Ohio History Journal

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The Western Reserve

The Western Reserve.             259

 

 

 

THE WESTERN RESERVE.

 

HOW IT HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT PART IN THE HISTORY

OF OHIO AND OF THE NATION.

 

BY F. E. HUTCHINS, ESQ.

The Connecticut Western Reserve, or, as it is commonly

called, "The Western Reserve," has from the beginning played

an important part not only in the affairs of the State of Ohio,

but also in those of the United States. While there is a very

good general idea of what this "Reserve" now is, especially

among its own people and those of the State, but little is gen-

erally known of its origin, history, settlement, or the reason for

its name. The subject is much too extensive to be treated ex-

cept in the most general way, upon such an occasion as this.

It had its origin in that most prolific source of controversies

among men and nations - a dispute as to boundary - and was

the result of that which if adopted, as in this case, would pre-

vent much of war and litigation - a compromise.

From the first settlement of this country by the early Pil-

grims, the British Sovereigns, from "Good Queen Bess", down

to a time near our revolution, had made extensive grants of

land in this country to the different colonies and provinces here,

and to favorites of the Crown, and some in payment of debts

and obligations, notably, so far as this talk is concerned, to Mas-

sachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, and Virginia, and

to Lord Baltimore and William Penn.

Some of these grants extended clear across the continent,

from the Atlantic to the Pacific, while others had very indefinite

extents and boundaries, frequently conflicting with and over-

lapping upon each other, so that under these grants, different

provinces and different persons claimed the same land. And,

as none had any other title than that from the British Crown,

infinite confusion and disputes ensued. These disputes be-

came so fierce as to result in armed hostilities and in the shed-