What Is The "WESTERN RESERVE"?                 

Following the Revolutionary War, The Charter granted to the "Connecticut Colony" by King Charles II of England,  a strip of land about 75 miles wide, extending "From ocean to ocean." In 1786 Connecticut ceded the bulk of her western lands to Congress, but reserved for herself a strip of land in what is now northeastern Ohio, lying west from the boundary of Pennsylvania 120 miles, and north from the 41st parallel to Lake Erie, containing some 3,459,753 acres.

This land was considered as compensation for damages Connecticut incurred during the War; hence, the area became known as "New Connecticut" or "Connecticut's Western Reserve". This was all Trumbull County and Warren was the capital of the Western Reserve. Portage Co. became a separate county from Trumbull on Feb. 10, 1807. It received its name from the old Indian portage passing through the area. The entire Western Reserve had been surveyed into townships of 5 miles square by the Connecticut Land Co., under the command of Moses Cleaveland. (5 miles is the size of townships in Connecticut.) The Land Company then sold it to eastern speculators, who in turn sold it to smaller buyers from the east.

The Western Reserve was peopled mainly from New England, with pioneers from New York and Pennsylvania adding to the numbers. Today, visitors find evidence of this New England heritage in our area of northeast Ohio where the homes, 19th century Main Streets and village greens, and beautiful countryside shine "in the heart of it all"!
 
 

History of the Village of Garrettsville

History of Freedom Township

History of Nelson Township