Donation Tract

This marked the first time that federal land was given without charge to specified settlers, predating the more famous Homestead Act of 1862 by seventy years.

[2] Wyandots killed settlers in the Big Bottom massacre of Jan. 2, 1791, in present day Morgan County.

That part of the tract that was not conveyed by the Company to settlers within five years was to be returned to the federal government.

However, nothing was done about the unsold lots until an act in 1818[4] when Congress required their return so they could be sold by the Marietta Land Office.

[1][2] After settlement of the Donation Tract, the Ohio Company did not suffer another raid as large as the Big Bottom Massacre.