Ohio's Land Survey Districts

When Virginia gave its western claims to the United States, it kept the land between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers to pay its Revolutionary War soldiers with bounty land.

Survey: Surveyed in irregular metes and bounds, so tracts overlap and follow streams and trees rather than a grid.

Records: Warrant, entry, survey, and patent. The warrant number ties them together.

Where to search: Ohio History Connection VMD guide · BLM General Land Office patents

Counties: All of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison, and Union; parts of Auglaize, Champaign, Clark, Delaware, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Hardin, Logan, Marion, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Scioto, and Warren.

Connecticut gave up its western claims but kept a strip south of Lake Erie. It sold the land to the Connecticut Land Company in 1796 and gave up jurisdiction in 1800.

Survey: Surveyed into townships five miles square.

Records: Land was sold privately, so there are no federal patents. Start with the earliest county deeds (many early ones were recorded in Trumbull County).

Where to search: Ohio History Connection land guide

Counties: All of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, and Trumbull, and the Firelands counties of Erie and Huron; parts of Ashland, Mahoning, Ottawa, Summit, and Wayne.

The western end of the Western Reserve, about 500,000 acres, given to Connecticut families whose towns were burned by the British during the Revolutionary War. Also called the Sufferers' Lands.

Survey: Surveyed with the rest of the Reserve.

Records: Claims name the original sufferers, often New England families who never came to Ohio. Early deeds show who bought their rights.

Where to search: Ohio History Connection land guide

Counties: Erie and Huron Counties.

The first land surveyed under the Land Ordinance of 1785, led by Thomas Hutchins, Geographer of the United States, starting where the Pennsylvania line meets the Ohio River.

Survey: The first six-mile-square townships and sections in the nation.

Records: Federal land sold at public auction (New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Steubenville). The first buyer received a federal patent.

Where to search: BLM General Land Office patents

Counties: All of Belmont, Harrison, Jefferson, and Monroe; parts of Carroll, Columbiana, Guernsey, Noble, Tuscarawas, and Washington.

Bought by the Ohio Company of Associates, New England Revolutionary War veterans led by Rufus Putnam, who founded Marietta in 1788. Congress added the Donation Tract in 1792 as a buffer for settlers.

Survey: Surveyed by the company into townships and lots.

Records: First titles came from the company, not the federal government. Start with the earliest deeds in Washington County (Marietta) and the county where the land now lies.

Where to search: Ohio History Connection land guide

Counties: Parts of Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Lawrence, Meigs, Morgan, Vinton, and Washington.

Bought by Judge John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey: the land between the Great and Little Miami Rivers, along the Ohio River.

Survey: Surveyed by Symmes's men, with errors.

Records: Symmes sold some land he did not own and some land twice, so early titles can conflict. Follow each tract through the Hamilton County deed books.

Where to search: Ohio History Connection land guide

Counties: Parts of Butler, Hamilton, and Warren.

Federal land set aside to pay Continental Army veterans of the Revolutionary War with bounty land warrants.

Survey: Surveyed into townships five miles square, the only federal survey not using six-mile townships; quarter townships were split into 100-acre lots in 1800.

Records: Warrants and federal patents. Unclaimed land was later sold through the Chillicothe and Zanesville land offices.

Where to search: BLM General Land Office patents

Counties: Parts of Coshocton, Delaware, Franklin, Guernsey, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Marion, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, and Tuscarawas.

A strip set aside by Congress for people from Canada and Nova Scotia who left British territory to support the American Revolution.

Survey: A narrow strip of sections south of the U.S. Military District.

Records: Federal patents to the 67 refugee claimants; the rest was later sold as Congress Lands.

Where to search: BLM General Land Office patents

Counties: Parts of Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, and Perry (including present-day Columbus).

24,000 acres given by Congress to the French settlers of Gallipolis after they were cheated by the Scioto Company. A second grant of 1,200 acres followed in 1798.

Survey: Divided into 92 lots of about 217 acres.

Records: The lot lists name the French families who received land.

Where to search: Ohio History Connection land guide

Counties: Scioto County.

Most of Ohio's land was federal Congress Lands: surveyed by the government and sold through land offices such as Steubenville, Marietta, Zanesville, Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Wooster, Piqua, and later offices in the northwest.

Survey: Townships and sections on the rectangular survey grid.

Records: The first buyer received a federal patent, searchable by name and county.

Where to search: BLM General Land Office patents

Counties: All or most of Allen, Crawford, Darke, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Henry, Jackson, Lucas, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Paulding, Preble, Putnam, Richland, Sandusky, Seneca, Shelby, Stark, Van Wert, Williams, Wood, and Wyandot, and parts of many others.