thence with the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line, aforesaid: Provided, that Congress shall be at liberty at any time hereafter, either to attach all the territory lying east of the line to be drawn due north from the mouth of the Miami, aforesaid, to the territorial line, and north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, running east as aforesaid to Lake Erie, to the aforesaid State, or dispose of it otherwise, in conformity to the fifth article of compact between the original States, and the people and States to be formed in the territory northwest of the river Ohio.

In the constitution of Ohio, article 7, section 6, the boundaries are described in the same words used in the enabling act but with the following proviso:

Provided always, and it is hereby fully understood and declared by this conrention, that if the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south, that a line drawn due east from it should not intersect Lake Erie, or if it should intersect said Lake Erie east of the mouth of the Miami River [now Maumee River] of the Lake, then, and in that case, with the assent of the Congress of the United States, the northern boundary of this State shall be established by, and extending to, a direct line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami Bay, after intersecting the due north line from the mouth of the Great Miami River as aforesaid; thence northeast to the territorial line, and by the said territorial line to the Pennsylvania line.

The framers of the Ohio constitution had good reason for believing that the description of the northern boundary given in the enabling act was based on inaccurate maps 29 and that this description, if adhered to, would deprive the State of a large area that Congress intended it should have, and for this reason they inserted the proviso in the constitution. Ohio was admitted to the Union as a State without specific acceptance or rejection by Congress of this proviso.

In 1812 Congress authorized the survey of the line (2 Stat. L. 741) as described in the enabling act of 1802, but the work was not undertaken until several years later.

Lines were run in 1817 by William Harris, under the direction of the surveyor general of Ohio, presumably by authority of the act of 1812-first a random or trial line due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the western Ohio line and another from the most northerly cape of Maumee Bay west and south to the due east line. Manuscript copies of the notes and plats of these lines are filed in the General Land Office. From the data thus obtained, a true line was then run for the northern boundary of Ohio as described in the State constitution, on which 71 marks were established at mile intervals. This line is from 5 to 7 miles north of the due east line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. (See fig. 22.)

See Lake Michigan as shown on the Mitchell map; also fig. 22; many other maps published prior to 1800 showed the lake in the same relative position.

When news of this survey reached the Governor of Michigan, it naturally called forth vigorous protests from him as well as from other residents of the Territory. After considerable fruitless discussion a committee was sent from Michigan to Washington to seek redress, with the result that an order was given to run the line as authorized by the act of 1812. This survey was executed by Surveyor Fulton in 1818. He ran the north boundary due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan.30 Congress neither confirmed nor rejected it. Ohio, as was to be expected, refused to accept it.

In order to have data for settling the dispute, Congress in 1832 (4 Stat. L. 596) ordered the determination of latitude and longitude at important points on the two lines; the positions of eight stations were found, but apparently no use was made of them. As time passed the boundary disputes grew more bitter until a crisis was reached in February, 1835, when the Ohio Legislature passed a resolution declaring the northern line to be the true boundary of the State and ordering that the State's jurisdiction be extended to that line. Armed troops were assembled by both sides, and civil war seemed imminent. The President, Congress, and the courts were called on to settle the trouble, and a commission was sent from Washington in the hope of effecting a compromise. (Way, 1869; Faris, 1926.) Finally better judgment prevailed; Michigan was induced to suspend hostile actions, principally from the hope of statehood with increased territory on the north and a share in the allotment of public funds. Ohio on her part had every expectation of obtaining the coveted territory, and so this bloodless war came to an end.

Michigan Territory had for several years had a population large enough for admission to the Union as a State, but action was delayed because of the boundary dispute.

On June 15, 1836, an act was approved to establish the northern boundary of Ohio and admit Michigan as a State (5 Stat. L. 49), provided the new State, by vote of a convention called for the purpose, accepted the boundary as thus described:

* the northern boundary line of the State of Ohio shall be established at and shall be a direct line drawn from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, to the most northerly cape of the Maumee (Miami) Bay, after that line, so drawn, shall intersect the eastern boundary line of the State of Indiana; and from the said north cape of the said bay, northeast to the boundary line between the United States and the Province of Upper Canada, in Lake Erie; and thence, with the said last-mentioned line, to its intersection with the western line of the State of Pennsylvania.

The line as above established was the line which had been surveyed and marked by Harris in 1817, and it was confirmed by congressional act of

30 The field notes of both the Fulton and Harris surveys are on file in the U.S. National Archives.

June 23, 1836 (5 Stat. L. 56), which thereby gave Ohio full control over an area of 520 square miles, long in dispute.

