Portion of Kanawha Tract

This detail from George Washington's copied survey of bounty lands along the Kanawha River to be granted to officers of the Seven Years’ War, shows lot No. 5, which includes 2,100 acres designated to Andrew Lewis “for his second dividend.” Virginia governor Robert Dinwiddie issued a proclamation in 1754 that promised a division of 200,000 acres of western land to “such Persons, who by their voluntary Engagement & good Behaviour in the said Service shall deserve the same.” King George III's Proclamation of 1763, which restricted settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, threw Dinwiddie's promise in doubt. George Washington and other officers of the Seven Years’ War spent decades arguing for the titles to bounty lands in the Ohio River Valley, and in the 1770s Washington collaborated with William Crawford to survey and patent these lands on the Kanawha River to apportion to himself and other officers.