The early government land survey in Minnesota west of the Mississippi River

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Minnesota Historical Society
Vol. X. Plate II.

THE EARLY GOVERNMENT LAND SURVEY IN
MINNESOTA WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI
RIVER*

BY HON. THOMAS SIMPSON.

SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT SURVEYS.

Well founded tradition gives to George Washington, the first
President of the Republic, the credit of devising the plan for the
survey of lands which for nearly a century has been applied to
the survey of the public domain of the United States.

This plan or system '^f surveys has as its unit the square acre ;
then the section, a mile square, 640 square acres ; then the town-
ship, six miles square, containing 36 square sections. The town-
ships lying between two consecutive meridians six miles apart
constitute a range, and the ranges are numbered from principal
meridians both east and west. In each range the townships are
numbered both north and south from the principal east and west
base line.

For obvious reasons the author of this plan or system of land
surveys did not have the occasion for putting the same into prac-
tical operation, since each of the thirteen colonies had adopted
systems of surveys of the lands granted them by Great Britain,
which could not readily be conformed to this system. It was in-
augurated and carried out in the survey of lands which have come
into the possession of the general government after the adoption
of the constitution, known generally as Government Lands, some-
times as Public Lands, or as the General Domain.

^Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, December 11, 1899.

58 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

This plan of surveys was to some extent inaugurated in 1803
by Col. Jared Mansfield, then surveyor general of the Northwest
Territory; and was subsequently enacted as a law, in 1804, upon
the recommendation of President Jefferson.

The more general feature of this plan of surveys of the public
domain, thus devised and covered by the enactment of Congress,
provides for the establishment of principal meridians, extended
north and south from an east and west base line. These are num-
bered from the east to the west, as the first, second, third, fourth,
and fifth principal meridians; and the lands in Minnesota lying
west of the Mississippi river are all described as west of the fifth
principal meridian.

Tliese principal meridians were established in the beginning,
in the successive "land districts," over each of which was appoint-
ed a surveyor general, who controlled the surveys in his district,
subject to such rules, regulations, and directions, as should be
given him from time to time by the commissioner of the General
Land Office at Washington. Hence the first principal meridian
was the most easterly, in the first surveyor general's land district
designated by the general government.

It is not, perhaps, strictly germane to the special subject to be
presented in this paper, that I should enter into a more particular
description of these principal meridians, and the points upon the
east and west base lines from which they were respectively run and
established. I have in this paper to deal mainly with the govern-
ment survey of public lands in Minnesota lying west of the Miss-
issippi river, which, as I have already stated, were and are de-
scribed as west of the fifth principal meridian.

That a clearer understanding of these surveys may be given,
it should be stated that the east and west base line from which
the townships in Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota west of the river,
are numbered, passes nearly through the center of the State of
Arkansas. The townships in the first tier on the north side of
that line are designated as numbered one north, and each town-
ship in the first tier south of that line is designated and described
as township number one south, — counting north and south from
this base line.

This will answer and explain the oft repeated inquiry, what
this word north means in describing townships in Minnesota.
When, in describing land, after giving the number of the section,

EARLY GOVERNMENT LAND SURVEYS. 59

we say, for instance, in township number 120 north, we mean it
is that number north, counting from the east and west base Hne
I have referred to.

We also say such or such a range number west, meaning
west of the fifth principal meridian.

The number of townships from the base line in central
Arkansas up through Missouri and Iowa to the south boundary
line of Minnesota is 100 ; so that the north tier of townships in
Iowa next to the state line is mumbered 100, and the south tier
of townships in Minnesota north of and next to the boundary
line is numbered loi, the next 102, and so on.

The government surveys of public lands in Minnesota lying
east of the Mississippi river have as their east and west base line
the south boundary of the state of Wisconsin, or, to speak more
accurately, the boundary line between the states of Illinois and
Wisconsin. Therefore the numbering of the townships of the
public surveys of lands in Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi
river is entirely different from the numbering of townships west
of the river. Most of the government surveys of land in Min-
nesota lying east of the Mississippi river were completed very
early, and before the surveys of lands west of the river were
made.

The two systems of surveys have no connection, except that
in the northern part of our state there are lands, east of the river,
which are described as being west of the fifth principal meridian.

CONVERGENGY OF MERIDIANS.

