Connecticut Western Reserve Survives



Challenge: Make the yellow territory on this map an accurate representation of the borders of present-day (2009) Connecticut (present day Connecticut + the Western Reserve), OR, if you think that is too ASB, make the Western Reserve an independent state separate from Ohio. In the years leading up to ceding in 1800, OTL, this section of Ohio was settled by people from Connecticut who brought NE architectual styles and Congregationalism. The federal government wanted the all the states to give up their western claims, but what if Connecticut had remained stubborn? What if the settlers liked being a part of their home state? Could there be a peaceful noncontigious state existing for a long period of time, or would it have eventually become independent like the District of Maine did in 1820? Map is from Wikipedia file Ctwestclaims.png and is used under Creative Commons Share Alike 2.5 licence.
 
Interesting. Would the rest of Ohio be organized as a state separate from New Connecticut / Western Reserve?
 
Interesting. Would the rest of Ohio be organized as a state separate from New Connecticut / Western Reserve?

I think large portions of the rest of Ohio were reserved for Virginian veterans of the Revolutionary War. Similar TTL moves would influence whatever states would show up in the area.
Plssohio.gif
 
To me the best way to get this is to have Connecticut's claims on Wyoming recognized... I mean, King George III supported them, so it's not like they were entirely baseless.
 
Maryland refused to sign the AoC till all the States had agreed [in/by 1781] to relinquish their western Claims.
If any state had refused, then the United States would have been still born.
 
Maryland refused to sign the AoC till all the States had agreed [in/by 1781] to relinquish their western Claims.
If any state had refused, then the United States would have been still born.
But if you look at the map in the first post, Connecticut's western land claims lasted beyond 1781- I'm not sure how that meshes up with your claim.
 
But if you look at the map in the first post, Connecticut's western land claims lasted beyond 1781- I'm not sure how that meshes up with your claim.
They agreed in 1781, but it took time for the Politicians to Cross the I's and dot the T's.
Most of those relinquishments were part of the NW Ordinance's negotiations.
Point is Failure to follow thru with the Agreement would have doomed any Inter-colonial Union.
 
Maryland refused to sign the AoC till all the States had agreed [in/by 1781] to relinquish their western Claims.
If any state had refused, then the United States would have been still born.
As far as i can make out, Connecticut still held the Western reserve as of 1786. They sold it off in 1796, mostly to the Connecticut Land Company, with some land going to persons whose homes had been burned by the British (Firelands or Sufferer's Lands) in 1792. 1796 also seems (this is the part i'm least clear on) to be the year that the Reserve was first settled. Connecticut totally ceded the land in 1800, and the last treaties with Indians over said lands were in 1795 and 1805.

Okay, found a book from 1885, Maryland's influence upon land cessions to the United States. All this is from pages 38 and 39, with more exact details therein.
New York ceded all its claims in 1781, Virginia in 1783, Massachusettes in 1785, Connecticut excepting the Western Reserve in 1786, and ceded the reserve on May 30, 1800.
 
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