Cover Story

From Metes and Bounds to Grids or a CliffsNotes™ History of Land Ownership in the United States

by Richard Norejko, CMS

The statements made or opinions expressed by authors in Fair & Equitable do not necessarily represent a policy position of the International Association of Assessing Officers.

rivate land ownership in the United States is essentially Valley, to the woodland villages of the Northeast. In Central a reflection of American history. The tremendous and South America, they constructed even more complex Pwillingness of the colonists, living in a new world, to societies. The Aztecs of Mexico and the Inca of Peru created experiment with new ideas and new rules is what has offered aristocracies and emperors. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán them the opportunity to own a piece of real estate—a piece (modern-day Mexico City), with a population of 200,000 of America. Americans have always shown a kind of forward- people, may have actually been the largest city in the world looking-ness, a special welcome to the new and the untried. on October 12, 1492. We don’t feel constrained by the habits of other people or It was inevitable that the Western Hemisphere would be of other times. We truly believe that as a nation we are like “discovered” by a civilization from the East. The events lead- nothing else the world has ever seen before. ing up to Columbus’s “discovery” actually began when the How did we get to this point? What happened to create this Roman Empire dumped the old Roman gods in favor of situation? Who has been influential in the process? How did Christianity. Along with the eventual collapse of the Roman property descriptions develop from the metes-and-bounds Empire arose a new religion, Islam, which overran the old system of colonial times to today’s grid system? This article Roman provinces of Asia Minor and Northern Africa, all the offers a whirlwind tour of how land ownership developed in way to the borders of modern-day France. the United States of America. In 1096, the chief of Europe’s Christian church, Pope Ur- ban II, called for a mighty effort to recover the sacred city of East Meets West Jerusalem, where Christianity was born, from the hands of Americans have a deep-seated passion for freedom, a free- Islam. The Pope’s call became a military crusade. Thousands dom present in American life and American experience of Europeans who had never strayed more than a few miles since the first moment we began to think of ourselves as from the place of their birth now had to recapture a city in something different from Europe. That moment could be a very distant land. said to have occurred when, in 1492, a Genoese entrepre- neur and navigator named Christopher Columbus caught These Holy Crusades taught Europeans two important his first glimpse of the island shores of what was, for him at lessons: first, how to organize and support large-scale expedi- least, a New World. At this time, however, the Americas were tions and explorations of previously unknown territory, and already settled. second, how to enrich themselves from trade and cultural exchange with Palestine and the Islamic world. For thousands of years, Indians had spread throughout the Western Hemisphere, and by the year 1500, it has been esti- The lure of trade encouraged Europeans and European mated that the North American population alone may have governments to undertake an ambitious series of explora- been 10–15 million. These Native Americans probably spoke tions aimed at opening new markets. In 1271 the Venetian more than 300 different languages in at least 12 entirely dif- Marco Polo set off on a three-year journey to the very heart ferent language systems or language stems. They also had of the Chinese Empire. Polo spent 17 years in China, and developed more than 600 autonomous social systems that when he returned to Europe in 1295, he published a rollick- were radically different from each other, from the pueblos ing account of his adventures and the fortunes that could of the Southwest, to the fortified towns of the Mississippi be made in trade with the Far East.

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The Europeans who profited the most India. Columbus and his men were not from the new world of trade opened up glad to discover the Americas. by the Crusades were the Italian city-states Explorers, supported by various Euro- and the port cities of Southern Europe. pean governments, tried their very best Western Europeans were also determined to find a water route around or through not to miss the opportunity for wealth in America. Ferdinand Magellan sailed the East. Since the Italian city-states con- southward around South America into trolled the Mediterranean routes, Western the Pacific Ocean. Amerigo Vespucci Europeans wanted to find another route and Martin Frobisher probed northward to Marco Polo’s China. The Portuguese looking for a northwest passage through underwrote expeditions that proved it was North America. When no such path ap- possible to sail south around the coast of peared, these European countries turned West Africa into the Indian Ocean. The their attention elsewhere. Spanish were right behind the Portuguese in breaking out into the Atlantic. It was individual freebooters who took a second look at America, not as an ob- In 1492, a navigator from the Italian stacle to the Far East, but as a source of trading emporium of Genoa named wealth. In 1519 Hernando Cortés spent Christopher Columbus persuaded the two years in Central America pillaging, King and Queen of Spain to finance and Portrait of Christophorus Columbus, created massacring, and finally capturing several support an expedition of sailing, not east between 1890 and 1940. (Source: Library of kings’-ransom-worth of gold and silver. In into the Mediterranean Sea and then Congress Prints and Photographs Division) 1532, Francisco Pizarro mounted a similar overland to the Near and Far East, or even campaign against the Inca of Peru. He too India. Instead, they were two enormous south around Africa, but due west into rampaged and pillaged the Inca Empire, continents stretching from north to the Atlantic, so that Spain could arrive seizing up to $65 million in Inca treasure. south like a great barrier across the At- directly at China’s back door. Other Spanish adventures swarmed over lantic. And a barrier they were, because Central America and the North American the discovery of these continents was Christopher Columbus Southeast looking for treasure to repeat met with disappointment rather than joy. Columbus set sail from Spain in August the examples of Cortés and Pizarro. 1492 and in October landed in what he They constituted a major obstacle to the thought were islands off the coast of real goal, which was reaching China and The wealth generated by extraction of riches from the Americas made Spain a major political force in Europe through- out the 1600s. But Spain managed its American profits poorly and was unable to match the energy of France’s rise to European dominance. The French pro- ceeded to copy the Spanish program by mounting extraction incursions of their own in North America. The French found in abundance something almost as valuable as gold, fur—beaver, fox, lynx—to extract and bring to Europe. Like Spain, France used its exploration and opening of North America for extraction rather than settle- ment. There was one more European sea power that had not been heard from, and that was England.

