Talk:Civil township

Translation of township into other languages

Editors are having a discussion over at the Russian wikipedia on the correct Russian translation for the new civil township article that was created there. Any editors on the english wikipedia with knowledge of Russian or similar translation issues are welcome to participate.DCmacnut<> 14:47, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Michigan Townships

In the midwest subsection, Indiana and Illinois (and even Ohio to a lesser extent) are kind of thoroughly compared and contrasted, but I'd argue that Michigan probably has the most stringent township organization of any of the Great Lakes states. Every single square mile of land in Michigan belongs to a local government, either township, village, or city. Unlike nearby states, ALL townships in Michigan have their own local government, so that there is really no such thing as unincorporated land in function, if even a township is not considered technically incorporated. Perhaps, someone should use Michigan as an example of powerful township government in the Midwest. Also, unlike most (all?) of the neighboring states, once land incorporates as a city or is annexed by an existing city, that part/portion of the township ceases to exist as a township. Most Michigan cities are incorporated from township land, in fact, since township government proceeded municipal government in most instances. And, though this point is made, Michigan has an special township government called charter townships, which are essentially urbanized townships that function basically like incorporated cities since they form police departments and such. --Criticalthinker (talk) 09:00, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

I just made a key edit, clarifying the incorporated status of ALL Michigan Townships. Here is a reference: https://www.michigantownships.org/mitownships.asp (I'm a novice user and not sure exactly how to use the footnote functions for the change I made.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.181.195.29 (talk) 14:34, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

Reorganization proposed

Unless anyone objects, I'd like to reorganize this article, to start with New England and working West; with edits for reaadability. My proposed version (currently in my sandbox) contains the changes I'm planning to make, starting from the contents on down. Any thoughts, suggestions, flaming? LibertyHiller (talk) 07:20, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Illinois Townships

Civil townships did not exist in Illinois until after the adoption of the Constitution of 1848, which specifically authorized township organization. However, not all Illinois Counties have adopted township organization. Those counties which did are mostly those in the northern two-thirds of the state, which were settled by substantial numbers of New Englanders. A number of counties in the southern third of Illinois, settled chiefly by immigrants from the southeastern states, have never adopted township organization. The article states that in southern Illinois townships delegate various functions to County government, but in many of those counties civil townships just do not exist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.212.80.149 (talk) 18:33, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

See also: comparison with English civil parishes

Aren't English districts a better equivalent? They are directly subordinate to counties, with parishes being subordinate to them. Parishes are also the lowest level of government in England, while in most US states with civil townships, towns, villages, and (in many cases) cities are below the township level. ZFT (talk) 18:43, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Origin of the term civil township

Where did the term civil township come from? Is it original research on Wikipedia? The closest thing I can find to a definition is from a Census Bureau document that says:

Minor civil divisions are the primary subcounty governmental or administrative units; they have legal boundaries and names as well as governmental functions or administrative purposes specified by State law. The most familiar types of MCDs are towns and townships, but there are many others (see Table 8-1).

-- Inkwzitv (talk) 17:12, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

It's not a Wikipedia:neologism. My guess is that the term came about to distinguish them from "congressional" survey townships, by transferring the terminology from "civil parish" that distinguishes from a religious parishes. After a few minutes' search I found the term "civil township" at least as far back as 1845 in Ohio: Swan, Joseph P. (1845). The Practice in Civil Actions and Proceedings at Law, in Ohio. Vol. 1. Columbus, Ohio: Isaac M. Whiting. By 1880 it was in Section 1799 of the Iowa State Code; "Civil township" appears in the original constitution of South Dakota and the Legislature of the State of South Dakota passed "An Act for the Uniform Organization of Civil Townships and Future Subdivisions of the Same in and for the Counties of South Dakota" on 1890-03-07; and there is a discussion of congressional townships vs. civil townships in Woods, Almond Leroy (1897). Civil Government for North Dakota. Grafton, North Dakota: A.L. Woods. p. 39. --Closeapple (talk) 08:58, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

References

Delaware and Maryland

In Delaware, I am considering a hundred to be roughly like a Township EXCEPT for not having any government. Did Maryland ever have something like this or like a Township? I remembered seeing a map of Cecil County, Maryland with the county subdivided into unfamiliar names.

In Maryland, there were some manors, such as Bohemia manor in southern Cecil County. I am now wondering about "a tract called Tolchester" in Kent County, MD, because I have had 2 places called Georgetown come to my attention in that county. Carlm0404 (talk) 06:25, 31 August 2020 (UTC)