Does anyone know what Surveying Districts existed at the time the Manual of Instructions of 1855 was printed?
At the beginning of the manual it states:
FOR THE SURVEYING DISTRICTS ESTABLISHED IN AND SINCE THE YEAR 1850.
I need to either find or make a map showing what the districts were on this date. For instance, Nebraska and Kansas was one district.
Not sure what constitutes a "district", but on both sides of 1845 Dr. Silas Reed was the "principal surveyor" for Illinois & Missouri.
History: For most of the active period of public land settlement, district land offices were the basic operating units that conducted the business of transferring title. All transactions relative to the disposal of public land within a declared land district were handled through its land office by officials designated as registers, who recorded land applications, and receivers, who accepted payments for land and issued receipts. The position of receiver was abolished, July 1, 1925, and the functions devolved upon the register, whose title was changed to "manager" by Reorganization Plan No. III of 1946, effective July 16, 1946.
The first of 362 land offices was opened at Steubenville, OH, on July 2, 1800; the last at Newcastle, WY, on March 1, 1920. The peak year for land offices was 1890, with 123 in operation. The subsequent closing of the public domain gradually reduced the number of land offices, until, in 1933, only 25 offices remained. Under BLM, the district land offices and their functions were integrated into regional administrative structures, becoming, variously, elements (sometimes styled land offices) in the regional office hierarchies or components of multifunction district offices. The process was concluded by BLM Circular 2342, May 2, 1973, which formally discontinued use of the term "land offices." Records described below include some created by successor organizational units, but assigned by GLO and BLM to series begun by district land offices.
There may not be a definitive answer to this. If I look at the GLO 1855 Annual Report it lists many states and some I suspect may have had surveys started prior to 1850.
Those states listed in the 1855 Annual Report with work being done are:
Michigan
Iowa / Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinois / Missouri
Arkansas
Louisiana
Florida
California
Oregon
Washington
New Mexico
Kansas / Nebraska
A differentiation should be made between surveying districts and land office districts, as there were relatively few offices giving out contracts and instructions to deputy surveyors, but several land offices making sales.
According to the letters of instruction to individual deputies, as recorded in J.S. Dodds book Original Instructions Governing Public Land Surveys of Iowa, those working in Iowa received their letters from Cincinnati through 1838 and from Dubuque from 1839 through the 1860's.
Meanwhile, sales were conducted from land offices progressively further west as the frontier moved. Roscoe Lokken, Iowa Public Land Disposal, page 119 has a map of land districts after 1855 that includes Dubuque, Decorah, Marion, Iowa City, Osage, Fairfield, Ft. Des Moines, Ft. Dodge, Chariton, Council Bluffs, and Sioux City.
> Those states listed in the 1855 Annual Report with work being done are:
In 1855 Oregon was still a territory, which included- in addition to modern Oregon- modern day Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. These last 4 didn't gain statehood until 35 years after that date. A reference to "Washington" in this 1855 report surprises me.
My error in calling some of these locations "States" instead of "Territories". Nebraska did not become a state until 1867, so 12 years after the 1855 Manual was issued.
Your post has forced me to do a little learning. Washington Territory was split off from Oregon in 1853. So it did exist in 1855. Idaho Territory wasn't split off from Washington in 1863. So this reference to Washington Territory would also include modern Idaho, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming.
Modern Idaho?
> Your post has forced me to do a little learning. Washington Territory was split off from Oregon in 1853. So it did exist in 1855. Idaho Territory wasn't split off from Washington in 1863. So this reference to Washington Territory would also include modern Idaho, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming.
Is there actually any part of Idaho that is modern? Isn't it, like, all log cabins, survivalists, and potato farmers?
Modern Idaho?
Bordering on insensitive there Kent?
I've got friends in Idaho and happen to know that it is a wonderful place to raise children..
(without social security numbers..)
(I hope everybody understands this is all tongue-in-cheek...I live in Oklahoma fer gawd sake!)
