menu


Plat of Section 16 Town[Township] 17 N[North] Range 6 West1
survey map
[ certification ]
05/10/1836
I certify that the foregoing are an accurate Plat and field Notes for Section 16. in Township 17 North of Range 6 West of the 3d Pr Mdn[Principal Meridian] as Surveyed by me. May 10th 1836.
A. Lincoln
for T M Neale S.[Surveyor] S. C.
[ certification ]
05/10/1836
We certify that the foregoing is an accurate Plat and valuation of Section 16, Town 17, Range 6 W.[West] of the 3d Pr Mdn given under our hands this 10th May 1836
Mathew Moorehead }
Flemming Hall Trustees
Benjamin Wiseman
<Page 2>
Field Notes of the Survey of Sec. 16. Town 17. R[Range] 6 West.
Corners Bearing Trees Inches Diameter Course Links Dist[Distance]
1 W[White] Oak 18 N 59 W 132
2 W Oak 24 S[South] 5 W 66
3 W Oak 12 S 74 W 19
4 Ash 14 N 51 E[East] 55
5 Post in Mound
6 Elm 16 N 86 E 410
7 Post in Mound
8 Elm 16 S 24 W. 417
9 Hicky[Hickory] 6 S. 84. W. 25
10 S Oak2 36 N 73 E 16
11 Maple 7 S 60 W 21
12 Syckamore 30 N 26 W 47
13 Syckamore 24 S 30 W. 15
14 Cotton W[Cottonwood] 10 S 6 W. 30
15 W Oak 10 N 10 W 37
16 W Oak 3 N 33 E 8
17 Hick 12 S 24 W 58
18 Hick 3 N 66 E 9
19 B[Black] Oak 32 S 9 E 79
20 Post in Mound
21 W Oak 22 N 88 W 3
22 Elm 14 N 44 E 29
23 B Oak 22 Corner
24 Post in Mound
25 Ash 24 N 80 W 4
26 Hick 12 Corner
27 Elm 15 Corner
28 B Oak 12 S 37 E 23
29 Post in Mound
30 Lynn 11 N 50 E 20
31 Hick 14 N 50 W. 17
32 Hick 8 N 32 W 8
33 W Oak 22 Corner
34 Cotton W 17 S 25 [W?]3 7
1The land described here is located in present-day southern Menard County.
In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, it granted to every township in the state the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund.
“An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07.
2This likely refers to a Swamp White Oak or a Shumard Oak; both are indigenous to Illinois.
3Either an “E” written over a “W” or vice-versa.

Handwritten Transcription, 2 page(s), School Land Sale Record, 1831-1854, p. 114-15, Illinois Regional Archives Depository, University of Illinois Springfield (Springfield, Illinois),