of the townships, severally, were required to apply the net proceeds "to the education of youths within the particular surveyed township or fractional township wherein the section was situated, in such manner that all the citizens resident therein might be equal partakers of the benefit thereof.” They were directed to lease lots of not less than eighty, or more than two hundred acres to those making the most advantageous proposals after a prescribed notice of thirty days; but no lease was to be granted for a longer time than fifteen years. They were not to lease more than one lot to any one person, and the lessee was bound not to waste or destroy the timber or sugar-camps thereon, and to make such improvements as might be prescribed. As yet no power of sale was given, but only to lease.

At this session, February 22d, William Creighton, jr., Joseph Buell, Benjamin Tupper, Jacob Linley, and Michael Baldwin, were appointed Trustees of Ohio University; and, in accordance with Governor Tiffin's recommendation, by an act passed February 21, 1805, James Denny, Emanuel Carpenter, jr., Isaac Dawson, Relotiah White, and Ezekiel Denning, were appointed to appraise the two university townships, "at the present real value as in its original and uncultivated state, and make report thereof to the Board of Trustees of the said University;" and the said Trustees were directed to lease the same to any persons who had or might apply, agreeable to law, for the term of ninety-nine years, renewable forever, with a fixed annual rent of six per centum on the appraised valuation, but in no case below one dollar and seventy-five cents per acre. Whatever legislation of the previous session was contrary to this, was repealed.

In the year 1805, February 21st, occurred the first library incorporation. Rev. William Robertson, John Elliott, and William Miller, were recognized as the first Directors, Benjamin Van Cleve, Librarian, and John Fulkirth, Treasurer, of the "Dayton Library Society."

At the fourth session of the General Assembly, an act was passed, January 2, 1806, "to incorporate the original

surveyed townships." The county Commissioners were required, as soon as there were twenty electors in any original surveyed township, or fraction, on their application, to appoint an election of three Trustees and a Treasurer, who, when chosen, were incorporated, and succeeded to all the powers and duties in respect to school lands, which had previously been imposed upon the Trustees of civil townships. These officers were elected for two years; the Treasurer was prohibited from paying any of the rents and profits arising from section sixteen, "but upon the order of the Trustees;" and was directed to "keep a book, with fair and accurate entries of all moneys received, together with a list of the disbursements, and carefully file the vouchers in relation thereto;" but if the rents and profits were in produce, the Trustees were to direct how they should be disposed of; and, in the following section is found the first legislative reference to the sub-district, now so prominent a feature of the school organization of the State.

"The Trustees are hereby authorized, so soon as they may. think necessary, to lay off said townships into proper divisions, and the same to alter, from time to time, as they shall think proper, for the purpose of establishing schools therein; which divisions shall be laid off in such manner as shall best suit the interest and convenience of the inhabitants; and each division thus laid off shall receive a fair and equitable dividend of the profits arising from their reserved section, according to the number of inhabitants contained therein." The following section was new and important:

"Every surveyed township and fractional township aforesaid, in this State, that has a county line running through the same, shall be considered, as it respects number sixteen, in the same situation as though no such interference had taken place; and any suits or actions, that may take place between the Trustees of such townships in their corporate capacity, and individual or individuals, or body corporate, shall be tried and determined in the county where the reserved section lies; and the officer appointed to serve process in such cases, shall have full power to go any where throughout the township, in execution of his official duty, in

the same manner as though no such division line had ever existed."

This corporate organization exists to this day; but at the date of the above enactment, the Trustees had no greater power of disposition than their predecessors, namely, to lease tracts of from eighty to two hundred acres for fifteen years.

At the fifth session of the General Assembly, January 26, 1807, Timothy Rose, Timothy Spelman, Elias Gilman, Samuel Thrall, Jacob Case, Samuel Rose, Samuel Bancroft, John Duke, Hiram Rose, and Jeremiah R. Munson, and their successors, were incorporated as the "Granville Alexandrian Society," (denominated, in the title of the bill, a "Library Society,") with power to hold any estate, real or personal; and the same to sell, grant, or dispose of, or bind by mortgage, or in such other manner as they shall deem most proper for the best interest of the Corporation." The manner in which this act was subsequently perverted, belongs to the financial history of the State.

