Now part of Ohio, the Connecticut Western Reserve was the area of land that ran from Lake Erie south to the 41^st parallel (Western Reserve Road) and from the Pennsylvania border west for 120 miles.  When the state of Connecticut gave up its western land claims, it reserved these 5,000 square miles to sell to pay its Revolutionary War debts.

 

A group of 35 investors, known as the Connecticut Land Company, bought more than 2 million acres east of the Cuyahoga River from the State of Connecticut for 40 cents an acre.  When settlement began in 1796, the Cuyahoga River Valley and the Mahoning River Valley were the first areas in the Western Reserve to develop. 

 

John Young brought Daniel Shehy to the Mahoning Valley that year and met James Hillman on the bank of the River.  They camped and built a cabin where the Spring Common Bridge is today.  Young wanted to see the township he decided to buy and later called “Young’s Town.”  He sold town lots and bigger parcels for farms to Shehy and Hillman, and many new settlers coming from the east.

 

 

Would you rather be an investor in Connecticut or a settler on the frontier?  What would you have to do to settle here 200 years ago?  How much do you think land sells for today?  Visit the Arms Family Museum or www.mahoninghistory.org to see more artifacts and documents related to the settling of the Western Reserve.