The Refugee Tract is a 103,527 acre tract that was granted to settlers from British Canada that left home prior to July 4, 1776, and aided the revolutionary cause. It is located in parts of modern day Franklin, Fairfield, Licking, and Perry County, Ohio. The tract extends for 42 miles eastward from the Scioto River along the south line of the United States Military District (USMD). For the first 30 miles it is four and one half miles wide, and for the easternmost twelve miles it is 3 miles wide. Fractional townships in the Refugee Tract were originally subdivided into and sold in half-sections per Ethan Scofield's survey, completed in 1801. However, the Matthew's resurvey of the Refugee Tract applied sectional numbering per the Land Act of 1796 and straightened some of the sectional lines. Due to the resurvey, a piece of property in the Refugee Tract may use descriptions from both surveys. For example, a piece of property may be described as lying in Section 13, Half-Section 20.
