The Facts Unravel #5 My ancestor Jimerson (James Jr.) Liddell bought and sold property in Jefferson County MS several times 1828-1854. The legal rigmarole of Deeds and Mortgages and Due Trusts escapes me, but all the people are listed below with details elsewhere on the Jefferson website. The legal documents describe Jimerson's land in one of two ways, "metes and bounds" or reference to adjacent landowners and geography, and surveyors' "section, township and range." Metes and bounds are difficult for the genealogy researcher to locate. Property "adjoining lands of Isaac Dunbar and Mrs. Sims, formerly owned by E. Smith and [before that] by Isaac Dunbar, which was sold by the sheriff of Jefferson County to Samuel Thornberry and [then] to Lewis Cable" might be anywhere. Geographic clues such as "on the north fork of Coles Creek" help some, but the Coles Creek watershed drains most of the county. Further, landmarks come and go, as everyone near the Mississippi River knows too well. Surveyors' coordinates locate property fairly precisely, but first one has to unravel the facts. What do they mean by "the west half of the north east quarter of Section 22, Township 9 North, Range 3 East"? About 1798 Jefferson County was surveyed into 6x6-mile squares, roughly Townships 8, 9, & 10 North by Ranges 1 & 2 West, 1, 2, 3, & 4 East, and a fraction of Range 5 East. In the diagram, Rodney MS is located in square R, Fayette MS in square F, and Jimerson's property in square J. Jefferson Co. MS Townships North, Ranges West and East . . . R2W R1W R1E R2E R3E R4E R5E . . .!---!---!---!---!---! T10N ! . ! R ! . ! . ! . ! . . .!---!---!---!---!---!---!-! T9N . .! ! . ! F ! . ! J ! . ! ! . . . .!-!---!---!---!---!---!-! T8N . .! ! . ! . ! . ! . ! . ! ! . . . .!-!---!---!---!---!---!-! Each Township-and-Range square, called a "township" for short, is usually (but not always) 6 miles on a side and contains 36 square "sections." Sections are numbered from the northeast corner by "boustrophedon," (boos-truh-FEED-un) a two-dollar word that means "as the ox plows." Section 22 is almost in the middle. Jefferson Co. MS Township 9 N, Range 3 E Section numbers <------- 6 miles -------> . 6 . 5 . 4 . 3 . 2 . 1 . ^ . 7 . 8 . 9 .10 .11 .12 . ! .18 .17 .16 .15 .14 .13 . 6 miles .19 .20 .21 [22].23 .24 . ! .30 .29 .28 .27 .26 .25 . ! .31 .32 .33 .34 .35 .36 . v One section = 1 square mile = 640 acres. Townships vary but sections are constant. Sections are further divided into halves, quarters, halves of quarters (eighths) and so on. The "west half of the north east quarter" defines an 80-acre tract, 1/4 mile east-to-west by 1/2 mile north-to-south. Jefferson Co. MS Township 9 N, Range 3 E, Section 22 . . . . . . . <1/4 mi> ! - - - - - - ! - - -!- - - ! ^ ! North West .! West ! . . .! 1/2 !. quarter . .! half ! . . .! mile ! - - - - - - ! - - - - - - ! v ! South West ! South East .! !. quarter . .!. quarter . .! ! - - - - - - ! - - - - - - ! Township and Range numbers have to start somewhere. Townships in southern MS count northward from Andrew Ellicott's 1798 east-west survey line, now the straight-line borders of MS-LA and AL-FL. Ranges are taken from the "Washington meridian," a north-south line drawn near Washington MS in Adams County. Rodney (T10N,R1W) lies about 3 miles west from this meridian, Fayette (T9N,R1E) about 5 miles east. However, there's a BIG problem inherent with this system. The grid is flat but the Earth is round. Professional surveyors wrestle numerous corrections into their plat maps. As a result, would-be squares often contain angles or zigzag steps, so Jimerson's 80-acre "west half of the north east quarter" came out 79.67 acres. Presumably the difference, twice the size of my garden home lot, wouldn't matter to a large-scale farmer. A much clearer explanation of all this (from Itawamba Co. MS) is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~msichs/plotdeed.html address current summer 2003. Jefferson plat map at http://www.rootsweb.com/~msjeffe2/images/JeffCoMS1839.jpg extracted from an excellent 1839 plat map of MS-LA-AR available free from the Library of Congress at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3935.rr001340 and other LC maps at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdquery.html addresses current summer 2003. Topographic maps available from several commercial sources, none of which pay me to advertise their wares. People in Jimerson's legal documents. Hiram Baldwin, creditor 1842 Thomas Berry, landowner 1831 Frederick J. Chambliss, landowner 1854 Henry W. Daingerfield, deceased landowner 1854 Isaac Dunbar, landowner 1828 and 1837 John H. Duncan, Justice of the Peace 1832 Edmund Fitzpatrick of Charlotte Co. VA, creditor 1838 and 1842 William Ivey, deceased landowner 1832 Cicero Jefferson, seller 1832 J. C. Johnson, Justice of the Peace 1854 [possibly John Clem Johnson?] Edwin McKey, Probate Court Clerk 1842 and 1843 A. B. McLeod, witness 1828 Ross O'Quin, buyer 1838 Isaac Pipes, Justice of the Peace 1828 Sanders A. Rice of Natchez, cotton agent 1842 Arthur B. Sims, seller 1837 and landowner 1838 Hannah Sims, landowner 1854 Mrs. Sims, landowner 1828 Thomas Sims, landowner before 1837 E. Smith, landowner before 1828 James Stuart, landowner 1837 Thomas A. Stuart, attorney 1842 William Stuart, seller 1832 Champ Terry, creditor 1842 Samuel Thornberry, landowner before 1828 Elisha Trader and spouse Mary Ann Trader, sellers 1828 John A. Watkins, Justice of the Peace 1838 and cotton agent 1842 Gustavus H. Wilcox, attorney 1838 George Woods, buyer 1843 Bruce D. Liddell, BDLiddell@yahoo.com Birmingham AL, 28-Sep-2003 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com