Virginia Military District lands of Ohio ; indexes

Note

Some pages are light or faded and are difficult to read.

The following information comes from the State Auditor's Office from a directory and from a booklet, "Ohio lands : a short history," copyrighted in 1991. The Virginia Military District (VMD) lands lie north of the Ohio River and between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers. It covers all the present-day counties of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison, and Union counties; and parts of Champaign, Clark, Delaware, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Hardin, Logan, Marion, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Scioto, and Warren counties. The VMD lands were given by the State of Virginia as a reward to her Revolutionary War soldiers or their heirs. The rectangular survey system was not used in the VMD as used elsewhere in Ohio. To claim a warrant issued to a soldier, the soldier or his heirs sent the warrant to the Principal Surveyor of the Virginia District of Ohio. He in turn gave it to the Deputy Surveyor who gave a general description of the entry and then made a survey based on physical features such as certain trees, etc. The warrant then was sent to the U.S. Government and a U.S. Patent was made out. The first survey was made in 1787 and the first U.S. Patent was issued in 1796.

In 1830 and 1852 the VMD warrants could be exchanged for land scrip and used to buy any public land open for sale. Virginia in 1852 ceded to the U.S. government any land not yet located in the VMD. This land was given to Ohio in 1871 and they gave it to Ohio State University. The University sold these lands into the 1940s.

Indexes are included in Survey books v. A [1], B, B3, C, E, F; and in most Entry books.

The Index to entrymen gives name of soldier or heirs, entry number (same as the survey number), warrant number of soldier's claim, book and page number wherein found, acreage.

Microfilm of index and original records at the State Auditor's Office in Columbus, Ohio.

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