THE MILITARY TRACT

SOURCE:  Pioneer Times in the Onondaga Country, by Carroll E. Smith, LL.D., C. W. Bardeen, Publisher, Syracuse, NY, 1904, pp. 195-198

Under the treaty of 1788 the Onondagas ceded to the state of New York all their lands-excepting the Onondaga reservation and fishing and hunting rights; and the lands thus acquired and another tract lying west were under act of Congress, September 16th, 1776, and other legislation, set apart as bounty lands to soldiers of the Revolutionary war, and became known as the Military Tract.  it included all the territory within the original county of Onondaga, and now constituting the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga, Cortland and Seneca and parts of counties of Oswego, Tompkins and Wayne.

The Military Tract was laid out by Surveyors-General Simeon DeWitt into twenty-five townships, each intended to contain as nearly as possible 60,000 acres of land, and each township being divided into 100 lots.  Three more like townships were added to the tract, making twenty-eight in all.  Following is a complete list of them:
 
 

No.	Township	Present Towns	County
1	Lysander	Lysander	Onondaga
		South part of Granby	Oswego
2	Hannibal	Hannibal, west part of city of Oswego and north part of Granby	Oswego
3	Cato	Victory and Ira, and north parts of Conquest and Cato	Cayuga
4	Brutus	Brutus and Mentz, and parts of Conquest, Cato, Montezuma, Throop and Sennet	Cayuga
5	Camillus	Van Buren, Elbridge and part of Camillus	Onondaga
6	Cicero	Clay and Cicero	Onondaga
7	Manlius	DeWitt, Manlius and part of Salina	Onondaga
8	Aurelius	Auburn city, Fleming, Owasco, Throop, Sennet, part of Aurelius, one lot in Montezuma	Cayuga
9	Marcellus	Skaneateles and Marcellus, parts of Spafford and Otisco	Onondaga
10	Pompey	Pompey, most of LaFayette, three lots in Otisco	Onondaga
11	Romulus	Romulus, west part of Fayette and Varick, four lots in Seneca Falls	Seneca
12	Scipio	Scipio and Venice, south part of Ledyard, five lots in Niles and northwest corner of Moravia	Cayuga
13	Sempromius	Moravia, Sempronius, most of Niles	Cayuga
		Part of Spafford	Onondaga
14	Tully	Tully, south part of Spafford and Otisco	Onondaga
		Scott, Preble	Cortland
15	Fabius	Fabius	Onondaga
		North part of Truxton and Cuyler	Cortland
16	Ovid	Ovid, Lodi, Covert	Seneca
17	Milton	Genoa	Cayuga
		Lansing	Tompkins
18	Locke	Groton	Tompkins
		Locke, Summer Hill	Cayuga
19	Homer	Homer, most of Cortlandville	Cortland
20	Solon	Solon, Taylor, part of Truxton, Cuyler	Cortland
21	Hector	Hector	Schuyler
22	Ulysses	Ulysses, Enfield, Ithaca	Tompkins
23	Dryden	Nearly all Dryden	Tompkins
24	Virgil	Virgil, most of Harford and Lapeer, two and one-quarter lots of Cortlandville, one lot Freetown	Cortland
25	Cincinnatus	Cincinnatus, Freetown, most of Marathon	Cortland
26	Junius	Junius, Tyre, Waterloo, north part of Seneca Falls	Seneca
27	Galen	Galen, Savannah	Wayne
28	Sterling	Sterling	Cayuga
		East part Wolcott, Butler	Wayne