Migration Pattern- Connecticut Western Reserve

The most prominent migration pattern to our area was that coming from New England. A primary reason for this was the creation of the Connecticut Western Reserve that was created after the Revolutionary War.

The state of Connecticut claimed all lands running east from it's borders towards the Mississippi River. Once the federal government was established after the Revolutionary War the state ceded the land, but maintained claim to a 120 mile section of Ohio in the Northwest Territory. The money generated from this land was used by the state to help support it's school system. The counties of Huron and Erie were set aside as suffers land. This was land compensated by the state of Connecticut to people that had their property destroyed by the British during the Revolutionary War. This part of the reserve would later be known as the Firelands.

The remaining acres which would amount to about 3,000,000 acres was sold to the Connecticut Land Company. The area was purchased for about $1,200,000 which works out to about .40/acre. Moses Cleveland was hired to survey the area and arrived in present day Conneaut in July of 1796. The survey of the whole area was completed in short order.

People would start arriving in this area in earnest around 1798. The majority of the people coming to this area came from New England. We have a very strong connection back to New England and is a very common trend when tracing our families back in time.