 In 1795 , the Connecticut Land Company bought land in Northeast Ohio , then known as the Connecticut Western Reserve . The parcel was divided into 129 townships , each measuring 25 square miles ( 65 km2 ) . Hudson bought a plot of land in the Reserve ( township 4 , range 10 ) in 1798 in partnership with a group including Birdsey and Nathaniel Norton , who provided three @-@ fourths of the money for the purchase . Of the group , only Hudson left for the land with a small group of settlers ( including his son Ira and employees Jesse Linsley and William McKinley ) , on April 22 , 1799 . 
