Surveyor’s Journal Entry Nine

Modified Rectangular Surveying in the U.S. Military District

The United States Military District was set aside by Congress in 1796 as compensation for Revolutionary War veterans. The district began at the northwest corner of the “ Seven Ranges ” running 50 miles south and west to the Scioto River. The southern boundary ran along the entire length of modern-day Fifth Avenue in Columbus.

The district’s 16,000 acres in Franklin County were surveyed by Deputy Surveyors Israel Ludlow, John Mathews, Ebenezer Buckingham, William Putnam (Rufus Putnam’s son), and James Kilbourne using a modified version of the new rectangular system. The land was measured into townships, five miles square, and then divided into quarter townships, two and-a-half miles square, containing about 4,000 acres each. There was also the layout of 100-acre lots for the convenience of some soldiers in the area of Rocky Fork Creek, as well as 24 surplus lots of 160 acres.

The initial setting of land boundaries provided for the eventual creation of these political subdivisions within the district:

Sharon Township, including the town of Worthington (1806)
Plain Township (1810)
Clinton Township (1811)
Mifflin Township (1811)
Blendon Township (1815)
Jefferson Township (1816)
Perry Township (1820)
Village of New Albany within Plain Township (1856)
Town of Westerville within Blendon Township (1858)
Town of Gahanna within Mifflin Township (1881)