DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., May 3, 1881. GENTLEMEN: The following instructions, including full and minute directions for the execution of surveys in the field, are issued under the authority given me by sections 453, 456, 2398, and 2399 United States Revised Statutes, and must be strictly complied with by yourselves and your deputy surveyors. Very respectfully, J. A. WILLIAMSON, To SURVEYORS GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES. Commissioner. 3 INTRODUCTORY. The present system of survey of the public lands was inaugurated by a committee appointed by the Continental Congress, and consisting of the following delegates: Hon. THOS. JEFFERSON, Chairman .. Hon. HUGH WILLIAMSON Hon. DAVID HOWELL. Hon. ELBRIDGE GERRY Hon. JACOB READ Virginia. North Carolina. * * 66 * This is seven On the 7th of May, 1784, this committee reported "An ordinance for ascertaining the mode of locating and disposing of lands in the western territory, and for other purposes therein mentioned." This ordinance required the public lands to be divided into "hundreds" of ten geographical miles square, and those again to be subdivided into lots of one mile square each, to be numbered from 1 to 100, commencing in the northwestern corner, and continuing from west to east and from east to west consecutively. This ordinance was considered, debated, and amended, and reported to Congress April 26, 1785, and required the surveyors "to divide the said territory into townships of 7 miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles. * ** The plats of the townships, respectively, shall be marked by subdivisions into sections of 1 mile square, or 640 acres, in the same direction as the external lines, and numbered from 1 to 49. And these sections shall be subdivided into lots of 320 acres." the first record of the use of the terms "township" and "section." May 3, 1785, on motion of Hon. William Grayson, of Virginia, seconded by Hon. James Monroe, of Virginia, the section respecting the extent of townships was amended by striking out the words miles square" and substituting the words "six miles square." The record of these early sessions of Congress are not very full or complete; but it does not seem to have occurred to the members until the 6th of May, 1785, that a township six miles square could not contain 49 sections of 1 mile square. At that date a motion to amend was made, which provided, among other changes, that a township should contain 36 sections; and the amendment was lost. The ordinance as finally passed, however, on the 20th of May, 1785, provided for townships, 6 miles square, containing 36 sections of 1 mile square. The first public surveys were made under this ordinance. The townships, 6 miles square, were laid out in ranges, extending northward from the Ohio River, the townships being numbered from south to north, and the ranges from east to west. The region embraced by the surveys under this law forms a part of the present State of Ohio, and is usually styled "The Seven Ranges." In these initial surveys only the exterior lines of the townships were surveyed, but the plats were marked by subdivisions into sections of 1 mile square, and mile corners were established on the township lines. The sections were numbered from 1 to 36, commencing 5 with No. 1 in the southeast corner of the township, and running from south to north in each tier to No. 36 in the northwest corner of the township, as shown in the following diagram: The surveys were made under the direction of the Geographer of the United States. The act of Congress approved May 18, 1796, provided for the appointment of a surveyor-general, and directed the survey of the lands northwest of the Ohio River, and above the mouth of the Kentucky River, "in which the titles of the Indian tribes have been extinguished."" Under this law one-half of the townships surveyed were subdivided into sections "by running through the same, each way, parallel lines at the end of every two miles, and by making a corner on each of said lines at the end of every mile," and it further provided that "the sections shall be numbered, respectively, beginning with the number one in the northeast section and proceeding west and east alternately, through the township, with progressive numbers till the thirty-sixth be completed." This method of numbering sections, as shown by the following diagram, is still in use: The act of Congress approved May 10, 1800, required the "townships west of the Muskingum, which * * * are directed to be sold in quarter townships, to be subdivided into half sections of three hundred and twenty acres each, as nearly as may be, by running parallel lines through the same from east to west, and from south to north, at the distance of one mile from each other, and marking corners, at the distance of each half mile on the lines running from east to west, and at the distance of each mile on those running from south to north. * * |