At this session, the "Cincinnati University" was incorporated, (January 23, 1807,) with the following list of Corporators: John S. Gano, Joseph Van Horn, Matthew Nimmo, William Stratton, Jacob Burnet, James Ewing, Thomas Ramsay, Ethan Stone, Elmore Williams, David E. Wade, John Riddle, Stephen Wood, William McFarland, Joseph Delaplaine, Elias Glover, Isaac Anderson, Charles Kilgore, James Ferguson, Joel Craig, Henry Disbrow, Jacob Williams, William Betts, David Christy, Martin Baum, Edward H. Stall, William Ramsay, David L. Carny, Thomas Dugan, John O. Ferrill, Nehemiah Hunt, Ezekiel Hall, Thomas Stanberry, Joseph Prince, Daniel Symmes, Hugh Moore, Hugh McClelland, Robert Caldwell, John Bradburn, Alexander King, John W. Browne, Simon Stockdill, Samuel Patterson, John Smith, Isaac Dexter, Philip Rice, William Wallace, Joel Williams, and their associates.*

* The motive for preserving these lists of names, is the fact that they generally furnish a memorial of citizens prominent as literary men in their respective localities.

By act of January 23, 1807, the Trustees of the Ohio University were authorized to lease lands at their appraised value, although that might be below $1.75 per acre.

Governor TIFFIN having been elected United States Senator, resigned the office of Governor; and Thomas Kirker, Speaker of the Senate, was acting Governor, from March 4, 1807, to December 12, 1808.

At the fifth session of the General Assembly, the town Council of Marietta, were authorized to lay out section sixteen "into such lots or parcels, as in their opinion [should] be most convenient, and tend best to accomplish the object of the donation;" they were to be appraised, taking into view the improvements thereon, (buildings excepted,) and the town Council might then lease the same, "for the term of ninetynine years, renewable forever, subject to an annual rent of six per cent. on the valuation, and subject also to a re-valuation at the expiration of every ten years, chargeable with the same per centage on each succeeding valuation. Effective remedies for the recovery of rent, etc., were also provided.

At this session, acts were passed: 1. Recognizing the lessees of the Ohio University lands as freeholders; giving the Treasurer the right to distrain for rent, and appointing Eliphas Perkins, Sylvanus Adams, Jehiel Gregory, Abel Miller, Leonard Jewett, and Moses Hewitt, additional Trustees of said University; 2. Incorporating James Kilbourne, Isaac Case, Moses Maynard, Ezra Griswold, Alexander Morrison, Thomas Palmer, and Noah Andrews, and their associates, as the "Worthington Academy;" 3. Incorporating James Welsh, Daniel E. Cooper, William McClure, David Read, Benjamin Van Cleve, George F. Tennery, John Filkirth, and James Hannah, and their associates, as the

Dayton Academy;" 4. Incorporating Robert Wilson, Thomas Worthington, Edward Tiffin, William Sprigg, Wil liam Creighton, Henry Massil, Duncan McArthur, William McFarland, and Samuel Finley, as the "Chillicothe Academy;" and, 5. Incorporating Michael Debolt, Jacob Frazey, William Webb, Clayton Webb, James Grimes, John Webb,

Arthur Morrison, John Irvin, Griffith Thompson, John Tobias, John Barnes, William Highland, Samuel Earhart, Resin Newell, John Newell, Levin Hardisty, John Day, George Campbell, Josiah Frazey, John Campbell, Philip Crockfield, Alexander Morrison, James Clark, John Carbrey, Josiah Hally, Samuel Hally, Joshua H. Brown, Leonard Armstrong, Timothy Day, Nathaniel Armstrong, Samuel Dunseth, Nathan Sutton, Robert Hurley, Ichabod R. Miller, Philip Turpin, Luther Ross, John Ross, and Daniel Day, and their successors, as the "Newtown Library Company, in the county of Hamilton."

CHAPTER VII.

ADMINISTRATION OF SAMUEL HUNTINGTON—1808–10.

AT the seventh session of the General Assembly, by an act passed February 15, 1809, Robert G. Wilson, Jessup N. Couch, John P. R. Bureau, Elijah Hatch, jr., and Henry Abrams, were appointed Trustees of Ohio University; the Board of Trustees were authorized to receive produce in payment of rent, until 1811; nine of them were recognized as a quorum; and the tracts of lessees were authorized to be divided and sub-let, upon certain conditions; the sub-lessees receiving from the Treasurer of the institution separate leases, in their own names. By another act, February 9, 1809, the inhabitants of every fractional township, within the Ohio Company's Purchase-although the number of electors might fall below twenty-were authorized to lease section sixteen, pursuant to law; and by an act of January 24th, a special organization of fractional township, number four, in the second fractional range of townships, was authorized to appraise section sixteen, at not less than two dollars per acre,