10/10/2020

Important Boundary Corners of the State of Alabama

Milton Denny, PLS

The Good Old Days

A Great Story To Tell!!

• All states have a story about how its state boundaries were determined. But few have the complex situation that comprised the state of Alabama. From being part of Georgia, then the Mississippi Territory, before becoming its own Territory, then a state of its own. Throw in being part of England, Spain, France and Indian Territory and you have a great story. Some boundaries are on water, some old Indian treaties, some by agreement between state leaders, and some being a latitude or Meridian.

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The State Divided into Townships from Faircloth Notes

Early History

Treaty of San Lorenzo 1796

US-Spanish Boundary

Ellicott’s Line

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Treaty of San Lorenzo 1796

Boundary Survey

Boundaries of Sovereignty

Boundary Description

►Following 31st Parallel due east from Mississippi River to Chattahoochee River ►Thence along the middle Chattahoochee River to its ► junction with Flint River ►Thence straight to headwaters of St. Mary’s River ►Then along its middle to the Atlantic Ocean

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Andrew Ellicott 1799

Methods

►Finding Locations (Astronomical Observations ►Running Parallels of Latitude • Chord Offset (First 21 miles) • Compass Guideline with Correction ►Measuring Distances • Chaining • Triangulation (Measuring Angles) • Calculation between Observed Locations

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Cane Break (Arundo Gigantea)

Commissioners/Surveyors

►US Commissioner ►Spanish • Andrew Ellicott Commissioner ►US Surveyor • Stephen Minor • Thomas Freeman ►Spanish Surveyor • William Dunbar

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Colonial Williamsburg 2 Pole Chains Made in the shop of Milton Denny

Instructions to Isaac Briggs from Albert Gallatin to establish the St. Stephens meridian

“From such one of the mile monuments on the southern boundary of the U.S. as you think proper you will be pleased to run and survey a north line of meridian, and all the Townships shall be designated by ranges East and West from that meridian, the numbers of each range progressing from the said meridian eastwardly and westwardly, and the number of each township in each range progressing northwardly from the southern boundary line of the U.S.”

Beginning of the Survey of South Alabama by Seth Pease 1806

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Land Districts and Land Offices in 1812. Property being Sold in Alabama from St. Stevens and Huntsville Land Offices

Importance of Ellicott Mounds

►Mounds continue as the “legal testimonials” of the boundary between Florida and Alabama ►Mounds have continuing historical significance ►Mounds are current surveying monuments to be referenced when working along state line

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Critical Nature of Segment

Defines Boundary Between Alabama and Florida

Descript

Challenging Circumstances

►Workman Leaving ►Indians Gathering ►Terrain and Plant Life ►Pesky Critters ►Politics ►Away from Home (4 years) ►Getting Paid

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Retracements

►Benjamin Whitner 1854 (Deputy Surveyor General for Florida

Apparent Survey Error

1. Actual Compass Guideline 2. Expected Compass Guideline 3. Calculated Offset Correction 4. Field Offset to Establish Mounds

Calculated Offset Correction

31.025 Expected Compass Guideline 31.020 Actual Compass Guideline (St. Stephens Baseline) 31.015

31.010

31.005 Calc. Offset Correction Chattahoochee Chattahoochee River Latitude (D.DDD)Latitude Conecuh Conecuh River 31.000

30.995

30.990 84.500 85.000 85.500 86.000 86.500 87.000 87.500 Longitude (D.DDD)

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Field Offset to Establish Mounds

31.025

31.020 Actual Compass Guideline (St. Stephens Baseline) 31.015

31.010

31.005 Chattahoochee Chattahoochee River Latitude (D.DDD)Latitude Conecuh Conecuh River 31.000 Act. Offset 30.995 Est. Mound Line 30.990 84.500 85.000 85.500 86.000 86.500 87.000 87.500 Longitude (D.DDD)

Pictures of Those Found (Mound 297)

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North Line Alabama

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Story of Isaac Biggs instrument for Mississippi Territory

The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, paying $15 million for some 828,000 square miles. This Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country, and has often been called the greatest real estate deal ever made. Several months before the treaty was signed, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Isaac Briggs Surveyor General of what was then referred to as the Mississippi Territory. In preparation for this task, Briggs asked Andrew Ellicott for his transit and equal altitude instrument. When Ellicott refused to sell, Briggs turned to Henry Voigt (1738-1814), a German immigrant trained as a clock and watch maker. Briggs used this Voight instrument in 1804 to establish a prime meridian for the United States, running through Washington, D.C. He then took it to the new Territory and, since it had been purchased with federal funds, he left it there when he retired in 1807. The transit was transferred to the Surveyor General of Florida in the 1820s, placed in storage, and forgotten. It was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1891.

