Ohio Land Records

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See Also Researching in Land Records

In 1787, the Northwest Territory was formed, encompassing all lands north and west of the Ohio River. A Recorder's office was established in each county. Ohio became a state in 1803 and although the state constitution did not provide for a Recorder's office, the first state legislature mandated that a Recorder be appointed in each county by the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1829, the Recorder's office became an elective position and in 1936, the term was established at four years.

Today the County Recorder keeps and maintains accurate land records that are current, legible and easily accessible. An important aspect of the Recorder's work is to index each document so it may be readily located Accurate indexing makes it possible for persons searching land records to find the documents necessary to establish a "chain of title" (history of ownership) and ensures that any debts or encumbrances against the property are evident. These invaluable records are utilized by the general public, attorneys, historians, genealogists and land title examiners.

Virginia, New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts claimed portions of land in this part of Northwest Territory based on charters granted by the kings of England. In 1778 the Congressional Committee proposed that these states cede their western lands. New York ceded in 1781, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785, and Ohio in 1786 and 1800. Both Virginia and Ohio reserved lands in Ohio as part of the cession compromise.

In 1784 the first Congressional Committee was appointed to prepare a plan for disposal of federal lands north of the Ohio River. The Land Act of 20 May 1785 set up a rectangular survey system (see pages 4-5) reserving one section in each township of thirty-six sections for the support of public schools. Originally, section twenty-nine in each township was reserved for religious purposes until 1833 when Congress authorized the State of Ohio to sell these sections.

Ohio Historical Records - Databases include Ohio Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Ohio Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Ohio Voter Lists & Census Records; Ohio Immigration & Emigration Records; Ohio Obituary Records; Ohio Military Records; Ohio Family Tree Records; Ohio Pictures; Ohio Stories, Memories & Histories; Ohio Directories & Member Lists and much more....

The following is a list and description of Ohio's land tracts that were the basis of initial government-to-individual transfers of land:

  • Virginia Military District. Land in twenty-three Ohio counties from the Ohio River north between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers was reserved by Virginia to satisfy its military bounty warrants. One of the original nine major subdivisions in Ohio, it is the only one not using a rectangular survey system. In 1852 Virginia ceded all unclaimed lands to the federal government which in turn ceded these remaining lands to Ohio in 1875. Soldiers' applications are filed in the Virginia State Library in Richmond (see Virginia). Volume four (in two parts) of Clifford Neal Smith's Federal Land Series deals exclusively with land in the Virginia Military District.
  • Ohio Western Reserve. Fourteen northeastern counties starting at the Ohio line, bordered by Lake Erie to the north, and west 120 miles, including the Fire Lands (see below), encompassed this agreement with Ohio. Records are at the Ohio State Library (see Ohio), although the Western Reserve Historical Society has an extensive collection.
  • Fire Lands. This area, including the west end of the Ohio Western Reserve, was given to Ohio supporters of the American Revolution who suffered losses because of destruction of nine Ohio towns by the British and Tories.
  • Seven Ranges. Located in southeastern Ohio on the Ohio River, these were the first public lands to be surveyed in the United States.
  • Moravian Indian Grants. Three separate tracts of 4,000 acres each in Tuscarawas County were reserved in 1785 for the "use of the Christian Indians who formerly settled there, or the remains of that society" because of the slaughter of nine innocent Christian Indians in 1782 in retaliation for hostile raids on settlers in West Ohio and Virginia.
  • Refugee Tract. Located in central Ohio, it runs forty-two miles east from the Scioto River and was granted to Canadian (1783) and Nova Scotian (1785) refugees who abandoned their settlements and fled to the United States to aid the colonial cause during the Revolutionary War.
  • Dohrman Tract. Arnold Henry Dohrman was granted this tract in 1787 to compensate for disallowed expenditures and his humanitarian efforts as an agent of the United States for the revolutionary cause.
  • The Ohio Company. Over 1.5 million acres were negotiated from the federal government in southeastern Ohio in 1787 by the Ohio Company. But only 750,000 were included when the company failed to raise money for the whole piece (first purchase). A second purchase of over 200,000 acres was added in 1792. Records are at Marietta College Library, Marietta, Ohio.
  • Donation Tract. One hundred thousand acres were granted in 100 acre lots to any male, eighteen or older, who would settle on the land at the time of the conveyance. It was to be a buffer between the settlers in the Ohio Company and the native population.
  • Symmes Purchase. Known also as the Miami Purchase, it was acquired in 1794 and privately surveyed in southwestern Ohio from the Ohio River twenty-four miles northward between the Great Miami and the Little Miami Rivers. Fire destroyed records, although the Hamilton County Recorder's Office has two extant volumes.
  • French Grants. The first grant, in Scioto County on the Ohio River, consisted of 24,000 acres given to the French in 1795 who were swindled by the Scioto Company. An additional, smaller grant was made in 1798.
  • U.S. Military District. Bounty land granted the Continental Army officers and soldiers in 1796 containing 2.5 million acres was bounded north by the Greenville Treaty Line, east by the Seven Ranges, south by the Refugee Tract and Congress Lands, and west by the Scioto River.
  • Zane's Tracts. Three tracts of land, 640 acres each, were granted to Ebenezer Zane for laying out a road (Zane's Trace) from Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) to Limestone (now Maysville), Kentucky.
  • Congressional Lands. After other sales and grants, Congress had two remaining tracts-one east of the Scioto River, one west of the Miami River.

The Auditor of the State, 88 E. Broad Street, 5th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43266-0541; the National Archives; and the BLM, Eastern States Office in Alexandria, Virginia all have records dealing with some aspect of government-to-individual transfers of land.

The Newberry Library in Chicago has very good resources on land records and boundary disputes for Ohio. Included in its collection are works on the Scioto Land Company and the Ohio Company, plus the microfilmed Ohio Land Grant Records, 1788-1820.

Once granted by the federal government, subsequent transactions involving that land are recorded at the county recorder's office in deed books.

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