Very early in the history of the surveys of the public lands
of this country, a difficulty arose because of what is now generally
called "the convergency of meridians." It was found by actual
measurement (which should have been known without) that these
principal meridians, starting from points on an east and west base
line and running therefrom on a true north course to their inter-
section with the Great Lakes, were, at such northern intersection,
nearer one another than at the points where they started from the
base line. The effect of this convergency of the principal merid-
ians was to fractionalize the sections and townships in northern
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, so that in those
parts of these states the government surveys produced townships

60 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

six miles in length north and south, and less than two miles in
width east and west, and sections a mile in length, north and
south, by a few rods wide east and west, thus destroying the unit,
the square acre, the section a mile square (640 acres), and the
township six miles square, of thirty-six sections. It should be
stated that this same serious effect is manifest in the surveys of
the public lands in northern Iowa, the northern boundary of which
is six hundred miles north of the base line in Arkansas.

An attempt to remedy this difficulty by running a series of
east and west correction lines , parallel to the base lines, only cor-
rected the difficulty to a limited extent.

In 1850 this whole matter was referred to a commission of
intelligent scientific men, with Prof. Edward D. Mansfield of
Cincinnati, Ohio, as chairman, who made a report to the com-
missioner of the General Land Office, which report was approved
and adopted by that department and made the basis of instruction
to the surveyor generals in the survey of the public domain there-
after.

GUIDE MERIDIANS AND STANDARD PARALLELS.

The change in the public surveys, as recommended by Mans-
field and adopted by the government, was substantially as follows :
That what should be known as ''guide meridians" should be run
north from an established east and west base line forty-two miles
apart, offsetting a quarter of a mile at every twenty-four mile sta-
tion on such guide meridian to provide against convergency.
These guide meridians were to be intersected by what should be
known as "standard parallels," east and west lines twenty-four
miles apart, thus dividing the public lands into what were to be
known and are known as cheques, measuring forty-two miles east
and west by twenty- four miles north and south, with twenty-eight
square townships in every cheque, except those made fractional
and smaller by bordering on some great natural boundary, as, for
instance, the Alississippi river.

The greatest care was to be observed in running the guide
meridians and standard parallels. They could only be run with
an astronomical instrument known as a solar compass, one of the
most perfect and useful instruments ever invented for running

EARLY GOVERNMENT LAND SURVEYS. 61

lines. Having adjusted its latitude and declination arcs, a line as
perfect as the movement of the sun can be run with it; and the
exact variation of the magnetic needle at any place is readily de-
termined by it, as well as exact time.

Two sets of assistants, compassmen, chainmen, axemen and
markers, were to be employed at the same time in the running of
these lines, so as to guard against possible error. The variation
of the needle, as shown by the solar compass, was to be carefully
noted every quarter of a mile, or oftener if necessary, as a guide
to the surveyors who should come after to run the township and
section Hues.

This new system for conducting the surveys of the public
lands by the government was first inaugurated in the State of
California in the autumn of 1852, and next in Minnesota west of
the Mississippi river, early in the spring of 1853.

SURVEYS IN SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA, 1853-55.

As I had, to some extent, personal supervision and charge
of that work in Minnesota in 1853, 1854, and 1855, I may be
pardoned if hereafter in this paper it seems necessary to make
some few references of a personal nature.

Minnesota at that time was included, with Iowa and Wis-
consin, in a surveyor general's district. The office of the surveyor
general was at Dubuque, Iowa. Hon. Warner Lewis was sur-
veyor general. The boundary line between Iowa and Minnesota
was run and established by Capt. Andrew Talcott of the Topo-
graphical Bureau in 1852, the next year after the Indian title to
lands in southern Minnesota was extinguished by treaty. It was
currently reported that Captain Talcottt, in running this bound-
ary line, had with him as assistants and other employees about
three hundred men. The work was not done under contract. I
traversed that line from the river west a hundred and fifty miles,
early in 1853. The travel of Talcott's company over the line
made it like a highway then, and there were strewed along it
abundant evidences that at times, at least, great hilarity must
have prevailed among the men under his command.

It is but just that I should state that the preliminary line of
this boundary was run by Captain Marsh of Dubuque with a solar

62 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

compass; and it was not changed a particle by Captain Talcott
and his assistants, but was verified by them after making the most
thorough scientific tests thereof.

In January, 1853, the surveyor general, Warner Lewis, gave
a contract to Elisha S. Norris to run the first, second, and third
guide meridians in Minnesota, west of the Mississippi river, and
the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh standard
parallels. The work was to be paid for by the government, ten
dollars per mile for running and establishing the guide meridians,
and eight dollars per mile for standard parallels. Mr. Norris had
been state surveyor of Alaine, and he stood high as an engineer
and surveyor. He had for some years been a deputy surveyor of
the surveyor general's office at Dubuque; he had made a careful
study of the new plan of prosecuting government surveys which
had been devised and suggested by Mansfield ; and, because of
this, had been selected to introduce this new system in the new
Territory of Minnesota. IMr. Norris had been my preceptor, and
I came with him into Minnesota as one of his assistants in this
work.

