United States General Land Office: Difference between revisions

{{Short description |United States government agency (1812–1946)}}

The '''General Land Office''' ('''GLO''') was an [[Independent agencies of the United States government|independent agency of the United States government]] responsible for [[Public domain (land)|public domain]] lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the [[United States Department of the Treasury]]. Starting with the passageenactment of the [[Land Ordinance of 1785]], which created the [[Public Land Survey System]], the Treasury Department had already overseen the survey of the "[[Northwest Territory"]], including what is now the state of Ohio.<ref>''A History of the Rectangular Survey System'' by C. Albert White, 1983, Pub: Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management : For sale by Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O.,</ref>

[[Image:Meridians-baselines.png|275px|thumb|right|This [[Bureau of Land Management]] map depicts the public- domain lands [[surveying|surveyed]] and [[platted]] under the auspices of the GLO to facilitate the sale of those lands.]]

For most of the active period of public land settlement, district land offices were the basic operating units that conducted the business of transferring title. All transactions relative to the disposal of public land within a declared land district were handled through its land office by officials designated as [[register (General Land Office)|registerregisters]]s, who recorded land applications, and [[Receiver (General Land Office)|receivers]], who accepted payments for land and issued receipts. The position of receiver was abolished, July 1, 1925, and the functions devolved upon the register, whose title was changed to "manager" in 1946. The first of 362 district land offices was opened at [[Steubenville, Ohio]], on July 2, 1800; the last at [[Newcastle, Wyoming]], on March 1, 1920. The peak year for land offices was 1890, with 123 in operation. The subsequent closing of the public domain gradually reduced the number of land offices, until, in 1933, only 25 offices remained.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/049.html#49.9 National Archives. "Home > Research Our Records > Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States > Records of the Bureau of Land Management [(BLM]) > 49.9 Records of District Land Offices 1800-1980"] {{PD-notice}}</ref>

File:US_General_Land_Office_Deed_1845.jpg|An 1845 [http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=IL4550__.374&docClass=STA&sid=br5fiei2.41k#patentDetailsTabIndex=0 GLO land patent] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726133842/http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=IL4550__.374&docClass=STA&sid=br5fiei2.41k#patentDetailsTabIndex=0 |date=2011-07-26 }}

*[[List of Commissionerscommissioners of the General Land Office]]

*[[Louisiana Purchase State Park|Beginning Point of the Louisiana Purchase Survey]]

* {{cite book|author=Malcolm J. Rohrbough|title=The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789-1837|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rwo56CSIevwC&pg=PA51|year=1968|publisher=Oxford U.P.|isbn=978-0-19-536549-8}}

* [http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ General Land Office Records: The Official Federal Land Records Site] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316121905/http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ |date=2013-03-16 }}), at the Bureau of Land Management

[[Category{{DEFAULTSORT:DefunctGeneral agenciesLand of theOffice, United States government]]}}

[[Category:United States General Land Office Commissioners|*]]