s authorized to locate and survey said half million
acres of land, and partition it among the different claimants.

On the first day of November, 1805, Taylor Sherman was appointed
by the Board of Directors an agent to survey the above tract of
land, and, on the 16th day of December, of the same year, he entered
into a contract with John McLane and James Clarke, Jr., to survey,
or have surveyed, said tract. Taylor Sherman visited the fire
lands, and fully performed the duty imposed upon him. He also
purchased a considerable tract of this land in Sherman township,
Huron county, which was the foundation of the little fortune which
he left to his widow and children.

The whole of the Western Reserve, especially the western part of
it, was at that time in the possession of the Indians, who soon
afterwards engaged in open warfare with the white settlers. Surveys,
especially along the shores of Lake Erie, were extremely difficult,
owing to extensive bayous and swamps, but the surveys were made
where practicable, and where lines could not be run, straight lines
were drawn on the map, and the contents estimated. This gave rise
to long litigation, one case being reported in the 13th Volume of
Ohio Supreme Court Reports.

The gift of Connecticut to the sufferers was a wise and liberal
one, and after the War of 1812 it led to the migration to the
counties of Huron and Erie of a great number of persons from the
towns of Norwalk, Greenwich, Danbury, New Haven and New London.
The losses of the sufferers in these different towns had been
carefully examined and stated, and the sufferers were allowed land
in proportion to their losses. The formidable list of these
sufferers is a striking proof of the savage and destructive manner
in which the Revolutionary War was conducted by the British troops.
The whole Western Reserve at the beginning of the 19th century was
a wilderness, with not a single white inhabitant. The census of
1820, however, showed that it then contained a population of 58,608,
while that of 1890 showed a population of 678,561. Of these a
larger number and proportion were descendants of Connecticut parents
than are most inhabitants of that state. The industries, commerce,
wealth and intelligence of this region are not excelled by any
community of the same size anywhere else in the country.

As an illustration of the condition of this region in 1812, it may
be worth while to here record a truthful anecdote of