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Cursed
be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say,
Amen. Deuteronomy 27:17
From: Alfred Schneider,
Subject: “Townships”
versus “Towns” versus “Tiers”
Here are a few definitions to sort of sort out the
above related terms:
Township – A township is a unit in the
sectionalized land system, typically including 36
mile-square sections, and thus measuring about six
miles by six miles. Townships are
numbered.
Town – A town is a unit of government, such as the
Town of
Often a Town includes exactly one Township, but not
always. Towns are named.
Tier – If you look at a map showing the scheme for
numbering townships in
Range – On a map of
that.
So the proper terminology for a typical numbered
township was intended to be, for example,
“Township Tier 37 North, Range 1 West.”
That got to be quite a mouthful, so over the years
people have abbreviated it by dropping the “Tier.” Thus “Township 37 North,
Range 1 West.”
Some go one step further and drop the “Range.” Thus “Township 37 North, 1
West.”
Because all the tiers in
And if you are talking to someone familiar with the
system, you can substitute initials for words.
Thus, ”T37-1W.”
Incidentally, did you know that Thomas Jefferson
was a member of the committee which sat down to dream up this system? At the first meeting, being mathematically
inclined, he realized a decimal (multiples of 10) grid would work best with our
decimal number system. So he suggested
the townships consist of 100 mile-square sections, measuring 10 miles by 10 miles.
He pointed out that the top tier could be numbered
l thru 10, from left to right, with next tier being 11 thru 20, and so on. That way it would be easy to visualize the location of any particular section. He then excused himself from the committee
because he had some pressing business to take care of in
The committee proceeded to disregard his
suggestion, because they wanted smaller townships.
Their vision for the future included each numbered
township coinciding with a civil town, where the nucleus community (blacksmith
- feed mill – church – tavern – general store, etc.,) would be located in the geographic
center of the town. They agreed that,
for someone living near the boundary of the town, a round-trip wagon ride of 10
miles, in to the town center and back in one day, was too long. They agreed a round-trip of six miles would
be OK, and therefore settled on a township of 36 sections, along with its convoluted
numbering system.
As it turned out, many civil towns developed with
boundaries other than a numbered township’s.
In
Also, as it turned out, at least in northern