Zane's Tracts
Zane's Tracts were three parcels of land in the Northwest Territory of the United States, later Ohio, that the federal government granted to Ebenezer Zane late in the 18th century, as compensation for establishing a road with ferry service over several rivers.
Ebenezer Zane was born in the east in 1747. He traveled west in 1767, taking the Cumberland Trail to Brownsville, Pennsylvania. In 1770, Zane and two brothers settled along Wheeling Creek along the Ohio River in Virginia, founding Wheeling, Virginia, later West Virginia. Zane and his brother Jonathan Zane gained considerable knowledge of the lands across the Ohio River, in what is now Ohio.
The late 1780s and early 1790s was a time of considerable bloodshed along the frontier during the Northwest Indian War, which formally ended with the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. With peace, settlement would accelerate. In March, 1796, Ebenezer Zane presented a petition to Congress to establish a road, (trace), between Wheeling and Limestone, Kentucky, (today Maysville). As compensation, Zane asked for a grant of land at three river crossings, where he would establish ferry service. A committee recommended action, and vouched for Zane’s competence and character, and the general utility of the road.
The congress approved the Act of May 17, 1796, which said “…there shall be granted to Ebenezer Zane three tracts of land, not exceeding one mile square each, one on the Muskingum River, one on the Hockhocking river, and one on the north bank of the Sciota river, and in such situations as shall best promote the utility of a road to be opened by him on the most eligible route between Wheeling and Limestone…”, provided that Zane pay for his own surveys, and return plats to the Treasury department with military land bounty warrants for the surveyed number of acres. He also was required to have a road opened by Jan 1, 1797, and have ferries established at the river crossings, with rates approved by judges of the Northwest Territory.
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