SURVEYING THE SCENE
by
Stephen P. Thomas

Delivered to the Chicago Literary Club
February 5, 2001

I. GETTING THE LAND
The American colonies won more than political independence by defeating the British in the American Revolutionary War in 1781. Britain relinquished to the former colonies in the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 its claim to ownership of a large block of land extending from the colonies west to the Mississippi River and from a little north of present Florida to Canada. This tract included all of present day Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. It is the purpose of this paper to look at how the land within these five states (the "Northwest Territories") came to be settled and dealt with over the next fifty years or so by the young United States.

The British did not have deep roots in this land. At the end of the French and Indian War of 1756-1763 (also known as the Seven Years War), the victorious British acquired Quebec and were left in control of all land east of the Mississippi from Hudson Bay to Florida. To appease Native Americans, who had largely sided with the French in that conflict, the British forbade, in the Proclamation Line of 1763, any English settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in what was to become the Northwest Territory. The Proclamation Line was among the "History of repeated Injuries and Usurpation" referred to in the Declaration of Independence which further stated that Great Britain's King "has refused to pass . . . Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, . . . ." The promise of land, the ability to acquire it, occupy it, use it, and sell or bequeath it was a driving force in colonial and post-colonial America. In the words of the great populist, Woody Guthrie, "This land was made for you and me."

American forces led by George Rogers Clark captured the British garrison in Illinois country at the junction of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia rivers on July 4, 1778 . In 1779 Clark's forces took Vincennes (in present Indiana) and Fort Sackville (at the junction of the Wabash and Ohio rivers). These victories had provided a major part of the basis for the American claim to the western lands (i.e. from west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River) at the end of the Revolutionary War. In October, 1780 (even before defeat of the British and before the Articles of Confederation were ratified by all 13 original States) the Continental Congress adopted a resolution stating that land ceded to the United States by particular states would be settled and eventually formed into separate states.

The Northwest Territories included almost 250,000 square miles, some 160 million acres, equal to about 1,000 square feet for every person alive on Earth today. The Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803 was for a parcel more than three times as large (about 828,000 square miles), valuable land, but overall not nearly as well suited for settlement as the Northwest Territories. Witness the fact that in 1990 the five Northwest Territory states had a combined population in excess of 42 million and still growing while the 13 Louisiana Purchase states were home to far fewer people, about 32 million and were shrinking in population. In 1783 little was known of the Northwest Territories except for certain sparsely settled areas along the Ohio, Mississippi and parts of their tributary rivers. While Britain relinquished its claim of title in 1783, this did not resolve competing ownership claims of several of the former colonies (notably Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts). In addition there were ownership claims of Native Americans, French settlers and other scattered inhabitants of European origin, or persons claiming land ownership as a result of prior British or colonial land sales and grants.

The Treaty of Paris (1783) required Britain to "withdraw all . . . armies, garrisons, and fleets from the . . . United States (Art. 7)," but the British continued to occupy fortifications in the Northwest Territories for several years. Not until Jay's Treaty of 1794 did the British agree very specifically to "withdraw troops and garrisons from all posts and places within the boundary lines assigned by the [1783] treaty of peace to the United States" by June 1, 1796 thirteen years after the Paris Treaty. So, in the wake of the American Revolutionary War, the United States acquired Britain's claims of ownership to the Northwest Territories, but the British were still present at small fortifications such as Forts Detroit and Michilimackinac in Michigan, and Forts Oswego and Niagara in northern New York. Most of the surrounding land was vacant or occupied to some extent by Native Americans. The British were reluctant to withdraw their garrisons for two reasons. First, the French could be expected to find ways to take advantage of any power vacuum. The French first traversed the Illinois and Mississippi waterways in the 1670s and during the next 100 years established trading settlements (notably at places like Vincennes, Indiana; along the Mississippi at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and St. Louis; and in the area of Peoria, Illinois) and enjoyed cordial commercial and social relations with many of the Native Americans. Also, an abrupt departure of the British from the Northwest Territories could have a destabilizing effect on the larger numbers of British people to the north in Canada in terms of their relations with the Quebec French and with Native Canadians.

II. DECIDING WHAT TO DO WITH THE LAND
Meanwhile, in the 1780s the Americans were anxious to move settlers to the west for several reasons: (i) bounties were owed to certain of the Revolutionary War soldiers, and these could be paid in the form of land; (ii) land in the Northwest Territory could be sold for cash which could be used to settle Revolutionary War debts and prop up the treasury of the new nation (much of the American Revolutionary War had been financed by the colonials with credit extended by private parties and by other European powers, notably the French and Dutch); and (iii) the gradual movement into the Northwest Territories of people loyal to the new United States could help solidify its sovereignty over land to which it had no more than a quitclaim deed from Britain and could enhance the overall stature and stability of the new nation. After a trip to view the new western lands, George Washington wrote to the President of the Continental Congress in a letter dated December 14, 1784:
The spirit for emigration is great, people have got impatient, and tho' you cannot stop the road, it is yet in your power to mark the way; a little while and you will not be able to do either.
But there were problems with moving people abruptly or even gradually into this largely empty territory. First, it was dangerous. The Native Americans and these former British colonials had no history of cordial relations. Second, the former colonies had contending and conflicting title claims. Third, it is hard to sell, transfer title to or describe land which is largely unexplored and in some places featureless, unless you find a way to measure and mark the land. Fourth, it was not easy to get to this new land. The journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh which led on to the Ohio River was 320 difficult miles. The journey took at least 10 days passing through York, Carlisle, Chambersburg and Bedford along the way. In short, there were mountains in the way.