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Philadelphia June 12th, 1804 By request of Isaac Biggs to make a Transit instrument under the care of and direction of Henry Voight – The amount of the expenses are. To cash distributed for ten months and two days. Journeyman’s wages at $33.331/3 per month ------335.91 Assisted by a boy ------30 – 365.91 To cash distributed for mahogany ------2 – Ditto for making of ditto -- a stand ------12. 14.0 To cash distributed for sheet & cast brass ------45.20 Ditto for files and a part of shop rent ------30.28 75.48 To cash distributed for a chest for the frame or stand ------3.00 $458.39 Phila. July 20, 1804 of Isaac Biggs surveyor of the lands of the United States south of the State of Tennessee four hundred and fifty eight dollars and thirty nine cents, being the whole of my demands for a transit instrument for the use of the United States, for which I have signed duplicate of this date. (signed) Henry Voight

FREEMAN SURVEY OF THE INITIAL POINT HUNTSVILLE MERIDIAN In a letter dated July 14, 1807, to the secretary of the Treasury, Seth Pease surveyor south of Tennessee states: “Mr. Thomas Freeman is on his way from this place (Washington M.T.) to the Tennessee River, in order to run the boundary lines of the Chickasaw cession, he has agreed to take the latitude, and run the dividing line between this territory and the State of Tennessee so far as relates to said session, also to run the basis meridian.” In a November 5, 1807, from Pease to the Secretary of the Treasury the following reference is made to the Freeman survey in northern Alabama. “The tract which Freeman is now surveying near the Tennessee River is a triangle, whose vertex is at the Tennessee River and having a basis of about twenty fives miles on the south line of the State of Tennessee and its sides about forty miles B to survey this into sections will require about 4000 dollars.” In a letter dated August 2, 1809, Seth Pease imparts the following information relative to the Freeman survey to the Secretary of the Treasury: “I mentioned in my instructions to Mr. Thomas Freeman that the law required a post be set at each half mile for the corners of sections, or rather that it be placed just half way on each line between the corner of sections as run.

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Initial Point of the Surveys in North Alabama in 1809

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July 02, 1826 Georgia-Alabama Boundary Surveyed When Georgia ceded its western territories to the United States in 1802, the agreement stipulated that Georgia’s western boundary was the western bank of the Chattahoochee River from the Florida boundary on the south northward to Miller’s Bend [present-day West Point, Georgia]. From Miller’s Bend, the boundary extended northward in a direct line to Nickajack [near present-day Chattanooga, Tenn.] In 1819, Alabama was created from a portion of the land ceded by Georgia in 1802 and admitted as a state. In the following years, Georgia wanted Alabama to participate in a survey of their joint boundary from Miller’s Bend to Nickajack. Each state was supposed to appoint a team, consisting of a surveyor, commissioners, and others to assist in the survey. Alabama appointed two commissioners but no surveyor. On July 2, 1826, commissioners from Georgia and Alabama met at Fort Mitchell, Alabama (near present day Columbus, Ga.) to begin surveying the land to establish the Georgia-Alabama border where the line left the Chattahoochee River. Alabama commissioners soon abandoned the work; the Georgia team completed the survey. While Alabama disputed Miller’s Bend as the starting point of the line and disagreed with some of the surveying, it finally ratified the boundary line in 1840.

West Boundary Alabama

South of the Choctaw boundary line, counties in the Mississippi Territory were formed in 1803. In 1809, the northwest corner of Washington County was fixed as the point where the east-west Choctaw boundary line crossed a prehistoric Indian trail leading north out of Mobile. When Congress created the new state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory in 1817, the northwest corner of Washington County was used as the primary reference point for setting Mississippi's eastern boundary. From this point, a line went north to the mouth of Bear Creek on the Tennessee River. South from the point, the bottom leg initially ran due south to the Gulf of Mexico and very close to the east side of Pascagoula Bay. Settlers in this area, however, protested that this vertical boundary placed them in the Alabama Territory, separating them from families and businesses on the west side of Pascagoula Bay. In 1819, when Alabama was admitted to the Union, Congress reunited all the Pascagoula settlers in Mississippi by relocating the bottom leg "to run southeastward from the northwest point of Washington County, to strike the Gulf at a point ten miles east of the mouth of the Pascagoula River.

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Alabama Cahaba 1819-1856 Centre 1856-1861 Demopolis 1833-1861 Elba 1854-1861 Greenville 1856-1860 Huntsville 1807-1861, 1867-1905 Lebanon 1842-1856 Mardisville 1832-1842 Milledgeville, GA 1815-1818 Mobile 1867-1879 Montgomery 1832-1861, 1866-1927 Nashville, TN 1807-1811 Sparta 1820-1854 St. Stephens 1803-1811 Tuscaloosa 1820-1861

Location of Land Offices and Land Districts in 1834

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Finished Alabama Survey About 1845

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“There is an Unappreciated Sacredness about Land Line Surveying” E. E. Todd

Compass and Chains 1880

The End Thank You UNTIL Tomorrow!!! Milton Denny, PLS 5541 Chestnut St. Tuscaloosa, AL 35403 205/799 7980 [email protected]

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