Re: Plumb-Bobs to GPS at the Washington County Historical Society

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Don Jensen (dnjkenosha@wi.rr.com)
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:42:06 -0500



Message-ID: <002901c91364$296741a0$0301a8c0@Jensen>
From: "Don Jensen" <dnjkenosha@wi.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Plumb-Bobs to GPS at the Washington County Historical Society
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:42:06 -0500

While I can't speak to other states, in Wisconsin there seems always to exist confusion between Township and Town.

In fact, many towns in Wisconsin erroneously call themselves townships, and you even see things like XXX Township painted on their highway department trucks.

A township is exactly as Carolyn Knight explains, based on the rectangular survey system. It is a system of land description. A township is 6 miles by 6 miles, or 36 square miles. Each square mile is called a section, 640 acres, which can be subdivided into quarter and half sections, each of which can be further subdivided to describe any particular piece of property.

In Wisconsin, a town, on the other hand, is a non-incorporated governmental entity. A certain number of towns, minus incorporated municipalities, villages and cities, make up a county. The boundaries of a Wisconsin town were politically established, by the legislature.

What makes it confusing is that SOMETIMES but NOT ALWAYS the political boundaries of a town are coincidental with the boundaries of a township.
 Look at a map and you will see that while meny towns and townships have identical boundaries, many other towns consist of parts of several townships.

The easiest way to distinguish between a Wisconsin town and a township is that the former have names, such as the mentioned Town (not township) of Lowell in Dodge County.

A township, however, is named by its relationship to a LSGS Meridian and Baseline, e.g. T.1N - R.21E. (which happens to be coincidental with the boundaries of the Town of Bristol in Kenosha County. However, the Town of Somers, as another example, is comprised of all of T.2N - R.22E, plus a part -- up to the Lake Michigan shoreline and minus part of the city of Kenosha -- of the next adjoining township to the east, T-2N - R.23E.

If it has a name, it is a Town, whose boundaries were established, often, for political reasons.

If it is described by a Township/Range number and compass direction, it is a Township.

Most people don't think much about their Township, other than how it is used to describe the location and boundaries of the piece of land they happen to own.

Usually people living in rural areas care mostly about a Town, the particular governmental unit in which they live, particularly when the town government has just raised taxes.

--don jensen Kenosha History Center, BoD

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: cnite51@aol.com
  To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
  Cc: cnite51@aol.com
  Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:29 AM
  Subject: Re: Plumb-Bobs to GPS at the Washington County Historical Society

  The boundaries of a township are not physical--no tree, or rock, or river, like when George Washington did his surveying. It all comes from the Land Survey Grid System (LSGS), which was created many years ago. The LSGS used a Meridian and Base Line. For most states, they don't have their own, and go off of the National one, but Michigan has its own set. I used to work on a survey crew. However, like all surveys, the markers are buried, and you need a survey description to know where to look. They even buried under roads, and you'll see evidence if they've been recently accessed (about a 4-6 inch hole in asphalt, etc. to be able to set up a target over it). Calling and talking with the speakers at the Washington County event would be able to give you more specific info--dates when LSGS, etc.

  Carolyn Knight
  cnite51@aol.com
  920-485-0668

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