ASHLAND MEMORIES: Surveyors go 'tick tuck' all day long
The area that became Ashland County was the hunting grounds of Wyandots, Ottawas, Delawares, Mohicans and Mingoes at the beginning of the 19th century. These lands lay north of the Greenville treaty line, which in 1795 opened up the part of Ohio south and east of the line to American settlement.
PREVIOUS ASHLAND MEMORIES: The last days of Jean-Baptiste Jerome
At the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805, the Native Americans relinquished their claims to this land, with a couple of small exceptions, for $20,000 and an annuity in goods. They retained the right to fish and hunt on the lands just ceded, “so long as they shall demean themselves peaceably.”
The exceptions included a reservation in Mohican Township, including the site of Jerometown. This reservation encompassed four sections just south of Jeromesville. The area around Greentown in Green Township was also reserved. The Delawares finally relinquished these lands in 1818.
The Treaty of Fort Industry officially made the area of Ashland County available for purchase, but settlement did not start immediately. First the land had to be surveyed into ranges, townships and sections, as prescribed by the Northwest Land Ordinance of 1785.
The surveying of most of Ashland County was done by James Hedges, Jonathan Cox and Maxfield Ludlow in 1806 and 1807. The northernmost townships of Ruggles, Troy, and Sullivan were part of the Western Reserve lands and were surveyed separately, following a slightly different pattern.
Account of the surveys in historian George Hill's 1876 history of Ashland County
The historian George Hill gives an account of the surveys in his 1876 history of Ashland County. He uses the field notes kept by the surveyors, which he says were in the possession of the Ashland County surveyor at the time he was writing.
The surveyors carried supplies by packhorse, and lived “after the manner of hunters and soldiers” — camping in tents and cooking over fires. They traveled between 6 and 18 miles per day, making note of the timber, streams and soil type of the land. They also noted any peculiarities such as prehistoric mounds or long-established trails. They blazed the section lines and marked the corners with trees or posts.
Surveyors’ terms seem archaic, but they reflect the simple tools they used to measure the land.
The chain they used was sometimes called a Gunter’s chain because an Englishman named Edmund Gunter invented it in 1620. It was 66 feet long and consisted of 100 links.
They also used wooden poles which were 16 1/2 feet. The rod or pole was a common term for measuring distance back in the day. There are four rods in a chain and 80 chains in a mile.
Surveyors used simple tools including a compass
Using simple tools including a compass, surveyors laid the chain on the ground and measured out the miles. They would place a pin at the end of the chain and then move it forward once again. It was a laborious process, but surprisingly accurate.
Hill includes an anecdote that happened to the team laying out Perry Township. He says that the Delaware, Capt. Pipe, and some of his companions accosted the surveyors and ordered them to stop.
Apparently the clank of the chains was annoying to him, as he said “You go tick-tuck, tick-tuck, all day. Me cut your legs off, then how you go tick-tuck, tick-tuck?”
Meanwhile, his friends grabbed the surveyors’ chains and ran off with them, temporarily stopping the racket.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: ASHLAND MEMORIES: Surveyors go 'tick tuck' all day long
