Surveying Between the Miamis

All that territory bounded on the North by the old Greenville Treaty Line, on the South by the Ohio River, on the East by the Little Miami River and on the West the Great Miami River was initially surveyed under a system established for a single, one-million-acre tract of Ohio land that New Jersey Judge John Cleves Symmes acquired from the Federal Government. Judge Symmes had earlier loaned cash to either the Continental Congress or the newly founded Federal Government with the Ohio land intended as repayment on the earlier-made loan(s). Symmes hired surveyors and, although details are beyond this discussion, with those surveyors' guidance, established a survey system of townships and ranges that, in some aspects of detail, resembles, yet in other respects differs markedly from, that uniform survey system adopted later by the federal government for its land holdings which ultimately extended west of the Great Miami River westward all the way to the Pacific Ocean, rare exceptions noted.

The land lines for the great tract Symmes' surveyors defined included a substantially larger area than the one million acres that Symmes' agreement initially entailed. Inspection of a map of the area published by Sherman (1925) showing both the bounds of the one-million-acre Symmes Purchase as well as the rest of Judge Symmes' "Between the Miami Rivers Survey" suggests that somewhat more than three million acres were 'laid out.' Why Symmes' survey parties continued their work so far northward of where, by rights, they should have stopped, is beyond the scope of this discussion. The U.S. Congress subsequently took up the matter of the limits of Judge Symmes' 'claim' and, by Congressional Act, plainly defined the northern limit of Symmes' great tract to lie along the Ranges III-IV boundary line - an east-west line running through the centers of modern eastern Butler and modern western Warren Counties. Judge Symmes' land holdings were thus constrained.

Worth mentioning here is that records exist showing Judge Symmes' heirs came to possess 'out' tracts located well north of Judge Symmes' Purchase {see, for example, Miami County Deeds, Book 3, pg. 580: Elizabeth Symmes Estate Administratrix of Daniel Symmes Deceased of Hamilton County Ohio [Grantor], to James Clark of Miami County Ohio [Grantee], 100 acres in fractional Sec. 27, R.11, T.1 [nominally, Staunton Township], Miami County; consideration $315}. While an explanation as to how the aforementioned tract and other tracts as well (Elizabeth Symmes, Daniel Symmes' Widow still retained additional, adjoining acreage following the aforementioned sale to James Clark) came to be owned by Judge Symmes' heirs is unknown at this writing but it seems reasonable that the ownership of such 'out' tracts and Judge Symmes' contracted survey work beyond the limits of his one million acres might have been linked in some fashion.

The U.S. Congress sustained Judge Symmes' survey work Between the Miami Rivers as valid even though such survey extended well beyond his one-million-acres. Speculating here, Congress may have also agreed to honor any and all previously-made purchase contracts 'on book' for lands beyond the northern limits of 'Symmes Purchase,' with stipulation that any and all monies arising through such sales would go to the U.S. Treasury. It seems a distinct possibility that included among the purchase agreements stipulated to be honored were early-made contracts for sales of 'choice' lands, at nominal cost, to Judge Symmes' heirs. That would serve to explain both Judge Symmes' heirs' 'out' holdings far to the north of where the Judge's Purchase stopped and also help explain why the survey work extended as far north as it did.

The Federal Government established the Cincinnati Land Office and tasked that office with: [1] completing any pending land sales contracts previously initiated between Judge Symmes and buyers within that part of the 'Between the Miami Rivers Survey' beyond the congressionally-defined limits of Judge Symmes' Purchase, and; [2] selling U.S. Government-owned lands west of the Great Miami River which were surveyed under an entirely different survey system. Both the earlier 'Symmes' survey system and the later, 'evolved,' survey system employed Section, Township and Range designations but it is in the details involved in the Sections, Townships and Ranges that one sees substantial differences. These differences serve to confound and confuse those unfamiliar with the details and it can be fairly stated that a lack of clear understanding of the differences between the two systems has, in the past, led to gross mischaracterizations by those wishing to utilize a single, all-encompassing set of tract location designations where, in fact, two sets of distinct tract location designations are both mandated and patently unavoidable.