This sets the scene for the mid-1780s. We have the new United States, a fragile start-up enterprise with a weak organizational framework in the Articles of Confederation, little cash, anxious creditors, a restless, land-hungry workforce (including those who had fought in or supported the conflict with Britain and now expected some reward), but capable, well-motivated and imaginative national leaders. The major new asset on the table was this large block of land in the northwest. To be sure, there was also new land west of the Appalachians and south of the Ohio River in present Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee, but it was rugged, hilly sometimes mountainous land with ravines and valleys already starting to fill up with settlers and opportunists moving West. A wild card on the table was the fact that there were many slaves in the South, but not in the North.

This brings us to the first great piece of nation-building legislation, the Land Ordinance of 1785. This legislation of the Continental Congress was made possible by the relinquishment by the new states of claims to land in the Northwest Territory (land which Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia and New York had never occupied or governed in the first place). The 1785 Land Ordinance is styled "An Ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing [emphasis added] of Lands in the Western Territory." It starts by reciting the relinquishment of individual state title claims and refers to the land which "has been purchased [emphasis added] of the Indian inhabitants." How is this land to be "disposed" of? The law provides for a surveyor from each of the thirteen States to be selected by Congress or a committee of the States to act under the direction of the Geographer of the United States who is to form regulations for the conduct of the surveyors. The statute is very specific about what these surveyors are to do. They are to:
". . . divide the said territory into townships of six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles, . . . and each surveyor shall be allowed and paid at the rate of two dollars for every mile, . . . including the wages of chain carriers, workers, and every other expense attending the same."
The influence of Thomas Jefferson is evident here, because this system of squaring off land in the survey and the rectangular, north-south measurement of land was largely his contribution. Actually, Jefferson wanted townships to be called "hundreds." Each of Jefferson's hundreds would be 10 "geographical" or nautical miles square. A nautical mile is 6,086.4 feet in length, instead of the usual or statutory mile length of 5,280 feet. Inside Jefferson's township would be 100 units of 1,000 acres, with the acres reformed in size to 37,044 square feet (the product of 6,086.4 feet times itself and divided by 1,000). If you find this confusing, so did Jefferson's colleagues. It does not matter because Jefferson did not prevail here as he did prevail with the dollar and a decimal currency system.

The surveying would embrace equally confusing measurement tools already in use, a 66-foot chain containing 100, 7.92-inch links. Eighty chains produce a 5,280 foot mile. A mile square is 640 acres. Ten square chains equal 10 acres. An acre is a little over 208 feet in each direction or 43,560 square feet. That is where we ended up in 1785 and that is where we are today.

Jefferson's further influence as a practical naturalist is also found in the following language of the 1785 Ordinance:
"The lines shall be measured with a chain; shall be plainly marked by chaps on the trees and exactly described on a plat; whereon shall be noted by the surveyor, at their proper distances, all mines, salt springs, salt licks and mill seats, that shall come to his knowledge, and all water courses, mountains and other remarkable and permanent things, over and near which such lines shall pass, and also the quality of the lands."
"Chaps" [not to be confused with "chads"] were slash or blaze marks placed by the surveyors on trees adjacent to survey lines. The term "mill seats" refers to sites suitable for a water mill which could be used to mill grain or saw lumber. These statutory requirements that the survey plats describe such natural features on the surveyed land (while immediately useful in identifying the boundaries on squared-off, relatively flat land parcels) would prove to be extremely valuable in the late 20th century as public interest increased in knowing what the land was like before settlement. Thus, we have a regard for natural science and natural history written in one of our earliest national statutes.

By further provision of the 1785 Ordinance the townships of 6 miles square were to be further divided into 36 mile-square sections of 640 acres each. In each township one section would be set aside to support public schools. The balance was to be sold at a (hoped for) minimum price of $1.00 per acre after certain lands were used to satisfy stipulated grants of land to certain officers and soldiers of the late continental army.