In the beginning of this work, in the remote southeast corner
of the then Territory, Mr. Norris had the misfortune to get his
solar compass out of adjustment in passing through a dense
thicket, slightly bending both the declination and latitude arcs.
He did not discover it until the inspector of surveys, who was
following closely on the line with a solar compass and chainmen,
called his attention to it and at once reported the blunder to the
surveyor general's office. Mr. Norris was recalled. A great
clamor, born of envy and jealousy on the part of the other dep-
uty surveyors of the office, compelled Gen. Lewis reluctantly to
relieve him, and, because of his desire to make the matter as agree-
able as possible to ^Ir. Norris, and because of the well known
partiality of the surveyor general for myself, together with po-
litical influence to a certain extent from friends (we were all
simon-pure Democrats then), the supervision of these surveys
was given to me, then in my seventeenth year, and I established
these guide meridians and standard parallels in the years 1853
to 1855.

The first line established was not a guide meridian, strictly,
but rather a line beginning on the state line, on the east side of
range four, running north thereon till it intersected the Missis-

EARLY GOVERNMENT LAND SURVEYS. ^'3

sippi river at or near where the city of La Crescent is now sit-
uated.

After completing this line, we returned and went west on the
state line forty-two miles to a point between ranges ten and. eleven,
and thence ran the first guide meridian north between these ranges,
making the required offsets every twenty-four miles. This meridian
intersects the Mississippi river at the foot of lake Pepin, just a lit-
tle above Read's Landing. Returning on this guide meridian to the
state line, we measured west thereon forty-two miles to a point
between ranges seventeen and eighteen, from whence the second
meridian was run north between these ranges, making the re-
quired offsets, till it intersected the Mississippi river close above
the city of Hastings. Returning again to the state line, we once
more measured west thereon forty-two miles to a point between
ranges 24 and 25, where the south point of the third guide merid-
ian was established; and thence we ran it north between these
ranges to its intersection with the Mississippi river near Monti-
cello. The third guide meridian passes through the "Big Woods,"
crosses the Minnesota river at Belle Plaine, goes about three miles
west of lake Minnetonka, and thence crosses the Crow river and
PeHcan lake to its intersection with the Mississippi.

So careful was the government in the establishment of these
base lines, that the instructions were modified as to running the
third guide meridian, requiring that it should be run during the
winter season, after the large number of lakes which were sup-
posed to be thereon were frozen solid, so that the chainmen could
actually measure the line over them, and not trust to mathemat-
ical calculation from triangulation or other methods of deter-
mining distances across impassable places. I was engaged in estab-
lishing this meridian nearly five months, from some time in No-
vember, 1853, to some time in April, 1854. I ran the standard
parallels intersecting these guide meridians. Afterward I did
some township and section work, and terminated my connection
with the surveyor general's ofiice at Dubuque, January i, 1856,
at which time I came to Winona, where I have ever since resided.

The plan of the government surveys of the public domain
devised by Mansfield has to a very great extent answered the
purpose intended. The sections and townships in Minnesota, west
of the Mississippi river, were not fractionalized by the convergency
of meridians ; and I am also told that this is true of the survey of

64 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

public lands by the government in California and elsewhere in the
Union, where from that time this plan has been followed in the
survey of all public lands held by the government.

Perhaps it would not be out of place, in closing this paper,
to make some reference to a few incidents of more or less his-
toric interest which I met with at the time of making these early
government surveys, and to refer to my acquaintance at that time
with some of the earliest pioneers of Minnesota.

CASTLE ROCK AND THE ZUMBRO RIVER.

In running a line some distance southwest of Hastings one
very bright summer day, we came upon a white sandstone pillar
on the smooth open prairie. It was quite high and impressed us
as peculiar, being in that locality without any other similar form-
ation near it, glistening in the bright sunlight. Some of my com-
pany clambered up this natural obelisk far enough to find cut in
the sandstone the name of Nicollet and the date 1837. The gov-
ernment had furnished me with copies of Nicollet's maps of th^
survey he had made in this country, and we examined them and
found this pillar of white sandstone indicated thereon. That Nicol-
let had carved his name there in 1837, I have for good reasons
doubted ; but that he visited and took note of what is now known
as Castle Rock, there cannot be a shadow of a doubt.

I want to bear testimony to the wonderful fidelity and ac-
curacy of this savant and explorer in marking the topography of
this section of the country as shown in his maps. The main
streams and water courses of southern Minnesota were most ac-
curately indicated by him on his topographical maps, copies of
which I had.

