| Title | Manuscripts relating to the early history of the Connecticut Western Reserve, 1764-1874 [microform].
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| Description | 6 rolls of microfilm.
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| Summary Note | Scope and content: Consists of business records, government documents, land surveys and field notes, journals and diaries, correspondence, writings, statements, addresses, newspaper clippings, court proceedings, and notes. Many of the documents in the collection are not originals but transcripts collected by John Barr and Charles Whittlesey during the period 1840-1860.
<|b> This collection is a remarkably rich resource for the study of the administration, exploration, surveying, and settlement of Northeastern Ohio. Of particular interest are the records of the Connecticut Land Company, which was formed in 1795 to distribute the lands of Connecticut's former western claim, the Western Reserve. An unsuccessful venture, the Connecticut Land Company was dissolved in 1809. The researcher should also note the assortment of land surveys and field notes produced between 1796 and 1808 by the surveyors working for the Connecticut Land Company. Dividing the land into towns (running north/south) and ranges (running east/west), these surveyors mapped and described the territory for prospective buyers. Appendix I provides a key to the sixty-five surveys of the forty-six area townships represented in the collection. An impression of daily life in the Western Reserve can be found in the diaries of surveyors and settlers in Series III, and in the early correspondence in Series IV. More detailed biographical information on settlers like Samuel Huntington, Alfred Kelly, John Walworth, and Lorenzo Carter can be found in Series V (Sub-series D). Especially interesting are the accounts of relations between settlers and Native Americans in the area, as in Quintus Atkins' diaries, and in several of the writings found in Series V (Sub-series A and B). The development of politics, civil institutions, infrastructure, and local communities is also well documented in the collection. Relating specifically to these issues are George Tod's letters concerning Ohio's pending statehood found in Series IV, Gaius Burk's description of early postal routes in Series V (Sub-series A), and the accounts of Alfred Kelly and the Ohio Canal in Series V (Sub-Series B). As for the towns themselves, the researcher will find precise descriptions of life in early Cleveland in Series V (Sub-Series B), and also in Series VII. This miscellaneous material includes land tax records for Cleveland (1807), the records of the first library (1811-1813), abstracts regarding the laying out of Public Square (1814-1857), and the constitution of the Cuyahoga County Historical Society (1858). Information on other nearby towns, such as Newburgh and Tallmadge, are in Series V, Sub-Series C. Finally, extensive information regarding warfare in the area is present in the collection, particularly the War of 1812.
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| Preferred Cite | Cite as: [Container , Folder ] MS. 1, Manuscripts Relating to the Early History of the Connecticut Western Reserve, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio.
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| Form Available | Also available online via Digital Case.
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| Reproduct. Note | Microfilm. Cleveland, Ohio : Western Reserve Historical Society, 1994. 6 microfilm reels : positive and negative ; 35 mm.
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| Historical Note | Manuscripts Relating to the Early History of the Western Reserve, 1795-1869, was the first collection of manuscripts to be assembled by the Western Reserve Historical Society, and its provenance is closely intertwined with the circumstances of the institution's founding. Chiefly responsible for the acquisition of the materials comprising the collection was Charles W. Whittlesey, the Society's first president. According to the Society's second annual report (1869), Whittlesey assembled the collection from a variety of different sources and by several means: he purchased the papers of the Connecticut Land Company under the authority of the Cuyahoga County commissioners, solicited accounts and original manuscripts from early settlers and their descendants, and added documents that he and some earlier enthusiasts had gathered as their own personal collections. Prominent among these latter additions were the materials collected by John Barr and Leonard Case for an earlier, failed historical society. Both Whittlesey and Barr used the materials which came to comprise this collection to write their accounts of the history of Cleveland, Ohio, which were published in 1867 and 1846, respectively. The documents appear to have been bound together in the order they were received, and by 1870, numbered fifteen volumes. The remaining eight volumes were certainly collected before Whittlesey's death in 1886. Much later, the bound volumes were cut apart and the individual documents were placed in folders and boxes, but kept in their original order. The current arrangement of the documents into more rational series based on material type and subject has thus altered the collection's original sequence. Appendix II is a summary of the relations between the current and earlier modes of arrangement.
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| Cum. Index Note | Finding aids: Finding aid available.
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| Subjects | Carter, Lorenzo, 1767-1814.
Clarke, James S.
Cleveland (Ohio) -- History.
Connecticut Land Company.
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ohio.
Northwest, Old -- History.
Perkins, Simon, 1771-1844.
Pioneers -- Ohio -- Western Reserve.
Real property -- Ohio -- Western Reserve.
Surveyors -- Ohio -- Western Reserve.
Tappan, Abraham, 1779-1855.
Tappan, Benjamin, 1773-1857.
Walworth, John, 1765-1812.
Western Reserve (Ohio) -- Description and travel.
Western Reserve (Ohio) -- History.
Western Reserve (Ohio) -- Surveys.
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| Other Authors | Atwater, Amzi, 1776-1850.
Atkins, Quintus Flaminius, 1782-1859.
Barr, John.
Cleaveland, Moses, 1754-1806.
Harmon, John, 1789-1871.
Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus, 1743-1823.
Holley, John Milton.
Hudson, David, 1761-1836.
Huntington, Samuel, 1765-1817.
Palmer, Caleb.
Pease, Seth, 1764-1819.
Redfield, Nathan.
Robbins, Thomas, 1777-1856.
Stoddard, Richard M.
Spafford, Amos, 1753-1816.
Tappan, Abraham, 1779-1855.
Walworth, Ashbel W., 1790-1844.
Walworth, John, 1765-1812.
Whittlesey, Charles, 1808-1886.
Wadsworth, Frederick, 1786-1869.
Warren, Moses.
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| Organizations | Connecticut Land Company.
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| Electronic Res. | Finding aid for Manuscripts Relating to the Early History of the Connecticut Western Reserve http://rave.ohiolink.edu/archives/ead/OCLWHi1183 |
| Electronic Res. | Manuscripts Relating to the Early History of the Connecticut Western Reserve in Digital Case http://hdl.handle.net/2186/ksl:wrhsms |
| Call Number/Copies | |
| | WRHS Research Library: Microfilm (Cab. 54:2)
mq68675: Positive microfilm, microform room: Microfilm of MS. 1. [status: NON-CIRCULATING] |
| [Record 42477] |
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