[OH-FOOTSTEPS] Fw: Know Your Ohio Tidbits Part 102

[Maggie Stewart]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Darlene & Kathi kelley 
To: archives at columbus.rr.com 
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 1:28 AM



Contributed for use in
USGenWeb Archives 
by Darlene E. Kelley
donkeyskid at webtv.net
March 7, 2008

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Historical Collections of Ohio
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio 
Tid bits -- Part 102 
notes by 
S. Kelly
and the " Norwalk Reflector" Newspaper
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Tid Bits -- Part 102 


               The Firelands
                       or
                Sufferer's Lands


This tract of land was locatd at the western end of the Connecticut
Western Reseve in Ohio. During the Ameican Revolution there was very
little military activity in Connecticut, but the citizens were busy
manufacturing goods, shipping supplies and materials to the Contintal
Army. These actions angered the British and they sent out a series of
raids from New York City to destroy the supplies and cripple the
shipping.

These raids got out of hand and a good deal of property was destroyed in
the towns of Danbury,Fairfield, Grenwich, Groten, New Haven, New London,
Norwalk, and Ridgefield. Private homes, churches, schools, livestock,
and schools were destroyed, looted, and damaged by fires set by the
British forces.

Several petitions were presnted after the war to the Connecticut
legislature by the citizens who lost thier propert. Their 1787 appeal
was referred to a legislative committee which reported back in1792 that
the Sufferers might be paid, but the state had only western lands for
compensation in lieu of cash. This western land was that part of the
northeast Ohio now known as the Western Reserve. Connecticuts 1662 Royal
Charter had granted land from one ocean to the other. When the western
claims of various states were settled after the American Revolution,
Commecticut kept only a tract 120 miles long on the south shore of Lake
Erie.

A half-milliom acres at the west end o the Western Reserve was given to
the Fire Sufferers in 1792. The claims totaled 
$ 538,495.26 in 1792 dollars and the land was allocated at a value just
over $ 1 per
acre. A major problem to be overcome was paying off the Indian tribes
who oned the land and then the surveying costs. This task took until
1808 and by then most of the Sufferers had died or had sold their claims
to land speculators. Very few of the Sufferees ever saw their lands in
Ohio.

Geographically, the Firelands is the area which is now Huron and Erie
counties as well as Danbury Township in Ottawa County and Ruggles
Township in Ashland
County. None of the Lake Erie islands was originally included, although
they were attached later, for judicial purposes.
Johnson's Island in Sandusky Bay was a part of the half-million acres.

Even before the surveying was completed  in 1808 there were Americans
squatting on the Firelands. Most of them living along the lake shore and
traded with the Indians or hunted and trapped. John B. Flammand, a
frenchman, operated a trading post on the river just south of Huron when
the Americans arrived and his store was the only store on the Firelands.

Settlement was slow before the War of 1812 due to the fact the
remoteness of the tract and the difficulties in reaching it. Some of the
land speculators were holding out for higher prices fr their land and
the remoteness discourgaed settlement.

When the War of 1812 broke out there was a small militia unit stationed
at Fort Avery, a stockade on the Huron River north of Milan. These
troops and local civilians fought a contingent of Indians on the
Marblehead Peninsula in September 1812. This was the first battle of
that war in Ohio and one of the few skirmishes in the State. Almost
everyone left the Firelands due to the Indian threat and there were at
least eight civilians murdered in route in 1812/13

Settlement resumed quickly after the War of 1812 due to the natural
westward expansion and due also to the year of NO summer in New England
in 1816-17.
This phenomenon was caused by a volcanic eruption in the Far East whose
cloud of dust obliterated the sun and caused frigid conditions across
the Northern U.S. and Europe.

As the roads improved and land prices were modified, more and more
sttlers arrived. Most came from New York and New England, although a few
middle states residents moved to the southland tier of townships of the
Firelands. There were also great migrations from Europe in the 19th
Century, making the Firelands a real melting pot, The architecters and
physical surroundings of these areas reflect so readily the origins of
the early residents.

Ohio's Legislation organized the Firelands as Huron County in 1809 and
attached it first to Portage and Geauga counties and in 1810, to
Cuyahoga. By 1815, the counties population was sufficient to establish
its own government and the initial meeting of the Huron County's
commissioners took place August 1, 1815, at the first county seat north
of Milan near the site of Fort Avery. In 1818 all functions of County
government were moved to Norwalk and it has been the County seat ever
since. During this time the western townships of Lorain County as well
as most of Sandusky and Seneca Counties were attached to Huron County.
As soon as these areas had suffient population, they assumed their own
government functions.

When the Wilderness had been formed some people began agitating for
smaller Counties. In 1838 Erie County was formed by the Legislature in
the northeast quadrant of the Firelands with the townships of Graton,
Margaretta, Portland, Perkins, Danbury and part of Oxford. In 1840,
Danbury was given to Ottawa County with Milan, Huron, Berlin, Florence,
and Vermilion were taken from Huron County to make Erie County the size
it is today. Ruggles Township was removed from Huron County in 1846 to
help create Ashland County.

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Tide Bits continued in Part 103

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