Jefferson ordered a survey of the Louisiana Purchase (the
Jeffersonian Survey) that continued the pattern of mile-square sections and
six-mile-square townships. And the same pattern was applied to other
unsurveyed areas of the country. All over the country, roads were laid out
on the section lines. Not surprisingly, the pattern remains more regular in
some places than in others.
True Trivia: The main streets of Chicago are laid out on the
section-line roads and make perfect one-mile squares, criss-crossed by
diagonals laid out on other grounds. North, East, and West of State and
Madison, the section-line roads are every 800 street numbers -- 800, 1600,
2400, etc. The south-side numbers are irregular; the section-line roads are
Roosevelt (1200), Cermak (2200), 31st, 39th, and every 800 thereafter to at
least 211th St. in the far south burbs.
At 09:45 AM 8/18/97 -0500, you wrote:
> Another correction: I suppose I am too much a romantic about my home
> state of Nebraska. After reading the correction that I made Friday
> afternoon regarding the Mississippi river, I failed to realize that
> the geography we now call Nebraska could not have been part of the
> Northwest Territory included in the Land Ordinance of 1785. However,
> Nebraska *is* striped by the section lines that I described, but that
> is probably due to the Northwest Ordinance (of 1787).
>
> Rob Hotz
> Lincoln, Nebraska
>
>
>______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
>Subject: Re: Land Ordinance of 1785
>Author: Robert Hotz <Robert_Hotz at UNICAM3.LCS.STATE.NE.US> at Internet_Mail
>Date: 8/15/97 5:07 PM
>
>
>Correction: I should have said in my last sentence "west *TO* the Mississippi
>river."
>
>Rob Hotz
>Lincoln, Nebraska
>
>______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
>Subject: Land Ordinance of 1785
>Author: Robert Hotz <Robert_Hotz at UNICAM3.LCS.STATE.NE.US> at Internet_Mail
>Date: 8/15/97 4:59 PM
>
>
> Ed Darrell raised the point that "Before there was a First Amendment,
> before there was a Constitution, the Continental Congress created an
> ordinance to build a system of schools to educate citizens on the
> frontier," and that "having this education system has promoted
> religious freedom, and we should not dismantle it undeliberately."
>
> I believe Ed is referring to the Land Ordinance of 1785 (predates the
> Northwest Ordinance of 1787) during the Confederation period. Under
> the 1785 Act land in the "Old Northwest" was surveyed and sold by the
> authority of Congress. The land was laid out in townships of 36
> square miles. Fly over Nebraska today and you can still see the
> square miles clearly cut out by gravel country roads. In each
> township, Congress laid aside one section (one square mile) for the
> purpose of providing schools.
>
> How much does modern public education owe to the Land Ordinance of
> 1785 and how much is the result of *State* constitutions, statutes,
> and rules & regulations? Further, the 1785 act affected only the land
> west of Pennsylvania, North of the Ohio river, and West of the
> Mississippi river.
>
> Rob Hotz
> Lincoln, Nebraska
>