Learned Something New
The complex situation which occurs mostly in AL and FL with half mile posts is dicsussed in an appendix in the 1947 Manual, as Section 5-39 in the 1973 Manual, and again as an appendix to one of the restoration chapters in the 2009 Manual.
Half mile posts were set by deputy surveyors following early instructions which were issued by the surveyors general for the lands south of Tennessee, (one example being what are referred to as the Coffee Instructions) where unlike the Tiffen instructions, many section lines were run cardinal to intersections. Thus the half mile post at 40 chains did not meet the legal requirement from the act of 1805 that it at least purport to be set at midpoint. In some cases the half mile post didn't end up being on line or at midpoint.
Thus very early on (1806) the Secretary of the Treasury informed the Surveyor General that those corners not set at midpoint could not function as 1/4 corners. The corners were never corrected in the field, but in some notes a call for the actual 1/4 corner at midpoint were inserted.
AL even has a Supreme Court decision that says basically that half mile posts are to be ignored entirely.
They key might be found on the plat but since many of the early plats don't show even protracted subdivision of section, you can look up the patent, most of them are on line. If the acreages patented for the quarters are 1/4 of the section acreage, then the 1/4 corner should be considered to be at midpoint and you would not use the position of the half mile post to prorate it in. If the section was patented as a whole you can do anything you want.
Of course if no federal lands are involved state case and common law doctrines relating to unwritten rights may come into play, but surveyors in those states should be aware of how intent of the laws in determining how the title originally passed from the US.
There has been a lot of confusion about it over the years too so you may find articles to the contrary.
- jlw
PS since proration was already being considered it should be relevant to know why some surveyors are setting the 1/4 cor. at midpoint and also why the half mile post is not at midpoint even though the section is probably not fractional.
As follow up and hopefully the conclusion to the story, I set my monument at the midpoint on the section line and proceeded to divide section 9 accordingly. There was some grumbling from the owner of the parcel in section 9 adjacent to the quarter corner but lo and behold his own mother set him straight about the suspicious pipe/goat stake. Seems that she knew who and when that pipe was stuck up there and it was never intended to be a property corner...thank you, mama. So now my clients are happy, the neighbors are happy but the other surveyor who divided section 8 based on the pipe won't return my calls. Guess you can't please everyone.
