abstract: |
The Connecticut Western Reserve was the area of northeast Ohio that Connecticut had reserved for her citizens in 1786 in exchange
for ceding all western land claims to the U.S. government. The area comprised all land south of Lake Erie to 41' latitude
and within 120 miles of Pennsylvania's western border. The Connecticut Land Company (1795-1809) was authorized by Connecticut
to purchase and resell most of the Western Reserve, and received title to all Reserve land except for the 500,000-acre Firelands
on the extreme west which was reserved for Connecticut victims whose lands were burned by the British in the Revolution. Gen.
Moses Cleaveland, a company director and its general agent, led the first company survey party to the Reserve in 1796 and
founded the settlement of Cleveland at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. The collection consists of records of the Connecticut
Land Company, including articles of association, proceedings, reports, minutes, accounts, records of drafts, and other papers,
1795-1827; land surveys, field notes, and plats of early Western Reserve surveyors, 1796-1815; journals and diaries of early
residents, 1765-1807; correspondence; newspaper clippings; statements in response to John Barr and others soliciting information
on the early history of Cleveland and the Western Reserve; writings of Charles Whittlesey on topics such as the 1797 surveying
party, local town histories, history of the Northwest Territory; biographical sketches of early settlers, including Lorenzo
Carter, Simon Perkins, Abraham and Benjamin Tappan, and John Walworth; and miscellaneous papers relating to the early history
of Cleveland and the Western Reserve, including John Heckewelder's description of northeast Ohio, 1796. Many of the documents
in the collection are transcripts of items collected by John Barr and Charles Whittlesey 1840-1860. Also included in the register
are two appendices. Appendix I is an alphabetical list by township of land surveys and plats contained in the collection.
Appendix II is a conversion chart listing old and new citations to containers and folder numbers within the collection.
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