tee of twelve members was chosen to receive and give real estate on behalf of the company. A town plat was reserved, with as many building lots in it as there were on hundred-acre divisions in the tract, one town lot to go with each hundred -acre farm. Two special reservations were significant, a hundred acres each being set aside for a "school-lot" and "a minister's" lot. The constitution was signed by all the company, one hundred and twelve persons. The designation, "The Scioto Land Company," was given up, partly because it was used by two other companies and partly because the lads taken were not on the Scioto. It was in the valley of the Licking River that the new Granville was to be built up, and so "The Licking Land Company," was chosen as a better name.
May 1, 1805, a step was taken which had tremendous influence upon the subsequent history of the embryonic colony. A council was called at Granville, and twenty-four persons were organized into a church, which was to be transplanted bodily from the hilltops of western Massachusetts to the fertile valleys of distant Ohio. They adopted a covenant and articles of faith, and chose their officers. When the heroic Scotch-Irish people were ready to leave Londonderry in Ireland for the unknown future in America, the words found in Exodus xxxiii, 15 furnished a most appropriate text: "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." And so on this occasion the loved minister Dr. Cooley, found in the same sentiment the basis for his message of tender farewell.
The needed preliminaries have little of attractiveness for purposed of narration. The land was located, the legal arrangements were made, some advance agents were sent out, and at last, with regrets and yet with hopeful anticipations, the company was ready to start upon the long journey of seven hundred miles. A song was composed by one of the emigrants, which, sung to a tune called "Belle Quaker," served as a sort of inspiration. One stanza will do for illustration:
"Our precious friends that stay behind
We're sorry not to leave.
But if they'll stay and break their shins,
For them we'll never grieve.
Adieu, my friends! Come on, my dears,
This journey we'll forego,
And settle Licking Creek,
In yonder Ohio."
In his semicentennial sermon in 1845 Dr. Cooley said of this exodus: "This was a great loss to us. We could spare our young ministers and
Broadway, Granville, Ohio — Looking East.
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