Information on
Land Legal Descriptions
And
Townships
Linda Haas Davenport
I had often heard that my grandmother was born in Flippin but her step-siblings were born in Jimmies Creek and her elder siblings were born in White River. When I was new to searching for family history I spent a lot of time looking for towns called Jimmies Creek and White River. It took me awhile to discover that these two places were townships not towns.
There are two types of "Townships" - one refers to a congressional or voting district while the other is a description of land that is used in legal descriptions in deeds.
The one that most people are familiar with are the townships that have "names" - such as Jimmies Creek or White River. We find references to these names in many of the old records. If you look through the abstracts of the Mt. Echo you will find many references to these townships. For example: "News from Jimmies Creek" or in the "marriage licenses issued" section it often gives a township name after the person's name. This type of township changes over the years as the county government reassigns voting districts. See Mysty McPherson's
List of Townships to see what I mean. Also these townships do not tie to the other type of Township.The other type of township is used in legal descriptions in deeds. In looking at deeds you often see a legal description that looks something like this: "SW 1/4 of NE 1/4 S34, TS19N, R14W". Translated this means: "The southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 34, township 19 North, Range 14 West." This type of township never changes. It was set when AR was surveyed prior to becoming a state. O.K., you say, but your translation doesn't mean a thing to me!
Humm..... then it's lesson time.
Arkansas is something called a "Pubic Domain State" which simply means that the land in AR was surveyed and described by something called "The US Land Survey System" in which a large square section of land is laid out in a grid and then broken down by Meridian, Section, Township and Range. Each "square" is continually broken down into smaller pieces, while still keeping the land in a designated section. For example: "... the following tract or parcel of land lying in the county of Marion and State of Arkansas known and described as the SW 1/4 of Section 1, Township 10, Range 7 East of the base Meridian"
The actual definition of the US Land Survey System is:
"The US Land Survey System is cartographically represented by lines running North and South and East and West. These lines are 6 miles apart and the squares formed in this manner contain 36 square miles and are called Congressional Townships. This system of survey starts from the intersection of a principal Meridian and a Base line.
The numbers starting from each intersection of the principal Meridian and Base line, increasing North or South along the meridians are known as Township Numbers and those going East and West along the Base lines are called Range numbers."
Each of the squares above represents a township and within each township are 36 sections broken down like the grid below. The black numbers are the sections within the township and the red numbers are the sections in the adjoining townships.
|
36 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
36 |
31 |
|
1 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
|
12 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
7 |
|
13 |
18 |
17 |
16 |
15 |
14 |
13 |
18 |
|
24 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
19 |
|
25 |
30 |
29 |
28 |
27 |
26 |
25 |
30 |
|
36 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
36 |
31 |
|
1 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
Each section of 640 acres (above) is divided into quarters:
|
NW 1/4 160 acres |
NE 1/4 160 Acres |
|
SW 1/4 160 Acres |
SE 1/4 160 Acres |
As property is sold each of these quarters is broken down into smaller and smaller pieces, with all pieces keeping the N, S, E, W designations
Here is an example of what a section can actually end up looking like.
Map courtesy of: Gallup Map & Supply Co Kansas City, MO
Which makes it easy to locate a particular piece of property if you know the section / township / range.
The Marion County Court House has copies of a map called "County Road Number Map Marion County Arkansas" which is free if you visit the courthouse in person. To order by mail send a couple of bucks to cover the envelope and postage.
This map has all of the sections / townships / ranges marked along with the current roads, lakes, towns, etc.
Use the Congressional Township maps here on the site to locate the township within the county. Then look at the county road map and you will be able to place the township in the correct Section/Township/Range area on the map.
I have added the current townships and ranges for all of Marion Co. See the Map Index.
If you are fortunate enough to have an old deed that gives the legal description of your ancestor's property you pin point the location of the property on the current road map of the county.
If I can answer any questions for you drop me a note.
"This Page Was Last Updated Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 09:30:23 CDT"