tier of States the State government preceded the township government and created it; hence those democratic elements did not develop as they were found in New England, where the township existed first and created the States. 206. County-Township Conflict in Illinois. - When Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818 the greater number of her citizens were emigrants from the South, who had settled in the southern part of the State; so the State was divided into counties, which were governed by a small board of county commissioners elected at large according to the Pennsylvania plan. By 1848 when the second State constitution was framed, New England settlers, or emigrants with New England ideas, had settled in large numbers in the northern part of the State; so in this constitution we find a local option provision which permitted the voters of each county to divide the county into townships whenever the majority should vote in favor thereof. To-day eighty-five of the 102 counties of the State have townships. 207. Township Officers in the Central States. The New England title of selectmen is nowhere found in the Central States. In Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas their place is taken by a "board of supervisors" or "trustees." In other States there is a well-defined head officer who is assisted, and checked in some matters, by a township board. In New York, Michigan, and Illinois, where this officer is called "supervisor," he is also a member of the county board of supervisors. In Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma the title of "township trustee" is applied to this officer. The other usual township officers are the clerk, assessor, treasurer, overseer of the poor, overseer of roads, justices of the peace, and constables. 208. Village Government Weakens Township Government. Townships of the Central States are not only under greater State and county control than New England townships, but as soon as a considerable settlement develops it will obtain a 'village" or town" charter from the State and then exist as a separate government, performing all or certain functions within its boundaries that were formerly performed by the township. In New England many compactly settled communities which would be incorporated cities in other States and absolutely independent of the township are there a part of the township. IV. GEOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIPS 209. The Terms "Governmental Township" and "Geographica Township" Distinguished. In the preceding sections we discussed townships merely as divisions of territory for the purpose of government, and these are known as governmental or political townships. Divisions of territory for the purpose of surveys are another kind of townships, and are known as geographical or congressional townships because they are merely bounded by imaginary lines drawn upon the earth in accordance with acts of Congress. In States where the geographical townships were surveyed before settlements were made, they were generally used also as governmental townships; but in some localities natural obstacles, such as rivers and mountains, made them unsuitable for purposes of government, and separate areas were created for governmental townships. 210. Conditions Preceding Geographical Townships. - During the colonial period New England and the Southern States developed two very different land systems. In the South as the settlers pushed from Virginia and North Carolina into Kentucky and Tennessee the pioneer selected a fertile piece of land where he chose and occupied it. A rude survey was made by a public surveyor or his inexperienced deputy, the limits were marked by "blazing" the trees with a hatchet, and the survey was put on record in the State land office. Conflicting patents 1 were not infrequently given for the 1"Patent" as here used means a written title to land granted by the proper State authority. 40 193° same tracts, and this produced no end of law suits. Some of the feuds for which the mountains of eastern Kentucky were once famous are said to have grown out of these disputed land patents and the irregularly shaped pieces of land which lay between the patents. This Southern system, which encouraged initiative and resourcefulness, has been called "indiscriminate location." In New England the laying out of geographical townships preceded the settlements made during the eighteenth century, and there could be no title to land outside of townships. Square townships were easier to survey in a systematic way than those of any other shape; hence when the land north of the Ohio River, known as the Northwest Territory, was to be surveyed Thomas Jefferson suggested that it be surveyed into square townships for convenience of description when sold by the government, and to prevent disputes as to title. He also had in mind that they would be of convenient size as governmental townships. 211. Geographical Townships in the West. When Congress was preparing for the government and settlement of this Northwest Territory, the National Government decided that it should be laid out into townships six miles square. A law of Congress passed in 1785 applied this system of rectangular surveys to all lands belonging to our public domain. This 1 The fact that a six-mile square rather than any other size square was adopted by Congress has no special significance. "Ordinance of 1785” was the foundation of the American land system, and its leading principles have continued in operation to the present day. According to the system gradually perfected, north-andsouth and east-and-west lines are established. As starting points certain meridians have been designated as prime meridians. There are twenty-four of these, the first being the dividing line between Ohio and Indiana, and the last running a little west of Portland, Oregon. On each side of the prime meridian are subordinate meridians known as range lines. These lines are six miles apart and are numbered east and west from their prime meridian. There must On each side of a base line are subordinate parallels called township lines, six miles apart, and numbered north and south from their base line. Thus these range lines and township lines divide the land into townships six miles square. The map shows the prime meridians and base lines in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, that is, in the area between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. From any prime meridian the tier of townships directly east is called range 1 east (R. 1 E. in Figure 1) and of course other ranges are numbered east and west of that meridian. They are likewise numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. both north and south of the base line. Thus the sectioned township in Figure 1 is township 4 north, range 4 east of the 2d Prime Meridian in the State of Indiana. 6543 2 7 8 9 10 11 18 17 16 15 11 14 13 21 21 22 23 29 28 27 33 34 35 24 36 This township six miles square is surveyed into thirty-six square miles, which are numbered as shown in Figure 2, and each square mile is called a section. Each section is subdivided into rectangular tracts known as halves, quarters, 27 26 25 half quarters, and quarter quarters, as shown in Figure 3. Thus if we consider this square mile (Figure 3) as section 1 of Figure 2 we should describe the forty-acre Six Miles Square FIGURE 2. tract starred in Figure 3 as follows: SW1, of conveyance without the costly aid of private surveyors. BIBLIOGRAPHY GILBERTSON, H. J. The County. 1917. JAMES, H. G. Local Government in the United States. 1921. MAXEY, C. C. County Administration. 1919. The Manual or Legislative Handbook of your State. QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 1. Explain how county government originated in America. 2. What functions are performed by county governments? 3. What State first established county "boards of supervisors"? "Boards of commissioners"? How did they differ originally? 1 A deed of conveyance is a contract giving the boundaries of real estate transferred from one person to another. |