Ohio History Journal

OHIO SURVEYS FROM THE AIR

 

By ALFRED J. WRIGHT

 

Many Ohioans have been interested in studying the evolution-

ary aspects of today's landscapes. Very likely many more will

think along these lines during the year, marked as it is by the

sesquicentennial celebration of the founding of Ohio. There

have recently come into the possession of the State Archaeological

and Historical Society some air photographs of one aspect of this

evolutionary thought.

Through the good offices of the State director of aeronautics

and the Materiel Division of the United States Army Air Corps,

Wright Field, Dayton, these photographs were taken with a view

toward establishing the persistence of some original survey lines

in the present-day landscape. The use of the airplane in making

aerial studies has met with considerable success in the exhaustive

tests to which the method was put in the Muskingum Conservancy

Project and in numerous archaeological and historical studies.

Major Fred Smith, formerly director of aeronautics, located

these original survey lines on contour sheets of the Ohio Coopera-

tive Topographic Survey. Thus oriented, he photographed virtu-

ally all of the Ludlow and Roberts Lines, and portions of the

Greenville Treaty Line. In the accompanying photographs por-

tions of these original surveys are indicated, generally in the center

of the view. They are necessarily oblique photographs, taken at

an elevation of 12,000 feet. Distortion prevents accurate scaling

of all but one of them--Fig. 5.

In a previous study, the writer ventured some observations

relative to the influence of original surveys upon Ohio town pat-

terns.¹ In the meantime these photographs have been made avail-

able to the end that persistence of these lines may be observed in

rural as well as urban areas.

1 "Ohio Town Patterns," Geographical Review (New York), XXVII (1937),

615-24.

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54    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The consequences of Ohio's situation with respect to the

prevailing paths of continental settlement have been the subject

of much study and comment; in particular, the rapidity with which

Ohio increased in population, after a somewhat tardy period of

appropriation and settlement. Contiguity to the Great Lakes or to

the Ohio River has not necessarily meant that their influence upon

the peopling of a state would be marked. In the instance of

Ohio, however, the influence of these two water boundaries has

been unmistakable. In the apportionment of lands and in the suc-

cessive economies developed there, the influence of these environ-

mental features has been pronounced.

Greenville Treaty Line

Chief among Ohio surveys is the Greenville Treaty Line.

With but two interruptions, it marks the division between the orig-

inal surveys of southern and eastern Ohio and the tardily-settled

northwestern portion of the State. The treaty with the Indians

which inaugurated this line was subsequent to the establishment of

the Virginia Bounty or Military District. The Virginia District,

therefore, constitutes one of the two interruptions referred to

above. Having agreed to this line as marking the boundary of the

land to which the Indians were conceded to have superior title,

no surveys were made to the north and west of this line until

after subsequent treaties extinguished Indian title to the northern

portion of the State. This fact explains the other interruption of

the Treaty Line, between Lake Erie and the town of Bolivar on

the Tuscarawas River (Fig. 1).

The Greenville Line followed the Cuyahoga River to its por-

tage with the Tuscarawas, and thence along the latter stream to

a point where an old Indian trail crossed the river, marked ap-

proximately by the town of Bolivar. Thus these two portions

of the Greenville Line were never observed in surveying minor

civil subdivisions and are, therefore, not a part of the present land-

scape.

Fig. 2 (3-749C) is a view toward the southwest along the

Greenville Treaty Line. In the left background the Great Miami

River may be discerned. This was photographed in May before

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OHIO SURVEYS FROM THE AIR: WRIGHT         55 the crops had masked the pattern of fields and roads. The old Treaty Line may be seen running entirely across the photograph,

from top to bottom, almost through the center of the view. There are places where its continuity is interrupted, but for the most part its persistence is remarkable in view of the century and a half which has elapsed since it was run. The town of Lewiston in Logan County appears in the right foreground. This portion of the line is not within the Virginia Military District, so the eccentricity of orientation of roads and lot lines

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56    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

peculiar to the District is not shown on this view (See Fig. 5,

1-749H). Only a minor portion of the line is marked by high-

ways, and no villages appear to be localized by it. This is not

illogical in view of the fact that this boundary at no time sepa-

rated areas that were currently open to federal sale, and as an

Indian territorial limit, it could scarcely have invited white man's

population groupings.

Ludlow and Roberts Lines

The boundaries of the Virginia Military District were the

Scioto, Little Miami, and Ohio rivers. This necessitated a line

being drawn from the headwaters of the Scioto south to those

of the Little Miami. To establish this boundary, two surveys

were run: the earlier Ludlow and the later Roberts lines, lying

about four miles apart where they crossed the Greenville Line.

After considerable discussion, Congress in 1818 used both lines

in determining this limit to the Virginia District. South of the

Treaty Line the survey of Ludlow was accepted, while north of

it the Roberts Line was held to be official. Disputed lines, such

as these were for a time, might lead to interesting lot lines and

minor civil subdivisions, consequently Smith photographed all

of them. The limits imposed by publication preclude our showing

more than one view of each survey, but these will give an adequate

idea of the persistence of these lines. Fig. 3 (2-750E) is a view

toward the northwest along the Ludlow Line. This was photo-

graphed from near Plattsburg in Clark County, with the survey

cutting the center of the picture from top to bottom. The old

Cumberland (National) Road may be seen intersecting the Lud-

low Line in the center of the view. The town of South Vienna

lies just west of the intersection. This was photographed dur-

ing May and the survey line appears to be quite as distinct as in

the instance of the Greenville Treaty Line. Inasmuch as this is a

portion of the Virginia District boundary, there should be some

indication of the eccentricity of orientation that we associate

with the older survey. (See Fig. 5.) The reader will have little

difficulty in observing abundant evidence of the contrast in field

pattern and road orientation; to the right they are not oriented





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OHIO SURVEYS FROM THE AIR: WRIGHT             57

with the cardinal points of the compass, while to the left they

are. Account must be taken of the oblique nature of the view,

but the contrast is unmistakable.

Fig. 4 (1-749B) is a view toward the southeast along the

Roberts Line. The old survey appears on both sides of Indian

Lake, but the view is foreshortened on account of the poor visi-

bility south of the lake. As a feature of the pattern of occupance,

this, like the other two original surveys, persists in the present

scheme of holdings. Other air photographs of this survey reveal

much the same degree of persistence south of the lake. In all of

them we see striking evidence of the longevity of original surveys

in land holdings.

From the air some account must be taken of the contrasting

systems within and without the Virginia District: Fig. 5 is a

view of the Ludlow Line in Champaign County, sections 7 and

12, Salem township. This low altitude and nearly vertical shot

of the field and road pattern on both sides of the Virginia District

boundary reveal a form sufficiently common as to warrant some

emphasis. The north-south road just to the west of the Ludlow

Line is not in the Virginia District, and follows a section line; in

the Virginia District there are no section lines. It is common for

roads to orient the field pattern, so this sample may be taken as

typical throughout the adjacent areas. In towns and cities where

there is apt to be a more active change in lot lines, these original

surveys are not so persistent, but even here there is ample evi-

dence of these regional contrasts.

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