Kentucky: Secretary of State - How the Jackson Purchase Was Mapped

This guide relates the process for mapping Ranges, Townships and Sections. The Jackson Purchase is the only Kentucky area mapped by this method. Land patents issued for the Jackson Purchase area are: the West of Tennessee River Military Series and the West of Tennessee River Non-Military Series. (Generally, the WTR Military patents use the metes and bounds surveying method. The WTR Non-Military patents use the Range, Township, Section surveying method.)

A Principal Meridian was established bisecting the Jackson Purchase. This divided the region into West & East.

Acreage in the Jackson Purchase was divided into square blocks called Townships.

Each Township contained 36 square miles.

The Townships (blocks) were then divided into 36 sections of 640 acres each or one square mile.

Each 640 acre section was then divided into quarter-sections of 160 acres each.

GUIDE TO QUARTER-SECTIONS

Starting at the juncture of the Principal Meridian and the base of the Jackson Purchase and running East & West, the blocks were assigned Range locations.

The location of the yellow box would be identified as: NE, SE, NW & SW Qr Sections of Sec 36 T-2 R2 E or Section 36 of Township 2, Range 2 East. The total acreage for this patent is 640 acres.

Jillson's "Kentucky Land Grants", "West of Tennessee River" chapter, lists names of grant recipients for West of Tennessee River Non-Military Patents as well as tract locations. The Jackson Purchase Locator enables researchers to determine patent locations online.

Patent documents, including the Receipt declaring the buyer, purchase price for the tract, and names & signatures of other assignees and the Governor's Grant finalizing the patent may be ordered from the Kentucky Secretary of State's Land Office, Capitol Building, Frankfort, Ky.