NOTES ON TUSCARAWAS COUNTY LAND

The land ordinance of 1785 established the federal system for describing and dividing public lands. A system of east-west and north-south lines was created. The areas between equally spaced north-south lines were numbered as one went east or west from Meridians and were called "Ranges." "Townships" were counted off as one went north from an east-west Baseline. These numbered townships do not necessarily correspond to the named townships that served as civil divisions within counties. The numbers are what are shown under Township and Range in the Tuscarawas Tax lists.

The law created the "Seven Ranges," which contained townships of six square miles each. The most eastern part of Tuscarawas County was within these seven ranges. They include ranges 6 and 7 in the 1816 tax list. Congress townships were divided into sections of 1 square mile each and mostly sold by 1/4 sections, or 160 acres. The map showing the location of the land offices can be found at the Ohio History Central website at Land Office Map. A broad overview of how the land was surveryed and divided is available at Intro to OH Land History, while a detailed history (in downloadable pdf format) is available at The Ohio Lands Book.

Except for a tiny piece of Congress land north of Bolivar, the remainder (i.e. most) of Tuscarawas County is part of the "Military District" authorized by an act of 1796. The County includes parts or all of most of the townships numbered 5 through 10 (from south to north) within ranges 1 through 4 (east to west). These townships were 5 square miles each. They were divided into quarter townships (sometimes referred to as "sections") of 4,000 acres. Three tracks of 4,000 acres each were immediately issued to the Moravian Brethren ("United Brethren" in the 1816 tax list), in part as compensation for the massacre of Moravian Christian Indians by American militia that had taken place at Gnadenhütten in 1782.

At first, the military district land could only be entered as an entire quarter township at once. For example, in 1800 Abraham Mosser and Thomas Boude were granted the first quarter of Township 10, Range 2, which is now the northeastern portion of Lawrence Township (list of the first land purchasers). Since few potential land holders could afford to purchase 4,000 acres, an act of 1800 provided for some quarter townships (or "sections") to be divided into 100-acre lots to be entered by veterans or their assignees, and about 18 such quarter townships were so divided within Tuscarawas County. The land office for the Military District land in Tuscarawas was in Zanesville.

In 1803, the remaining Military District land was ordered to be surveyed into one mile square sections (640 acres) to be sold by quarter sections, as with the Congress land. Thus we find two common types of land-holdings in the 1816 Tuscarawas tax list: (1) 100 acre lots within 4,000 acre "sections" or quarter townships and (2) portions (usually 1/4 or 160 acres) of 640 acre sections. There were eventually also much smaller town lots, but these do not appear in the 1816 tax list. The two different uses of the term section has been a source of confusion for some, but the acreage and context should make it clear whether the section referenced in the tax list is a 4,000 acre quarter township or a "standard" one square mile section of 640 acres.

At the time of the 1816 tax list, there were only 7 townships in Tuscawaras County. Lawrence, Goshen, Salem, and Oxford were the first four townships when the county was formed. One Leg was added in 1809 and Dover and Wayne were formed in 1810. Another township, Nottingham, had been formed about the time of One Leg, but had ceased to exist as part of Tuscarawas by 1816. One Leg Township no longer exists and was mostly incorporated into Carroll and Harrison Counties, although parts of it included what are modern Warren, Union and part of Mill Townships. Some of western Tuscarawas County (the western parts of townships 8, 9 and 10 in range 4) were also lost to Holmes County in 1824. Thus some of these tax records are for land that is no longer in Tuscarawas County. For example, any land in range 6 (Congress Land) is now in Carroll or Harrison Counties.

Please send any corrections or comments to Phil Ritter philr@stanford.edu