Now, why do I suggest that this rectilinear survey system mandated by the Continental Congress in the 1785 Land Ordinance and carried forward in all subsequent Federal land legislation and followed in each state thereafter admitted to the Union except Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas, was such a big deal? Here's why. I must digress for a moment to talk about the alternate way land was typically described in the eighteenth century, which was through a system called metes and bounds used in the 13 colonies and inherited from Europe. This system worked well along the East coast in the settled portion of the colonies because it was logical for uneven terrain with fairly permanent landmarks. Metes (measures) and bounds (boundaries) describe land by starting at a beginning point such as a road, tree, rock, stream or other prominent physical feature and proceeding for a specified distance in a specified direction to the next monument, again a more or less permanent natural or man-made feature in the form of a bridge, a pile of stones, a building, a fence or a marker post and thence for a specified distance in a specified direction to the next monument, and so on until the entire parcel is circumdescribed (a new word, I believe). This system works fine to this day in long-settled uneven terrain such as rural Massachusetts or Connecticut, but was wholly unsuited to the prairie plains of what would become Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Without precise, verifiable descriptions of the land in the Northwest much confusion as to parcel boundaries would inevitably arise. A metes and bounds system on the prairie would have had to reference transitory or variable features such as trees, stream beds, springs, trails and the like. In some parts of the tallgrass prairie even these variable features did not exist for great distances in any direction.

III. START OF THE PUBLIC LAND SURVEY AND A PLAN FOR SETTLEMENT
With the Land Ordinance of 1785 in place, surveying work promptly commenced under the personal direction of Thomas Hutchins, United States Geo-grapher, on the so-called Seven Ranges in what are now five counties of eastern Ohio. A "range" is a north-south string of townships to the east or west of a reference point or meridian. The first "seven ranges" in Ohio extended 42 miles to the west from the point where the western border of Pennsylvania crossed the Ohio River. This was the statutorily prescribed starting point, a distance some 60 miles north from the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. This western border of Pennsylvania had itself to be first surveyed to the north from its southern extremity where Pennsylvania meets Delaware and part of what is now West Virginia along the famous Mason-Dixon Line. This east-west line had been expertly and faultlessly surveyed along the parallel 39º 43' by Messrs. Mason and Dixon in the 1760s to settle border conflicts between the Penns of Pennsylvania and the Baltimores of Maryland. In future years this line and the Ohio River served to delineate the extremities of slave states and during the Civil War of 1860-1865 to distinguish the North from the South.

In several respects the survey of the first Seven Ranges was not a success, but the lessons it taught were put to good use in the following decades. First, it took three years to complete rather than the expected one year. Disagreeable Native Americans, hilly terrain, a long supply line from the east, bad weather, and inexperienced, poorly trained surveyors all contributed to the delays. Second, it cost about $15,000 rather than the $5,000 which had been projected. Third, the surveyed land was sold in part by auction in 1787 for a net yield of only about $100,000. The average bid was $1.26 per acre and this mostly for land close to the Ohio River. Congress was not impressed. Fourth, the survey lines were not very well drawn. How could this be? The land was quite uneven, consisting of many valleys with streams and rivers carrying water southeast to the Ohio River, and the surveying equipment was neither state of the art for its day nor well maintained. Even today, from overhead the familiar grid pattern of surveyed Midwest land cannot be made out in the Seven Ranges area. Topography rather than survey lines prevailed in shaping the use of this land. The lessons learned were that "gentleman surveyors" who traveled long distances to do surveying in unfamiliar territory on a seasonal basis were not a good choice. In the future, cost overruns could be contained by engaging private contractors to conduct surveying at fixed prices, subject to Federal government oversight with strict adherence to accurate reckoning, base lines and meridian distances.

Meanwhile, in July 1787, prior to the completion of the survey of the Seven Ranges, the Continental Congress enacted another critical piece of legislation in the form of the Northwest Ordinance establishing a territorial government north of the Ohio River. This Ordinance contemplated that the Northwest Territory would eventually become three to five states and the future state boundaries were broadly described in the Ordinance. An individual territory could be admitted to statehood when the population reached 60,000. Slavery was outlawed in the Territory, although fugitive slaves could be lawfully reclaimed. Religion and other civil liberties were guaranteed. Resident Native Americans were promised decent treatment (the exact words are: "The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent;") and public education was to "forever be encouraged." New states would have equal status with the thirteen former colonies. These concepts are distinctly non-colonial. That is, they repudiate the traditional notion that acquired or newly dominated lands exist solely for the benefit of a mother country forever to be politically subordinate and socially inferior. Also, the notion that newly settled lands could eventually become states having equal status with the former British colonies reinforced the popular notion that government should be basically local, not dominated by majestic central authority. Finally, the Northwest Ordinance embraced most of the concepts of civil liberty and civil and religious rights which had been expressed in the Declaration of Independence and would later be included in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Note that the year of this enactment is 1787, the same year in which the United States Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia and four years before ratification in 1791 of the Bill of Rights in the form of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. To sum up the main points made thus far, in the years shortly following the end of the American Revolutionary War (1781) and the Treaty of Paris (1783), we have: first the relinquishment by the former colonies of territorial claims over the new land north of the Ohio River extending to the Mississippi; second the Land Ordinance of 1785 mandating rectangular survey of the new land and providing for its eventual sale and allocation with a view to future settlement; and third - the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 looking to other details of future settlement and governance anticipating the eventual admission of new states to a new and still quite fragile United States. The Northwest Territory was to remain under territorial government for many years. Ohio was not admitted as a state until 1803, followed by Indiana (1816), and Illinois (1818). Michigan and Wisconsin were the latecomers (in 1837 and 1848, respectively). But by 1787 the entire legal framework was in place for the measurement, settlement and governance of this land. That foundation was never shaken or disturbed.

