During the
American Revolutionary War, there were certain men of
Canada and
Nova Scotia, who sympathized with, and rendered aid to the
United States, some of them joining the American Army. For this lack of loyalty to the Crown of
Great Britain, that government confiscated their possessions. For their co-operation with the colonists in their struggle for independence, the government of the United States granted this strip of land to them. In 1783 and 1785, the
Congress promised to compensate the Canadians with land as soon as it was possible to do so. The
Land Ordinance of 1785 reserved "three townships adjacent to
Lake Erie" for their use. This land
belonged to
Connecticut, and so was not theirs to promise. In 1798, Congress published advertisements in newspapers inviting those with claims to file an account within two years. The Secretaries of the Treasury and War examined the testimonies to determine the quantity of land each should receive. Acts of February 18, 1801 and April 23, 1812 named a total of 67 claimants to receive , in the amounts of 2240, 1280, 960, 640, 320, and . The claimants' land was selected by drawing lots. An act of April 29, 1816 authorized the
United States General Land Office in
Chillicothe to sell the unclaimed as
Congress Lands. Several men who missed the deadline for claiming land were compensated with land in other parts of the country in the 1820s and 1830s. In
Columbus, the Refugee Grant lies approximately between Fifth Avenue on the north and Refugee Road on the south. The
Ohio Statehouse and most downtown office buildings are located within the tract. ==Legacy==