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Authority (click on a title below to view laws involved in the formation or governance of the area)
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Background (general information on the area to put it in the context of history)
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The Virginia Colony originally claimed the land of present-day Indiana through its Second Charter to the Treasurer and Company, for Virginia, erecting them into a Corporation and Body Politic, and for the further enlargement and explanation of the privileges of said Company and First Colony of Virginia, 1609 [click here for more information].
The claim to the northwest lands was later vacated in 1783 by the Act to authorize the delegates of this state in congress, to convey to the United States, in congress assembled, all the right of this commonwealth to the territory north westward of the river Ohio, 1783 [click here for more information].
At the time of the cessation of land by Virginia, a Federal committee suggested dividing the area into ten states in the Plan for the Temporary Government of the Western Territory, 1784 [click here for more information].
Three years later, the land of Illinois was organized into the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio under the An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, North-west of the river Ohio, 1787 [click here for more information].
By the act approved May 7, 1800, to take effect on and after July 4 of that year, the "Territory northwest of the River Ohio" was divided into two parts, the eastern part to retain the old name, the western part to become the Territory of Indiana. The description of the boundary line between these two Territories is given in An act to divide the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio, into two separate governments [click here for more information] (2 Stat. 58) as follows:
"That from and after the fourth day of July next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate Territory, and be called Indiana Territory.
That whenever that part of the territory of the United States which lies to the eastward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, and running thence due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be erected into an independent state, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently the boundary line between such State and the Indiana Territory, anything in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding."
The line from the Ohio River running northeastward to Fort Recovery was the boundary of an Indian cession established by the "Greenville treaty" of 1795 [click here for more information].
In the An Act to enable the people of the Eastern division of the territory northwest of the river Ohio to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes [click here for more information] provision was made for the addition to Indiana Territory of a triangular strip of land between Ohio and that Territory and of that part of the Territory northwest of the River Ohio north of the limits of the new State (Ohio) and east of Indiana (2 Stat. 173), as follows:
"All that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio heretofore included in the eastern division of said territory, and not included within the boundary herein prescribed for the said state, is hereby attached to and made a part of the Indiana territory."
The admission of Ohio as a State removed from Indiana Territory a narrow strip about 1 1/4 miles wide north of Fort Recovery.
On June 30, 1805 (2 Stat. 309), by An Act to divide the Indiana Territory into two separate governments [click here for more information] approved January 11, 1805, the northeastern part of Indiana Territory was cut off and organized as Michigan Territory.
On March 1, 1809, by An Act for dividing the Indiana Territory into two separate governments [click here for more information] approved February 3, 1809, Indiana Territory was again divided, and the western part was organized as Illinois Territory (2 Stat. 514).
On December 11, 1816, Indiana was admitted as a State with the limits as given in the following extract from An Act to enable the people of the Indiana territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states [click here for more information] (3 Stat. 289), approved April 19, 1816, which have not since been changed: "the said State shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to wit: Bounded on the east, by the meridian line which forms the western boundary of the State of Ohio; on the South, by the river Ohio, from the mouth of the Great Miami River, to the mouth of the River Wabash; on the west by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash, from its mouth to a point where a due north line drawn from the town of Vincennes, would last touch the northwestern shore of the said river; and from thence by a due north line, until the same shall intersect an east and west line drawn through a point ten miles north of the southern extreme of lake Michigan; on the north by the said east and west line until the same shall intersect the first-mentioned meridian line which forms the western boundary of the state of Ohio."
A provision in this act required that the boundaries as therein described be ratified by a constitutional convention to be called; otherwise they would be fixed as described in article 5 of the ordinance of 1787. By ratifying them, June 29, 1816, Indiana missed an opportunity for including in its limits a considerably larger territory than it now has.
The north boundary of Indiana is parallel to and 10 miles north of the line which runs due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. A survey of this line was made in 1827 in accordance with An Act to authorize the President of the United States to ascertain and designate the northern boundary of the state of Indiana dated March 2 of that year. The original plat of the survey was filed in the surveyor general's office in Chillicothe, Ohio, and a copy in the General Land Office in Washington. The approximate latitude as determined in 1827 is 41°47'43" N., but measurements by the Geological Survey near the east end give the latitude as 41°45'33" N. The mark nearest Lake Michigan is in lat 41°45'36.07" N., long 86°46'03.36" W. Parts of this line were retraced in 1828, 1834, 1839, and 1842 by the General Land Office. The south boundary is the low-water line on the north side of the Ohio River.
Census (click on a year below to view information on the population of the area)
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To see information on a particular census, select a year from the table below.
Date | Population | Change |
1800 (Federal) | 3287 | +264% |
1807 (State Tax) | --- | --- |
Maps (click on title below to see a contemporary map of the State)
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Related Content (the links below contain information related to this area) |