Delaware Land Division

     Delaware County fit into two different land grants when Ohio was originally divided up in the late 18th and early 19th century.  The first one is the Virginia Military District.  This land was used to pay off the debt to Revolutionary War soldiers of Virginia.  The people who settled had to pay Virginia which they then used to pay their soldiers.  This was one of the only ways to raise revenue for these fairly newly formed states.  This was, however, only the Western part of Delaware County.
     The rest and majority of Delaware County, including the City of Delaware itself, was in the United States Military District, containing parts of central and Eastern Ohio, reaching to Tuscarawas County.  This land was given to soldiers as payment.  The amount of land that they received was based on the rank of the officer or soldier.  Non commissioned officers only received 100 acres of land for their service.  This went all the way up to 1100 acres of land for a major general in the army.  This land was divided in much the same way as the Public Land Survey System, the difference being that this was the only district to be divided up in areas five miles square rather than six.  This was divided up into smaller and smaller squares which were then sold off or given to soldiers as payment as used as farmlands.
     One of the main reasons that the colonists rebelled in the first place was because of the taxes that England was forcing them to pay.  Because of this, the Americans at this time were very wary of powerful national government and made it difficult to raise taxes on its citizens.  This made selling land or using money from those producing on the land one of the best ways for the government to actually make money for itself.
This division definitely shows in Delaware today.  It is still great farming area and most of where I live is covered in corn and beans.  The areas that are used for farmland are not jagged and divided by landmarks, but are almost all square or rectangular and very evenly cut off.  These areas of land go around railroads, woods, and bodies of water.  This could have been very different if Delaware had been somewhere else and not been divided up in this manner.