One of the best genealogical tools we have is being able to know exactly where our ancestors may have lived, how they lived and who their neighbors were.  Understanding this map and locating your ancestor is the purpose of this section.  YOU will need to read and understand the information below before attempting to locate any tract of land.

THE BASE (MERIDIAN) LINE: This map is based on a “grid” system.  In 1817 to 1820 the Hiwassee Purchase and its accompanying map was the first time this type map had been used in the USA.  In the Hiwassee District the primary north/south line was called the Meridian line.  In the Ocoee it was called the BASE Line.  Everything was either WEST or EAST of this line.  It was not a true north-south line.  This BASE line began at the township of Charleston on the Hiwassee River TN to run to just west of where the Conasauga River flows back into Georgia in southern Bradley County.

RANGES: Range lines were topographically every SIX miles, east or west and placed numerically.  West of the base line was RANGES 1 -7 numbered from east to west.  East of the base line the RANGES were numbered 1-7 numbered from west to east (beginning at the base line).

TOWNSHIPS: Here we must define Fractional Townships as opposed to Townships.  When these maps were originally done they were created with some townships being fractional or less than the complete townships of 36 square miles.
Thirty-six sections equaled one township.

SECTIONS: You will please note there are 36 SECTIONS placed as follows:

In each section is 640 acres (a square mile) which were divided up into four areas: Northeast (NE), northwest (NW), southeast(SE) & southwest (SW).  These were the QUARTER SECTIONS.  Each quarter section was 160 acres.  Quarter sections were often subdivided into 40 or 80 acres.  CORNERS were smaller sections within each quarter section and listed as the, for example, south east corner of the north west quarter section.

In the instances in which the land lay in a FRACTIONAL TOWNSHIP is where we see the exceptions to the above rule.  These would have been in the townships where the above full 36 square miles did not exist: along rivers, state lines, Indian boundaries or other occurrences.  In these cases you will see odd numbers of acreage being allotted.  Full SECTIONS in FRACTIONAL TOWNSHIPS  were handled the same as noted above.

Some users may have the info from a well-used book on many shelves in libraries “Abstracts of Ocoee District Early Land Records Entries” by Lucille McClure.  In order to understand and use her book you will need to know the following:

The TRACTS of land were assigned a number with the date always given; so, when reading a grant you will see (an example)  R1E – FT1S #1 – SWcSEq.  Translated this is Range one, East of the Base line, located in fractional township one, south, in the southwest corner of the Southeast quarter.  It was 40 acres.

Another example is this:  R1E T1 #7 SWcSWq – Range one, west of the base line, in township one, section #7, Southeast corner, South west quarter section.

To determine where the townships are one must refer back to the map.  (Please note that she has incorrectly labeled the townships in Range 3 West as they deviate from the original assigned township numbers.  There could be other errors as well.)

OTHER INFORMATION:  As stated earlier each tract of land was assigned a tract number,  Also given is the name, acreage, type of grant, location, date and amount paid.

TYPES:
OE – Occupant Enterer
GE –  General Enterer
TRE – Transferred
AOE – Assignee of Occupant Enterer

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION: The map being presented to you on this website is taken directly from the microfilm of the original plat maps.  They will differentiate slightly from maps you may have previously seen or used in the past.  These plat maps will give you, the user, the most accurate information as originally presented.

Range 3 WEST had 5 fractional townships north and two south but the Registrar in making out the grants always called “Range 3W FT2S” as “Range 3W T6”.  The plat book has that Township as FT2S not FT6. You are being linked to the correct place if looking at tracts in Range 3. That is the surveyors official layout in the plat. There are several grants that gave another wrong township because the township named on the grant did not exist by that name.  Of the many errors by the Register, only the R3W T6 error occurred every time.  There were many other Register errors, which were researched on the plat maps and the right location found. The township numbers was what would be wrong.

There were also 8 plat pages missing from the plat book images on microfilm.  Found were many grants in Book B in all of the townships.  For those townships with no plat pages, these have been reconstructed or will be reconstructed as we get information from the grant pages.

This is a corrected version of the original.  New plat pages are in progress. If there is disagreement between the plat book and the grant, the plat is what is chosen as correct. In most cases the Register did not know his north from his south and ignored the correct name for things in writing the grant.

The grants do not give the selling price per acre. On the plat book pages the price per acre cost is given. In PDF form (Google Books) for “Land Laws of Tennessee” tells that an occupant has first rights to buy the land for a number of months after the grants start. After two months, anyone can claim it and buy it. After a second two months, it is again reserved to the occupant if nobody else bought it and it is reserved to him for two months. Cycle over and over again.  Each 4 month period the price per acre dropped by this plan until it hit 1 cent or perhaps 1/2 cents per acre.