Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1895 — OUR IRREGULAR CIVIL TOWNSHIPS, [ARTICLE]

OUR IRREGULAR CIVIL TOWNSHIPS,

And A Suggestion For Rearrangement. Iu respect to its division into civil townships, Jasper county is about the most irregular in the atate. There are a few others nearly or quite as irregular, but not many, and the most of these are so cut up by large streams, that irregularity in the shapes and sizes of the civil townships is almost & necessity .And such irregularity was a necessity in the early days of Jasper countyv.- The oeunty was so cut up and divided by impassible swamps and morasses that any regularity in townships was impossible. But that is a condition of things that has now nearly passed away. The swamps are nearly all drained,

and those not already so, will be in a very few years, while roads have been opened and bridges conj stracted, to keep pace with the draining of the swamps. But the irregularity of the townships remains, though the causes which produced the irregularity have passed away. Such irregularity is objectionable and inconvenient in many ways. It makes people go long distances to vote and attend convention, and attend to other township and public matters. It divides farms into different townships unnecessarily, greatly adds to the labors of several of our coHnty officers, and greatly increase* the chances for making mistakes in transferring land, the payment of taxes <fcc. Beside* all this, such irregular townships, have an unsightly appearance on the map* large enough to *how them, and tend to accentuate in people’s minds the idea that Jasper is still a land of swamp* and morasses.

And the worst of the matter is that unless these irregular township lines are reformed and corrected while the oounty is still comparatively new, and tome region* still thinly settled, the chances are that they will never be corrected, at all, and their inconvenience will be transmitted to all future generations of Jasperites.

On this page we give two mape. One shows the county as it is now divided into townships, and the other shows it, as it ought to be divided. The correct principle iu forming civil townships is to make them conform to the .Congressional townships, as near as may

be. This is the plan followed in the majority of counties in this state, and still more so in most other states which like our own, have the government survey. It is the plan followed in the map here givem aa„a.-DXQLDoaed new division of the couuty. A few facts to call attention to the present irregularity of the townships: Union township is 56 and square miles in area, and includes parts of four congressional townships, and the whole of none. Its boundary has 6 sides and 6 angles. Jordan Sownship consists of 35 .sections. Its boundary has 13 sides and 13 angles. It includes parts of two congressional townships. Walker is sections in extent, and large as it is, does not contain all of any congressional township, but parts of two. It is only al2 sided figure. Gillam is the “Shoestring” township of the county. It is miles long but only 4 wide. Extends into three congressional townships, and has 35 whole sections and 6 fragments of sections. Its boundary consists of 12 lines, varying in length from 160 rods to 10J miles.

Barkley contains 56 whole sections, and 8 pieces of sections; and parts of 4 congressional township?. In number of boundary lines it is equalled only by Marion. The lines are 28 in number, and from 40 rods to 7 miles in length. Marion alone disputes with Barkley the honor of being the champion ragged-edge, saw-tooth, stair-step bounded township. It has 28 sides, and extends into 6 d ifferent congressional townships, in this last respect being without a rival. Its lineal extent north and south varies from 10 miles to a J mile; and east and west from, 9 miles to 2 miles.

These monstrous and illogical irregularites ought not to be peN puetated. And the only way to reform them, is to reform them radically. In this new division proposed, as shown in map No. 2, on this page, the townships would conform, as near as practicable, with the congressional townships. The principal exception being the 3 mile long and half mile wide strip out of township 29-7, saved from Newton and left in Marion, in order that Rensselaer might have elbow room, all in one township. In this proposed map,“while all the townships except Carpenter, Wheatfield and Kankakee are

more or less changed, still, in every case, the bulk of the present population of each of the existing townships, would still reside in the same towd ship. The division would ferm two new townships, making I# in all, which would not be too many for the territorial extent of our county. One of the proposed new •townships would consist of township 31-7, the other of 31-5. To locate these new townships, on th e map, one of them ig named “Bald Knob,” the other fHfford. The first -name is suggewkad by a natural phenomenon; a lasge and wery regular sand hill in-thsi region, which goes by the name of Bald Knob. This name is used merely to fill a gap, and no doubt, if ever the new township is made, some more satisfactory name can be found for it. As for the other new township, if it is ever formed, the name of “Gifford” should stand. In the borders of that township, the first actual start was made in Benjamin J. Gißerd’s great drainage enterprise, which is adding so enormously to the wealth and population of eur county. A neighboring newspaper suggested not long since, that Jasper county should erect a mon-

ument to Mr. Gifford’s memory when he dies. But here i» a chance to honor him men appropriately and more enduringly than by any monument; and we need not wait until he ie dead, before doffig either. Iu this present articles He not expect to exhaust the aWbfrwi. Mainly to show how awiwawltjr the county is now divide and how easily the awkwardness might be remedied. These maps show this better than any words. We shall recar to this sabqeoi eg&iM, from time to time, but is the mean time, it is to be hopdti Um people will take the master up

and make it a matter of disoosaien. The change seems to as vary Aa sir able, and though it will, til fltoi occasion some inconvenience, as what change, however advantageous does not? But m t&e e*4 we doubt not the advantagM would so far outweigh tkb veniences, that the latter not be worth considering, f A' 11

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