Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-10-14
where there are no land title prob


part of Connecticut. James l, in
1906, made the first grant to Virginia
which, ran from the Atlantic, west
and northwest to the Pacific ocean.
No one knew the distance, but there
was no doubt but that the great ocean
was somewhere in that direction.
Then came the Massachusetts grant
OIL 1920, also running from sea to
sea. On April %, 1862, Charles II.
who had not long before been a fugi-
tive in France, granted to the Con
necticut company, a charter and land
grant in New England, in Aemr-
lea, bounded on the east by the Mar
ragansett river, commonly called
Narragansett bay, on the north by
the Massachusetts plantation. On
the south by the sea. and in longitude
as the line of the Massachusetts col
ony running from east to west, that
is to say, to the South sea on the
west including all island thereunto
adjoining This of course was a
good grant, as far as Charles held
title, but the claims of the most
Christian King Of France interviewed
in the far west, the settlement and
rights of the Dutch on the Hudson
cut the grant in two in part, whilst
the OVERLAPPING grant made in 1851 to
William Penn by Charles II, after
wards also cut Connecticut in two on
the south, and in 1864, the British
king gave to his dearest brother,
James, the Duke of York, his heirs
and assigns the territory which is
now partially occupied by the state
of New York. James had already
acquired the previous grant made in
1885 to the Earl Of Sterling! The
French did not discover the Missis-
sippi until May II, 1868, SO that the
grant of Connecticut, by nearly a
year, antedates the French claims to
Louisiana. The French in the north
were trarpers, the Spanish in the
south were gold seekers, but the Eng
fish were settlers.
What Might Have Been.
ut is always interesting to discuss
what might have been, but it is al
most unthinkable to consider the
northern part of Ohio, Indiana and Illi-
nois as constituting a part of the state
of Connecticut in the light of subse-
quent history. But there was COM
pick variety of things which brought
about the present configuration of the
great state of Illinois and the trans
fer of the land on which Chicago
stands to the national government, by
the State of Connecticut. New York
had a shadowy claim in the days of
the revolution, to parts of Ohio and
Virginia. Maryland refused to enter
the confederation of the revolution, on
the ground that the northwest coun-
try should be coded to the United Col
onies as whole, but she still joined
hands with her sisters in doing her
best to make the struggle for liberty
successful one. 1t was not, howev
er. till 1881 that she finally became an
actual part of the confederation. It
was fortunate that there were so many
conflicting charters and claims in the
northwest, thus adding to the reasons
for Matchmaking the public lands.
New Yorll's claims were very shad
owy and rested upon very slight foun-
dations, but her unconditional convey
ance of these claims to the national
government paved the way for the &C
ton of other states. Virginia had for
titled her paper title by the successful
expedition of General Rogers Clark.
"The peace of 1888 involved France
and Spain as we'll as England. But
Jay, Franklin and Adams so managed
it as to save the great northwest in
Guiding the unknown wealth Of Lake
Superior in iron and copper.
ut was a keen negotiation but the
decision opened UP the great POSSIBLE
tiles of the northwest to be followed
by the Louisiana purchase in 1903.
''The treaties Of 1853 and 1888 made
hn do wv
and marked the western limits of Con-
necticut.
"a special federal court met at
Trenton, New Jersey, by authority of
congress and tried the issue between
Pennsylvania and Connecticut. 1t lo-l
Gated the west line of Pennsylvania
where it now is, but left Connecticut
to claim the ancient boundaries as far
west as the Mississippi river.
Massachusetts asserted her claims
to much of the land now occupied byl
Michigan and Wisconsin. Massachu-
sets conveyed her title April 10, 1885;
Virginia, March l., 1884; New York
made her cession March 1, 1881; Geor-
eia made pretty close bargain with
the government for the transfer of her
western claims to the Mississippi, but
Connecticut granted her lands, with
ali of the possibilities of Chicago in
the future, on September IA, 1886. She
reserved, however, 3,25O,00O acres in
northern Ohio, The Connecticut Wes-
tern Reserve of which she afterward
sold the soil. and subsequently coded
the sovereignty to the national gov
eminent. This last was done in or
der that perfected title. might be CIV
en- to the Connecticut company tol
which she had granted the Western
Reserve
What a remarkable state Connec-
ticut would have been Her emblem
should have been the kangaroo, the
greatest part would have been be-
hind. She ceded Chicago but kept
Cleveland and the Western Reserve.
IIad they not afterward made the re-
ljnquishment of political jurisdiction
over the Western Reserve, her states
men nigh now say that they had lost
Chicago. thay had lost Harrison and