Harrison County, Missouri - Chapter 9: Land Opened for Entry, 1921

SQUATTERS - SOME TOWNSHIPS LAID OFF IN 1842 - UNITED STATES LAND OFFICE AT PLATTSBURG - METHOD OF SURVEYING GOVERNMENT LAND - MARKING SURVEYS - FIRST LAND ENTERED NORTH OF TOWT-JSHIP 62 IN 1846.

When the squatters first came to this county each one could get as much land as he wanted, that is, could claim what he wanted for farm or pasture or timber, for the land was not then surveyed or laid off into sections of townships.

About 1842 the land in township 62, that is a strip five miles wide on south side of county, was laid off into sections and opened for entry, and in 1845 the land in townships 63, 64 and 65, that is eighteen miles more north, was surveyed and sectionized, and in 1846 was opened for entry at the United States land office, then at Plattsburg, Missouri.

The surveyors first laid off the townships six miles square, and these were afterwards subdivided into sections. Each section was intended to be one mile square and to contain 640 acres, but as the original townships were not always accurately surveyed they were found sometimes to be more and sometimes to be less than that size. The surveyors laying off the section would commence at the southeast corner of the township and survey north and west, so the south and east sections were made one mile square and the last tier of sections on the north and west was often either more or less than the one mile square, and the north part of the last sections adjoining the township line on the north side of the township, and the half of the sections adjoining the range line on the west side of the township sustained the loss or gain. The inside eighty acres was usually full and was called lot 1, and the outside eighty, or the tract next the line, was called lot 2, so lots 2 are often more than eighty acres and again often fall below that size.

or where they could get stakes conveniently they would make a stake about four inches square and four feet long and drive into the ground two feet. Upon the sides of the stakes were marked the number of the section it was made to face and the township and range. This was for the convenience of the people who desired to enter the land.

Sometimes upon the large prairies the surveyors would run out of stakes and then they would pour down about a quart of charcoal to mark the e.xact corner and cover it up with earth, making a small hillock. It was a violation of the law for any person to move these stakes or hills.

Of course the section lines did not always suit the squatters, as sometimes they would have their houses in one section and their bams in another, and very frequently their cultivated lands would be divided by the lines. Sometimes a squatter would find his small field in four sections.

As the surveyors did not run the inside lines, it gave occasion for the squatters to exercise their skill in sighting through, setting stakes and running the other lines.

The first lands entered north of township 62 were entered by John S. Allen, David Buck and James A. Dale on December 22, 1846. At the same time John A. Allen as county seat commissioner entered 160 acres for the county for county seat purposes, to-wit: The west half of the southeast quarter, and the east half of the southwest quarter of section 10, township 63, range 28, west of the fifth principal meridian. Thus the land upon which the county seat was located was not entered or purchased from the government until some time after the county seat vvas located, and part of it laid off into lots, some of the lots sold and a few houses erected on them.