Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/240

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��follows : •' The division line of the township sliall be one mile east of the center of the sev- enteenth mnge, in the lower townsliip, and shall be known and designated by the name of Green." This gave the new township a terri- tory eight miles wide and almost thirty miles long. The order for this division is on the reeonls of Knox County, and seems to lie the last otftt'ial one regarding the division of Rich- land County while attached to Knox.

The original act for the creation of Richland County, passed in January. 1808. reads as fol- lows : '• And be it further enacted that all that tract of country lying north of the aforesaid county of Knox, and south of the Connecticut Western Reserve, and so far east as the line between the fifteenth and sixteenth ranges of Congress lands, and so far west as the west line of Range 20. shall be and is hereby erected into a separate county by the name of Rich- land, and shall be under the jurisdiction of Knox, until the Legislature may think proper to organize the same.

"This act to take eft'ect and be in force from and after the first day of March next."

As soon as the return of peace was assured, following the war of 1812, even before the war had actually closed, enough inhaljitants resided within the limits of Richland County to justify its erection into a separate count}- with entire control of its own aft'airs. In 1809, the Legis- lature provided for the location of the county seats of Wayne and Richland Counties. The Commissioners located the seat of justice for Richland (^)unty at the town of Mansfield, and returned the same to the Court of Common Pleas of Waj'ne County, who gave it to the court in Knox County, who recorded the decision of the Commissioners. By this act the county had a seat of justice ready whenever the Leg- islature should ■' think proper to organize the same." Only a few years elapsed from the fix- ing of the seat of justice until the increase of population rendered the organization of the

��county necessary ; hence, January 7, 1813, the following act was passed :

AN ACT FOR THE RECOGNITION OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the county of Richland be, and the same is hereby, organized into a separate county.

Sep. 2. Be it enacted. That all suits and actions, whether of a civil or a criminal nature, which shall be instituted, and all crimes which shall here be commit- ted within said county of Richland prior to the taking effect of this act. shall be prosecuted to final judgment in the county of Knox, as though the county of Rich- land had not been organized ; and the Sheriff, Coroners and Constables of the county of Knox shall execute within the county of Richland al! such process as shall be necessary to carry into effect such suiis, prosecutions and judgments, and the collectors of taxes for the county of Knox shall collect within the county of Rich- land all such taxes as shall be levied and unpaid previ- ous to the taking effect of this act.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That, on the first day of April next, the legal voters residing in the county of Richland, shall, without further notice than tliis act, assemble in their respective townships, and elect their several county officers, who shall hold their offices until the next annual election. This act to take eflectandbe in force from and after the first Monday of March next.

Richland County, as then organized, was one of the largest counties in Ohio. It should have always contained its original boundaries, but in later years a mania arose for county seats, resulting in the creation of other adjacent counties, which took from Richland County much of its territory. This will be noticed, however, in the chrouological order in which it occurred.

The election of April 1, 1813, resulted in the choice of Samuel McCluer, Samuel Watson and Melzar Tannahill, Commissioners ; Hugh Cun- ningham, Coroner, and John Wallace, Sheriff. The Commissioners met in Mansfield Monday. June 7, 1813, and appointed Winn AVinship Clerk ; Andrew Cofflnberry. Recorder, and William Biddie, Surveyor. This was tlie first act of that body, and the county stood ready to enter upon its course.

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