boundary of Knox county by a due south line to the standing stone forks of the Great Miami river, and with the said Miami to its confluence of the Ohio river; thence up the Ohio river to its place of beginning."

RANDOLPH COUNTY.

On the 15th day of October, 1795, St. Clair issued a proclamation reciting that the separation of the county of St. Clair into districts had not given that ease and facility to the administration of justice which was expected, and it became necessary that it be divided, and a new county erected. The territory south of a line running due east from what was known as the Cove Spring, to the Knox county line, was made the county of Randolph.

WAYNE COUNTY.

There was a wide stretch of country on the north part of the Territory that was yet outside of any of the organized counties. On the 15th day of August, 1796, Wayne county was organized, with boundaries as follows:

"Beginning at the mouth of Cuyahoga river, upon Lake Erie, and with the said river to the portage, between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down the said branch to the forks, at the carrying place above Fort Lawrence (Laurens); thence by a west line, to the eastern boundary of Hamilton county, (which is a due north line from the lower Shawnee town upon the Scioto river); thence by a line west-northerly to the southern part of the portage, between the Miamis of the Ohio and the St. Marys river; thence by a line also west-northerly, to the southwestern part of the portage, between the Wabash and the Miamis of Lake Erie, where Fort Wayne now stands; thence by a line west-northerly, to the most southern part of Lake Michigan; thence along the western shores of the same, to the northwest part thereof, (including the lands upon the streams emptying into said lake); thence by a due north line to the territorial boundary in Lake Superior, and through the said boundary through lakes Huron, Sinclair, and Erie, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, the place of beginning."

This, as will be seen, cut off the northern portion of the counties of Knox and Hamilton. The Northwest Territory was now divided into tTie six counties of Washington, Hamilton, Knox, St. Clair, Randolph and Wayne.

ADAMS COUNTY.

In order to establish more counties, as the existing ones embraced all of the Territory, it was now necessary to make a division of some of those that had already been erected. The first separation to be made was for the purpose of creating Adams county. Hamilton county was large, and could well be divided. So, July 10, 1797, a county, called Adams, was taken off its east side, with boundaries as follows:

"Beginning at the Ohio river at the upper boundary of that tract of 24,000 acres of land, granted unto the French inhabitants of Gallipolis * * * thence down the said Ohio river, to the mouth of Elk river, (generally known as Eagle creek) and up with the principal water of the said Elk river or Eagle creek, to its source or head; thence by a due north line, to the southern boundary of Wayne county, and easterly along said boundary, so far that a due south line shall meet the interior point of the upper boundary of the aforesaid tract of land of 24,000 acres, and with the said boundary to the place of begining."

This county was named in honor of President Adams. Concerning its county seat, Howe, in his Historical Collections, says:

"The first court in this county was held in Manchester. Winthrop Sargent, the secretary of the teritory, acting in the absence of the governor, appointed commissioners, who located the county seat at an out of the way place, a few miles above the mouth of Brush Creek, which they called Adamsville. The locality was soon named, in derision, Scant. At the next session of the court its members became divided, and part sat at Adamsville, and part Manchester. The governor, on his return to the territory, finding the people in great confusion, and much bickering between them, removed the seat of justice to the mouth of Brush creek, where the first court was held in 1798. Here a town was laid out, by Noble Grimes, under the name of Washington. A large court-house was built, with a jail in the lower story, and the governor appointed two more of the Scant party judges, which gave them a majority. In 1800, Charles William Byrd, secretary of the territory, in the absence of the governor, appointed two more of the Manchester party judges, which balanced the parties, and the contest was maintained until West Union became the county seat."

JEFFERSON COUNTY.

The next county to be divided was that of Washington. In 1786 the Seven Ranges had been surveyed and July 29, 1797, a portion of the northern part of the pioneer county was eliminated, and made into the county of Jefferson. The boundaries of the new county were as follows:

"Beginning upon the bank of the Ohio river, where the western boundary of Pennsylvania crosses it, and down the said river to the southern boundary of the fourth township in the third range, (of those townships that were surveyed in conformity to the ordinance of Congress of the 20th of May, 1785), and with the said southern boundary west, to the S. W. corner of the sixth township in the fifth range; thence north, along the western boundary of said fifth range to the termination thereof; thence due west to the Muskingum river, and up the same to and with the portage, between it and the Cuyahoga river; thence down Cuyahoga, to Lake Erie; thence easterly along the shores of the lake, to the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and south with the same to the place of beginning."

The county received its name from President Jefferson. Some idea of its original size may be known from the fact that, when established, it included within its boundaries what are now the cities of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Warren, Steubenville, and Youngstown. Its county seat has always been at Steubenville.

HAMILTON COUNTY EXTENDED. The next act in the work of dividing the Territory into counties, was changing the boundaries of the counties of Hamilton, Wayne, and Knox. In 1795, General Wayne had made a treaty with the Indians, at Greenville, by which the line of the lands of the United States had been extended from Loramie's, westward to Fort Recovery, and thence southward to the mouth of the Kentucky river. The boundary of Hamilton county was extended westward, June 22, 1798, to make it correspond with this change in the boundary of the government territory. The line between Hamilton and Knox counties then became:

"The western boundary of the county of Hamilton shall begin at the spot, on the bank of the Ohio river, where the general boundary line of the United States and the Indian tribes, established at Greenville the third day of August, 1795, intersects the bank of that river, and run with that general boundary line to Fort Recovery, and from thence by a line to be drawn due north from Fort Recovery, until it intersects the southern boundary line of the county of Wayne, and from thence to the southern boundary of the county of Wayne, shall also be the eastern bound"ary of the county of Knox."

Hamilton county in this way got a part of Knox county, and a part of what is now Indiana.

ROSS COUNTY.

Ross next came into the family of Ohio counties. Nathaniel Massie, a surveyor in the employ of Virgima, had laid out the town of Manchester, in 1790, and induced people to emigrate to it. Massie had become a large land owner, and circulated glowing descriptions of the country along the Scioto, with the hope of inducing settlements. Robert J. Finley, and a Presbyterian congregation from Kentucky, were attracted, and a settlement was made at the mouth of Paint creek. Chillicothe was laid out in August, 1796, by Col. Massie. The opening of Zane's Trace, soon afterwards, diverted much of the westward travel, which before this time had been in boats down the Ohio, and brought it overland through this region. Other settlements sprung up, and with the increase in settlers, demands were put forward for a division of Adams county. St. Clair recognized the need of the new county, and, August 20, 1798, issued a proclamation for it, in which the boundaries were fixed as follows:

"Beginning at the forty-second mile tree, on the line of the original grant of land by the United States to the Ohio company * * * and running from thence west until it shall intersect a line to be drawn due north from the mouth of Elk river (commonly called Eagle creek), and from the point of intersection running north, to the south boundary of the county of Wayne, and from thence easterly with the said boundary of Wayne, until