Surveyor’s Walk

Donation Land Claim No. 53 · Township 9 South, Range 6 West · Willamette Meridian · Polk County, Oregon

As the surveyor drew it

Part of the Donation Land Claim plat of T. 9 S., R. 6 W.: claims drawn across the section lines, each with its owner’s name, number and acreage, including John W. Tedrow’s Claim 54 and John Johnson’s Claim 53. — The Donation Land Claim plat. Each claim carries its owner’s name, number and acreage, and the claims cut across the section lines. John W. Tedrow’s Claim 54 runs up the page in Section 33, marked 322.00 acres; John Johnson’s Claim 53 lies to the northeast. Just right of the Tedrow claim’s top edge is a small lot marked 6.93. The red numbers (1a, 2a and so on) mark the small lots left between claim lines and section lines. Dated 1861 in the landowner’s files; that date has not been re-checked. Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office. A public record of the United States, retrieved by the landowner.

Our drawing of the township

Our drawing, not the surveyor’s plat: Township 9 South, Range 6 West, Willamette Meridian. Donation Land Claim No. 53 lies in this township. Claims don’t follow the section lines, so no square is marked.

The same ground today

The aerial map needs JavaScript.

USGS aerial imagery. Red: Donation Land Claim No. 53, as the survey grid draws it.

In the surveyor’s own words

Written by AI Donation Land Claim No. 53 was the 323.5 acres of John Johnson. Deputy Surveyor Thomas H. Hutchinson surveyed it on September 14–15, 1855, and found it three fourths prairie and highly improved. From its southwest corner he tied in two houses.

From the record Written by AI

Hutchinson surveyed John Johnson’s 323.5 acres on September 14–15, 1855. His summary: three fourths rich level prairie, one fourth timbered, and highly improved. Johnson even had a “new barn.”

“Three fourths of this claim is rich level prairie, one fourth is timbered. The claim is highly improved.”

Deputy Surveyor Thomas H. Hutchinson, September 1855, Field notes of the Johnson claim survey

Source: Hutchinson, Thomas H. Field notes of the Donation Land Claim surveys, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., 1855. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. D0022 (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of this ground, October 2026; page not given)

Report an error

From the record Written by AI

Hutchinson tied both houses to one corner, Johnson’s southwest corner: “Tedrow’s house” stood S 40° E, 100 links (66 feet) from it, and “Johnson’s house” N 40° E, about 6 chains (about 396 feet).

“Johnson’s house”

Deputy Surveyor Thomas H. Hutchinson, 1855, Tie from the southwest corner of the Johnson claim

Report an error

Also on file for this ground

Facts from the records that are not the surveyor’s own words: patents, entries and figures on the plat.

From the record Written by AI

The bearing trees at Johnson’s southwest corner were two white oaks, one 546 feet to the southwest and one 189 feet to the northeast.

Source: Hutchinson, Thomas H. Field notes of the Donation Land Claim surveys, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., 1855. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. D0022 (distances as the landowner’s history gives them, in feet; positions approximate)

Report an error

From the record Written by AI

The patent for the Johnson claim was issued in 1877.

Source: BLM General Land Office Records (land patents), T. 9 S., R. 6 W. (looked up by the landowner; as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of this ground, October 2026)

Report an error

School land

Donation Land Claim No. 53 is a claim, surveyed on its own lines rather than as a numbered section. Under the federal school-land law for Oregon (1859), Sections 16 and 36 of every township were set aside for schools. Where a claim lies partly inside one of them, the rules for land settled before the survey decide whether the claim or the school grant held that part. This card doesn’t yet show which sections the claim covers; the school sections in this township are listed below.

“Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered to the said people of Oregon for their free acceptance or rejection, which, if accepted, shall be obligatory on the United States and upon the said State of Oregon, to wit: First, That sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in every township of public lands in said State, and where either of said sections, or any part thereof, has been sold or otherwise been disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to said State for the use of schools.”
Act of February 14, 1859, ch. 33, § 4, 11 Stat. 383, 383 (35th Cong., 2d Sess.), “An Act for the Admission of Oregon into the Union.”

The school sections in this township: Section 16 and Section 36.

Reserved earlier by the 1848 Territorial Act, § 20. Checked against the page image of the official scan.

How school lands worked

About this claim

Donation Land Claim No. 53 covers 323.53 acres on the record.

Sources

Permanent link: https://parcelchronicle-refdesk.drdavesullivan.workers.dev/walk/OR33-T9S-R6W-C53

Look up your own place

Tell us something about this claim