The Two Mile Square Reservation or Two Mile Square Reserve was a tract of land in Ohio ceded by Native Americans to the United States of America in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. It was subsequently surveyed in a manner different from surrounding land, and lots sold to settlers.
The Americans won the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, ending the Northwest Indian War. As a result of the battle, the Treaty of Greenville was signed, which ceded much of southern and eastern Ohio to America. In addition, Article 3 ceded a number of other tracts, including #11: "One piece two miles square, at the lower rapids of the Sandusky river." [1] The lower rapids is today in Fremont, Ohio, and the reservation is on land that would have otherwise been part of townships four and five north, range fifteen east of the Congress Lands North and East of First Principal Meridian. [2] 41°20′33″N83°06′40″W / 41.34250°N 83.11111°W [3]
During the War of 1812, Fort Stephenson was built within the reservation, and successfully defended by George Croghan against attack by British and Indian troops under General Proctor.
Congress arranged for a special indiscriminate location survey for the reserve. Under the Act of 1805, [4] William Ewing subdivided it into four sections of a mile square in 1807, with neither township or range. These were numbered one to four, with one in the northeast corner, and counting anti-clockwise. [2] By Act of April 27, 1816, [5] Joseph Wampler resurveyed the exterior lines, laid out 310 in-lots and 63 out-lots in the portion of section one east of the river for the town of Croghanville, set off two "Public Reserves" of one quarter section each, divided a river island in section one in two, and divided the remainder of the reserve into 22 "Fractional Sections" fronting the river of about 80 acres (320,000 m2) each. [2] The reserve was assigned to the Canton Land District, with sales at the office in Wooster, for minimum prices assigned by the 1816 act. [2] [6] In 1829, the town was incorporated as Lower Sandusky, and the name was changed to Fremont in 1848. [6]
The Land Ordinance of 1785 was adopted by the United States Congress of the Confederation on May 20, 1785. It set up a standardized system whereby settlers could purchase title to farmland in the undeveloped west. Congress at the time did not have the power to raise revenue by direct taxation, so land sales provided an important revenue stream. The Ordinance set up a survey system that eventually covered over 3/4 of the area of the continental United States.
The Treaty of Fort Meigs, also called the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids, formally titled, "Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., 1817", was the most significant Indian treaty in Ohio since the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, and resulted in cession by the Indians of nearly all remaining Indian lands in northwestern Ohio. It was the last but one and largest wholesale purchase of Indian land in Ohio.
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.
The 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 42 miles (68 km) across the northern edge, 91 miles (146 km) on the western edge, with the south and east sides along the Ohio River. It consists of all of Monroe, Harrison, Belmont and Jefferson, and portions of Carroll, Columbiana, Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Noble, and Washington County.
The Congress Lands was a group of land tracts in Ohio that made land available for sale to members of the general public through land offices in various cities, and through the General Land Office. It consisted of three groups of surveys:
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 2,539,110 acres (10,275.4 km2) in Noble, Guernsey, Tuscarawas, Muskingum, Coshocton, Holmes, Licking, Knox, Franklin, Delaware, Morrow, and Marion Counties.
The Donation Tract was a land tract in southern Ohio that was established by the Congress late in the 18th century to buffer Ohio Company lands against Indians. Congress gave 100-acre (0.40 km2) lots to men who settled on the land. This marked the first time that federal land was given without charge to specified settlers, predating the more famous Homestead Act of 1862 by seventy years.
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 South and East of the First Principal Meridian, north of the United States Military District and Seven Ranges, and west of Pennsylvania.
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 original survey in 1798 contained a triangular shaped slice of land, now located in Indiana, that extended to the Greenville line as it ran from Fort Recovery to opposite the mouth of the Kentucky 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, east of the Virginia Military District and north of the Ohio River, French Grant, and the Ohio Company of Associates.
The Treaty of Brownstown was between the United States and the Council of Three Fires, Wyandott, and Shawanoese Indian Nations. It was concluded November 25, 1808 at Brownstown in Michigan Territory, and provided cession of a strip of Indian land for a road to connect two disconnected areas of land previously ceded by Indians in Michigan and Ohio.
Maumee Road Lands were a group of land tracts granted by the United States Congress to the state of Ohio in 1823 along the path of a proposed road in the northwest corner of the state.
Turnpike Lands were a group of land tracts granted by the United States Congress to the state of Ohio in 1827 along the path of a proposed road in the northwest corner of the state.
The Salt Reservations were a collection of land tracts surrounding salt springs in Ohio and some other states that were donated to the states by the federal government early in the 19th century.
The Twelve Mile Square Reservation, also called the Twelve Mile Square Reserve, was a tract of land in Ohio ceded by Indians to the United States of America in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. This particular area of land immediately surrounding Fort Miami was considered to be of strategic importance by the United States government representatives. It was subsequently surveyed in a manner different from surrounding land, and lots sold, or granted, to settlers.
North and East of the First Principal Meridian is a survey and land description in the northwest part of the American state called Ohio.
Zane's Tracts were three parcels of land in the Northwest Territory of the United States, later Ohio, that the federal government granted to Ebenezer Zane late in the 18th century, as compensation for establishing a road with ferry service over several rivers.
The Ministerial Lands were tracts of land in the Northwest Territory, later Ohio, that the Congress donated for the support of clergy.
Indian Land Grants were land tracts granted to various Indians by Treaty or by United States Congressional action in the Nineteenth century in northwestern Ohio.
Indian Removals In Ohio were a process in the late 18th century extending into the 19th century, of the United States usurping Indian land in Ohio Country by conquest, or purchasing such land by treaty, and excluding Indians from it so as to facilitate settlement by European colonists.
| Six-Mile Rectangular System Surveys |
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| Five-Mile Rectangular System Surveys | ||
| Indiscriminate Surveys | ||
| metes and bounds Survey | ||
| Land Grants | ||
| Other | ||
Images from Commons | ||