Iowa State. List of local land offices from 1800 to 1880-Continued. Location. Illinois....... Sioux City Kaskaskia. Kansas Louisiana Michigan Minnesota. Shawneetown. Edwardsville Vandalia When established. Act June 12, 1838. Feb. 20, 1843. Act June 12, 1838. Act Mar. 3, 1855 Act Mar. 3, 1855.. Act June 20, 1874.. Act Jan. 30, 1833. Act June 15, 1836. Act Mar. 1, 1847. Act June 15, 1836. Act Apr. 12, 1854.. Jan. 27, 1870. Act Apr. 12, 1854. Removed or discontinued. To Marion. Closed June 21, 1859. To Council Bluffs. To Kickapoo. To Humboldt. To Wichita. To Kirwin. To Wa-Keeney. February 16, 1861-'66. To New Orleans, Jan. 21, 1879. To Greensburg. To Baton Rouge. To New Orleans. To White Pigeon Prairie. To Marquette. To Mackinac. To Traverse City. Consolidated with Reed City. To Reed City. To Chatfield. To Winnebago City. To Jackson. To Worthington. To Forest City. To Greenleaf, To Saint Peter. To New Ulm. State. List of local land offices from 1800 to 1880—Continued. Location. Minnesota. New Ulm.. Tracy Mississippi.... Missouri...... Alexandria Fergus Falls.. Oak Lake.. Detroit Crookston Stillwater. Cambridge Sunrise City Taylor's Falls. Sauk Rapids Saint Cloud.. Henderson.. Buchanan. Portland. Duluth Ojibway Otter Tail City. Redwood Falls. Augusta... Paulding.. Washington Mount Salus. Jackson Chocchuma When established. Mar. 17, 1870. July 15, 1878 Act Aug. 30, 1852.. Act Apr. 12, 1854.. July 8, 1856. Act Mar. 3, 1811.. July 5, 1832 Act Feb. 17, 1818.. To Ironton. Montana Nebraska Boonville Jackson Ironton July 8, 1861 Lexington Act Mar. 23, 1823. To Clinton. Clinton July 3, 1843 To Warsaw. July 18, 1855 Act May 26, 1824.. Act June 26, 1834.. Act Aug. 29, 1842. Act Feb. 26 1849.. June, 1867.. July 22, 1854 May 1, 1869 Sept. 9, 1873. To Calhoun. To West Point. To Norfolk. Norfolk Brownsville July 3, 1868.. Act July 2, 1862. May, 1873.. To Niobrara. To Bloomington. To Eureka. To Pioche. September 14, 1877. To Independence, Cal., May 31, 1873. September 14, 1877. Act June 12, 1840. List of existing local land offices (96 in number) and names of officers, November 10, 1880. California.. Colorado Dakota Florida Idaho Iowa... Kansas Florence Central City. Boisé City. Oxford Concordia Wa-Keeney Independence Kirwin Larned Salina Wichita Register. John M. Cross Pelham J. Anderson Thomas M. Gibson Gustavus A. Wetter. Receiver. W. H. Tancre. Solomon Cooper. Charles H. Chamberlain. Charles A. Brastow. William J. Anderson. John F. Rollins. James Stout. Richard J. Monroe. A. W. Eaton. List of existing local land offices and names of officers-Continued. Register. George Baldy. R. B. Kinne... Ferdinand A. Husher.. George W. Fay. Stephen H. Alban Edgar W. Mann William G. Tonn H. McMaster. Receiver. William M. Burwell. Fred. J. Burton. James M. Wilkinson. William II. C. Mitchell. Heman W. Stone. Paul C. Sletten. Thomas H. Pressnell John H. Allen. C. N. Baird. William B. Lambert. Samuel C. Wright. Alex. Reed. James M. Adams. William M. Garvey. Henry R. Crosby. Salt Lake City. Moses M. Bane. Registers and receivers are paid an annual salary of $500 each, and are allowed fees up to and including $3,000 per annum each. 12 L O-VOL III CHAPTER VII. SURVEYS OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. The cessions of the several States were organized from time to time into geographical divisions by the laws creating them and the lands were ordered to be surveyed, including lands to which the Indian title had been or would be extinguished. The same proceeding took place with purchased territory in 1803, 1819, 1848, 1850, and 1853. The extension of the surveys being authorized by Congress over a district of country, the Commissioner of the General Land Office directs the surveyor-general of the district, whose office is created by the law prior to extending the surveys, to begin the вате. THE RECTANGULAR SYSTEM. The land surveys under the United States are uniform and done under what is known as the "rectangular system." This system of surveys was reported from a committee of Congress May 7, 1784. The committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, chairman; Messrs. Williamson, Howell, Gerry, and Reas. 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 counting from west to east and from east to west continuously; and also that the lands thus subdivided should be first offered at public sale. This ordinance was considered, debated, and amended; and on the 3d of May, 1785, on motion of Mr. Grayson, of Virginia, seconded by Mr. Monroe, the size of the townships was reduced to six miles square. It was further discussed until the 20th of May, 1785, when it was finally passed. The origin of this system is not known beyond the committee's report. There had been land surveys in the different colonies for more than a hundred years; still the method of granting land for settlements in vogue in all the colonies was in irregular tracts, except in the colony of Georgia, where, after 1733, eleven townships of 20,000 square acres each were divided into lots of 50 acres each. The act of cession of the State of Virginia of her western territory provided for the formation of States from the same not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square. This square form of States may have influenced Mr. Jefferson in favor of a square form of survey, and besides the even surface of the country was known, the lack of mountains and the prevalence of trees for marking it also favoring a latitudinal and longitudinal system. Certain east and west lines run with the parallels of latitude, and the north and south township lines with the meridians. The system as adopted provided for sale in sections of 640 acres, one mile square. In 1820 a quarter-section, or 160 acres, could be purchased. In 1832 subdivisions were ordered by law into 40-acre tracts or quarter-quarter-sections to settlers, and in 1846 to all purchasers. On May 18, 1796, the ordinance of May 20, 1785, was amended; also on May 10, 1800, on the introduction of land offices and credit sales, and on February 11, 1805; April 24, 1820; April 5, 1832; and May 30, 1862. (For existing laws on surveys 178 |