Township (United States)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Townships in Riley County (1887)

Townships in the United States are local authorities within a state . A distinction is made between surveying and political importance.

Measurement significance

Starting from squares (Sections, English "Sections"), which are a square mile, townships were formed, which consist of 36 sections (six by six miles ). The very first townships in a small part of Ohio were only five miles by five miles; they come from the time shortly before the Land Ordinance of 1785 , which applied to the rest of the Northwest Territory . In order to finance the public school system , the Land Ordinance decreed that the sales proceeds from the 16th section of each township (36 sections) went to the benefit of the schools.

Official land names are formed by counting the number of townships starting from a certain north-south line called “meridian” and east-west line called “base line”, then giving a section number and then half or quarter parts be mentioned. Example: "W 1/2 NW 1/4 S. 5 T 2S R 3W" of a certain meridian refers to the western half of the northwestern quarter of section 5 of the 2nd township south of the base line and the 3rd west of the meridian.

This "Congressional Survey System" or "Ordinance Survey" (named after the "Land Ordinance" of 1785) covers the entire area of ​​the USA with the exception of the following states: Maine , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , Vermont , Rhode Island , Connecticut , New York , New Jersey , Pennsylvania , Virginia , West Virginia , Kentucky , Tennessee , North Carolina , South Carolina, and Georgia . Other exceptions are small areas in other states that were already surveyed under Spanish or French rule ; For example, in southern Illinois along the Mississippi River, the French “long lot system” is occasionally encountered, in which properties were measured a few hundred meters along the river and up to about a mile inland.

Political importance

Townships are so-called Minor Civil Divisions (MCD) in the following states and are called civil townships or towns:

1 - In these states , the townships are known as towns.
2 - Only 26 of Nebraska's 93 counties are divided into townships (the rest are divided into precincts ).
3 - suction. Charter townships enjoy extensive legal rights.

Townships, especially in the Midwest , are auxiliary organs of the county administration in the implementation of elections , in matters of social welfare or road construction and separate municipal administrative units with elected office holders . This upgraded administrative organization is often sought when a previously small community has achieved a population that justifies township status through disproportionate settlement (e.g. as pure housing estates in the ring of large metropolitan areas). In some states they overlap with the cities and villages located there , in others they only cover the areas that are not part of any incorporated settlement. Unlike incorporated towns , cities and villages , which can cross county boundaries , counties always consist of a large number of townships.

Individual evidence

  1. The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) ( Memento from June 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), (English)
  2. ^ Geographic Terms and Concepts - County Subdivision. (No longer available online.) United States Census Bureau, 2010, archived from the original on December 10, 2016 ; accessed on February 2, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.census.gov

Web links