A somewhat curious and interesting etymological result grew
out of the name given by the early French voyageurs, and thence
by Nicollet, to the water courses, streams, and river, which drain
the counties of Dodge, Olmsted, and Wabasha, now known as
Zumbro river. The French name was Riviere aux (or des) Em-
barras, referring to the difficulties (embarassments) of navigating
it with canoes. This river, which flows east through Wabasha
county was named "Des Embarras river" by Nicollet, and this
was followed by me in the report of the survey of guide meridians
and standard parallels which crossed this river and its tributaries.

EARLY GOVERNMENT LAND SURVEYS. 65

Hence Des Embarras was the name given to this river upon all
the early maps of Minnesota. Its Sioux name was Wazi-oju,
meaning "the pine place," for the white pine trees which occur
sparingly on its bluffs. When English-speaking people settled
the lands bordering on this stream, they adopted the French name,
but found it difficult to give the French pronunciation. After
many unsuccessful efforts, it finally resulted in the name Zumbro
for this stream and its tributaries.

THE WINNEBAGO INDIANS.

Before starting out to run the third guide meridian, I was
advised that if the line passed through or near the place where
the Winnebago Indians were located, I and my men might have
trouble, as these Indians . were greatly dissatisfied about some-
thing; and I was assured by the Department that a messenger
should be sent from Fort Snelling to apprise me of the exact state
of affairs with the Winnebago Indians, and if there was danger
I should abandon the line. No messenger ever came, or, if he
did come, he failed to find me ; so the alarm and fear of my men
and myself, eighteen in all, can readily be imagined, when we
reached a place on the line where the snow was all tramped down,
unmistakable evidence of human beings in the vicinity. It was
late in the afternoon and in a dense forest, and, if my recollection
is right, it was on the Crow river. I set my compass, and my men
came up and we stood for a few minutes in consultation, when
out from behind a tree near us, came an Indian, gun in hand,
white blanket on, and otherwise comfortably well dressed. He
spoke to us, saying, "How do you do?" Soon other Indians came
out from behind the trees, and then others, in such numbers that
we were ready to believe, literally, that "the woods were full of
them." They were wonderfully interested in my compass and
surveying outfit, the chain, the tally pins, etc. They told us, as
best they could, that, hearing the noise we made coming up
through the woods, they took us for an attacking party of In-
dians, but they were glad to know we were white men.

I asked who they were, and they said, "Winnebagoes," and
that Winneshiek, their chief, was farther down. We camped,
and, taking one of my men with me and after passing through
a most awful cordon of yelping dogs, I called on Winneshiek that

C'^ MIXNE.SOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.

evening. Whether this was a title or a name I knew not, but he
received us kindly, speaking in fair English. He complained bit-
terly of his treatment by the Indian commissioners and other gov-
ernment officials, who, he said, had either deposed or wanted to
depose him, and to get another chief to give away his lands. I
assured him that I had nothing to do with such matters, and
joined him heartily in his righteous indignation at the manner he
was being outraged. He not only made us no trouble, but next
morning, when we passed through on the line, three rods west of
his tepee, he gave us a large quantity of fine venison for a reason-
able compensation. I was led to believe that this was a large
band of Winnebagoes hunting ofli their reservation.

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.

In the autumn of 1854, I met at Mendota Captain Tilton and
Major Reno, who had just completed the survey of a military
road from Sioux City to Fort Snelling. Major Reno was greatly
interested in my solar compass, and asked me if he could bring
around the next day, to see this instrument, Capt. George B. Mc-
Clellan, who had just come from the west to consult Gov. Isaac I.
Stevens in regard to the Northern Pacific Railroad surveys. They
came the following day, and, of course, I "spread myself" in ex-
plaining the use and merits of the solar compass to these distin-
guished West Pointers. I recall that Reno said it was a shame
that this instrument had not been introduced for use in the army
engineering, and the only reason he could give was, that it had
not been invented by an army officer.

While making these surveys, I met a few of the early pio-
neers, notably General Sibley, who laid me under great obliga-
tions for much kindness and consideration, and Joseph R. Brown,
at whose hospitable home, at Henderson, I was entertained four
weeks while w^aiting for instructions. I was greatly impressed
with Joseph R. Brown in many ways. I recall now quite vividly
the impression I had then, that he w^as the smartest man I had
ever met.

I also made the acquaintance of Henry M. Rice, Alexander
Faribault, and Alexis Bailly. I think I met Martin McLeod. I
met Governor Gorman and many others, all of whom I remem-
ber most kindly. They all did what they could for me. For some

EARLY GOVERNMENT LAND SURVEYS. 67

reason unknown, I had not the good fortune during this time to
meet the most illustrious of all these, Governor Ramsey. Minne-
sota was and is greatly indebted to its earliest pioneers. Many
of them were men of culture and refinement, all of them strong
men, brave, hospitable, courteous, and kind. What a welcome they
gave all those who came to make a home in this beautiful land
and glorious commonwealth!

m^.

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