America Is Settled Of all the European nations facing the At- lantic Ocean, none would ordinarily have seemed to have greater advantages for entering the race for North American ex- ploration than England—better than the Christopher Columbus among Indians, lithograph created between 1850 and 1900. (Source Spanish, better than the French, better Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

4 Fair & Equitable • January 2009 the 41st parallel (Long Island Sound). genocide, and an epidemic of diseases Another English-chartered company, the like smallpox and measles that proved Massachusetts Bay Company, organized deadly to the natives in both Americas, in 1628, was granted rights to the area be- the population plummeted. For instance, tween the Charles and Merrimack rivers in Massachusetts Bay, smallpox wiped and westward to the Pacific Ocean. out 90 percent of the Native American However, the settlers of the two colo- population. By the time of the American nies could not have been more different. Revolution it is estimated that only 1 mil- The passengers headed to Virginia were lion Native Americans remained. usually single men whose average age was 20, most of whom were going as servant The Settlers Define Land labor. The settlers in Massachusetts were Ownership usually complete households with the av- Another problem was the lack of prop- erage age of the heads of households be- erty corners, fences, and boundaries in ing 36. In other words, those bound for pre-Columbus North America. While Virginia were footloose and poor, while the inhabiting tribes had vastly differ- those headed for New England were a ent cultures, they did have one thing in community. As one Englishman later common: no permanent occupational put it, America was a place where one boundary markers or written legal instru- could go to “live bravely,” to live without ments for claiming ownership. In Native restraint in a new unchartered land. American culture, land was common property for everyone. “What is this you The facts that the New World had al- call property?” Massasoit, a leader of the Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603, ready been discovered centuries before copyright 1904 by G. Barrie & Son. (Source: Wampanoag tribe, asked the Plymouth Columbus and that it had been inhabited colonists in the 1620s: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs and “claimed” by Native Americans did Division) not dissuade the granting of land tracts by It cannot be the earth for the land is than the Dutch. The English enjoyed a the English Royalty. Scholars estimate that our mother, nourishing all her children, westerly location in the Atlantic Ocean prior to Columbus’s journey there were beasts, birds, fish and all men. The and had a long history of seafaring. In 40 million natives in the Western Hemi- woods, the streams, everything on it fact, a handful of English adventurers sphere, 10–15 million in North America belong to everybody and is for the use of did follow in the wake of Christopher alone. As a result of violence, possibly all. How can one man say it belongs to Columbus. However, sixteenth-century him? (Meinig 1986) England was involved in battles between Since the Native Americans had noth- Catholicism and the Protestant reforma- ing but their beliefs, traditions, and tion movement. When England finally culture to show that they owned the turned Protestant for good in 1558, the land, the Europeans thought they could country became the ally of Protestants appropriate it freely. The English settlers and the enemy of every Catholic in Eu- adopted a natural right of individual rope. Thus, between 1582 and 1602 the property rights that had been advanced Protestant Queen of England, Elizabeth, by John Locke (1632–1704). Locke is sanctioned raids upon the great trea- credited with advocating “government sure fleets of Europe’s greatest Catholic with the consent of the governed” and power, Spain, which were extracting “rights of life, liberty and property…” riches from the Americas. This kind of (this quote resurfaces later in this article freebooting was expensive; therefore, it in a different context). made sense for English raiding parties to establish a supply base on the North Land was the lure for the English American coastline. colonists. In the seventeenth century the North American colonies were not King James I granted a royal charter settled by normal, everyday, cut-from-the- to the Virginia Company of London, an middle Europeans. In fact, no prosper- English joint stock company, on April ous Englishman would choose to take 10, 1606, for establishing colonial settle- ship for America. Those that did make ments in North America. The territory Massasoit, on his way to meet the Pilgrims the treacherous voyage across the At- granted to the London Company includ- and sign the Peace Treaty, 1621, created circa lantic, many of whom indentured them- ed the coast of America from the 34th 1915. (Source: Library of Congress Prints and selves for a chance of owning their own parallel (Cape Fear, North Carolina) to Photographs Division)

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the public domain as wasteland for a just 18 rods and about one half a rod more generation or more. Though there was from the stump of the big hemlock tree where some preference for laying out farms in Philo Blake killed the bear; thence, to the rectangular form, cadastral maps testify corner begun at by two straight lines of to the popularity of running bounds that about equal length, which are to be run by conformed to the contours of an owner’s some skilled and competent surveyor, so to desire to encompass only the best ar- include the area and acreage herein before able fields, meadows, stands of timber, set forth. (Early Tennessee Deed) springs, and creeks within a specified At that time and location, that bound- acreage. The fertile soil was needed for ary description made sense. Everyone growing food; the water for drinking, who lived around this location knew washing, and cooking; and the woodland where Philo Blake killed the bear. It was for providing building material. an unusual event that would be known to To define the boundaries of their prop- the local inhabitants at the time. There erty, owners blazed trees, scratched boul- was no ambiguity. Confusion as to the ders, and raised mounds, and described exact limits of ownership came after time their land holdings in terms of these changed both the local citizenry and the markers. Interestingly, the descriptions objects mentioned in the deed. were written as a visual portrayal of the property as it existed on the day of sale. These descriptions also were written in As large regions were a literary form that would be personally chartered to settlement, John Locke, 1632–1704, advocate of property known to the buyer or claimant who rights in colonial America. (Source: Library of resided there. They would have little choice fertile acres Congress Prints and Photographs Division) meaning to someone speculating on land from afar; land speculators would went to whomever first land, saw firsthand mile upon mile of not know about the brook or stream that land without the stone markers or hedges was a boundary, nor would they be able registered claims, while that delineated parcel boundaries in the to readily identify the species of trees that British Isles. These immigrant colonists were mentioned by a property corner or undesirable tracts often gazed at the wilderness and envisioned the neighbor landowner. “Bounded on new markers bounding the edges of their the east by William Smith land” was the remained in the public own fields and meadows. style of property description that origi- domain as wasteland for They intended to replicate the civiliza- nated in sixteenth-century England when tion they had left behind, including the a nobleman and a “survoir” (surveyor) a generation or more. metes-and-bounds system of describing walked the land and made note of the property ownership used in England for boundaries—the “buttes and bounds” many centuries. This system used physi- of the estate. To “butt” upon something Not all boundary descriptions were cal features of the local geography, along is to encounter or meet it, for which haphazard. Remember, in New England with direction and distances, to define the equivalent word was “mete.” This the first colonists arrived as a community, and describe the boundaries of a parcel method, which identified the boundaries as united religious groups, and thus the of land. The boundaries were described of a tract by points where they met other emphasis was on planned communities in a running prose style, working from boundaries or visible objects, became rather than on individuals. Land was a point of beginning, around the parcel known as “metes and bounds.” allocated to congregations or churches of land in sequence, back to the same Perhaps the best example of an early by the English General Court, which laid point. Many prospective landowners metes-and-bounds deed is one that out the townships, usually in a square, be- were allowed the privilege of selecting reads, fore the new settlers moved in. Therefore, the particular piece of land to be owned each family was to have enough property by or patented to them. Tracts located at ….a certain marked red cedar tree out on for a house, an “in-lot” of farmland near the discretion of the patentee were not a sandy sort of plain; thence by another the center of the settlement, and an required to be contiguous to settled land straight line, in a different direction, to a “out-lot” beyond the center for grazing. or to be of any shape. certain marked yellow oak tree on the off No gaps were left between one individual side of a knoll with a flat stone laid against parcel and the next. As large regions were chartered to it; thence, after turning around in another settlement, choice fertile acres went to direction, and by a sloping straight line to Thus, the idea of land as property, to whomever first registered claims, while a certain heap of stone which is by pacing be bought and sold in fee simple, to use undesirable tracts often remained in the legal term, originated in England.

