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| image courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey |
This image comes from the "new" General Land Office (GLO) township plat for Township 34 North, Range 6 West of the Fifth Principal Meridian in Missouri.
It is dated November 30, 1861
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| image courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey |
and is signed by William Cuddy, Surveyor General for Missouri and Illinois
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| image courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey |
The oddity in this example is found in the southwest quarter of Section 18, where we see that the quarter section has been quartered into aliquot parts. The "normal" procedure for the western tier of sections is to form as many lots of regular size as possible with the remainder being fractional, as was done in the northwest quarter of Section 18 and the west half of Section 19. So, why would the northwest quarter of Section 18 be protracted "normally," while the southwest quarter is protracted differently? Let's investigate further.
If we look for an "old" General Land Office township plat for Township 34 North, Range 6 West, we find the following:
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| image courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey |
This township plat is dated January 1, 1822
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| image courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey |
and is signed by Elisha Sims for William H. Ashley, the contracted deputy surveyor
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| image courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey |
Looking at this "old" township plat, we notice the red letter "S" in the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 18. Looking in the margin of the "old" plat, we find the following explanation:
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| image courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey |
From this explanation we learn that the northern and western tier of sections were protracted in the Surveyor General's office on September 27, 1847 to accommodate the Act of Congress of April 5, 1832, which permitted the sale of quarter-quarter sections as the smallest unit of sale. We also learn that the southwest quarter of Section 18 was protracted to conform to a previous sale, indicated by the red letter "S" that we see in the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 18.
To find out more about the sequence of sales in the west half of Section 18, we can search for patent information at the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management website, www.glorecords.blm.gov. The results are as follows:
Location Acres Patentee Issue Date
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SE 1/4 SW 1/4 39.10 John Smith 1848 Mar 01
NE 1/4 SW 1/4 39.10 John Smith 1849 Apr 10
W 1/2 SW 1/4 78.20 Christopher Howell 1856 Sep 01
NW 1/4 157.19 William Hewes 1860 Aug 01
From this information we see that the patent for the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter was issued on March 1, 1848. This date is after the protraction date of September 27, 1847, but probably represents the delay between the application for a patent and the issuance of the patent.
So, from the facts that we have gathered here we can come to the following conclusion as to why this oddity occurred:
- Lands in Township 34 North, Range 6 West of the Fifth Principal Meridian became available for sale.
- The Act of Congress of April 5, 1832 permitted the sale of land in quarter-quarter sections.
- The western tier of sections in this township had not been protracted into units smaller than the quarter section until September 27, 1847. (This had not been mentioned previously, but an examination of the 1822 township plat shows this to be so.)
- John Smith purchased a tract of land of a size permitted by the Act of April 5, 1832 with reference to a plat that had not yet been protracted into units that small.
- Since the plat had not yet been protracted, the land office official apparently made the assumption that the tract would be determined by aliquot part and made the sale accordingly.
- When the plat was later protracted into lots by a clerk in the Surveyor General's office, the previous sale had to be honored and not changed, even though it did not conform to the norm.
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original composition by Steven E. Weible
