Can you name all of the counties in your state that
were named after land surveyors?
Tuolumne was not. I'll defer to "Carolee" for the rest of California. He's been all over it.
Don
Ohio:
Washington
Jefferson
Putnam
> Ohio:
>
> Washington
> Jefferson
> Putnam
Carl Z.
I was born in Washington (Marietta). Miss that place. I'll never be licensed in Ohio though... no 4 year degree.
Sacramento is named after wine and little flat wafers.
Interesting challenge. Part of the problem is knowing for sure if a specific county was named for a surveyor or someone else with the same last name. We have Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, of course, like many other States. We have several other names that match Presidents' names as well, but, aren't named for them. Jackson, Johnson, Ford and Wilson being examples.
Names of Native tribes (13) probably tops the list of common themes.
Kern County
where I come from is named for Cartographer Edward Kern (1822 to 1863) of the Fremont expedition.
Imperial was named after the Imperial Land Company which is not the same thing.
Texas Counties Named for Surveyors
Here are some of the Texas counties named for men who worked as surveyors at one time or another:
Gail Borden, Jr. *
Thomas Jefferson Chambers *
James Kerr *
George Bernard Erath *
John Coffee Hays *
Thomas Jefferson *
René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle *
Daniel Montague *
Emory Rains *
Gustav Schleicher *
There probably are at least five more.
Texas Counties Named for Surveyors
Ewen Cameron
Collin McKinney (was first name used for Collin County?)
Isaac Shelby
Eleazar Wood (very generic name - Wood)
Texas Counties Named for Surveyors
George Washington
Eleazar Wood
Isaac Shelby
Jonathan Meigs
Clark (politician) although William Clark of Lewis & Clark was much more famous.
Several frontiersmen were land district commissioners and were probably involved
in several mapping and surveying projects.
Several West Point graduates were most likely draftsmen, mappers, and knew about
land surveying.
Kent
Apparently in Texas, the railroad engineers, like Schleicher, were adept at land surveying.
Texas Counties Named for Surveyors
> Ewen Cameron
I'm not sure that Ewen Cameron was actually a surveyor, at least I didn't find mention of that in the bios I found on line.
> Collin McKinney (was first name used for Collin County?)
"McKinney is credited with suggesting to the Texas Legislature that, as new counties were later created in North and West Texas, the boundaries should be about 30 miles square. This would allow a rider to travel to the county seat, conduct necessary business, and return home, all in one day." That sounds like a surveyor to me.
> Isaac Shelby
Isaac Shelby was at one time a land surveyor, although the fact that he was Governor of Kentucky was more likely what induced some Kentuckians transplanted to Texas to name a county after him.
> Eleazar Wood (very generic name - Wood)
If we're going to count Eleazar Wood as a surveyor, we probably need to look carefully at all of the former officers among the county namesakes who may at one time in their careers have done military surveying.
Return J. Meigs was never a surveyor, as far as I can tell.
Wood was killed before he could have been an established surveyor.
Most Ohio counties were already named before West Point provided it's first graduate.
They did little land surveying at that time, as they were "engineers".
I'll stick with my list until proven wrong by anything other than a presumption of fact.
Let's get the rest of the state's surveyor counties posted up here, complete.
Kent
> Apparently in Texas, the railroad engineers, like Schleicher, were adept at land surveying.
Yes, quite a few 19th century Texas surveyors were trained as engineers and employed by railroad companies. Part of the reason is that the railroad companies received huge quantities of public lands under acts passed by the legislature to foster the growth of railroads in Texas. The railroads, though, had to pay for the surveying of their lands out of the unappropriated public domain and, typically, to survey a like quantity for the State for the benefit of the Public Free Schools.
I'll take a stab at this for Tennessee.
Washington for George Washington
Jefferson for Thomas Jefferson
Shelby for Isaac Shelby
Coffee for John Coffee
Bledsoe for Anthony Bledsoe
The Continental Army first occupied West Point, New York, on 27 January 1778,[7] making it the longest continually occupied post in the United States of America.[8] Between 1778 and 1780, Polish engineer and military hero Tadeusz Ko?ciuszko oversaw the construction of the garrison defenses.[9] The Great Hudson River Chain and high ground above the narrow "S" curve in the river enabled the Continental Army to prevent British Royal Navy ships from sailing upriver and dividing the Colonies.[10][11] As commander of the fortifications at West Point, however, Benedict Arnold committed his infamous act of treason, attempting to sell the fort to the British.[12][13] After Arnold betrayed the patriot cause, the Army changed the name of the fortifications at West Point, New York, to Fort Clinton.[12] With the peace after the American Revolutionary War left various ordnance and military stores deposited at West Point.[14]
"Cadets" underwent training in artillery and engineering studies at the garrison since 1794.[15] Congress formally authorized the establishment and funding of the United States Military Academy on 16 March 1802,.[2] The academy graduated Joseph Gardner Swift, its first official graduate, in October 1802; he later returned as Superintendent from 1812 to 1814.[15] In its tumultuous early years, the academy featured few standards for admission or length of study. Cadets ranged in age from 10 years to 37 years and attended between 6 months to 6 years.[15] The impending War of 1812 caused the United States Congress to authorize a more formal system of education at the academy and increased the size of the Corps of Cadets to 250.[15]
Thayer monumentIn 1817, Colonel Sylvanus Thayer became the Superintendent and established the curriculum still in use to this day
February 2 Construction of Fort Meigs begins under the supervision of engineers Charles Gratiot and Eleazar D. Wood.
History would probably show, as Kent noted, that many of the surveyors were
called engineers and were actually performing surveying tasks.
Carl I would add
Meigs was a surveyor for the Ohio Company of Associates.