6 Fair & Equitable • January 2009 This colonial era of metes-and-bounds Gunter divided the chain into 100 descriptions continued for 150 years, links, marked off into groups of 10 by nearly as long a period as from the end of brass rings. On the face of it, the dimen- the American Revolution to the present sions made no sense; each link was 7.92 day. Along with the metes-and-bounds inches long; 10 links made slightly less method of describing land boundaries than 6 feet, 8 inches; and the full length came a measuring instrument called the was 66 feet. In fact, he had made a bril- Gunter’s chain. liant synthesis of two otherwise incompat- ible systems: the traditional English land Edmund Gunter Invents a measurements based on the number 4, Measuring Tool and the newly introduced system of deci- Born in 1581 to a Welsh family, Edmund mals based on the number 10. Gunter had been sent to Oxford Univer- Gunter’s chain allowed either method sity to be educated as a Church of Eng- to be used. An acre measured 4,840 land priest, but discovered that numbers square yards in traditional units and 10 This 32-point compass rose from a chart by were more inspiring than religion. What square chains in Gunter’s system. Thus, Jorge de Aguiar (1492), is the oldest personally really interested him was the relation- the entire process of land measurement signed and dated Portuguese nautical chart. ship of mathematics to the real world; could be computed in decimalized chains (Source: Wikipedia, Original is in the Beinecke consequently, he spent most of his time and links, converted to acres by dividing Library, Yale University, USA.) making instruments to illustrate the way the result by 10. What made Gunter’s in which numbers worked. chain unique was that it did not vary, and scope and built-in compass and plumb Since only the most basic instruments in 1607, it would have been hard to find line). As a result of the mathematical existed in Gunter’s day, mathematicians another means for measuring boundar- skills needed to survey parcels and the were expected to design their own. ies that was so consistent. low supply of trained surveyors, for the Gunter’s most famous invention was the next 150 years surveyorships were ranked Gunter’s chain. The practical appeal of In the autumn of 1774 among positions of public trust and a chain was that it was flexible enough scrutiny because land measurement had to be looped over a person’s shoulder when delegates of the profound implications for the stability and that, being made of metal, it neither of a society committed to rapid develop- stretched nor shrank. It became a most discontented colonies ment of that key resource. useful tool in measuring boundaries in Surveyors’ most important duties—sur- the virgin land of colonial America. convened in Philadelphia veying the boundaries of land withdrawn Today the Gunter’s chain is 66 feet as members of the First from the public domain for private use— in length; or 4 rods; or 4 perches; or 22 were too vital to the public interest to be yards—a strange distance that makes Continental Congress entrusted to men engaged in purely pri- sense only in the context of the tradi- vate practice. Entry into the profession was tional units used for measuring land. to articulate their controlled by official appointment instead Like all units of land measurement, a of personal decision, market demand for perch originally varied according to grievances, it was not services, or examination. Also, surveying the quality of the ground—a perch of was not a full-time occupation entered poor soil was larger than one of fertile by chance that the first into after long specialized training. It soil—but during the sixteenth century it resolution they agreed was a skill, like law, that an educated man became standardized at 16.5 feet. This in- could pick up through reading or a brief convenient length was derived from the to was “that they are apprenticeship. It was particularly compat- area of agricultural land that could be ible with farming because of its seasonal worked by one person in a day. The area entitled to life, liberty, nature. So surveyors were also customarily was 2 perches by 2 perches (33 feet by 33 farmers, who, like other colonists, cleared feet). Therefore, a day’s work amounted and property.” land, cropped it, and sold it for profit. to 4 square perches. Conveniently, there were 40 day works in an acre, the area King George III Proclaims Royal that could be worked by a team of oxen Besides Gunter’s chain, seventeenth- Ownership century surveyors also used a 32-point in a day, and 640 acres in a square mile. America grew. Immigrants flowed into compass card (a card graduated to 32 It was significant that all were multiples the New World, forming the 13 original points and marked with the initials of the of four, a number that made it simpler to colonies. People spilled over the Ap- winds) and a circumferentor (a transit calculate the area of a four-sided field. palachian Mountains to settle into new with crosshairs in the lens of the tele- territory. The buying and selling of land

