The Ramblings of a Title Man: The Lake Erie Islands, a long land title history!

Lake Erie has approximately thirty-six islands.?Of them, ten are within Canadian waters and twenty-six are in United States waters.?The islands were created during the last ice age when Pleistocene ice sheets carved out the basin of modern-day Lake Erie.?

The title history of the islands goes back to the Colonial Period and includes chapters from the American Revolutionary War and the Western Expansion period thereafter.?

Our story starts in Connecticut where in the early 17th century, several colonies were established.?The western boundary of Connecticut was first established by the Hartford Treaty in 1650 between the British and Dutch. ?At that time the Dutch held the New Amsterdam territory that would become New York. ?Thereafter, Connecticut was raised to a Royal Colony by Charter in 1662.?This charter is how we find the Islands of Lake Erie, and much of Northeast Ohio started out as part of Connecticut.?The Charter from King Charles II granted the Colony of Connecticut “All the land to the south sea.”?The south sea in this circumstance was the Pacific Ocean.?However the states of Pennsylvania and New York broke up this land grant, leaving Connecticut with the land that makes up its modern day state and land west of Pennsylvania’s western border.?This land west of Pennsylvania was called the “Western Reserve,” and many places in Northeast Ohio use this name for many different things (including schools, roads and businesses).?

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the islands remained mostly inhabited by Native Americans, including Senecas, Eries, Shawnee, Iroquois, Miamis and Ottawas tribes.?The American Revolutionary War caused Connecticut to become one of the thirteen original States and part of the United States.?At that time, disputes about the Western Reserve were abundant.?In 1795, a group of wealthy Connecticut businessmen established the Connecticut Land Company and agreed to buy all of the Western Reserve lands for the price of $1.2 million dollars.?In 1796 Moses Cleaveland, land agent for the Connecticut Land Company, settled land disputes with the Native American tribes in the area and surveyed land east of the Cuyahoga River.?He established the town that became Cleveland, Ohio.?

The Connecticut Land Company eventually sold many of the Lake Erie Islands to Pierpont Edwards in 1803.?Mr. Edwards was a United States District Judge for Connecticut.?The inclusion of the Lake Erie Islands was to compensate Mr. Edwards for mistakes in surveying that gave him less land that originally agreed to.?

Mr. Edwards never visited any of his islands.?He died in 1826 but the islands of South Bass (Put-in-Bay), Gibraltar, Starve, and Ballast stayed in the family until 1854 when they were gifted to Alice Edwards as dowry for her wedding.?Her new husband Elisha D. Vinton wanted cash instead of land, and sold the islands to Joseph de Rivera St. Jurgo who began developing the islands.?Mr. de Rivera was a Spanish businessman and had made a fortune in the import export business.?He acquired additional islands of Middle Bass and Sugar.?He introduced wine making to the islands and brought German immigrants to work the land.?William Rehberg, one of those Germans, bought Middle Bass Island from de Rivera during the Civil War period and established the Golden Eagle winery.?In 1875 it was the largest wine producer in the United States.?

Joseph de Rivera died in 1889 and is buried on South Bass Island.?His contribution to the development is especially felt in South Bass Island/Put-in-Bay where he established the first school, donated land for churches, burial grounds and city government.