I overlooked Meade County which is named for George Meade. Primarily known as a soldier he was also a civil engineer and......"Finding steady civilian employment was difficult for the newly married man, so he reentered the army in 1842 as a second lieutenant in the corps of topographical engineers.[1]" (from Wikipedia)
It turns out that many Kansas counties are named for politicians and military figures. A few being pro-slavery and named prior to 1865, but, many named for Union soldiers after 1865.
Taking a stab at MI:
Lewis Cass
Charles Gratiot - might be a stretch, engineer, also worked in the GLO
Douglass Houghton - geological survey
Henry Schoolcraft - ditto
Cass & Houghton were the only ones I knew of w/out resorting to the 'net
Iowa
Boone County – Named for Nathan Boone, a son of Daniel Boone. In 1832, Nathan Boone, at the request of William Clark, surveyed the center line of the Neutral Ground. The Federal Government hoped this line would keep the Sac and Fox and the Sioux apart while permitting them to hunt on neutral ground, thus ending the warfare between them.
Dickinson County – Named for Daniel S. Dickinson, who according to Wikipedia, practice land surveying in New York State in the 1820s.
Fremont County – Named for John Charles Fremont. In July 1838 Fremont was appointed a second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers and assisted and led multiple surveying expeditions through the western territory of the United States and beyond. In 1838 and 1839 he assisted Joseph Nicollet in exploring the lands between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 1841 with training from Nicollet, Fremont mapped portions of the Des Moines River.
Jefferson County – Named for Thomas Jefferson
Jones County – Named for George Wallace Jones, U.S. Senator from Iowa from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859. Jones served as Surveyor-General of the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories from early 1840 until the end of the Van Buren administration in 1841. In 1845, following the election of James K. Polk, he was reappointed Surveyor-General of Iowa Territory, a post he held until December, 1848.
Lucas County – Named for the first territorial Governor of Iowa. In 1803, Lucas was appointed surveyor of Scioto County, Ohio. In this position he helped determine the boundary between Scioto and Adams Counties.
Shelby County – Named for Isaac Shelby, first and fifth Governor of Kentucky. Shelby surveyed for the Transylvania Company, a land company that had purchased much of present-day Kentucky from the Cherokees in a deal that was later invalidated by the government of Virginia. In early 1783 he was chosen as a commissioner to survey preemption claims of soldiers along the Cumberland River.
Washington County – Named for George Washington
Wayne County – Named for General (Mad) Anthony Wayne. Wayne’s enthusiasm for the outdoors and flair for mathematics attracted him to the field of surveying. After studies in Philadelphia, Wayne became an excellent surveyor. In 1765, he was sent by Benjamin Franklin and several others who owned land in Nova Scotia, Canada to survey the land and catalogue the natural resources there. Upon his return, he continued surveying until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.
Some second-hand connections:
Johnson County – Named for Richard Mentor Johnson, Vice-President from 1837 to 1841, whose father was a surveyor
Linn County – Named for Lewis Fields Linn, U.S. Senator from Missouri and uncle of William Pope McArthur, who, at Linn’s request, was appointed Midshipman in the U.S. Navy. During the Second Seminole War (1837–1838) McArthur was promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant and placed in command of a small craft. Among the passengers was future American Civil War General Joseph E. Johnston who accompanied the vessel as a civilian topographical engineer. In 1840 McArthur began a survey of the Gulf Of Mexico aboard the brig Consort. On 27 October 1848 A.D. Bache, Superintendent U.S. Coast Survey, instructed him to go to San Francisco, California to begin "the survey of the Western Coast of the United States."
Polk County – Named for President James K. Polk, whose father was a surveyor.
Iowa
whoops, better add Wayne county to MI too
Carl I would add
Isaac Shelby was definitely one of the leading patriots of the early American frontier.
Iowa
and Tennessee.
Tennessee also has a Polk county, but I'm not willing to add it because James K. Polk's father was a surveyor.