These were large issues for the new states banded together only by the weak Articles of Confederation to resolve, and one of the first acts of the Congress established by the new Constitution in 1789 was to confirm and readopt both the Land Ordinance and the Northwest Ordinance. The principles contained in these statutes were revolutionary and quite new. The tradition in Europe was that ultimate ownership of almost all land was in either the monarch or the church. Transferable title of any sort to European land was not generally available to ordinary people. Even so-called landed gentry held land subject to duties owed to the monarch in the form of taxation, special levies, and obligations to provide free labor or military conscripts. Ordinary people held, at best, user rights over small plots during their lifetime with obligations to pay taxes or provide labor to the lord of the manor. To Native Americans the notion that strangers could settle on land and claim ownership in the form of exclusive rights to occupy, use and change the land as they saw fit was very new. Traditional tribal law and custom placed land under concepts of communal control. The concept of land ownership or transferable "title" to land was of European origin. Neither the tribe nor a confederation of local tribes in the form of a "nation" had any traditional authority to transfer "title" to land and thereby extinguish user rights of the individual, tribe or group. It is no wonder that, to this day, there are substantial doubts about the legal process by which Native Americans were systematically dispossessed of the land they had used without disturbance for many generations. The main lesson is that, in the end, legitimacy is mostly about power.

The new Government in 1790 gave responsibility for public land admin- istration to its largest and most important unit, Alexander Hamilton's Treasury Depart-ment. His public land policy can best be expressed as: sell large parcels fast for cash to rich people. Before and after the Land Ordinance of 1796 sanctioned the sale of surveyed land to settlers for $2.00 an acre, Congress regularly disposed of large tracts to settle Government debts or other obligations, raise money or accommodate people and groups with substantial influence. Why should a settler pay $2.00 an acre (all in cash) to the Government when an Ohio "investor" like Judge John Cleves Symmes would sell land to him on good credit terms for $1.00 an acre? If he defaulted, Symmes would again own the land and could sell it again. Symmes, a lender to George Washington's army, had in 1794 acquired many thousands of Ohio acres for much less than $1.00 an acre in the area around present Cincinnati north of the Ohio River. Why would a settler default? Well, perhaps his crops would not grow. Perhaps his wife would die in childbirth (as was common). Or she might refuse to leave the relative comfort and safety of the East for life on the frontier. Or maybe the settler would be persuaded that there was better or cheaper or even free land farther west in Indiana or Illinois country or across the Mississippi.

There were continuing disputes with Native Americans in Ohio and other parts of the Northwest Territory in the late 18th and well into the 19th Century. In August 1794 General Anthony Wayne, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in northwestern Ohio, defeated a sizable army of Potawatomi, Iroquois and others. This led to the 1795 Treaty of Greenville and large land cessions in the eastern part of the Northwest Territory. There were many more conflicts, treaties and land cessions to come. But what became increasingly clear to the leadership of the Native Americans was that the settlers would keep coming so long as there was open land. In the end armed resistance would probably always be futile. More battles would be fought, but the war was over.

There was much tinkering with land policy and even survey methods in the years that followed the original 1785 Land Ordinance. The Land Ordinance of 1796 introduced several important alterations and refinements to its 1785 predecessor. Public land policy and its administration became the domain of the Treasury Department of the new United States. Congress wanted land to be surveyed before it was sold and preferred the sale of smaller (640 acre) parcels to individuals over the sale of large tracts to speculators. But Congress priced the land in 1796 at $2 an acre, well above the general market rate. By 1800 the Northwest Territory had (non-voting) Congressional representation in the person of William Henry Harrison. This is the same Harrison who in 1841, at age 67, would serve as President for just 30 days after delivering an 8,500 word inaugural address coatless and hatless in freezing rain. He brought to Congress constituent desires reflected in the Land Ordinance of 1800 for smaller parcels, credit sales, lower prices, local land offices and preemption (meaning that by first occupying and in some fashion improving the land, you had a prior right to purchase the title over a non-occupant).

With the 1796 Land Ordinance in place surveying work in the Ohio Territory west of the Seven Ranges resumed under Rufus Putnam, surveyor general, who exemplified a tradition to continue for many years that those engaged in the administration of public land often were also investors (a neutral word), speculators (a negative word) or developers (a positive word) of the land over which they exercised authority.

