Miami Rivers Survey
From 20th Century History of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio by Hon. William A. Rockel
Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1908
The above title describes the more elaborate system of survey in northern parts of Ohio and thence west to the Pacific. The survey of that part of Clark County which is sectionized illustrates a step in the development of that system. The land between the Miami rivers, north of Symmes' purchase, was surveyed (1802 and prior) as government land, by Col. Israel Ludlow, who platted Cincinnati and Dayton. This survey was in six mile townships, which Colonel Ludlow divided into squares of two miles, and which were afterward sub-divided into sections one mile square, "more or less." Ludlow used "towns" and "ranges" in reverse order to the plan above described. In this county the towns are the north-south tiers, numbered eastward from the Great Miami, and the ranges are the east-west rows, numbered northward. The sections are numbered from the southeast corner of the township, north, and the successive westward tiers in the same order. Many sections are divided, instead of into regular subdivisions, into preemption tracts, land taken up at the time of the survey. Some of these preemption lines still figure in descriptions. Complete descriptions of regular sub-divisions in the sectionized part of Clark County are the same as above described, except that instead of range east (or west) town north (or south), the statement is "range, town, Miami Rivers survey."
The sections of this survey are irregular, and generally contain more or less than 640 acres, according to the original plats. Those assumed to contain 640 acres generally overrun in modern surveys, as do the section lines. The mode of survey, though quite primitive, was a wonderful improvement on the Virginia Military Survey.