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based on the metes-and-bounds survey Clark to find a route to the western coast system, which had been practiced in the in 1803, believed passionately in the vir- American colonies for more than 150 tues of owning land, and adored his own years, was about to change. property at Monticello. Nevertheless, he On October 7, 1763 came a harsh was tepid in acquiring land for himself. reminder of the legal reality behind After his retirement from the presidency, American property. By royal proclama- he wrote that, “Nature intended me for tion, King George III declared it, the tranquil pursuits of science, by ren- dering them my supreme delight.” …to be our Royal will and Pleasure…. Jefferson questioned the basis of the that no Governor or commander in chief royal claim of feudal power over the in any of our Colonies or Plantations in land beyond the mountains. His conclu- America do presume for the present, and sion was what his fellow statesmen also until our further pleasure be known, to believed—that George III had no right to grant warrants of Survey, or pass Patents restrict the desire to acquire property. for any lands beyond the Heads or Sources of any of the Rivers which fall into the King George’s and England’s philoso- Atlantic Ocean from the west and North phy of land ownership originated with West. (Linklater 2002, 47) William the Conqueror. In 1086 William Thomas Jefferson, portrait by Charles Willson and his Norman invaders invented the In effect, a line had been drawn along the Peale, 1791. (Source: Wikipedia) belief that all lands belong originally to watershed of the Appalachians beyond the King, and that belief had been handed which land could not be measured and Entitlement of property was a subject down from monarch to monarch. In owned, and everyone who already settled on which the humblest colonial mule 1763, since America was already occupied, west of it was commanded “forthwith driver was at one with the grandest plan- George III had no grounds for claiming {to} remove themselves from such settle- tation farmer. power over the disposal of its land. The ment.” Tariffs, taxation without representa- area west of the Appalachians, the Ohio George III had the right to order it tion, and the prevention of settlement River Valley, was French Territory in the because legally (by British law, not Na- in what is called the Northwest Territory 1600s and known as New France. In those tive American culture) all land in British was all the colonists could take. On July days the nations of Europe, after each war, America was his. Full in the path of the 4, 1776 America declared her indepen- tossed foreign lands back and forth across property seekers was planted the King’s dence from England. the bargaining table as though they were feudal authority. cookies. England acquired the French Many strands led to the moment when Thomas Jefferson Expands U.S. Territory in February 1763 at the Treaty of the colonists felt driven to weave their Territory Paris, which ended the Seven Years’ War, or, as it was called in America, the French anger together into a single declaration Even in 1776 it was evident that Thomas and Indian War. Only a democratically of opposition to rule from England. In Jefferson heard the beat of a different elected legislature had power over the the autumn of 1774 when delegates of drummer. Indeed, if there was any one land, Jefferson concluded and, in a phrase the discontented colonies convened in person immune to the general lust for that would have been music to any land Philadelphia as members of the First Con- land beyond the Appalachian Moun- squatter’s ears, wrote that if the legislature tinental Congress to articulate their griev- tains, it was Jefferson, the Virginian plan- failed to act, ances, it was not by chance that the first tation farmer, who, in his wording of the resolution they agreed to was “that they Declaration of Independence, changed …each individual of society may appro- are entitled to life, liberty, and property.” the fundamental assertion of rights, men- priate to himself such lands as he finds Property meant land and, in particular, tioned in the Virginia Constitution, from vacant, and occupancy will give him title. land beyond the Appalachian Mountains. “life, liberty and property” to “life, liberty (Linklater 2002, 58) Hence the declaration of the first para- and the pursuit of happiness.” graph of the Virginia Constitution: When Jefferson returned to the Vir- One of the greatest paradoxes in ginia legislature after independence was That all men are by nature equally free Jefferson’s paradoxical character was declared, he was given the opportunity to and independent, and have certain his attitude about land acquisition. He put some of his land ownership theories inherent rights…namely, the enjoyment acquired more western land on behalf into practice. He introduced a bill in of life and liberty, with the means of of the United States than any speculator the Virginia Legislature that would give acquiring and possessing property, and could have dreamed of possessing, laid 75 acres to any Virginian who did not pursuing and obtaining happiness and the foundation for the nation’s further already have land and a “headright” (per safety. (Constitution of the State of territorial expansion to the Pacific by person) grant of 50 acres to every land- Virginia, Article I, Bill of Rights) sending Meriwether Lewis and William less immigrant who arrived in the state

8 Fair & Equitable • January 2009 from overseas. To complete the policy, British economy, it had done little good not resolved until the War of 1812. On he planned to lay off every county into to the American economy. The new na- March 1, 1784 those state delegations re- “hundreds” or townships, 5 or 6 miles tional government had debts estimated linquished their claims, and this territory square, in the center of each was to be a at $40 million. To make matters worse, became property of the United States. school (Liniklater 2002, 73). the Continental Congress was unable to On that same day Thomas Jefferson The American Revolution had begun, impose taxes, and the states refused to was appointed chairman of a commit- and by 1782 the war was costing Britain permit the Congress to raise money by tee to report on, among other things, £20 million a year. The loss of trade with imposing tariffs on foreign goods coming the best way of surveying and selling the its former colony caused exports in Britain into the country. land. To prevent speculators from acquir- to fall by 18 percent. Bankruptcies for The only other possible source of ing the best land, as settlers had done in English trading companies increased. On finance was the sale of land in the the original colonies for more than 150 February 27, 1782, surveying the wreckage Northwest Territory, which consisted of years, the committee ruled out the metes- of its plans and hopes in North America, present-day Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Il- and-bonds survey system with its irregular the English Parliament voted to suspend linois, Wisconsin, and the northeast part shapes and gaps. Instead, the country the war by a slim margin of 234 to 215. of Minnesota. However, this territory was was to be surveyed before occupation and American independence was ratified subject to overlapping and conflicting divided into simple squares aligned with formally by a peace treaty signed in claims of the states of Massachusetts, Con- each other so that no land would be left Paris on September 3, 1783. If the war necticut, New York, and Virginia, as well vacant. At Jefferson’s insistence, these had done a great deal of damage to the as a lingering British presence, that were squares were to be called “hundreds”

“Raising the liberty pole,” 1776, painted by F.A. Chapman; engraved by John C. McRae, N.Y. Print shows the raising of a liberty pole in a village center on a festive occasion with many spectators, some appear to be disgruntled loyalists; in the background, several men are removing a sign bearing the likeness of King George III. Copyright 1875 by John C. McRae, New York. (Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Fair & Equitable • January 2009 9 Cover Story

