Early Illinois Manuscript Plat Book
The Tyranny of the Grid or "a Nation of Squares"
With Substantial, Likely Erroneous Documentation Attributing the Work to Abraham Lincoln
An amazing survival, this late 1830s-early 1840s manuscript plat book contains 20 pages of manuscript surveyor's maps for townships in several Illinois counties, including Mason County, Tazewell County, Menard County, and Cass County. The plat book stands as a valuable record of the progress of the township grid in several Illinois counties, with detailed workmanlike plat maps recording the landscape (timber, swamps, lakes), school lands, landowners, and the like, of this section of Illinois along the eastern side of the Bounty Lands - a triangle of land between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, which was reserved for War of 1812 veterans and became part of the state of Illinois in 1818. While we have not been able to identify the surveyor who created these maps, we can categorically dismiss any suggestion that Abraham Lincoln made the maps. The present plats were almost certainly drawn during the time period 1839-1845; Lincoln was completely out of the surveying business by 1838. The 18th and 20th maps contain several dated land parcels, presumably recording the year they were purchased, with 1845 being the latest year noted.
Delevan Association
One solid clue as to the provenance is a fading pencil note on verso of the last map sheet which mentions Delavan, now a town in Tazewell County. Delavan was named for Edward Cornelius Delavan, a prominent merchant and temperance advocate from Albany, N.Y. and an early investor in Illinois land. In September of 1836, a joint-stock land company called the Delavan Association was established in Rhode Island. The company had a plat drawn up divided into 160-acre tracts of land, with a town site in the center. These tracts were sold at auction at Washington Hall in Providence, November 24, 1836. Each farm was given a town lot in the "City of Delavan." There may be a connection between our plat book and the Delevan Association or some of its investors, a possibility that deserves further research.
Places and other sites noted in the maps: Town of Havana, Quiver Lake (north of Havana), Wool's Lake, Illinois River (on several maps), Clear Lake, Allen's Grove, Lee's Grove, Salt Creek, Ott's Ferry, Adkin Ferry, and Blizzard Ferry.
Historical Context
The plat book's historical significance rests with its detailed documentation of land ownership within the context of rapid mid-19th century western expansion through the Illinois prairie. Despite the lack of a definitive attribution, the value of the plat book as a primary source document for the history of land development in 19th-century Illinois is self evident. The vernacular cloth binding and linen-backing of the maps, as well as the compact size of the plat book suggest it was intended for use in the field.
Many of the square land parcels have dates inscribed, suggesting the year of purchase, ranging from 1832 to 1845. The names of numerous landowners appear throughout the maps, and include: Alexander, Alkin, A. Autor, Bile, Blake, J. Boy, Brown, Day & Clark, Delavan, Donoho, Dunkin, Clark, J. Clopfelter, Cobb, R. Coon, Elkin, R. Falkin, Fisk, Gamble, J. Grigg, Hall, Harris, Hodge, Holmes, Hubbs, Knox, Lamb, Lille, Little, Long, E. Low, Miller, McDonald, W. Patterson, Randall, M.T. Reynolds, Ross, H. Sear, A. Scott, Stephen, Walker, Watkins, and Young.
Notably, one of the maps shows the town of Havana, while others show the Illinois River, Allen's Grove, Lee's Grove, and numerous ferries run (Ott's, Adkin's, and Blizzard's) at different points along the river. The plat book also documents various geographical features, landmarks, and settlements, enhancing its visual and historical interest.
A Clements Library catalogue describing a Rufus Putnam Meigs County, Ohio township map includes useful background for appreciating such early midwestern plat maps.
Nothing is more striking to an air traveler in the United States, flying from the East coast westward, than the contrasting land patterns of the East and the Middle West. East of the Ohio River one is over areas of colonial settlement... West of the Ohio, where fences, hedgerows, and roads create a checkerboard pattern, the observer has arrived over the areas largely granted and settled after the American Revolution... The impetus for doing anything about western lands was initially financial. Sale of these vast tracts of wilderness was one of the few sources of income available to the central government... the Land Ordinance of 1785 was approved by Congress, establishing what became the basic system for surveying the West. The primary unit was the township, six miles square, containing 36 numbered "sections" of 640 acres each - John C. Dann, ed. One Hundred and One Treasures from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library, pages 101-102.
In sum, this manuscript township plat book, likely dating from the early 1840s, serves as a fascinating document of early land ownership patterns in the prairie area bordering on the old Bounty Lands of Illinois.
Dubious Attribution to Lincoln
The plat book is accompanied by several letters and affidavits attesting or asserting that it was either compiled by Abraham Lincoln or that Lincoln had something to do with the manuscript content. Much of this supporting material was gathered by a mid-20th-century rare book dealer named Mrs. J. D. Sutter, of Birmingham, Alabama. These claims are almost certainly in error and there is little evidence to suggest that Lincoln created the present maps. Lincoln's career as a surveyor was very short, with most authorities dating his known survey work to approximately January 1834 through 1837. The present plat book contains surveys for land labeled as being in Menard County, which wasn't even formed until 1839 (from parts of Sangamon County). While Lincoln was active in Sangamon County as a surveyor and a few letters and numbers herein bear a superficial resemblance to known examples of Lincoln's handwriting, this is not enough to connect Lincoln with our plat book.
Lincoln's early work as a surveyor in Illinois is part of his origin myth, of a piece with rail splitting and log cabins. The limited time he actually worked as a surveyor has been romanticized like the other elements of his humble background. Carl Sandburg quoted Lincoln's own third-person description of how he became a surveyor, which sheds light on the general nature of surveyor work in Illinois at the time of our plat book:
In the fall of 1833 came Abraham Lincoln's entry into the most highly technical and responsible work he had known. Writing of it later, he said "The Surveyor of Sangamon [County] offered to dispute to A[braham] that portion of his work which was within his part of the county. He accepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint, and Gibson a little, and went at it. This procured bread and kept soul and body together." There were farm sections, roads and towns needing their boundary lines marked clear and beyond a doubt on maps - more than the county surveyor, John Calhoun, could handle... Then for six weeks, daytime and often all of nighttime, he had his head deep in Gibson's Theory and Practice of Surveying and Flint's Treatise on Geometry, Trigonometry and Rectangular Surveying.... Calhoun put him to work on the north end of Sangamon County... He surveyed the towns of Petersburg, Bath, New Boston, Albany, Huron, and others. He surveyed roads, school sections, pieces of farm land from four-acre plots to 160-acre farms - Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years, pages 44-46.
Gen. James M. Ruggles
In a further note of unfounded provenance for our plat book, some of the accompanying documentation attempts to link it indirectly to Lincoln by suggesting that the item was once owned by General James M. Ruggles, a lawyer and publisher of Mason County, Illinois, who was a friend of Lincoln's and may have been a collector of memorabilia related to the late president. Ruggles served in Union Army, achieving the rank of Brigadier General. He also authored a history of Mason County. When Ruggles moved from Ohio to Illinois with his family in 1837 he settled in Scott County. Although he was admitted to the llinois bar Ruggles worked as a merchant. In 1852, he was elected to the Illinois State Senate, serving there until 1855. Ruggles focused on railroad and other road developments in Mason County and was a founding member of the Republican Party in Illinois, contributing much to the first party platform in 1856 when John C. Fremont was the candidate. While Ruggles may have owned the present plat book, we cannot confirm the provenance.
Rarity
Such early township plat books for Illinois, while much of the region was still being settled, are rare in the market.