Sources of Revenue 37 



or any portion of its share of the income received from the 

 school fund. If such a request were offered and granted, the 

 money was to be distributed among all the different denominations 

 in the society according to the taxable lists of the respective members . 

 As no such request was ever made, the income of the fund was actu- 

 all}^ used for the support of schools.^ 



The committee appointed to negotiate for the disposal of these 

 lands reported to the legislature at the October session of the same 

 year (1795) that they had sold the Western Reserve for one million 

 two hundred thousand dollars payable in five years and with interest 

 to begin after two years. The land was bought by t?ilrty-five per- 

 sons, who took thirty-six shares of unequal value, and the holders 

 at once organized into the "Connecticut Land Company." 



The committee which made the sale of the land had charge of the 

 fund until 1800. In that year a board of managers, consisting of 

 three members appointed by the legislature and the state treasurer, 

 was created to administer the fund. In May, 1800, the general 

 assembly passed an act providing that the principal of the school 

 fund, as it should from time to time be converted into money, should 

 be invested in bank stock or United States stock. ^ A statement 

 of the capital of the school fund as it stood on October 1, 1803,^ 

 shows a small increase in the original capital of the fund and also 

 that in accordance with the above act United States stock was being 

 purchased. 



School bonds collaterally secured, $1,021,744.75 



Six per cent stock, 14,592.89 



Deferred stock, 5,582.40 



Three per cent stock, 4,571.95 



New lands, value at which received by the 

 state, 194,000.00 



$1,240,491.99 

 By 1810 the original thirty-six bonds resting on personal security 

 had increased to nearly five hundred bonds, most of which were 

 secured by mortgages on real estate. The accounts were in very 

 bad confusion and from the report of the managers of the school 

 fund made in October, 1809, it appeared that a large amount of 

 interest was due, in some instances nearly equal to the principal, 

 and that many of the collateral securities were unsafe. A committee 



1 New England States, vol. ii, chap. 63, pp. 701, 702. 



2 Reports of Commissioner of School Fund, 1826, p. 8, and 1835, p. 6. 



3 Green's Register, 1804, pp. 140, 141. 