and their sides were to run due east and The advantages of a square measur- pattern of squares with the east–west west, and north and south. The commit- ing “traditional miles by” was the ease of lines cutting the north–south at right tee also reported that the, subdivision for someone using a Gunter’s angles. The dimensions that emerged, chain, a tool used by Putnam and thou- however, owed more to Putnam’s push [The Western Territory] shall be divided sands of surveyors since the 1600s. Each for using Gunter’s chain than to Thomas into Hundreds of ten geographical miles side of the township measured 480 chains, Jefferson’s mathematical theory. square, each mile containing 6086 feet a number that could easily be halved, and four tenths of a foot, by lines to be run On May 20, 1784 Congress passed an quartered, and so on, according to de- ordinance for “disposing of lands in and marked due north and south, and mand. In fact, this type of subdivision split others crossing these at right angles … the western territory.” The 36 square- the large square into 36 smaller squares, mile townships were to be divided into these hundreds shall be subdivided into each measuring a square mile. Since 1 lots of one mile square each, or 850 acres 1-square mile lots, 4 of which in each square mile contained 640 acres, or 6,400 township were reserved to the govern- and four tenths of an acre, by marked square chains, a quantity that could in lines. (Jefferson 1784) ment “for the maintenance of public turn be halved no fewer than 7 times and schools.” Every alternate township was Jefferson’s fellow legislators may not still produce a whole number (5 acres or to be sold whole and the intervening have realized that in addition to the op- 50 square chains), the practical advantage ones by square-mile lots—now for the portunity to raise money by the sale of for surveyors was obvious. first time called sections—at a price of land in the territory, he was offering the $1 per acre (Linklater 2002, 73). This United States the chance to have the first scheme featured a different numbering decimalized system of measurements in system than that defined by the Land the world. Ordinance of 1796 (see below). The 36 As previously mentioned, pursuit of lots (sections) in a township counted science led Jefferson to becoming the ar- northward from the southeast corner of chitect of a self-regulating, land-owning the township, east to west. democracy. No shape could be simpler than the square, and no calculation Thomas Hutchins Surveys Ohio more straight forward than in 10s. This In 1785 George Washington appointed land was proposed to be surveyed in Thomas Hutchins geographer to the rectangles and measured in decimals. United States. His first task was to survey That, at least, was the rational, scientific what was to be called the seven ranges in conclusion; however, a portly fellow by present-day Ohio, formerly part of the the name of Rufus Putnam voiced a dif- Northwest Territory acquired from the ferent argument. British after the Revolutionary War. The survey was not completed until June Rufus Putnam Uses Gunter’s 1787, and the work was not only late but Chain in Northwest Territory also shoddy. Lines did not run due west Rufus Putnam was an engineer in the but dropped about two degrees to the Royal American Regiment during the south. Few of the east–west lines crossed French and Indian War. This trade the north–south ones at right angles, and taught him how to carry out every kind Title page from a book written by Thomas as a result, the intended grid of squares of measurement as well as how to survey Hutchins in 1778. According to The Thomas proposed by both Jefferson and Putnam parcels of land. He was also one of the W. Streeter Collection prospectus, “Hutchins’ had become quadrilaterals. first men to be commissioned into the work is one of the most valuable sources on the Nevertheless, the unique advantage of Massachusetts Regiment following the West during the British period.” (Copyright the grid system was demonstrated when “shot heard round the world” at Lexing- 1998 David Rumsey Historical Map Collec- the very first patent was issued to one ton in April 1775. Putnam demonstrated tion; reprinted with permission under creative John Martin, who paid $640 for a 1-mile his talents during the American Revolu- commons licensing agreement.) square section of the Northwest Territory, tion and impressed George Washington identified as “Lot (section) 20, Township 7 In May 1784, before Jefferson could so much that Washington appointed him Range 4” (Linklater 2002, 84). With that, present his version of the report on the chief engineer to the army. descriptions of property ownership for- Western Territory, he was appointed U.S. Putnam also wanted squares, but his ever changed from a visual literal prose, envoy to France. William Grayson, a fel- solution was to divide the 18 million such as “from a cherry sapling to the low Virginian, was appointed the new acres of the Northwest Territory into “756 brook,” to “being Section 29, Township chairman of the committee, and changes Townships of 6 miles square” and settle 4 North Range 2 East of the ….” Division were made. What remained from Jef- communities in each township in the into squares caused land speculators to ferson’s original ordinance was the grid traditional New England model. simply treat them as a commodity defined

10 Fair & Equitable • January 2009 by numbers. This uniform grid took no The fundamental reason is the geomet- Settlers were as eager to move westward account of trees, springs, or hills; they ric requirement that meridians of longi- and begin occupying the land as the were considered obstacles to efficient tude converge at the poles of the earth, United States Government was to have agriculture. To a financier or speculator, causing the north line of each section to them do so. The government not only however, the Public Land Survey System be shorter than the south line. And be- was eager to realize the revenue from land was a great convenience. cause of this convergence, sections in each sales, but also anticipated the expanded The mistakes made and the lessons tier become progressively smaller as the agricultural and economic base. learned culminated in the Land Ordi- tiers advance northward, until a correction The metes-and-bounds system, as prac- nance of 1796, which laid out the survey- parallel is reached and the 1-mile interval ticed at the time of the Ordinance of 1785, ing and numbering scheme used for all along the latitudes is reestablished. was based entirely on local references, remaining public lands. The ordinance against which time and nature have con- called for the sections to be numbered spired to eliminate most evidence. Many respectively, beginning with section one The mistakes made and older deeds contain calls to large, visible in the northeast corner and proceed- topographic features, such as ridge lines, ing west and east alternately through the lessons learned roads, streams, and trees. Ridge lines do the township with progressive numbers culminated in the Land not move, but streams wander back and until section thirty-six was reached at the forth over time, roads are realigned or southeast corner of the township. Suc- Ordinance of 1796, which abandoned, and trees grow and even- cessive additions to U.S. public lands all tually die or are cut down. And many came under the 1796 ordinance. laid out the surveying topographic features upon which the entire deed and land description were Township Surveys Create and numbering scheme based were not clearly and unambigu- Sections ously described, thus yielding historical The surveys for the laying out of town- used for all remaining records that cannot be traced back to the ships were performed by deputy survey- public lands. land. By comparison, land lines are on a ors appointed by the Surveyor General regional or perhaps statewide reference for the state or territory. The rectangular (the initial points) and have been much procedure called first for the deputy more thoroughly perpetuated by the surveyor to establish an initial point as Sections in the same tier could be iden- built environment. Land is much simpler the origin of the numbering scheme for tically sized and shaped on the ground to describe and convey in a rectangular the major 6-mile by 6-mile grid. At least as they are in theory, were it not for the system, meaning that an expert is not one state (California) has two such initial second reason, simple human error. The necessary to interpret conveyances and points. Some states have none, instead surveyors were allowed a reasonable tol- descriptions that have been rendered by sharing one with an adjacent state. Then, erance for error in closure. To the extent section, township, and range. from the initial point, the surveyors laid that this tolerance was not exceeded, off parallels of latitude and meridians of the surveys followed the basic pattern Westward Migration Surges longitude at normal intervals of 6 miles described in the law. They came pouring through the Cumber- along the four cardinal directions. The Nevertheless, as with any human un- land Gap, men with the West in their eyes; parallels, running east and west, are the dertaking, errors exceeding the toler- they came across the Finger Lakes country township lines; they are numbered from ance sometimes occurred. Some section of New York state and plunged into the one north and one south, beginning at lines were in error by tens, hundreds, heart of the Ohio country; some reached the initial point. Likewise, the meridians, or, in a few cases, thousands of feet. To Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh), where running north and south, are range allay the inevitable litigation and hos- they could build rafts and flatboats on lines; they are numbered from one east tilities, Congress refined the surveying which to float down the river. and one west from the initial point. The ordinance in about 1805 to state that It was a mass migration difficult to ac- 6-mile-square areas thus laid out were wherever the deputy surveyor set the count for. No one pursued these men. also called townships. Then the town- section corner or quarter-section corner They had not been exiled from the East. ships were surveyed into 1-mile square would thereafter be the true position of Religious intolerance had not caused tracts called sections. This procedure cre- the corner, even if it could be shown later them to seek new homes, as had been ates nearly identical and nearly square that it had been set in error. This tenet the case with their forefathers. Some parcels of land, called sections, of 640 is fully in effect to the present. moved to the sunset side of the Appala- acres more or less each. They are not chian Mountains for the same reasons absolutely identical or absolutely square The rectangular system can be likened to an assembly-line technique for survey- that had prompted their ancestors to for two reasons: one fundamental and cross the Atlantic—they simply couldn’t one incidental and anecdotal. ing. Land can be surveyed by the mile and made ready for settlement faster and on get along at home or they were fleeing a larger scale than by metes and bounds. from creditors or from officers of the law.

