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Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
NOTES - GEOGRAPHICAL.
BY R. W. MCFARLAND, LL. D.
These notes are intended to draw
attention to errors or slips
which manage sometimes to get into
print, and which may mis-
lead the unwary. Attention is called to
four such points.
FIRST.
It has been stated in the OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY that the United States military tract ex-
tended to the Ohio river. This is an
error. See Vol. 2 U. S. Laws,
page 565, act of June 1, 1796.
The place of beginning is forty-
two miles due west from the point on the
north bank of the Ohio
river where the west line of
Pennsylvania crosses that river.
Section 1 of the said act begins as
follows: "That the surveyor
general be, and he is hereby required to
cause to be surveyed the
tract of land beginning at the northwest
corner of the seven
ranges of townships, and running thence
fifty miles due south,
along the western boundary of said
ranges; thence due west to
the main branch of the Scioto river;
thence up the main branch
of the said river to the place where the
Indian boundary line
crosses the same; thence along the said
boundary line to the
Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum
river, at the crossing place
above Fort Lawrence; thence up the said
river to the point where
a line, run due west from the place of
beginning, will intersect the
said river; thence along the line so run
to the place of be-
ginning."
So the United States Military Tract is
about forty miles
from the Ohio river.
SECOND.
It has been stated that the charter to
the Virginia company
extended from the thirty-seventh to the
forty-ninth parallel of
latitude. It was from the thirty-fourth
to the forty-first degree.
The Connecticut company claimed the territory
north of forty-one
Notes - Geographical. 487
degrees, and the south boundary of the
Connecticut Western Re-
serve is at the parallel of forty-one.
See the charter of the fourth
year of James I., April 10, 1606, in
Smith's History of Virginia.
The words in the charter are
"between the said four and thirty
and one and forty degrees."
THIRD.
It is easy to become confused in
locating the various
Indian towns called
"Chillicothe." It was a sort of common noun
and was applied to several places; and the
present city of Chilli-
cothe was not one of them. But the
Indian town which stood
on or near the position of the present
city of Piqua was called
Chillicothe. Another village of the same
name was three miles
north of Xenia; another at Frankfort
about twelve miles from
the city of Chillicothe, and nearly
west, and a village three miles
north of the aforesaid city sometimes
went by the same name.
The Indian town Piqua, which was the
birthplace of Tecum-
seh, was six miles west of Springfield,
Clark county, and was
at or near the village of New Boston. It
was not where the
present city of Piqua is located. More
than fifty years ago Colo-
nel Rogers, one of the commissioners
sent in 1806 by the Gov-
ernor from Chillicothe, then the capital
of the state, to Spring-
field, to treat with Tecumseh and other
chiefs, described to me
the appearance and bearing of this
celebrated chief.
FOURTH.
It has been twice stated in this journal
that six states were
formed out of the old northwest
territory. This also is an er-
ror. The ordinance declared that there
should be not less than
three nor more than five states. Besides
the five, there is about
one-third of Minnesota east of the
Mississippi. On examination
it will be found that the western
boundary of that territory was
really unknown, and was merely guessed
at. It is true that the
treaty of peace in 1783 between the
United States and Great Brit-
ain gave the Mississippi as the western
boundary, as did also the
treaty of 1763 between Great Britain and
France. The wording
of the first named treaty shows that
neither of the contracting
488
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
parses knew the position of that
boundary. After tracing the
line from the north side of Lake
Superior along its present posi-
tion to the southeast corner of the Lake
of the Woods, the treaty
says, "thence through the said lake
to the most northwestern point
thereof, and from thence on a due west
course to the river Mis-
sissippi." This is an impossible
boundary. From the point named
the direction to the Mississippi is not west,
but south, and the dis-
tance is more than a hundred miles. In
fact, years afterwards,
when the true state of the facts became
known the line was drawn
south to the headwaters of the Mississippi. Subsequently when
the parallel of forty-nine degrees was
agreed on as the boundary
between the British possessions and the
United States, the line
from the Mississippi to the northwest
point of the Lake of the
Woods extended nearly twenty miles north
of the forty-ninth
parallel. And this accounts for the jog
in the northern boundary
of Minnesota at the Lake of the Woods.
The St. Croix is a part of the western
boundary of Wiscon-
sin. Its source is not far from the west
end of Lake Superior,
and the travel from the missions on the
south shore of Lake Su-
perior in the 17th and 18th centuries
was down the St. Croix to
the Mississippi. Excursions into the interior of Minnesota
were
by the St. Peters (Minnesota) river, the
Mississippi above the
falls of St. Anthony being practically
unused for travel. In this
way it was but natural that men should
think of the St. Croix
as the west boundary of the Northwest
Territory; and in 1848,
when Wisconsin was formed into a state,
the St. Croix became
the western boundary to a point not far
from Lake Superior. In
1832
Schoolcraft claimed to have found the head of the Mis-
sissippi, so long was it before the
uncertainty gave way to posi-
tive knowledge.