United States Military District
The United States Military District was a land tract in central Ohio that was established by the Congress to compensate veterans of the American Revolutionary War for their service. The tract contains 2,539,110 acres (10,275.4 km2) in Noble, Guernsey, Tuscarawas, Muskingum, Coshocton, Holmes, Licking, Knox, Franklin, Delaware, Morrow, and Marion Counties.
The Congress had little money to pay the soldiers who fought for independence. They made promises of land to induce army enlistment. By resolutions of September 16 and 18, 1776, and August 12, September 22, and October 3, 1780, they proposed to give each officer or private continuously to serve in the United States army until the close of the war, or until discharged, or to the representatives of those slain by the enemy, the amounts in the table.
Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, land was made available in the Seven Ranges for bounties, but this proved inadequate.
On June 1, 1796, Congress created the United States Military District, sometimes called the USMD Lands, or USMD Survey. The boundaries of the district were to start at the northwest corner of the Seven Ranges, now known as the Seven Ranges Terminus (40°39′07″N 81°20′05″W / 40.65194°N 81.33472°W), then proceed 50 miles (80 km) south along the west edge of the Seven Ranges (39°55′14″N 81°19′56″W / 39.92056°N 81.33222°W), then proceed due west to the Scioto River (39°59′23″N 83°04′03″W / 39.98972°N 83.06750°W), then up the Scioto River to the Greenville Treaty Line (40°28′02″N 83°11′28″W / 40.46722°N 83.19111°W), then northeast along the Greenville Treaty Line to Fort Laurens (40°39′15″N 81°28′25″W / 40.65417°N 81.47361°W), then up the Tuscarawas River to a point due west of the Seven Ranges Terminus, then east to the point of beginning. It turned out that the Tuscarawas River leg was unnecessary because Fort Laurens happens to be due west of the Seven Ranges Terminus. This tract contains 2,539,110 acres. Survey of the land began in March, 1797. The land was to be divided into survey townships five miles (8 km) square (16000 acres), the only instance of a government conducted survey not based on the six mile (10 km) square township standard of the Public Land Survey System. Other instances of five mile square townships were for the Firelands and Connecticut Western Reserve, which were privately surveyed. Each township was divided into quarters of 4,000 acres (16 km2). Ranges were numbered starting from the meridian along the east edge, and townships were numbered starting from the baseline along the south of the tract. The quarter townships were numbered starting with 1 in the northeast and proceeding anti-clockwise. The Act of March 1, 1800 provided for dividing quarter townships into lots of 100 acres (0.40 km2) each, 880 yards in width by 550 yards in height.
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