The first Michigan convention voted against the acceptance of this boundary, but another one voted for its acceptance in December 1836. The line as surveyed and marked in 1817 thus became the northern boundary of Ohio.

Parts of the line as marked in 1817 were retraced and re-marked in 1837 and 1842 by the General Land Office.3

31

In 1915 the legislatures of the two States authorized the resurvey and monumenting of the line. All existing marks of the previous surveys were to be recovered, and where none existed straight lines were to be run between known points. The survey was commenced at the northwest corner of Ohio, which, being in a public road, was marked by a large granite block set 12 inches below the road surface and by a granite "witness" post 12 by 12 inches in section and 51⁄2 feet long set on the line 20 feet east of the corner. The position of this corner, which is on the Indiana line, is lat 41°41'45.88" N., long 84°48′21.66" W. The line is somewhat irregular; sections of it range from N. 85°27′ E. to N. 89°41′ E. and the mean is about N. 87°55′ E., true bearing. Boundary post 47 is at lat 41°43′15.88'' N., long 83°51′33.36" W. These points have been tied into the triangulation of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and are on 1927 N.A.D.

The last post set on the line (no. 71) is about 900 feet from the shore of Maumee Bay, and its position is lat 41°43'56.63" N., long 83°27′16.97" W. The position of each of the other posts and the distance and bearing from each to the next are set forth in the Ohio State report of 1916, which gives a historical sketch of the line. (Sherman, 1916– 33, v. 1; Soule, 1897, p. 346–378; U.S. Congress, 1835.)

The west boundary of Ohio is that fixed by the enabling act—a line due north from the mouth of the Miami River.32 It was surveyed and marked in 1799 from the south end northward to Fort Recovery as the first principal meridian of the General Land Office. (See fig. 18.) This line was extended to the present northwest corner of the State in 1817.

The south boundary is the low-water line on the north bank of the Ohio.

For a description of the east boundary, see Pennsylvania, page 129.

INDIANA

By the act approved May 7, 1800, to take effect on and after July 4 of that year, the "Territory northwest of the River Ohio" was

The General Land Office was combined with the Grazing Service in 1946 to form the Bureau of Land Management, a bureau of the Department of the Interior.

The present mouth of the Miami River is a short distance east of the mouth in 1799.

776-664 O-66-13

divided into two parts, the eastern part to retain the old name, the western part to become the Territory of Indiana. (See fig. 18.) The description of the boundary line between these two Territories is given in the act (2 Stat. L. 58) as follows:

That from and after the fourth day of July next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, which lies to the westward of

a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate Territory, and be called Indiana Territory.

That whenever that part of the territory of the United States which lies to the eastward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, and running thence due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be erected into an independent state, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently the boundary line between such State and the Indiana Territory, anything in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

The line from the Ohio River running northeastward to Fort Recovery was the boundary of an Indian cession established by the "Greenville treaty" of 1795 (Royce, 1899, p. 654).

In the Ohio enabling act (of 1802) provision was made for the addition to Indiana Territory of a triangular strip of land between Ohio and that Territory and of that part of the Territory northwest of the River Ohio north of the limits of the new State (Ohio) and east of Indiana (2 Stat. L. 174), as follows:

All that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio heretofore included in the eastern division of said territory, and not included within the boundary herein prescribed for the said state, is hereby attached to and made a part of the Indiana territory.

The admission of Ohio as a State removed from Indiana Territory a narrow strip about 14 miles wide north of Fort Recovery. (See fig. 18.)

On June 30, 1805 (2 Stat. L. 309), by an act approved January 11, 1805, the northeastern part of Indiana Territory was cut off and organized as Michigan Territory. For the divisional line between the two Territories, see Michigan, page 205.

On March 1, 1809, by an act approved February 3, 1809, Indiana Territory was again divided, and the western part was organized as Illinois Territory (2 Stat. L. 514). For a description of the line separating these two Territories, see Illinois, page 186.

On December 11, 1816, Indiana was admitted as a State with the limits as given in the following extract from the enabling act (3 Stat. L. 289), approved April 19, 1816, which have not since been changed: the said State shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to wit: Bounded on the east, by the meridian line which forms the western boundary of the State of Ohio; on the South, by the river Ohio, from the mouth of the Great Miami River, to the mouth of the River Wabash ; on the west by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash, from its mouth to a point where a due north line drawn from the town of Vincennes, would last