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from Atlas of Madison Co. Ohio by J.A. Caldwell, Condit, Ohio (1875)
The territory now comprised within the limits of Ohio, was formerly a part of that vast region claimed by France between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, first known by the general name of Louisiana. In 1673, Marquette, a zealous French missionary, accompanied with Monsieur Joliet, from Quebec, with five boatmen, set out on a mission from Mackinac to the unexplored regions lying south of that station. They passed down the lake to Green Bay, thence from Fox river crossed over to the Wisconsin, which they followed down to its junction with the Mississippi. They descended this mighty stream a thousand miles to its confluence with the Arkansas. On their return to Canada, they did not fail to urge, in strong terms, the immeciate occupation of the vast and fertile regions watered by the Mississippi and its branches. About 1725, the French erected forts on the Mississippi, on the Illinois, on the Maumee, and on the lakes; still, however, the communication with Canada was through Lake Michigan. Before 1750, a French post had been fortified at the mouth of the Wabash, and a communication was established through that river and the Maumee with Canada. About the same time, and for the purpose of checking the progress of the French, the Ohio Company was formed, and made some attempts to establish trading houses with the Indians. The French, however, established a chain of fortifications back of the English settlements, and thus, in a measure, had the entire control of the greater Mississippi valley.
The English government became alarmed at the encroachments of the French, and attempted to settle boundaries by negotiations. These availed nothing, and both parties were determined to settle their differences by the force of arms. The principal ground whereon the English claimed dominion, beyond the Alleghanies, was that the Six Nations owned the Ohio valley, and had placed it, with their other lands, under the protection of England. Some of the western lands were also claimed by the British as having been actually purchased at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, at a treaty between the colonists and the Six Nations at that place. The claim of the English monarch to the late northwestern territory was ceded to the United States, signed at Paris, September 3d, 1783. The provisional articles which formed the basis of that treaty, more especially as related to the boundary, were signed at Paris, November 30th, 1782. During the pendency of the negotiation relative to these preliminary articles, Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner, proposed the river Ohio as the western boundary of the United States, and but for the indomitable perseverance of the revolutionary patriot, John Adams, one of the American commissioners, who opposed the proposition, and insisted upon the Mississippi as the boundary, the probability is that the propositon of Mr. Oswald would have been acceded to by the United States Commissioners.
The States who owned western unappropriated lands, with a single exception, redeemed their respective pledges by ceding them to the United States. The State of Virginia, in March, 1784, ceded the right of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country embraced in her charter, situated to the north-west of the Ohio river. in September, 1786, the State of Connecticut also ceded her claim of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country within the limits of her charter, situated west of a line beginning at the completion of the forty-first point degree of north latitude, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and from thence by a line drawn north parallel to and one hundred and twenty miles west of said line of Pennsylvania, and to continue north until it came to forty-two degrees and two minutes north latitude. The State of Connecitcut, on the 30th of May, 1801, also ceded her jurisdictional claims to all that territory called the "Western Reserve of Connecticut." The States of New York and Massachusetts also ceded all their claims.
The above were not the only claims which had to be made prior to the commencement of settlements within the limits of Ohio. Numerous tribes of Indian savages, by virtue of prior possession, asserted their respective claims, which also had to be extinguished. A treaty for this purpose was accordingly made at Fort Stanwix, October 27th, 1784, with the sachems and warriors of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Tuscaroras, by the third article of which treaty said the Six Nations ceded to the United States all claims to the country west of a line extending along the west boundary of Pennsylvania, from the mouth of the Oyounayea to the Ohio river.
Washington County was formed July 27th, 1788, by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, being the first county formed within the limits of Ohio. Its original boundaries were as follows: beginning on the bank of the Ohio river, where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie; thence along the southern shore of said lake to the mouth of Cuyahoga river; thence up the said river to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down that branch to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn westerly to the portage on that branch of the Big Miami, on which the fort stood that was taken by the French in 1752, until it meets the road from the lower Shawnese Town to Sandusky; thence south to the Scioto river, and thence with that river to the mouth, and thence up the Ohio river to the place of beginning.
Hamilton was the second county established in the north-west territory; it was formed January 2d, 1790, by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, and named from Gen. Alex. Hamilton. Its original boundaries were thus defined: beginning on the Ohio river at the confluence of the Little Miami, and down the said Ohio to the mouth of the Big Miami, and up said Miami to the standing stone forks or branch of said river, and thence with a line to be drawn due east to the Little Miami, and down said Little Miami river to the place of beginning.
Wayne county was established by proclamation of Gen. St. Clair, August 15th, 1796, and was called Wayne County, and it being the third county formed in the north-west territory. Its original limits were very extensive, and were thus defined in the act creating it: beginning at the mouth of Cuyahoga river upon Lake Erie, and with the said river ot the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down the said branch to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence by a west line to the east boundary of Hamilton County, which is a due north line from the lower Shanee town upon the Scioto river; thence by a line west-northerly to the south part of portage between the Miamis of Ohio and the St. Mary's rivers; thence by a line also west-northerly to the south-western part of the portage between the Wabash and the Miamis of Lake Erie, where Fort Wayne now stands; thence by a line west-northerly to the south part of Lake Michigan; thence along the western shores of the same to the north-west part thereof, including lands upon the streams emptying into said lake; thence by a due north line to the territorial boundary in Lake Superior, and with the said boundary through Lakes Huron, St. Cliar and Erie to the mouth of Cuyahoga river, the place of beginning. These limits embrace what are now parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and all of Michigan, and the towns of Ohio City, Chicago, St. Mary's, Mackinaw, etc. Since then states and counties have been organized out of this territory.
The county that first contained Madison County was established by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, July 10th, 1797, and was named after John Adams, second president of the United States. It covered a very large tract of country, being the fourth county organized in the north west territory. Beginning at the mouth of the Scioto river, thence down the Ohio river to the Little Miami, thence up this stream as far as Hamilton County extended, thence by an east line to the Scioto river, thence down the Scioto to the place of beginning. And the accompanying map shows the dimensions of Madison County in 1875. The surface of the county is mostly level, intersperced with numerous prairies. The prevailling soil is a deep clay loam, capable of the highest fertility.
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