To James Madison from Josiah Meigs, 27 April 1815
From Josiah Meigs
General Land Office 27th April 1815
Sir
I have the honor to enclose a letter from Mr Kerr, relative to the road from the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie to the western line of the Connecticut reserve.1 By the treaty of Brownstown the sd road, 120 feet wide, & all the land within one mile of it, on each side thereof, was acquired from the Indians; By the act of 12 decr. 1811 (page 8 Vol 11) the President was authoriz’d to cause the road to be run & marked & to approve the plat.2
The act of 4th. feby last3 directs that the land on each side of the sd road shall be attached to the district of Canton, in consequence of which, instructions were given to have the lands surveyed, but as the plat of the road could not be found in this office nor in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, I wrote to Mr Beale one of the Commissioners who marked the road, & from him obtained his field notes, from which a plat was made in this office & transmitted to the Surveyr. General as the basis of the survey of two miles wide.
As I am not certain that the plat which the Commissioners were directed to transmit for your approbation, received that approbation, I have the honor to send herewith a copy of the plat protracted from their field notes, and I am of opinion that it will be better to adhere to the road marked on it, than to deviate from it on the suggestions of Individuals, however respectable. I have the honor to be most respectfully Sir your obedt. servt.
Josiah Meigs
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM. Enclosures not found, but see n. 1.
1. On 19 May 1815 Meigs wrote to Joseph Kerr at Chillicothe, Ohio: “Your letter dated Apri 20th., was received & transmitted to the President, who has left it discretionary with me either to cancel or suspend the document approving the location of the Road from Fort Meigs to the Connecticut Reserve.” Meigs went on to inform Kerr that the road was forty-nine miles long, deviating only half a mile from a straight line; and that where it crossed the Sandusky River, “between the 31st. & 32d. mile, numbering from the place of beginning on the Western boundary of the Connecticut Reserve,” the river had been approximately 250 feet wide at the time of the 1812 survey. Because the work had been done well and was paid for, and changing the road’s location would require the appointment of new commissioners, Meigs intended to “direct the Surveyor General to consider the Road established” (DNA: RG 49, Misc. Letters Sent).
2. , 2:668–69. Meigs’s citation was to the eleventh volume of the Laws of the United States of America ( 26940, 30011).
3. , 3:201.