Refugee Tracts
The Refugee Tracts in central Ohio were carved from the large section of acreage (2,650,000) acres) that formed the United State Military Lands designated by Congress after the revolution for the reward and settlement of veterans of the war. In April 1798, Congress subdivided the Military Lands with a portion that was 4.5 miles wide and 48 miles long at starting on the eastern banks of the Scioto River, including a strip of land along Licking County's southern border. This section, numbering more than 100,000 acres, was assigned to the compensation of those who had supported the American Revolution but suffered confiscation of their lands in Canada by the British government. [1]
More than 58,000 acres were divided between sixty-seven refugee claimants, but by 1816 almost half of the Tract lands remained unclaimed. [2]
Local landmarks in the area had acquired the label of "refugee" as early as 1881. "Refugee Road" became the moniker of the public passage near Kirkersville at the northern edge of the tract, and the Baptist Church in Kirkersville was called the "Refugee Church" in the first half of the nineteenth century. [3]
The strip of land at the southern edge of the county can be discerned through the shapes of Licking's smallest townships:Etna and Bowling Green. These small rectangular townships were 2.5 miles from north to south and existed wholly in the Refugee Tracts. [4]. Other townships—Harrison, Union, and Licking—incorporated pieces of the refugee tracts as well, giving the typically straight township lines odd corners and cutouts.
