Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-12
ERRONEOUS SURVEYS.
Troahle In MinnehAAa Ceumtx Over h
had Work ef Government Surveyors,

Trouble In MinnehAAa County Over ths
had Work Of Government barvsyors.
Sioux Falls Paragraph.
Some parts of this region have been very
mach troubled BY errors which were made
IN running the lines subdividing townships
and locating section corners. Several OF
these have been compromised heretofore,
some OF them are still In tho process Of
rectlhcation, and Others are yet to BE-
tackled. Cyrus Waits Ia now eagaged up.
ON q survey OF division lines 10 township
lOS OF range %. north west of Sioux lFalls
10 the Lyman netghbor, 1t is his opinion
that the township had never been surveyed.
but the corners were located by guess. and
some OF the lines are terribly out of the
way. In section Is of township referred to,
the southeast corner as heretofore UNDER
STOOD wa about forty rods east Of its true
position, and the northeast corner wal about
ten rods west of where it ought to be, max.
ing a variation of fifty rods in one mile, q
divergence of nearly one rod in six. Other,
lines are run almost 40 badly. Tho tesnliI
of this Is that settlers there have not Cult
waited the lands really descrAed inatbaar'
title papers. Thew have locatsdstheir lands
according to %somebody's guess work, and
that guess-work did not agree by =
means with the real location required BY
the plats.
For the purpose of correcting the errors,
some of the settlers engaged Mr.. Waits to
resurvey the township, and this new survey
has very materially changed the boundaries
of the farms there, locating part of the land
which has been cultivated by different par.
lies, over on domain for which they have no
papers. One of MI. Waits lines runs right
through Charles Sissons' house, and in the
case Of Jens Jensen the new survey takes
his residence from what he supposed to be
his homestead, and puts it oyer on the de.
scription of land which he had entered as
his timber-claim. Other important changes
are also made by the resurvey, and a gen
eral unsettling of the good nature of the
neighborhood is the result.
Some of the settlers have refused to pay any
attention to the cub lines in the township,as
made by Mr.. Waits, at the instance of other
settlers, and express a determination to stick
by the old lines and corners as they suppos-
ed them to be located when they took their
lands; The question must be adjusted some
time between them and those who intend to
consider the new lines as boundaries
of their property. Authorities seem
to conflict somewhat in re-
gard to the matter. The patents Issued BY
the government to the settlers usually read
that the lands are to be deferred by "lhe
official plots Of the survey of the said lands,
tc the general land Office BY the
surveyor general This would indicate the
survey as it ought to have been made is to
be taken as the criterion in determining the
boundaries of lands, and when such proper
survey has not been made before settlement,
nor the lines properly located, that a survey
subsequently made, agreeing with the Off
cial plats, must be accepted as final. On the
other hand, however, the general land Office
has ruled, as in the case pertaining to a
township north of Valley Springs, that
where the old corners established BY the or.
iginal survey can be identified, they must be
accepted as determining the boundaries of
lands, whether they are in the right place or
not. But the supreme court OF Wisconsin
decreed that the location of lands described
by numbers, instead of by metes and bounds,
must be determined according to the field
notes Of the survey-not according to
the stakes and mounds as set by the survey.
or.
1t would seem, therefore, that it will re-
quire the interference of the courts to settle
the controversy between the settlers up in
l03, SO, and that the courts will then proba.
bly, have to haye somebody settle the contro.
versy between themselves.