Fair & Equitable • January 2009 11 Cover Story

Louisiana had long belonged to France because early French explorers had claimed it for their king. Attempts to colonize it profitably had failed, and the territory was a drain on the French royal treasury. In 1762 the Spanish king, Charles III, accepted the territory as repayment for losses Spain had suffered a year earlier when it had joined France in a war against England. Napoleon Bonaparte in 1800 convinced the Span- ish monarchy to sign it over to France. Napoleon’s military escapades and victories intimidated the Spanish, and therefore all Napoleon had to do was order the return of the Louisiana Terri- tory. On October 1, 1800 he signed the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, which gave the province back to the French. Not only did France get New Orleans, Cumberland Gap, Steel engraving by S.V. Hunt after painting by Harry Fenn. Created circa 1872 but also it received the entire stretch of Copyright by D. Appleton & Co. (Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) Spanish Louisiana.

Most of them probably did not know why eign countries had been in conflict and Napoleon, in fact, intended to do they moved. They had not been victims war with one another for more than two much more than merely take possession of crowded conditions, because there was centuries, and America knew it was no of New Orleans. He wanted to resurrect yet plenty of land to be developed in the match for any military in spite of its suc- the French colonial empire in North East. Still, they took up their axes, guns, cess in gaining independence. America America that France had lost to Britain livestock, bags of seed, and shovels and was growing and moving westward. In at the end of the French and Indian War. headed west. 1790, at the time of the first federal Napoleon had already taken the first step in the re-creation of this French Empire As people entered the newly opened census, only 100,000 white settlers lived in the Western territory between the by dispatching troops under his brother- public lands, they needed roads. These in-law to reestablish order in present-day people were mostly farmers and needed Appalachian Mountains and the Mis- sissippi River. By 1800, the time of the Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He transportation routes other than the reasoned that if he could control “San rivers to get their crops, dairy products, second federal census, that number had quadrupled to 400,000. Dominque,” he would have a presence timber, and livestock to market. New in the neighboring Gulf of Mexico and roads prompted more migration and The further westward over the Appa- therefore unabated access to the Missis- settlement, thus the need for even more lachians the farmers moved, the more sippi Valley. public land. remote they became from the Atlantic To the surprise and shock of almost In 1790 a law creating the South- Coast markets—markets they needed both to sell to and to buy seed and sup- everyone, the French invasion of the western Territory, which consisted of island failed. Also, Napoleon’s brother- Tennessee and, after 1802, Alabama plies from. These western farmers now turned south, down the river valleys of in-law died from yellow fever. Since San and Mississippi, required the land to Dominque was the key to the rebuilding be surveyed and sold on the same basis the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee to the Mississippi River, finally of the French Empire in America, Na- as the Northwest Territory. The United poleon’s plans were stymied, and that, States now consisted of all land east of reaching the seaport in New Orleans. The hitch was that New Orleans did not in turn, rendered Louisiana free from the Mississippi River. However, that was Bonaparte. about to change in a major way. belong to the United States. At that time it belonged to Spain, and that meant that In the spring of 1803, Napoleon, bur- The Louisiana Purchase a foreign power held a vital chokepoint dened with debt from wars in Europe, in American commerce. Spain had ac- Nothing terrified the American Republic decided to cut his losses. Thomas Jef- quired the Louisiana Territory in 1762, in the first decades of existence more ferson had been vainly trying to protect in a strange transaction that showed how than the fear that somehow it would be American interests on the Mississippi by unimportant these distant possessions dragged into the conflict of the great offering to buy the city of New Orleans could seem to those who reigned over European powers and recolonized by and its districts from the French. He had some of the world’s leading nations. one or even several of them. These for- even sent a special emissary, James Mon- roe, to join Robert Livingston to make an

12 Fair & Equitable • January 2009 offer to the French. Napoleon, perhaps Jefferson sent the Louisiana Purchase aries of the Louisiana Territory and its not thinking everything through, offered Treaty, which ceded Louisiana to the contents. The French descriptions of the to sell not only New Orleans but all of United States, to the Senate with the boundaries of Louisiana were deliber- the Louisiana province to the Americans, private comment, “The less we say about ately vague, because the French had not approximately 830,000 square miles, for constitutional difficulties the better.” held title long enough to explore it all for $15 million in spot cash. That was $5 mil- The Senate ratified the treaty in October themselves once the Spanish had been lion more than the representatives were 1803, and American officials took formal compelled to yield it to Napoleon. authorized to spend. Both Monroe and possession of Louisiana in ceremonies at Livingston were surprised and begged New Orleans on December 20. The Lewis and Clark Expedition for time to consult with President Jef- Consequently, it was not clear whether ferson. However, the French demanded the purchase included the Spanish an immediate response, and so they Many settlers bypassed province of what today is the Florida agreed, signing a treaty on April 30, Panhandle, today’s state of Texas, or the 1803 for the single greatest real estate the process of purchase Oregon Territory on the Pacific. Since deal in history. entirely and simply this vast area was largely unexplored, it To the relief of Monroe and Livings- gave Jefferson a reason to ask Congress ton, Jefferson was delighted with the deal crossed the Appalachians for $2,500 to finance an expedition by because the Louisiana Purchase more Captain Meriwether Lewis and William than doubled the amount of territory and “squatted” on federal Clark into the Louisiana Territory to available for settlement. thoroughly map the region and, among lands, hoping to make other things, determine whether the Now, Jefferson was a little troubled by Missouri River might not actually run all the realization that the new Constitution good their title to the the way to the Pacific. Even Thomas Jef- gave him no enumerated authority to ferson, 300 years after Columbus, could purchase new land for the United States. land by the simple fact of not miss one last attempt to discover that He even toyed with the idea of proposing occupation. futile dream of the first European explor- an amendment to the Constitution that ers, a northwest passage to China. would grant the Federal Government the authority to acquire new land. Amending The Lewis and Clark expedition dis- the Constitution was going to take time, Two important details of the Louisiana appeared for two years until it suddenly and the French wanted a quick decision. Purchase, however, had been overlooked turned up in St. Louis in September in the hasty process of sale: the bound- 1806. The explorers made only one ma- jor mistake in judgment, stating that even though the territory beyond the Missouri was rich in natural resources, it “would never be fit for white settlement.” Settle it did. The explorers were, in turn, followed by entrepreneurs and trappers. Following them were the mid- dlemen. Then, because the American republic was dominated by an agrarian culture, this region became the draw for cultivators. This immigration was part of an immense movement of people out of Europe in the nineteenth century, especially out of the British Isles. Part of the reason was that British capitalism was shifting from an agrarian mode to an industrial mode, driving people off the farmlands they had tilled for generations and into the already overcrowded cities. By 1830, 6,000 Scottish farmers were being forced out of the Highlands every year, and by 1832, 50,000 Protestant and Catholic Irish from British-ruled Ireland were on their way to America. The heavy Map of United States territorial acquisitions including the Louisiana Purchase. (Source: The burden of taxation, as the British Govern- National Atlas)