The 1796 Ordinance also affected the way the surveyed land was described on the permanent record of all land surveyed thereafter. We have talked about townships with 36 one-mile square sections containing 640 acres each. The 1796 Ordinance required that the sections in each township be numbered consecutively in a serpentine manner, starting in the northeast corner with section #1, proceeding westerly section by section to the northwest corner, which would be section #6. Section #7 was immediately below (to the south of) section #6, and the numbering continued to the east, so that section #12 was immediately below (to the south of) section #1, and so on right to left and then back from left to right for 36 sections, ending with section 36 in the southeast corner.

In other words, if a settler was issued a Land Office deed in 1820 for a 160 acre farm (total price: $200, $50 down and $150 to be paid with interest at 6% by the end of four years) described as the Northwest Quarter of Section 22 in Township 1 South, Range 1 East of the Third Principal Meridian in Jefferson County, Illinois he would know exactly where to go with his wagon and family. It would also help if he was told that Jefferson County is bordered on the west by the Third Principal Meridian (running north and south) and on the north by the east-west Baseline for this county, which means that your land [TIS RIE] is in the 36 square mile Township which begins in the northwest corner of Randolph County. This can be more readily illustrated on a map or survey plat than described, but the legal description is what is controlling to this day, not a map or picture.

IV. THE SURVEY IN THE 1800s
With the election of Jefferson in 1800 and under the Land Law of that year, the survey work and disposal of public lands, especially smaller parcels, picked up pace. Local land offices (that is places where public land available for sale could be purchased) were established closer to the areas where land was being sold, facilitating purchases by settlers already in an area, or by newly arrived settlers. James Mansfield, a mathematician, became surveyor general. By the outbreak of American and British hostilities in the War of 1812, surveys had been completed in the balance of land free of Native American claims in Ohio and in the lower third of Indiana and Illinois. The sale of public land at prices from $1 to about $2 an acre began to have a real impact on the U.S. Treasury. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and prospects for settlement farther west underscored the need to measure and dispose of land in the Northwest Territory which by 1812 had been Federal land for over 25 years.

What emerged was the system of surveying by private contractors engaged by the surveyor general which established the pattern for the bulk of the survey work done after 1800 in the Ohio, Indiana and Illinois Territories. Survey instructions were issued and modified over time which govern the conduct of Federal survey work to this day. In 1812 the General Land Office was established to administer public land policy. This later became part of the Department of the Interior (established in 1849) and from 1946 the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") within the Interior Department.

The survey of land in Illinois did not begin until 1804 and was not completed until 1856. The Illinois survey started in southern Illinois, because that is where the earliest settlers were and where more were headed, coming down the Ohio River and then up the Wabash on the eastern side or the Mississippi on the western side of the Illinois Territory (which did not become a state until 1818). Soon, the sale of Illinois land at $1.25 an acre was underway at Federal Land Offices at Vincennes (1804), Kaskaskia (1804), Shawneetown (1812 ), and eventually in Vandalia, Springfield and other places to the north. The Springfield Land Office did not close until 1876. Early settlement (up to 1820 or so) in Illinois was confined to areas adjacent to navigable water and forested areas. Water supplied transportation in and out. Forest provided fuel, fencing and building material. Only later did the steel plow, railroads and advances in hydraulic engineering like field tiles permit settlement of the more open prairie in the center of and to the north in Illinois, including many areas which were wet during much of the year.

The result of the township surveys is found in the field notes taken as the land was surveyed and later transcribed into the plats or diagrams for each township (36 square miles) of which three copies were made, one for the surveyor general, one for the land office and one which went to the state or territory. Most of these records are intact to this day and many are accessible on the internet. This work was done before cameras became prevalent. Thus, much of what we know of our late 18th and early 19th century Midwest landscape is only through what was observed and found noteworthy by these surveyors. Here are some random excerpts from typical field notes:
"Prairie land, gently rolling, 2nd rate. --- a brook 14 lks wide very serpentine in its course --- land poor, few trees, mostly barrens ---- a cave 30 feet high terminating gradually to a point on each side, the bottom level and dry and covered over with small flat stones generally square it has been an Indian burying place as we found many of their bones in it and has been a place of resort for Buffaloes --- the bank of the creek for 2 or 3 chains E & W of the line looks white as if cov'd with snow. Upon examination found the Earth was filled with particles of salt very pure --- rich soil, fit for cultivation --- good plowland --- good for wheat --- swampy barrens, many vines and briars wretched poor country --- the earth has been disfigured by water which must run down here copiously in a wet time --- timber chiefly all blown down --- woods burnt --- woods very thick, large timber mostly destroyed by fire --- fresh sign of Buffaloe (sic) on the little runs & drains --- An Excellent Deer Lick --- fit only for Bears, woolves (sic) and wildcats --- oak shrubs ungth (sic) grape vines sassafras --- timber large and lofty of oak."
The field notes included both data on the line being surveyed and general comments. Typically, at the section (or square mile) corners, the surveyors dug and placed an earth mound, topped it with stones and inserted a fresh cut sapling post. Fences and plat lines would follow after settlement. One writer has referred to the settlement pattern which resulted from the survey, when viewed from the air over 150 years later, as "the landscape of the Enlightenment, with a serious attempt to impose the rational grid upon a sometimes unruly nature." [Grim, p. 93.]   

