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Show 254 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT 640 to 1,500 acres of Creek lands which were expected to be made available by the successful conclusion of the war, but many obstacles prevented fulfillment of the promise and the state finally converted the bounty warrants into debt certificates at an exchange value of 34 cents an acre.13 Other states like Massachusetts and Connecticut granted land bounties to encourage enlistments but those which had little or no land to offer were forced to rely on money bounties. Before the end of the war these bounties had reached a high level. For example, South Carolina in 1779 offered a bounty of $500 for every volunteer in the Continental Line whose term was 16 months. A little later it agreed to pay $500 on enlistment and $2,000 at the end of 21 months of service, plus 100 acres of land.14 It was one thing to promise land bounties to soldiers and another to make that promise mean something. The Indians of the Ohio country, encouraged by the British retention of the posts after 1783 and by their continued support, if not incitation to hostilities, refused to surrender their claims to land north of the Ohio and defeated two armies led by Generals Harmar and St. Clair. Not until after Anthony Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794 were they ready to cede the major part of present Ohio, which opened the way for peaceful settlement and the creation of a Federal Military Tract in which the promise of land bounties to soldiers of the Continental Line could be satisfied. New York Promises Delayed New York was not delayed quite as long as the Federal government in securing a tract clear of Indian titles for the location of 13 Heath, Constructive Liberalism, pp. 95ff. 14 Ford, Colonial Precedents, p. 108; Edward Mc-Crady, The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 (New York, 1901), pp. 299-300. its military bounties. An effort to create a tract on the east side of the Adirondack Mountains was abandoned early and in its place a more promising region was selected, extending southward from Lake Ontario and including most of the Finger Lakes. However, the Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Tuscarora Indians had claims to this area which they could not be persuaded to relinquish until 1789. This meant that during the 6 years following the conclusion of the war the veterans, whether officers or enlisted men, were denied access to the lands they had been promised. Meantime, the Indians were not using the land and squatters entered upon it, thereby causing much friction and difficulty later for the holders of the warrants and for state officers attempting to work their way through the confusion caused by the delay in securing the Indian title. The new district was divided into 27, later 28 townships, theoretically of 60,000 acres, and each township was divided into lots of 600 acres. Six lots were reserved, one for religion, a second for schools, and four to compensate for land found to be under water. A 50-acre tract in each lot was to be held by the state until the cost of surveying-48 shillings-had been paid. Selection of lots was by balloting, carried out on January 1, 1791, and patents were distributed rapidly thereafter. Settlement was to be made within 7 years after the location of the claim or the land would revert to the state. Veterans who were entitled to 500 acres from the state and 100 from the Federal government could convey the Federal right to the state and receive a full 600-acre lot; those who had already conveyed away their 100-acre bounty were to have their lots reduced by that amount. In this way there were many 100-acre tracts left for sale. It was 7 or 8 years after the conclusion of the war before owners of the bounties could locate their land and start farming operations, unless they determined to squat upon the land in the tract and hope they could |
