Prior to his work on independence and his presidency,John Adams worked as "highway surveyor" in Massachusetts. Where might I find more details about this duty and examples or results?
Thanks
I don't know what work John Adams did as a "highway surveyor," but that office survives to this day in some Massachusetts towns or cities, and "surveyor" doesn't have the same connotation that it does here on RPLStoday. That office is basically an elected highway superintendent.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter41/Section62
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200202/milford-still-elects-its-highway-surveyor
https://www.freetownma.gov/highway-department
And by the way, there are some other old-timey municipal offices that still exist in MA and I think in some other New England states, such as the fence viewer, the field driver, and the tree warden.
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County commissioners have fence viewer included in their official duties in Kansas.?ÿ About once every year or two some fence issue comes up in my home county that calls for their intervention.?ÿ A survey that we are working on now involves such work in 1954 relative to a fence that still stands.
In Iowa, elected Township Trustees handle the occasional trespassing animal or fence maintenance disputes (not for fence location).?ÿ Their main duties are to contract with a city for fire protection and to make sure the rural cemeteries are taken care of.
One would want to look at the "Road Returns" which around here were kept in books separate from deeds for John Adam's name. Typically from Road Returns I have seen, 3 surveyors would meet at such and such public place, a tavern, and commence their survey. It might start at an intersection so many rods and direction from a barn corner or stoop of so and so's house or a church. The road would be defined by tangents and angle points marked by stones, nothing was truly set as a monument. They would then file their report and once accepted by the County, public maintenance was authorized and the width of the right of way was established. Instruments and chains may have been used but compass and pacing were not out of the question. It is not a certainty that all 3 or even any were "surveyors" but 3 upstanding citizens make suitable witnesses to the intent. From time to time a stretch of road may be vacated and replaced by a new Road Return, which may be the only notice of the vacation. That type of Road Return is very important to a later retracement survey. I have seen more original documents in road return research than any other boundary work where the official Deed Book copy is what you see. During the great depression one of the WPA make work projects was to copy the original returns into more reader friendly "Road Return Books". Most are not well organized and very few counties would have them indexed. They are most likely in the hard to access archive records or in a dusty back room at the county engineers office. Surveyors could also meet to evaluate the value of a "taking".
I worked for one New Jersey engineering company where one of the principles held the ancient position in one township as Surveyor of Roads, not the more modern title Township Engineer.?ÿ
Paul in PA
And back then a highway was a canal.?ÿ
??Who are the guys on Mt Rushmore??
?I forget, but it??s three land surveyors and some guy.?
It depends on how you define "Surveyor"
Roosevelt was on the crew that mapped the "River of Doubt"; I think that counts as surveying.
So there are 4, 4 surveyors, carved into Mount Rushmore.