The Symmes Purchase, also known as the Miami Purchase, was an area of land totaling roughly in what is now

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, Butler, and

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...

counties of southwestern

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, purchased by Judge

John Cleves Symmes John Cleves Symmes (July 21, 1742February 26, 1814) was a delegate to the Continental Congress from New Jersey, and later a pioneer in the Northwest Territory. He was also the father-in-law of President William Henry Harrison and, thereby, th ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in 1788 from the Continental Congress.

History

In the 1780s, Benjamin Stites, a friend of Symmes, was visiting Limestone (now

Maysville, Kentucky Maysville is a home rule-class city in Mason County, Kentucky, United States and is the seat of Mason County. The population was 8,782 as of 2019, making it the 51st-largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, north ...

) and lost some of his horses to theft by Native Americans. Pursuing them through the wilderness of southwestern Ohio, he travelled as far north as Xenia, observing the fertility of the country in the process. He was so impressed with the region that he informed Symmes of its prospects upon his return. Symmes gathered a syndicate, known as the Miami Company, to buy the land. The original contract was for , but the company couldn't afford to pay for the land, and paid for and received only in the southwest portion of the original tract. The land was ¢ per acre.

Location

The tract is bordered on the south by the Ohio River, on the west by the

Great Miami River The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accesse ...

, and on the east by the

Little Miami River The Little Miami River ( sjw, Cakimiyamithiipi) is a Class I tributary of the Ohio River that flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 26, 2011 through five counties ...

. The northern boundary runs through Butler and Warren Counties about 25 miles north of the Ohio River. Sections of Todhunter and Garver Roads in Monroe, Monroe Road in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

, and Oregonia Road in Turtlecreek Township run along the boundary.

Survey

Deeds in this area will refer to the " Between the Miami Rivers Survey", "M.Rs." or "M.R.S." (M.R.S. is also used to describe the "Miami River Survey" a survey west of the

). Unfortunately, Symmes' men committed many errors while performing the survey, including using

magnetic north The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed t ...

rather than correcting for

true north True north (also called geodetic north or geographic north) is the direction along Earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole or True North Pole. Geodetic north differs from ''magnetic'' north (the direction a compass points toward t ...

. Further, Symmes sold much land that he did not own, some as far north as

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

, meaning that some early settlers found themselves squatters on the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

. Symmes also sold some land that he did own more than once.http://www.surveyhistory.org/symmes_purchase.htm THE SYMMES PURCHASE by C. Albert White

Settlement

Three settlements grew up in the area in 1788, all near the Ohio River: Losantiville, North Bend, and Columbia. Losantiville was renamed

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

in 1789 by Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory. They were among the earliest settlements in Ohio and the Northwest Territory. In 1789, Fort Washington was built in the reserved portion of the Purchase to protect the fledgling settlements.

References

{{coord, 39, 15, N, 84, 30, W, display=title Former regions and territories of the United States Pre-statehood history of Ohio Warren County, Ohio Hamilton County, Ohio Butler County, Ohio History of Dayton, Ohio

History

Location

Survey

Settlement

See also

References