Turnpike Lands were a group of land tracts granted by theUnited States Congress to the state ofOhio in 1827 along the path of a proposed road in the northwest corner of the state.
With theTreaty of Greenville in 1795 theIndian Nations ceded southern and eastern Ohio to white settlement.[1] TheTreaty of Fort Industry in 1805 moved the boundary westward to a line 120 miles (190 km) west ofPennsylvania, which coincided with the western boundary of theFirelands of theConnecticut Western Reserve.[2] In 1807, theTreaty of Detroit called for the cession of lands northwest of theMaumee River, in Ohio, and mostly in theMichigan Territory.[3] The area between the Maumee River and the 1805 boundary remained Indian Lands, and thus, the United States could not legally build a road connecting settlements in Ohio and the Michigan Territory. This area was alsoswampy, and would require much engineering effort and funds to cross with a road.
On November 25, 1808, at Brownstown in Michigan Territory, theUnited States and five nations of Indians signed theTreaty of Brownstown.[4] Article II of the treaty called for the Indian Nations to cede to the United States "…also a tract of land, for a road only, of one hundred twenty feet in weadth, to run southwardly from what is called Lower Sandusky, to the boundary line established by the Treaty of Greenville, with the privilege of taking at all times, such timber and other materials, from the adjacent lands as may be necessary for making and keeping in repair the said road, with the bridges that may be required along the same."
Lower Sandusky is now calledFremont, Ohio and the boundary line of the Greenville Treaty lies in southernMarion County.
Nothing was accomplished by Congress, so in 1820, the Ohio legislature asked Congress to take action.[5]
All the land between the Maumee River and the Western Reserve was ceded by the Indians with theTreaty of Fort Meigs in 1817,[6] and surveyed intotownships andsections in theCongress LandsSouth and East of the First Principal Meridian in 1819, andNorth and East of the First Principal Meridian in 1821.
It became more desirable to run a road toSandusky City onLake Erie rather than Fremont. In 1827,[7] and clarified in 1828,[8] Congress granted to the state of Ohio "forty-nine sections of land to be located in theDelaware Land District, in the following manner, to-wit: Every alternate section through which the road may run, and the section next adjoining thereto on the west, so far as the said sections remain unsold, and, if any part of the sections shall have been disposed of, then a quantity equal thereto shall be selected by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, from the vacant lands in the sections adjoining on the west of those appropriated."[9]
The road was constructed by the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike Company. The grant of 31,596.09 acres (127.8648 km2) was declared for the use and benefit of the turnpike company by the state legislature in 1828 for the purpose of building the road, and authorized the company to sell the land and the governor to execute the deeds to the purchasers.[9]
Ohio State Route 4 north ofBucyrus inSeneca andCrawford counties, andOhio State Route 98 south of Bucyrus in Crawford andMarion counties are situated along the path of the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike where the 1828 grant was made.
40°48′30″N82°58′32″W / 40.80833°N 82.97556°W /40.80833; -82.97556