Here is a snapshot of the daily life of a surveying crew in the middle 1830s when much of northern Illinois was being surveyed. The crew consists of several persons a foreman or deputy surveyor, one or more axemen, flagmen, and chainmen to move the chains, a stenographer or recorder to write down the field notes and a cook to maintain the camp and prepare meals. Sometimes only three or four people performed all these functions. The crew would rise at dawn and breakfast on biscuits, molasses, beans and perhaps some tea or coffee. By 8 a.m. they would be headed into the field to resume where they had left off the day before. The normal procedure was to measure from east to west and south to north, using the northwest corner of a section or township for corrections needed to "true up" the measurements. In decent weather and terrain a crew could survey and mark about four sections in a day. This means that, allowing for some distance to and from camp they would walk or ride (if horses were available) some 12-20 miles. Lunch would be consumed in the field cold biscuits, perhaps some dried meat and a drink from a nearby spring or watercourse. At night the fare would be some form of boiled beans and cured pork, perhaps cornbread or whatever the cook had managed to shoot, forage or trade for with any local settlers or passersby. This work continued in all kinds of weather from April until late October.

At intervals the work done would be inspected and remeasured on a spot basis, by a representative of the United States Surveyor General and if found faulty, would have to be redone without pay. The crew would be paid about $2.50 per mile properly surveyed and marked, a little more in difficult terrain. This was the amount to be divided up among the contractor or deputy surveyor and his entire crew and also to be used to pay the expenses of the camp and daily sustenance. However, a frugal crew member, who would have virtually no expenses during the surveying season, could use his survey earnings and intimate knowledge of the land surveyed to buy 160 choice acres at the nearest Land Office for $200. Earnings from a few other surveying seasons might buy equipment (a wagon, plow, harness), some livestock, a team of horses, hardware for a hearth, house and a barn. Within three to five years a thriving farm could be purchased and outfitted - all from surveying earnings. Of course the riverboats on the Mississippi went back to St. Louis and points south during the winter and it was also possible to spend those surveying earnings on whiskey, ladies, games of chance and other whimsical pursuits. A surveyor's life in the 1830s was not easy, but it could lead in many directions. Young Abraham Lincoln was a surveyor as had been Washington and Jefferson. Henry David Thoreau was a very accomplished surveyor. Curiously, Thoreau's career in surveying was mostly after 1850, during the later years of his life.

Now as you all know, magnetic north is not quite the same as true north and the earth is round not flat. There is therefore an inherent conflict between rectilinear measure and the eventual convergence of all north and south lines at the North Pole. These facts were bound to create some problems for surveyors who were trying to measure out perfect squares using primarily a magnetic compass in their circumferentor on a slightly curved surface. The circumferentor was the principal field device in addition to the chain and stakes. It includes a flat brass bar with sights at the ends and a circular brass box in the middle containing a magnetic needle which plays over a graduated directional circle. The circumferentor was usually mounted on a portable tripod about five feet high. It is also true that, while the land was mostly flat, it was not always so, and changes in elevation add another complication to linear measurement. A further factor was maintaining a chain of exactly 66 feet in length. The field chains were regularly (often on a daily basis) checked against a measuring master, but consider these variables. A metal chain would contract in cold and expand in heat. Repeated use would wear or stretch the connections between the 100 links. The staking man at the end of the chain might put his stake sloppily or imprecisely into the ground, or the ground might be wet and unstable. A difference of as little as 1/8th inch in each chain length over the course of a mile (80 applications) would lead to a variation of 10 inches. Multiply that by the 6 miles across a township and the line is apt to be five feet off the mark, all because of a variation of as little as 1/8th inch in the 66 foot chain length.

How could the surveyors adjust for these almost inevitable imperfections and maintain the basic integrity of their work over long distances? Surveyors would first survey the township boundaries, starting at the southeast corner. Then the 36 individual sections or square miles would be surveyed by measuring to the north and to the west. To mark section (square mile) corners and half sections on the prairie the surveyors would erect sod pyramids and insert a post made from a freshly cut sapling. If moveable "erratics" were available (debris stones from glacial melt 10,000-15,000 years ago), these might be used to help support the post and mark the corner. All adjustments for imprecise measuring or to "true up" section lines were made in the northern and western tiers of the township. At least every 30 miles and preferably after nine miles, the township lines were adjusted for the curvature of the earth through instrumentation capable of making precise astronomical measurements. Evidence of these adjustments for surveyor measurement error and earth curvature survive to this day, especially on rural roads. I am sure you have come to places where, at a certain point, the road ends only to continue in the same direction after jogging no more than 50 to 100 feet to the right or left. That is where a correction in the survey lines was made.

