My historical novel, Great Lakes Skipper, is based on the life of my great, great, great, grandfather, Ebenezer Fletcher Stark, who became one of the early settlers of a region south of Lake Erie known as the Western Reserve. Back in 1620, after the establishment of the colonies in North America, the English Crown formed a land company called the Council of Plymouth and granted all the land west across North America to the colonies, sight unseen. It wasn’t until 1804 that Lewis and Clark made their discovery expedition. Following the Revolutionary War of 1776, the new American government asked the colonies to turn over their western claims to the public domain. All did except Connecticut which wished to “reserve” 3,000,000 acres south of Lake Erie for future use. The territory became known as New Connecticut, or Connecticut Western Reserve or simply the Western Reserve.
General Moses Cleaveland led the first team of surveyors to the Western Reserve In 1796. They named the first settlement after the General and spelled its name as he did with an extra “a.” In 1835, the new Cleveland Herald dropped the “a” because the full name would not fit in its masthead. All other spellings of Cleveland followed suit.
3 thoughts on “Western Reserve”
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Bill, the “Rest of the Story” regarding Ohio statehood would fill several pages. However, the short version is that Connecticut ceded sovereignty over the Western Reserve in 1800. The United States absorbed it into the Northwest Territory. Following a number of grants, tracts, districts, and cessions, Ohio was granted statehood on April 30, 1802.
Thanks for the reply Bill. Even though born in Connecticut, I didn’t know of the Buckeye/Nutmegger connection until doing this research.
Interesting. Being a ‘Hoosier’ it would seem that I should have heard of the Western Reserve but if I did I do not remember it. How is it that Connecticut was later convinced to give up the reserve and it became part of Ohio. What is ‘The Rest of the Story?”