Fair & Equitable • January 2009 13 Cover Story ment sought to pay off immense debts it 640 acres to 80 acres. Even lowering the early colonial Americans squatters had had contracted during the Napoleonic requirements was not enough for many already occupied and improved 100,000 wars, also drove people to America. individuals. Many settlers bypassed the acres of land without, as one historian put As if taxation weren’t enough, the Eu- process of purchase entirely and simply it, a “shadow of a right.” British laws were ropean winters between 1825 and 1829 crossed the Appalachians and “squatted” becoming increasingly irrelevant to the were horrendously cold and triggered on federal lands, hoping to make good way many people lived and worked. famines and food shortages in Ireland their title to the land by the simple fact Squatters then began inventing their and Germany. In contrast, America of- of occupation. own species of property titles known fered a mild climate, taxation rates that as tomahawk rights, cabin rights, and corn were only one-tenth of those of Great An Early American Tradition— rights. Tomahawk rights were secured by Britain, and lots of public land. Squatting making slashing cuts or initials of the per- Although early migrants were mainly son proclaiming the tree as a boundary Federal laws dating back to the North- British and obeyed English law, once they west Ordinance in 1787 mandated the line. Cabin rights and corn rights meant moved to America a different reality set staking out land by building a log cabin sale of federally owned land in sections of in. In England, occupying a plot of land 640 acres; these were to be sold at $2 per or raising a crop of corn. These rights, for a long period without a title, squatting, for the most part, helped reduce quarrels acre. However, that acreage and price was was against the law. In the newly formed still out of reach for most individuals. On over property lines with neighbors. They United States of America, with no initial were also accepted in the early American the other hand, land speculators, who resistance and many opportunities, squat- had cash in hand from investors, willingly frontier communities and became the ting on available land quickly became a source of legal title years later. bought up the 640-acre sections of land, common practice. Squatting in America subdivided them, and then sold the land is older than the nation itself. Even before Preemption would become a principal to individual settlers or immigrants in the arrival of the Massachusetts Bay Com- key to the integration of extralegal prop- much smaller parcels. Congress fueled pany in New England, settlers without erty ownership into American law over this land bonanza still further in 1819 charter of grants were living at various the next 200 years. By the end of 1828, when it dropped the price of federally places within the limits of the Bay. Some two-thirds of the population of Illinois owned land from $2 per acre to $1.25 based their rights only on occupation was squatters, and in 1841, Congress per acre. It also reduced the minimum and purchase from the Indians. These yielded to pressure and legitimized their acreage that could be purchased from titles by the process of preemption. Pre- emption was a means by which a squat- ter could buy out the title to land in his use, though it could not really be called possession, but up to 180 acres that the squatter was actually farming could be purchased retroactively at Congress’s price of $1.25 per acre.

The Jefferson/Putnam Grid In the immortal words of John Lennon, “in the mist of planning, life happens.” So it was with the Jefferson/Putnam grid system of surveying and selling public lands. Once it belonged to the United States, the Louisiana Purchase needed to be surveyed and sold off. The land beside the Mississippi River was divided into the Orleans Territory (the region around New Orleans) and the Louisiana Territory (modern-day Arkansas and Mis- souri). However, there were problems here as there had been east of the Missis- sippi. The United States had undertaken to honor property registered with the French and Spanish authorities, even if it conflicted with the 640-square section. General Land Office map, circa 1855, showing Township No 1, Range No 1 West, Willamette In the Orleans Territory, the long lots Meridian in the Territory of Oregon. (Source: University of Oregon, Knight Library. Accessed of French farmers measured 960 feet online at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/map/GIS/Data/Oregon/GLO/Quadrant_1.htm.

