opera70 comment

"I was a little mystified by the Township and Range discussion; these are not "Historic names" they are simple geographic grid locations. In a lot of the midwest it seems fairly common to identify locations that way, especially in the census. Perhaps it was realized that places like Hatchville would be ephemeral and it would be better to use an ID that would last. Granted there have been minor changes in a few section lines over time, but most of the places that were located by Township and Range in 1850 or so are still in exactly the same place today. I am sometimes amazed when I find a county in the Midwest that isn't much bigger than the six mile square of a single township and yes, while the idea of township on a flat map is exactly six miles by six miles, owing to the imposition of that idea on a sphere and surveying limitations/irregularities you will never find one of that dimension.

Comment 1
"I was a little mystified by the Township and Range discussion; these are not "Historic names" they are simple geographic grid locations. A town is also geographic grid location. “We” just use one point in the town to describe the grid location.

Comment 2
“Perhaps it was realized that places like Hatchville would be ephemeral and it would be better to use an ID that would last.” Not true, you need to look at the evolution of the USA over time as people began to move from the East to the West. Townships, Ranges, Sections were established [especially in say Idaho, Utah, Dakota, etc] long before a particular town was established. That is, possibly there was no place that existed named Hatchville when the township was established

Comment 3
“Granted there have been minor changes in a few section lines over time, but most of the places that were located by Township and Range in 1850 or so are still in exactly the same. As an old surveyor who worked many years for the USA Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation I know of no Township that was resurveyed or sections that were changed”

Comment 4
“while the idea of township on a flat map is exactly six miles by six miles, owing to the imposition of that idea on a sphere and surveying limitations/irregularities you will never find one of that dimension.”

Not true. The first townships in a range were generally 6 miles square with exactly 36 sections each 1 mile square. Due to spherical considerations the latter townships in a range were trued up and were less than 6 miles square