We tend to think of the public land survey lines in terms of the mile upon mile of squared-off sections of land. These are evident when flying over the Midwest, but consider an impact of the survey which is closer to home. Within the City of Chicago we have a township from the 1836 survey bordered on the north by what is now North Avenue, on the west by what is now Western Avenue, on the south by Pershing Road and on the east by Lake Michigan. It is exactly six miles from North Avenue to Pershing Road and eight standard blocks to a mile as you move south to Chicago Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Roosevelt Road, Cermak, 31st Street and then Pershing or 39th Street. The same eight block to a mile pattern moves east from Western Avenue to Ashland, then Halsted, then State Street, and because it is a fractional township (that is - not a perfect 36 square miles) ending at the Lake. This is Fractional Township 41 North, Range 13 East of the 3rd Principal Meridian as surveyed in 1836. Obviously, the streets and the street names were added later. Also note that each eight block square is 640 acres, a mile square. Thus a single full square block in Chicago is 10 acres. If you look at the legal descriptions of Chicago properties, down to the smallest bungalow, they still reference the public land survey description of their location in terms of township, range, section, quarter, and so on.

V. A LONG RANGE VIEW
Quercus macrocarpus, or burr oak, is a sturdy long-lived tree. Of the many thousands of trees noted in the public land survey records very few can be found today. A surviving tree would have to be about 200 years old and to have withstood or escaped fire, flood, drought, road building, development, disease, and general land clearance. Such a tree was found in McHenry County in 1998 by Carol Lockwood, formerly of the McHenry County Historic Preservation Commission using leads from local residents and 1837 field survey notes. On September 15, 1837 three surveyors reached a quarter section point in Coral Township, one-half mile north of the Kane-McHenry County line and found nearby a 10-inch diameter burr oak eight feet from the section line. They decided to make this a "witness" tree by chopping out a section of bark and noting its location on the bald spot. This was intended to supplement the wooden post they placed at the quarter section point and provide a more permanent reference to its location. Today, the tree is 10 feet in diameter and the bald spot has long since scabbed over, but the tree is alive and healthy. This tree probably survived because it was close enough to the property line not to become a target as farmland was cleared and cultivated and because burr oaks are very fire resistant and, once established in suitable habitat, have very good long-term survival resources. This piece of history has since been memorialized by a plaque and can be found at 10513 North Ridge Lane in the Harmony Hills Estates Subdivision near Marengo. Are there more such trees to be found in Illinois? Undoubtedly. But consider the effort needed to read the survey notes and then to walk the section lines looking for survivors. Also, most roads follow section lines or their subdivisions and road builders do not skirt or spare trees.

With the benefit of more than 200 years hindsight since the first surveys were conducted in Ohio, what can be said about the entire process? What were the long-term positive and negative impacts of this truly Herculean enterprise which may have been the largest public works enterprise in the history of the United States prior to 1850?

On the negative side, the main objection is that the shape of the land was often not consistent with rectilinear measure. Boundaries which would have been "natural" in terms of water courses, streams and rivers, woodland edges and other natural features were ignored. Similarly, the survey grid assured that roads would be built almost exclusively either north-south or east-west. Thus the distances between towns and villages were longer than necessary. This meant and means extra expense for fuel, whether in the form of oats for the horses in the 1800s or gasoline for modern vehicles. Those are the main negatives I have been able to find.

On the plus side, the system was basically simple and easy to use and to understand. Titles could be rapidly and efficiently conveyed and reconveyed with little room for controversy over boundaries. The proceeds of land sales helped to balance the budget and finance the Federal government in an era which preceded the income tax by more than 100 years. Survey workers were paid cash which was almost always spent or reinvested in the local economy. The new land, once sold and occupied, provided tax revenues at the state and local level on a continuing basis. The permanent settlement of and investment in open land by individuals helped stabilize the new nation. Little appreciated at the time of the surveys was the fact that the survey notes, the observations of land features, monuments, springs, large trees, prairie to savanna and forest edges and aspects of the vegetation would supply information of enormous benefit 150-200 years later. In many contemporary locations our thoughts of land have turned from intensive agriculture to recreational use, restoration to pre-settlement conditions or simply efforts to understand what the essential antecedent "nature" of a particular location may have been. At first thousands and eventually millions of people were able to peaceably occupy, purchase and support themselves on land which prior to settlement had been very sparsely used or occupied. Along the way the agricultural productivity of the Northwest Territory land became the envy of the world as it remains to this day. Two dollars an acre has become $2,000 an acre, and often more.

