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By ALBERT WATKINS Virginia was called the mother of
presidents--before she lost her political "pull" through the
errancy of rebellion and Ohio succeeded to it through
strategic location and even more aptitude, or greed, in
grasping opportunity than her venerable hegemonic
predecessor had shown. So, also, prior to the prolific
parturition of Nebraska's Titan territory, the Northwest
Territory was--or might have been--called the mother of
states. The 265,878 square miles of the Northwest Territory
produced the five medium sized states of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin and contributed 26,320
square miles of the 83,531 contained in Minnesota. The
351,558 square miles of Nebraska Territory produced the
three great states of Nebraska, South Dakota, and North
Dakota; about three-fourths of the greater state of Wyoming;
nearly all of the immense state of Montana; and made a
considerable contribution to Colorado. |
Indians. White settlement, of economic and political importance, in the heart of this wilderness immediately followed the organization of Nebraska territory. The part of Oklahoma which lies outside the Purchase was known as the "Public Land Strip" or "No Man's Land." It forms the northwest projection of the state, contains approximately 5,580 square miles, and constitutes Beaver county. The southwest corner of the state of Kansas--west of the one hundredth meridian and south of the Arkansas river and containing 7,776 square miles--belonged successively to Spain, Mexico, and Texas, and was outside the Purchase. The original territories of Kansas and Nebraska extended from the Missouri river to the summit of the Rocky mountains. Kansas contained 126,283 and Nebraska 351,558 square miles. From Kansas 44,965 square miles and from Nebraska 16,035 square miles were taken to form the territory of Colorado and remain a part of the state of Colorado. But the part of the territory of Kansas so incorporated in Colorado which lies south of the Arkansas, containing approximately 7,000 square miles, is outside the Purchase; so that about 54,000 of the total 104,500 square miles comprised in Colorado belong to the Purchase. The comer of original Nebraska bounded on the north by the forty-second parallel of latitude, on the east by the one hundred and sixth meridian, and on the southwest by the continental divide, containing about 7,400 square miles1,400 in Colorado and 6,000 in Wyoming--is outside the Purchase. Most of this fraction was comprised in the strip about three-fourths of a degree in width, extending up to the forty-second parallel--the northern boundary of Mexico prior to her war with the United States. This elongated projection was a part of Texas when that insurgent offshoot of Mexico was annexed to the United States. It was given up to the mother country as a part |
of the compromise of 1850. Title to a small tract of this casual comer of Nebraska lying next to the divide, is traced directly to Spain. The western boundary of the Purchase, as fixed in our treaty with Spain, of February 22, 1819,1 did not constantly follow the Rocky mountain divide but, after reaching it at latitude 39o 20' and longitude 106o 15', near the subsequent site of Leadville, proceeded directly north to the forty-second parallel and thence directly west--crossing the mountains three degrees beyond--to the Pacific ocean. Prior to the treaty, the western boundary of the Purchase was, somewhat indefinitely of course, the watershed of the Mississippi; and, proceeding northwesterly from a point about one hundred miles west of the mouth of that river, it first struck the Rocky mountain range, at its southern limit by that name, near the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude--not far northeast of the subsequent site of Santa Fe. In the preliminary Oregon treaty of October 20, 1818, between Great Britain and the United States,2 the "Stony Mountains" were acknowledged to be the western American boundary, by virtue of our purchase of Louisiana; and, accordingly, in the final treaty--June 15, 18463--the southeast corner of our new Oregon acquisition was fixed three degrees west of the right angle of the boundary line of the treaty of 1819 with Spain, and which subsequently became the northeastern limit of the state of Texas. The traditional and natural western boundary of the Purchase--the summit of the mountains--was followed in the organization of the territories of Utah and Nebraska, in the main of Kansas and Montana, and, in part, of New Mexico. Nebraska contributed from its original territory 16,035 of 1U. S. Statutes at Large, v. 8, p. 252. 2Ibid., p. 248. 3Ibid., v. 9, p. 869. |
the 104,500 square miles contained in the territory of Colorado; 74,287 of the 97,883 square miles contained in the territory of Wyoming; 68,972 of the 150,932 square miles contained in the territory of Dakota--all of it west of the Missouri river; and 116,269 of the 143,776 square miles contained in the territory of Montana. The remainder, 75,995 square miles, constituted the state of Nebraska. That part of the original territory of Nebraska bounded on the north by the forty-fifth, and on the south by the forty-third parallel of latitude; on the east by the twenty-seventh meridian, and on the west by the Rocky mountains--at the northwest by the thirty-fourth meridian--containing 43,666 square miles, was first taken to form a part of Dakota, next to form a part of Idaho, next to form a part of the territory of Wyoming, and is now a part of the state of Wyoming. The part of original Nebraska bounded on the north by the forty-third parallel, on the east by the twenty-seventh meridian, on the south by the forty-first parallel and on the west by the Rocky mountains, containing 30,621 square miles, was first transferred to the territory of Idaho, next to the territory of Dakota, next to the territory of Wyoming, and is now a part of the state of Wyoming. Colorado, Wyoming, Dakota and Montana retained their territorial form when they became states, though Dakota was divided into the two states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The part of Montana which was not taken from Nebraska--27,507 square miles--lies between the Rocky mountain divide and the Bitter Root mountains, and so is outside the Purchase. The act of March 2, 1861, which established the territory of Dakota, also added to Nebraska that part of Washington (4,638 square miles) and Utah (10,740 square miles), lying east of the one hundred and tenth meridian and between the forty-first and forty-third parallels of |
latitude. The Rocky mountain divide formed its eastern boundary, so that it was outside the Purchase. But this alien acquisition was only temporary. It was incorporated in the territory of Idaho in 1863, and in the territory of Wyoming in 1868 .4 4The respective original areas of the territories of Nebraska and Kansas and the area of each of the parts of other territories taken from them are given in the Compendium of the Ninth Census (1870), pp. 540, 542 and volume I of the same census, pp. 573-587. These areas have been slightly changed by subsequent surveys. In two instances the areas of small parts of these territories which are outside the Louisiana Purchase were obtained by the editor by counting the townships contained in them as they appear in reliable maps. They are, therefore, not entirely accurate. |
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