Acquired by
Great Britain from
France following the 1763
Treaty of Paris, the
Ohio Country had been closed to white settlement by the
Proclamation of 1763. The United States claimed the region after the 1783
Treaty of Paris that ended the
American Revolutionary War. The
Congress passed the
Land Ordinance of 1785 as a formal means of surveying, selling, and settling the land and raising revenue. The survey was to begin in present-day
East Liverpool, Ohio, on the north bank of the
Ohio River where it leaves
Pennsylvania, and then work westward into present day
Ohio. The Geographer of the United States,
Thomas Hutchins, assisted by surveyors from a number of states, began the survey on September 30, 1785. On October 8, word was received of an Indian attack on the
Tuscarawas River. He and his men were scared, and returned to Pittsburgh after only a few miles of the first westward line, (the Geographers Line), had been completed. Hutchins returned to New York that autumn. On July 20, 1786, Hutchins and his group gathered at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to resume their survey.
Fort Harmar had been constructed at the confluence of the
Muskingum River and
Ohio River, present day Harmar district of
Marietta, Ohio. Hutchins had requested federal troops for protection. Colonel
Josiah Harmar ordered Major
John Francis Hamtramck and some of the
First American Regiment to guard the surveyors. ==Fort constructed==