VI. POSTSCRIPT
Early last year I attended an excellent class at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History which ignited my interest in the Public Land Survey. This class in Landscape Genealogy was taught by Ed Collins, Restoration Ecologist for McHenry County. Ed talked about the general methods of the survey and how important the field notes are in understanding what the landscape was like around the time of settlement there in the 1830s. I had probably heard about the survey before, but it is usually something mentioned or referred to only in passing. For some time I have been interested in how Illinois came to be settled. My maternal great grandparents were settlers in McLean County, Illinois in the 1870s. My paternal grandparents moved to McLean County from LaRue County, Kentucky in the early 1900s. I grew up surrounded by cornfields and farm people. I used to think something like this "There was a lot of vacant land in a place called Illinois prior to 1800. Then the government and some settlers came and chased the Indians out and, finding that it was very rich land, the settlers wrote to their relatives everywhere, and soon the state was filled with people and farms." In fact Illinois settlement was sparse prior to 1820 and continued in the northern part of the state well after 1840. But the settlement influx here between 1820 and 1840 was fast and large. The surveyors and the land offices could hardly keep pace, and land was regularly settled before it was sold. No wonder that all the survey lines were not perfect. What difference did it make? A section marker a few feet shorter or longer than a perfect mile was of little consequence so long as the survey work could move on. At least the boundaries were fixed by the survey monuments and not thereafter subject to dispute.

Back to my fascination with this subject. One afternoon last summer walking across the Loop I recalled that I had spent three summers in the middle 1950s in the employ of the United States Department of Agriculture measuring cornfields with farmers, checking to see whether they had planted within the acreage limits of their U.S.D.A. allotment. We did this by walking the circumference of planted fields, and measuring distances using a 100' steel tape. I had a slide rule at the time which I used to quickly convert field measurements into square feet and acres. This enabled me to compute acreage to substantial accuracy within a few seconds after measurement. This low-tech wizardry gave me good credibility with farmers, but if my quick computation was questioned or in doubt we would do the math longhand and get an exact but essentially the same result. I did this day after day and week after week for three summers, walking along the borders of 40 acre, 80 acre and other uneven sized fields on hundreds of farms across McLean County in central Illinois. As I recalled my summer experience of the 1950s, a sense of kinship with the surveyors came upon me. I had walked and measured many of the very same section lines traversed by those surveyors well over one hundred years earlier. In that sense we were brothers engaged in a common pursuit. Young fellows out walking on a summer day, doing something to try to advance our station in the world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A version of this paper would have been delivered on December 11, 2000, but for the intervention of the blizzard of December 9 and 10, resulting in cancellation of the December 11 meeting. The reset date of February 5, 2001 was also in doubt as a result of a fire at the Cliff Dwellers Club on January 28, until alternative site arrangements at the Mid-Day Club of Chicago were made. The delay permitted some alterations to the paper in response to very helpful editorial comments from Barry Kritzberg, my friend and neighbor of some 30 years. Dee Janusz has been very patient in putting multiple manuscript revisions through the excellent Sidley & Austin word processing system. I am indebted (for inspiration) to Ed Collins of McHenry County, Illinois (as noted in the paper) and to Fred Durenberg of Johnsburg, Illinois for field demonstrations of the survey equipment used by Illinois surveyors in the 1830s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Buisseret, David, Editor. From Sea Charts to Satellite Images: Interpreting North American History Through Maps. University of Chicago Press, 1990. 340 pp. The chapter entitled "Maps of the Township and Range System" by Donald E. Grim (pp. 89-109) was of principal interest to me.

Grim, Ronald F. Historical Geography of the United States. Detroit Michigan, Gale Group, 1982. 291 pp. This volume in its entirety is a bibliography on its subject with many helpful references to books, periodicals and literature as of its date. Grim (was/is) bibliographer in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress.

Pattison, William D. Beginning of the American Rectangular Survey System, 1784-1800. Columbus, Ohio Historical Society, 1970. This is the best and one of the only carefully researched sources on the origins and early years of the public land survey. The book was Pattison's dissertation for his Ph.D. in geography at the University of Chicago. It is available at the Newberry Library and via Internet dealers in out-of-print books. This volume was also published by the University of Chicago Press in 1957.

Articles

McClain, William E. A Tale of Two Surveys: The GLO and INAI. Illinois Audubon Society Magazine, Winter 1999-2000, pp. 4-12. William McClain, an employee of the Illinois DNR, has written and lectured extensively on the natural history of Illinois.

Hutchison, Max. A Guide to Understanding, Interpreting, and Using the Public Land Survey Field Notes in Illinois. Natural Areas Journal 8(4):245-255 (1988).

Websites

A Location Guide to the General Land Office GLO Survey Plats by Tom Huber (Thuber@ILSOS.NET) of the Illinois State Library. He writes: "It is a listing of where you can find the plats and notes in all 30 public land states." The site is: www.library.sos.state.il.us/isl/ref/glo/illinois.html.

Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales. This site provides access to a database on some 550,000 land sales from the 54,740 square miles of public domain land sold in Illinois. You need the Township and Range legal description of the land in which you are interested to use the site. www.sos.state.il.us/depts/archives/data_lan.html. For guidance, call the Illinois State Archives Reference Unit at (217) 783-3556.

The Illinois State Museum site provides access through an internal search engine to publications and their location bearing on many aspects of the public land survey and related matters. The site is: www.museum.state.il.us/cgi-bin/htsearch.

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There are many websites dealing with various aspects of the survey. You can use any search engine and get references by entering the phrase "public land survey".

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