The Military Tract of 1812 is the name of a region of the
US territories in what later became western
Illinois. Shortly before the
War of 1812, the
US Congress reserved the
unorganized territory so that
quarter-sections of land could be promised to men who enlisted to fight against the British. That encouraged both enlistment and later settlement although many soldiers eventually sold or traded their plots.[1]
The Archives and Special Collections Unit at
Western Illinois University Libraries has information on the history of the Illinois Military Tract.[2]
Description of the military land in Michigan, report by surveyor-general
Edward Tiffin, November 30, 1815, in Michigan As a Province, Territory and State, the Twenty-Sixth Member of the Federal Union Vol. 2, by Henry M. Utley and Clarence M. Cutcheon. pg. 254-255.
The History of McDonough County, Illinois compiled by R. Chenoweth and S.W. Semonis, sponsored by the McDonough Co. Genealogical Society, 1992, Curtis Media Corporation, Dallas, TX.