Here's a pairing that seems unlikely until one digs into the history of the events commemorated by the coins. This is the story of the connection between the 1935 Connecticut Tercentenary Half Dollar and the 1936 Cleveland, Ohio Centennial / Great Lakes Exposition Half Dollar.
Connecticut's European settlement roots are found in the 1630s, when its original towns and settlements were founded. (Read more about these early settlements here:
1935 Connecticut Tercentenary - Was 1935 The Obvious Choice?.)
Connecticut developed as a colony over the next century+ and was one of the original 13 that declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776. Connecticut formally became the fifth State of the fledgling nation with its ratification of the United States Constitution on January 9, 1788.
While it was still a loyal colony, in 1662, King Charles II granted unknown millions of acres of land to Connecticut, extending its northern and southern borders westward such that the colony stretched to the Pacific Ocean (the territory included present-day northeastern Ohio, plus parts of New York and Pennsylvania). In 1786, Connecticut relinquished its claims to most of its western lands, but reserved a portion of northeastern Ohio (~ 3.5 million acres) for itself - Connecticut's Western Reserve.
Colony of Connecticut Western Land Claims
(Image Credit: Kmusser, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://www.creativecommons.org/lic.../by-sa/2.5.)In 1795, the Colony sold much of the Western Reserve land to a group of speculators that subsequently formed the Connecticut Land Company ("Company") which later sold off lots to those wishing to resettle there. In 1796, the Company sent Moses Cleaveland to survey its new land holdings. It was Cleaveland that selected the site at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River that grew to become the present-day Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1836, 40 years after Moses Cleaveland surveyed the site, Cleveland was incorporated as an Ohio city. (It had previously been incorporated as a Village in 1814.) This date was celebrated via the 1936 Cleveland, Ohio Centennial / Great Lakes Exposition commemorative half dollar.
And so, Cleveland, Ohio and Connecticut are forever linked via Connecticut's Western Reserve and its surveys by Connecticut-born General Moses Cleaveland on behalf of the Connecticut Land Company.
I wonder which coins will be linked by my next story of unexpected connection?
1935 Connecticut Tercentenary Half Dollar
1936 Cleveland, Ohio / Great Lakes Exposition Half Dollar
Posted 09/29/2024 08:43 am
