Surveyors’ Districts Maps
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Tennessee’s 3rd Surveyors’ District
~ 1807 ~
- This is an abridged version of an article that appeared in the Middle Tennessee Journal of Genealogy and History, Vol. XI, No. 1, Summer 1997. Please consult that issue for abstracts of most of the grants found on the original map.
Introduction
- There is an archival map of Tennessee's 3rd Surveyor's District at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville. For good cause we date this map as late 1807. This map, No. 399 is very large, in fact it is too large to be reduced in size and then satisfactorily reproduced. Therefore, a redrawing was in order. The towns of Cookeville, McMinnville, Sparta and Spencer have added to the newly drawn version for your reference. Those towns did not exist in 1807. The map illustrates the section numbering system used in the 3rd District. That system was different from the system used in the 1st and 2nd Districts, Middle Tennessee's other two early Surveyor's Districts. For most of the 3rd District's twenty year lifespan, 1807-1827, the 3rd District was considered to be in West Tennessee. However, earlier, North Carolina considered that area to be in her Middle District and is so reflected in her grants there. The western bounds of the North Carolina Middle District were the east bounds of the North Carolina Military District, also known as the Military Reservation.
- The first seven Surveyor's Districts, including the 3rd were created by the Tennessee Assembly in 1806. The section and range lines were probably run in the spring of 1807. At least, this was the case with the 2nd District, one of the 3rd District's neighbors. As the surveyor went about his business, he would mark in his field notes, all waterways, both great and small. He would not follow the creeks and branches to their source or to their outlets, hence you will notice incomplete waterways crossing the lines. Usually, a number of surveyors would be employed to survey a whole District and then all the single line surveys would be combined to produce the map of the District. Actual entries for land in the 3rd District started on 3 Aug 1807. Surveys for individual tracts would follow.
North Carolina Grants and 3rd District Surveys
- Many North Carolina plats of grants are shown on the map as are also a few 1807 Tennessee plats. It is possible that the map was never finished for great many older North Carolina grants in the area are not drawn on the map. Many, but not all, of the grants have been identified.
