The Congress Lands was a group of land tracts in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

that made land available for sale to members of the general public through land offices in various cities, and through the

General Land Office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...

. It consisted of three groups of surveys: *Ohio River Base **

Congress Lands East of Scioto River The Congress Lands East of Scioto River was a land tract in southern Ohio that was established by the Congress late in the 18th century. It is located south of the United States Military District and Refugee Tract, west of the Old Seven Ranges, ...

Congress Lands North of Old Seven Ranges The Congress Lands North of the Old Seven Ranges was a land tract in northeast Ohio that was established by the Congress early in the 19th century. It is located south of the Connecticut Western Reserve and Firelands, east of the Congress Lands ...

Congress Lands West of Miami River The Congress Lands West of Miami River was a land tract in southwest Ohio that was established by the Congress late in the 18th century. It is located south of the Greenville Treaty Line, east of Indiana, and north of the Great Miami River. The ...

*Northwest Ohio **

North and East of the First Principal Meridian North and East of the First Principal Meridian is a survey and land description in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Survey In 1812, Congress authorized the Surveyor General to survey the northern and western border of Ohio “as soo ...

South and East of the First Principal Meridian South and East of the First Principal Meridian is a land description in the American Midwest. In 1812, Congress authorized the Surveyor General to survey the northern and western border of Ohio “as soon as the consent of the Indians can be obta ...

Ohio River Base

The Ohio River Base consisted of the Congress Lands East of Scioto River, and Congress Lands North of Old Seven Ranges. These surveys had vertical rows of six mile square

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

called Ranges. These ranges were numbered from Ellicott’s Line, the boundary between Ohio and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, also known as the Eastern Ohio

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

. The townships within each range were surveyed north and south from the baseline called the “Geographer’s Line” at 40 degrees 38 minutes north, which runs west from the north bank of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

where it exits Pennsylvania, at a place now called the Beginning Point of the U.S. Public Land Survey. The townships were not numbered from the baseline, but from south to north beginning with the first partial township in each range formed next to the Ohio River. Thus, townships in adjacent ranges rarely had the same number. This system extended the original numbering plan from the

Seven Ranges The Seven Ranges (also known as the Old 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 sou ...

. There being no east ranges or south townships, plats are designated “Township X of Range Y of Ohio River Survey” with no need for north or west designations. Surveys on the Ohio River Base also consist of the

Ohio Company The Ohio Company, formally known as the Ohio Company of Virginia, was a land speculation company organized for the settlement by Virginians of the Ohio Country (approximately the present U.S. state of Ohio) and to trade with the Native Ameri ...

and the Seven Ranges. The Seven Ranges were sold in the same manner, and could be considered Congress Lands, but get a special category to itself.

Congress Lands West of Miami River

The Congress Lands West of Miami River consists of lands between the

Great Miami River The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accesse ...

and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, and south of the

Greenville Treaty Line The Treaty of Greenville, formally titled Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., was a 1795 treaty between the United States and indigenous nations of the Northwest Territory (now Midwestern United States), including the Wyandot and Delaware peoples ...

. Ranges are designated as east of the First Principal Meridian which is at the Ohio-Indiana border. Townships are numbered from south to north, with irregularities caused by the course of the Great Miami River.

Northwest Ohio

Congress Lands in northwest Ohio consist of North and East of the First Principal Meridian and South and East of the First Principal Meridian. These lands are south of a narrow strip next to the Michigan border, west of the

Firelands The Firelands, or Sufferers' Lands, tract was located at the western end of the Connecticut Western Reserve in what is now the U.S. state of Ohio. It was legislatively established in 1792, as the "Sufferers' Lands", and later became named "Fire Land ...

and the Congress Lands North of Old Seven Ranges, North of the

and the

Virginia Military District The Virginia Military District was an approximately 4.2 million acre (17,000 km²) area of land in what is now the state of Ohio that was reserved by Virginia to use as payment in lieu of cash for its veterans of the American Revolutionary ...

, and east of Indiana. Townships are surveyed north and south from the baseline at 41 degrees north, and are designated “Township X N, Range Y E of First Principal Meridian” or “Township X S, Range Y E of First Principal Meridian”.

Township Subdivision

In all five of Ohio’s Congress Lands, townships are divided into 36 one mile square

sections Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

. These sections are numbered by the method established May 18, 1796. Section sixteen of each survey township was set aside for support of public schools.

Other Lands

Lands that were not dispersed in the

United States Military District 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 in Noble, Guernsey, Tuscarawas, Muskingum ...

or the

Refugee Tract The Refugee Tract is an area of land in Ohio, United States granted to people from British Canada who left home prior to July 4, 1776, stayed in the US until November 25, 1783 continuously, and aided the revolutionary cause. Location The Refuge ...

- Text of Act of April 29, 1816

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

were made available for sale through the various Land Offices, and treated the same as Congress Lands.

Notes

References

* *

External links

Ohio History Central - Congress Lands
{{Ohio-Lands Former regions and territories of the United States Geography of Ohio Pre-statehood history of Ohio History of the Midwestern United States Surveying of the United States