What is the Virginia Military District?
Answer
The Virginia Military District, land reserved by Virginia as payment in lieu of cash for its veterans of the American Revolution, was located in the west-central part of what would become the state of Ohio.
Revolutionary War land warrants were issued to veterans for their service in the war, but few veterans moved to Ohio. Warrants issued at this time were assignable and were often sold by the veterans (or descendants) who needed cash for a fraction of their value to land speculators and others.
Unfortunately, we do not hold the warrants used to claim land in the Virginia Military District in Ohio.
Land patents were issued by the Federal government to the first purchaser (the patentee) of federal land upon final payment. You can view the land patents on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) General Land Office (GLO) website. Patents typically include the warrant number.
The following print reference, Federal Land Series v. 4. Grants in the Virginia Military District of Ohio, parts 1 & 2, contains information about the warrantees, patentees, and survey numbers in the Virginia Military District. These books are useful for connecting the warrant number with survey number and location of the land (county and township).
Our organization holds the original land entry books kept by the Ohio Auditor of State. The volumes that describe Virginia Military District surveys (GR8476-GR8481) have a page that shows a simple drawing of the survey and a paragraph that describes the land, who the survey was for, and who conducted the survey.
County atlases published in the 19th century may include the Virginia Military District survey numbers in relation to the more modern map.
Please visit our land research guide for more information on land records at the Ohio History Connection.