On a visit to the Barnes and Noble store I picked up a new book on Eisenhower: Eisenhower in War and Peace. A big book, it seems to give a fairly balanced account of the man, warts and all. I ran across one amusing anecdote in the biography that occurred after he moved his office across the channel to France after D-Day. Some farmers made a gift to him of a milk cow to furnish his office with fresh milk. Three of his staff members sat down with a pail, but their efforts to turn the spigots on were to no avail. Ike came by and after seeing them struggle told them to step back, sat down on the stool, and easily filled the bucket. He said something like city guys don't know anything. Stories in history like that one make it interesting.
The picture above is a historical boundary marker from mile 91 that may well have come from the North-South Dakota border. It sticks in the ground at "The Post," just a couple miles south of our house and makes an ironic statement. The history behind it just might be lost and I don't know where a person could find the information. A couple years ago I was steered to the North Dakota State Water Commission website where they have access to the original survey of North Dakota and the comments in the handwriting of the surveyors. Randomly I clicked into a spot of Ransom County near the present site of Sheldon and an entry dated August 10th, 1870 came up. Here is one entry: Drove charred stake and post in mound for quarter section corner. Another comment: Land low, level & wet. Another: First rate land, level, low and sandy.
I intend to study these surveys a bit more in the future since I think an interesting story can come from them, if I only live long enough, that is. This country had a lot of growing to do after this date. To think that Custer didn't get his due for another six years. A survey crew consisted of several men with various duties.
A while back I'd d0ne some research of the original surveys. It was in 1784 that Thomas Jefferson proposed the pattern of squares, and on 1785 Thomas Hutchins, the first official geographer of the U.S., unfurled a 22 yard long surveyor's chain on the west bank of the Ohio River. The Northwest Ordinance had been passed that year that called for "disposing of lands in the western territory" and required him to lay out lines running east to west 6 miles apart, make a grid of squares which were our townships 36 miles square.
