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Plat of Clark's Grant

Official Plat of Clark's Grant - Replica

Reproduced from William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778-1783, and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark (2 vols., Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company, 1896), pp. 2: 852-53.

Clark was chairman of the committee of officers of the "Illinois Regiment," and he worked to secure legislation from the Virginia General Assembly for the bounty-land due his men.

On January 2, 1781, the General Assembly "adopted a resolution setting aside 150,000 acres of land . . . to be located on the northwest side of the Ohio at some place designated by a majority of the officers. . . . Clark and his associates petitioned the legislature for a grant of land selected by them opposite Louisville, extending from a spot below the falls up the river such a distance as would suffice to make the length not to exceed twice the breadth."

In February, 1783, an act of the Virginia legislature named Clark one of ten commissioners to lay out and apportion the land requested and lay out 1,000 acres for a town.

James Alton James, The Life of George Rogers Clark (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1928), pp. 298-300; English, pp. 2: 826-27.

George Rogers Clark's Land Grant
George Rogers Clark's Land Grant

Reproduced from "Official Plat Book of Clark's Grant in Clark County,
Indiana, made by William Clark, 1789-1810," Indiana State Archives.

Part of Clark's land grant for service to Virginia in the Illinois campaign was 500 acres of land in tract 288. Clark received a total of 8,049 acres.

Tract 288 is located in the top right corner of the Clark's Grant plat reproduced here.

The William Clark mentioned above was Clark's cousin.

William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778-1783, and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark (2 vols., Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company, 1896), p. 2: 839.

Plan of the Town of Clarksville
Plan of the Town of Clarksville

From the Minute Book of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Clarksville,
Indiana State Archives.

The minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Clarksville cover the years 1784-1889. They are handwritten in ledger books. A note at the front says that the minutes commence with the second meeting, dated August 7, 1784, "no record having been kept of the first meeting." The meeting on August 7 concerned apportionment of some of the lots laid off in the plan of the town reproduced above.

Note that the plan is hand drawn and signed in the upper right by GR Clark.

The book was given to the Indiana State Archives in 1927 by the Town of Clarksville and is probably the oldest document in the State Archives.

Exhibit Note

The Indiana State Archives will have two items on display from February 25 to May 28, 2004 related to this exhibit:

  • "Official Plat Book of Clark's Grant in Clark County, Indiana, made by William Clark, 1789-1810," from which Clark's plat is reproduced here;
  • Minute Book of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Clarksville, from which the plat of the Town of Clarksville is reproduced here.

The Indiana State Archives is located at 6440 East 30th Street; telephone 591-5222. It is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except on state holidays.

225th Anniversary Exhibit