Vernon Carstensen, in P~ib1iii.s (Fall 1988), 1017 Gladfelter Hall. Temple University 025-25, Philadelphia, Pa. 19122.
In 1785, Congress passed a law, now ob- scure, that was to change the face of Amer- ica during the next century.
The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for the division of the nation's then-limited public lands west of the Appalachian Mountains into townships six miles square, subdivided into 36 one-mile- square (or 640-acre) "sections."
"Like bees or ants or other...