On April 23, 1662, John Winthrop Jr. put in a claim to the king of England for one-third of the land that is now the state of Ohio. Winthrop was the governor of the colony of Connecticut, and his claim included land stretching from the East Coast to the Pacific Ocean.

King Charles II granted the charter, making northern Ohio part of Connecticut. Before that, Ohio had been part of Virginia (as far as Britain was concerned).

In 1776, Connecticut ceded its western lands to the United States - except for the section in Ohio called the Western Reserve. In 1792, Connecticut granted 500,000 acres in Ohio to its citizens who had suffered loss during the Revolution. In 1795, the remaining 3 million acres were sold to the Connecticut Land Co., which sent Moses Cleaveland to survey it. The city of Cleveland is named for him.

Rebecca Goodman

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8361.