 a liberal gratuity in lands in that country for the officers and soldiers who first marched thither with him, that a quantity of land not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres be allowed and granted to the said officers and soldiers, and the other officers and soldiers that have been since incorporated into the said regiment, to be laid off in one tract, the length of which not to exceed double the breadth, in such place on the northwest side of the Ohio as the majority of the officers shall choose, and to be afterwards divided among the said officers and soldiers in due proportion according to the laws of Virginia."* (*Hening, 10, 565.)
In 1783 another act was passed by Virginia, "for locating and surveying the one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land granted by a resolution of assembly to Colonel George Rogers Clark, and the officers and soldiers who assisted in the reduction of the British posts in the Illinois: "Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That William Fleming, John Edwards, John Campbell, Walker Daniel, gentlemen, and George Rogers Clark, John Montgomery, Abraham Chaplin, John Bailey, Robert Todd, and William Clark, officers in the Illinois regiment, shall be and they are hereby constituted a board of commissioners, and that they, or the major part of them, shall settle and determine the claims to land under the said resolution. That the respective claimants shall give in their claims to the said commissioners on or before the first day of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four; and, if approved and allowed, shall pay down to the said commissioners one dollar for every hundred acres of such claim, to enable them to survey and apportion the said lands. The said commissioners shall appoint a principal surveyor who shall have power to appoint his deputies, to be approved by the said commissioners, and to contract with him for his fees. That from and after the said first day of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, the said commissioners, or the major part of them, shall proceed with the surveyor to lay off the said one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land on the northwest side of the Ohio river, the length of which shall not exceed double the breadth; and, after laying out one thousand acres at the most convenient place therein for a town, shall proceed to lay out and survey the residue, and divide the same by fair and equal lot among the claimants; but no lot or survey shall exceed five hundred acres. That the said commissioners, in their apportionments of the said land, shall govern themselves by the allowances made by law to the officers and soldiers in the Continental army. That the said commissioners shall, as soon as may be, after the said one hundred and forty-nine thousand acres shall be surveyed, cause a plat thereof, certified on oath, to be returned to the register's office, and thereupon a patent shall issue to the said commissioners or the survivors of them, who shall hold the same in trust for the respective claimants; and they, or the major part of them, shall thereafter, upon application, execute good and sufficient deeds for conveying the several portions of land to the said officers and soldiers."* (*Blackford's Indiana Reports, Vol. 1, Appendix.)
The land was selected on the north side of the Ohio river, extending from below the falls, a little below Silver creek, up the river to the upper end of Eighteen Mile Island. It is situated in Clark, Floyd and Scott counties, Indiana, but mainly in the first named county. It was, in early times, generally called "Illinois Grant," but now, more frequently, "Clark's Grant, '' or simply, "The Grant." The location of the land was vested by the law "in a majority of the officers," but the tract selected was always a favorite locality with General Clark, and his choice was adopted by common consent.
William Clark was appointed principal surveyor of the grant, and he proceeded with a corps of four assistant surveyors, Edmund Rogers, David Steel, Peter Catlet and Burwell Jackson, to lay it off into tracts, intende