14 Fair & Equitable • January 2009 by 7,800 feet and ran back from creeks, modular unit of settlement.” It was also a distance closer to a mile. What Smalley therefore making it impossible to hold considered the minimum area needed proposed was that more villages be cre- a square grid. Also, wherever there was to support the average family. Railroads ated, thus attracting people “of such a good land, squatters claimed to have sold land by the 40-acre lot. It also had sociable, neighborly disposition as would French or Spanish land grants. Some of a nice ring to it: being the Southeast open the way to harmonious living.” these squatters even forged the records quarter of the Southwest quarter. This Since 1785 the land mass of the United in the registry office. As Silas Bent, the size of tract also helped people be “more States has grown to 2.3 billion acres, and surveyor-general of the Louisiana Terri- neighborly.” In an 1893 article for the of that total, 1.8 billion acres spread tory, wrote, Atlantic Monthly, concerning the one-mile across 32 states have been transferred to sections, Smalley wrote that, There has been leaves cut out of the books individual ownership. In economic terms and others pasted in with large plats of …each family must live mainly by itself, alone, it has represented the greatest surveys on them… the dates have been and life, shut up in the little wooden orderly transfer of public resources to evidently altered in a large proportion of farmhouses, cannot well be very cheer- the private sector in history. the certificates. Plats have been altered ful….An alarming amount of insanity from smaller to larger. Names erased occurs in the new prairie states among Manifest Destiny and others inserted and striking differ- farmers and their wifes. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the ence in collour of the ink… (Linklater United States was destined to expand 2002, 159) from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean; it has also been used to advocate Not only was some of the frontier terri- Since 1785 the land mass for or justify other territorial acquisitions. tory already “owned” or at least occupied, Originally a political catch phrase of the a situation that called for adjustments of the United States nineteenth century, it eventually became in the survey grid, but also there was a standard historical term, often used the problem of converging meridians. has grown to 2.3 billion as a synonym for the expansion of the The curvature of the earth brings lines acres, and of that total, United States across the North American of longitude gradually together as they continent. A treaty with Spain, properly run toward the pole, so that in most of 1.8 billion acres spread known as the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, the United States the northern end of a ceded Florida to the United States. township is 30 to 40 feet narrower than across 32 states have the southern. To adjust for that, “cor- The Oregon Treaty, officially known as rection lines” were created. While the been transferred to the Treaty with Great Britain, in Regard townships were not cookie-cut at exactly to the Limits Westward of the Rocky 640 acres apiece, the beauty of the Public individual ownership. Mountains, was signed on June 15, 1846 Land Survey System was that it made buy- and ceded present-day Oregon, Washing- ing land simple, whether by squatter or ton, and Idaho to the United States. The land speculator. The grid system gave a What Smalley blamed was the square Mexican Cession is a historical name for parcel of virgin ground a unique identity, section, which encouraged settlers to the region of the present-day southwest- beginning with the township. Its name build their houses near the center of ern United States that was ceded to the might be “Township 4 North, Range 10 their holdings, so that no field was too United States by Mexico in 1848 under West of the Second Principal Meridian.” far away. As a result, on two neighboring the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which Within the township, the 36 sections were 160-acre claims, there would often be a ended the Mexican-American War. numbered in an idiosyncratic fashion half-mile, as the crow flies, between farm- In all these acquisitions the grid sys- established by the 1796 act, beginning houses. And the isolation was intensified tem of land ownership and conveyance with Section 1 in the northeast corner by the failure of the Public Land Survey prevailed. and continuing first westward, then System to allocate land for roads. The eastward, back and forth in what is called federal laws governing the surveys ini- Capitalism and Surplus Value a boustrophedonic fashion, that is, like an tially made no mention of roads as such, Private ownership of land in the United ox pulling a plow, until Section 36 was except that in 1796, follow-up federal States is important. Without the tools reached in the southeast corner. legislation declared all navigable streams of formal property, assets could not be Each square-mile section had its own to be public highways. Some states, used for everything they accomplish in identity, and as Congress shrank the however, passed laws early on defining the United States. And the county land minimum purchase size, its identifier sections as state roads. Inevitably these record/property system in this country is simply grew more specific. By 1832 the developed along the section lines, and the center of a complex web of connec- smallest area for which a would-be farmer so in practical terms, for one family to tions that equips its citizens to form ties could bid at a government land auction reach another required a journey down with both the government and the private was reduced to a quarter of a quarter-sec- the track to the section line, along the sector. This connection allows individu- tion, or 40 acres. It would become “the section line, and up the neighbor’s track, als and corporation to obtain additional

Fair & Equitable • January 2009 15 Cover Story

goods and services, thus creating what is which all property records (titles, deeds, coinage. In J. P. Boyd, Ed., The papers of called surplus value. How else could fi- maps, and so on, which describe the Thomas Jefferson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton nancial organizations identify trustworthy economically significant aspects of real University Press, 1952–1992. Quoted in potential borrowers on a massive scale if estate assets) are continually tracked Linklater 2002, 71. they did not own property? How could and reassessed. The county land/record Linklater, A. 2002. Measuring America: physical objects like timber in Maine or property system is therefore the steward How an untamed wilderness shaped the Oregon secure an industrial investment in of what this country represents. Public United States and fulfilled the promise of de- Chicago if the owner of the land cannot recordkeepers administer protocols mocracy. New York: Walker & Company. be identified? How could tax collection that contain all the economically use- work without land ownership? ful descriptions of assets in land and Meinig, D.W. 2006. The shaping of America. improvements. These property records A geographical perspective on 500 years of alert anyone eager to use an asset about history. New Haven, CT: Yale University Land ownership and the circumstances, such as encumbrances, Press. Quoted in Linklater 2002, 44. formal property system easements, and mortgages, that may Smalley, E.V. 1893. Isolation of life on restrict or enhance the realization of prairie farms. Atlantic Monthly, Septem- draw out the surplus that usage. This system also ensures that ber. Quoted in Linklater 2002, 230. assets are adequately and accurately value—the abstract represented in appropriate formats that can be updated and easily accessed by Richard Norejko, CMS, is a planner potential from land and everyone. Therefore, the combination for the Buncombe County Planning of land ownership and the formal county Department in Asheville, North buildings—and fixes it in property system takes on another life Carolina. He is a past member of when someone focuses attention on the the IAAO Executive Board and an representations that allow title of land, and not on the land owner- IAAO senior instructor. He is also ship itself. At that moment, the transac- a member of TEAM Consulting. He individuals to go beyond tion moves from the material world into is a regular contributor of articles to passively using their the conceptual universe where capital Fair & Equitable. and surplus value live. homes only for shelter. Property ownership then is not mere paper deeds but a mediating device that captures and stores most of the elements Land ownership and the formal prop- required to make a market economy run. erty system draw out the surplus value— Property seeds the system by making peo- the abstract potential from land and ple accountable and assets fungible, thus

buildings—and fixes it in representations providing all the mechanisms required for R that allow individuals to go beyond pas- the monetary and banking system to work. sively using their homes only for shelter. The connection between capital and mod- Here property system is used to connote the ern money runs through land ownership, three recognized phases of authenticat- and the United States has a 400-year-old What’s Your ing ownership and value: history of land ownership. n Story? • First, the county register of deeds of- Bibliography IAAO is collecting stories from fice maintains a record of real estate De Soto, H. 2003. The mystery of capital: members about their experiences ownership as well as the other deeds Why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails and remembrances of IAAO events, that provide people other than the everywhere else. New York: Basic Books. activities, education programs, and owner of a property with the privilege friendships—contribute your story to review an owner’s real estate rights Guelzo, A.C., G.W. Gallagher, and P.N. today for the 75th anniversary cel- over the property. Allitt. 2003. The history of the United States, 2nd ed., Parts I–VII (The Great Courses ebration. • Second, the land records/mapping Course Guidebook). Chantilly, VA: The If you have a recollection of a office records ownership and maps Teaching Company. memorable event or story related the property boundaries on the county to IAAO then please consider cadastre. Hughes, S. 1979. Surveyors and statesmen: Land measuring in colonial Virginia. Rich- sharing it. • Third, the local assessor establishes the mond, VA: Virginia Surveyors Founda- assessed value of the property. For more information or to submit tion, Virginia Association of Surveyors. a story, e-mail or call Leann Ritter, Land ownership and the formal [email protected] or 816/701-8161. property system constitute a network in Jefferson, T. 1784. Some thoughts on a

16 Fair & Equitable • January 2009