For example, Judge Symmes' "Between the [Great and Little] Miami Rivers" survey was founded on a baseline alone-a latitudinal-based land line-coincident with an East-West trending stretch of the Ohio River near Cincinnati. Conversely, the later-made, U.S. Government-contracted survey for those lands located west of the Great Miami River, was, instead, initially defined not only by a latitudinal line but also by a meridian of longitude [the First Principal Meridian] with both having been defined, in terms of origin, at the confluence of Great Miami and Ohio Rivers.

So, from that point at the mouth of the Great Miami River all the townships and ranges thereinafter surveyed were bidirectionally defined both in terms of North or South as well as East and West relative to the grid's origin. Townships subsequently surveyed were designated as North of the origin, for example, T.7N., etc., while the Ranges surveyed in this system were defined and designated by their position relative to the First Principal Meridian, ie. R.6E. Precise determination of any one particular tract's location in the surveyed region west of the Great Miami requires a completely different set of coordinate designations than those used in Symmes' "Between the Miamis" survey.

Both of the two different survey systems discussed above relied on six-mile by six-mile square Townships wherein each Township consisted of 36 individual Sections. However, here the similarities between the two different surveys stops. Symmes' "Between the Miamis" survey defined a completely different 'layout' for Section designations within Townships than that employed in the later, "West of the Great Miami River" survey made at behest of, and funded by, a U.S. Congressional act. Describing these differences in Section designations could be made here but for simplicity's sake the reader is referred to any of numerous available references about the subject [see, for example, Sherman, (1925)].

Regardless of when a particular tract was granted, whether in 1810, 1850 or any other year, within the above discussed surveys, precisely locating [or, re-locating] such tract requires three things: [1] knowledge of which specific survey a particular tract of interest relates. On this point, readers are admonished that the authors of various existing compilations of land-patent/grant did made mistakes and the root cause of such mistakes was insufficient working knowledge of the differences in details between surveys. A consequence of past compiler's inadequacies led to the construction of single lists made with, fallen-flat-on-one's face, desires towards 'forcing' all the available location information under single headings irrespective of differences in details between surveys and, likewise, with cavalier disregard for the manner with which a person with rudimentary surveying knowledge would present the same information. Simply put, a single list for patents/grants relevant to any one survey ought be presented separately with headings for the list utilizing the accepted nomenclature for that one survey and none other. For those uncommon situations in which multiple surveys exist, [referring here, specifically, to the 'greater' Miami Rivers, Ohio, region] multiple, separate listings would be warranted for each survey involved. A separate index displaying all Patentee/Grantee names, regardless of which survey a name pertains should be provided for reader's convenience. [2] an appropriate map should be obtained. For this last, the United States Dept. of the Interior's Geological Survey has published several series of maps. These maps, available at most larger municipal library systems and elsewhere throughout the U.S., show appropriate labeling relevant to each survey system involved. Such maps also serve as benchmarks applicable to both surveyor and layfolk alike, showing appropriate terminology indispensable to tract locating, and; [3] detailed information of a tract's location and extent-ie. its legal description. Locating tracts defined both earlier and later under the survey system that developed, marginally 'evolved,' and exists today for much of the country located west of Ohio's Great Miami River is a straightforward exercise.

There was a considerable amount of historically early argument about which survey system should prevail and be used to eventually divide and sell not only parts of the early U.S. Territory North of the River Ohio but the U.S. Territory South of the River Ohio as well. Had my research not led me into particular areas in Ohio and Tennessee during the same approximate times I'd not have learned of the existence of a survey system 'down South' that could best be described as intermediate between the system Judge Symme's survey parties used and the system used for Congress lands west of the Great Miami River that eventually prevailed.

REFERENCES

Sherman, C.E., 1925, Original Ohio Land Subdivisions. Ohio Cooperative Topographic Survey, Vol. III, reprinted in: Dailey, John E., 2004, Ohio Lands and Survey Systems, The American Surveyor, December 2004 issue, available at The American Surveyor web site.

Thank you, cousin Kelly, for contributing this discussion of survey systems. We highly recommend following the link to Mr. Dailey's article which includes several excellent maps depicting the Between the Miamis and other survey systems used in early Ohio. The very small map we've included in this page gives only a hint of the complexity of the surveys.