Township

The public lands of the ^M^*f «.®***®?.*'^®..^™^^y®<l first into tracts called "townships,'; being in extent six miles ^^^,^1% ^^? subdivisions of a township are called "sections," each a mile square, and containing six hundred and forty acres These are subdivided into quarter sections, ■was adopted by Act Cong. May 18, 1796. See Brightly, Dig. U. S. Laws, 493. In some states the largest subdivision of a county. See "Town."

The public lands of the United States are surveyed first into tracts called townships, being in extent six miles square. The subdivisions of. a township are called sections, each a mile square and containing six hundred and forty acres; these are subdivided into quarter-sections, and from that into lots of forty acres each. This plan of In Pennsylvania, a subdivision of a county, having minor governmental powers. They do not, under existing laws possess municipal powers; Pennsylvania R. R. v. Pass. Ry., 167 Pa. 62, 31 Atl. 468, 27 L. R. A. 766, 46 Am. St. Rep. 659. By recent acts in that state first class townships have been created, with more complete organization. In the old English period, the households of a township had the common and undivided use of the waste land, but this use could be limited and apportioned by the community. This waste land stretched usually over a great part of the territory assigned to the township, and the reclaiming of this land for purposes of exclusive cultivation and enjoyment was subjected to restrictive rules; the scarce and highly valued meadows were assigned under strict rules of proportionate division and redivision; the arable, which formed the most important, and the most conspicuous portion of the whole, lay in scattered strips in the various fields and spots of the village, so that every holding presented a bundle of these strips equal to other bundles of the same denomination; everybody bad to conform to the same rules and methods in regard to the rotation and cultivation of crops, and when these had been gathered the strips relapsed into the state of an open field in common use. The homesteads and closes around them were kept under separate management, but had been allotted by the community and could in some cas£s be subjected to reallotment. If this is a correct general description of the main system in operation in the courso of the thousand years from 500 till 1500 A. D., and extending many of its incidents to even later times, one can scarcely escape the conclusion that whatever inroads the individual and the state may have made upon it, and whatever bias legal theory may have shown towards more definite and individualistic conceptions, the average English householder of the Middle Ages lived under conditions in which his power of free disposal and free management was hemmed in on all sides by customs and rules converging towards the conceptions of a community of interests and rights between all the household shares of a village. Vinogradoff, Growth of the Manor 165. The activity of the township during the 13th century, as a unit of police organization, was developed later by legislation, ending in 1285, when the constabulary and militia took the form they were to keep during the rest of the Middle Ages. 1 Poll. & Maitl. 551. See Vill.

1. In surveys of the public land of the United States, a "township" is a division of territory six mlles square, containing thirty-six sections.
2. In some of the states, this is the name given to the civil and political subdivisions of a county. See Town.

— Township trustee. One of a board of officers to whom, in some states, affairs of a township are intrusted.

In the most convenient use of this word, it signifies a territorial division; one of the units of survey into which a county is divided. This is particularly true in those states in which the lands have been largely subject to survey as United States public lands; for that system, as established in 1796, prescribed a survey of the public lands into townships each a mile square, and containing 640 acres. But township is, in some parts of the Union, employed as designating a species of political corporation. See Town. Township trustee. One of a board of officers to whom, in some states, affairs of a township are intrusted. For a township trustee to repay himself out of town funds coming into his charge, for what he has advanced in goods or credits, with effect to obtain a release of the town from a corporate indebtedness, is not a conversion of the funds. State v. Parker, 33 Ind. 285. The township trustees cannot, without the petition filed of a majority of all the resident owners of lots, &c., pass an ordinance and make a contract for the improvement of the sidewalks of the town. Covington v. Nelson, 35 Ind. 532. A township trustee is liable on his bond, not as a mere bailee of the money that comes to his hands by virtue of his office, and therefore held to only reasonable care, but is liable to account for it and pay it over, whether stolen or burned, without his fault, or whatever may have become of it. Rock v. Stinger, 36 Ind. 346. Where a township trustee deposits the public funds in a bank, in his individual name, and overdraws his account, and uses the money so obtained to replace public funds which he has misapplied, the bank has no claim against the township. Steinback v. State, 38 Ind. 483. Any contract which a township trustee executes should show in which capacity he acted. If it describes him as acting for "the township," this will be taken to mean the civil township. Jackson Township v. Home Ins. Co., 54 Ind. 184. A trustee of a civil township may employ a physician to attend paupers of the township, if no medical attendance has been provided by the county authorities. Conner v. Commissioners of Franklin, 57 Ind. 15. Township trustees of a town are authorized to establish the grades of streets. Burr v. Town of Newcastle, 49 Ind. 322. Township trustees cannot make a contract for building bridges without the sanction of the county commissioners. Paine v. Caldwell, 65 N. C. 488.