Virginia ceded her western land claims to the United States in 1784. Despite repeated appeals by the Illinois-Wabash Company, which were regularly renewed into the early 19th century, the U.S. government declined to recognize their land claims. The company faded away. The United States eventually bought the lands in question from Native Americans in treaties conducted by William Henry Harrison. After the War of 1812, the United States began to issue land patents to settlers. In 1820, the executor of the estate of an investor in the Illinois-Wabash Company filed suit against William McIntosh, one of the largest of the new landowners. The lawsuit claimed that McIntosh had bought land rightfully owned by the Illinois-Wabash Company, based on the earlier purchase from the Indians. In 1823, the issue made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson v. M'Intosh. The Court decided in favor of McIntosh, ruling that private purchases of native lands were not valid. The decision brought to an end the story of the Illinois-Wabash Company. References Abernethy, Thomas Perkins. Western Lands and the American Revolution. Originally published 1937. New York: Russell & Russell, 1959. Fish, Sidney M. "The Illinois and Wabash Claim" in Barnard and Michael Gratz: Their Lives and Times. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984. 155–78. Kades, Eric. "History and Interpretation of the Great Case of Johnson v. M'Intosh". Law and History Review, Spring 2001. Sosin, Jack M. The Revolutionary Frontier, 1763–1783. New York: Holt, 1967. Early American land companies History of the Midwestern United States Pre-statehood history of Illinois Pre-statehood history of Indiana 1773 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies 1775 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies 1779 establishments in the United States American companies established in 1779 Aboriginal title in the United States