Iowa
> Polk County – Named for President James K. Polk, whose father was a surveyor.
Well, if having a relative who was a surveyor makes one a surveyor, that will change the tally in Texas a bit. I'm not sure that's the way it works here, but I'm glad to know it's that way in Iowa. :>
Iowa
Frederick Mills was a railroad draftsman; he muust have
know something about survey mapping.
Felix Grundy was a commissioner of resolving problems
in the KY-TN state line; he must have learned some
surveying.
Iowa -Rich
Charles Floyd was a surveyor and mapper for the
Lewis & Clark expedition.
I am going to have to find and re-read the Dodd book
about Iowa surveys and surveyors.
> Can you name all of the counties in your state that
> were named after land surveyors?
Yep, all one of them.
The majority of the county names are related to the Calvert family
Newton Cannon (like Barge Wagner Cannon Sumner)
Jonathan Meigs
Meriwether Lewis
Benjamin Hawkins
More 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 *
To the above add these names of other Texas counties named for men who had surveying experience:
James Coryell *
Historical archives show that Coryell signed up as a ranger, serving first under Robertson and then under Capt. Thomas Barron , another storied ranger and early settler. Coryell is said to have helped other settlers locate their land claims around the town. By some accounts, he was a surveyor.
Stephen Crosby *
Former Commisssioner of the General Land Office.
Ben McCulloch *
Distinguished Ranger, frontier surveyor, Indian fighter, lawman, statesman and military commander. Born in Tennessee.
Erastus "Deaf" Smith *
A native of New York, Erastus “Deaf” Smith settled in San Antonio de Béxar, raising livestock and working as a scout, guide, and surveyor.
Carl I would add
Good points.
So Ohio is now:
Washington
Jefferson
Putnam
Shelby
Meigs
Son of a gun
Kansas also can claim Dickinson and Linn. I had no idea of the land surveyor connection.
Dickinson County's county seat is Abilene, boyhood home of Dwight Eisenhower and his university president-brother Milton.
That makes a total of six now. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Meade, Dickinson and Linn.
Did Horace Greeley ever do anything but publish newspapers? He has his own county where the county seat is Tribune.
Maybe it's seven! James Birdseye McPherson is the namesake of McPherson County. Wikipedia notes: McPherson was appointed to the Corps of Engineers with the rank of brevet second lieutenant. For a year after his graduation he was assistant instructor of practical engineering at the Military Academy, and was next engaged from 1854 to 1857 as assistant engineer upon the defenses of the harbor of New York and the improvement of Hudson River. In 1857 he superintended the building of Fort Delaware, and in 1857-61 was superintending engineer of the construction of the defenses of Alcatraz Island, at San Francisco, Cal.[3]
By golly! It may be eight. Sheridan County is named for General Philip Sheridan whose experience included (per Wikipedia): Sheridan was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant and was assigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry regiment at Fort Duncan, Texas, then to the 4th U.S. Infantry at Fort Reading, California. Most of his service with the 4th U.S. was in the Pacific Northwest, starting with a topographical survey mission to the Willamette Valley in 1855, during which he became involved with the Yakima War and Rogue River Wars
Iowa
Well, my distant relative, Senator Lewis F. Linn, MD was one heck of a physician and senator, having provided the rare written narratives of the Missouri earthquakes of 1811-1812 being on the ground when it hit, and was an amazing and heroic individual but not a practicing surveyor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Linn
Although a firm supporter of westward expansion and a supporter of surveying the western lands, he was not a surveyor. In spite of that counties starting in Iowa and Missouri, and going westward to Oregon, are named for him
Well, Kent
As you are well aware, that’s not the way it is in Iowa. Which is why I listed those last three under the cleverly worded heading "Some second-hand connections."
I apologize for compromising the integrity of the exercise.
Well, Kent
> I apologize for compromising the integrity of the exercise.
No need for an apology, Rich. Had you not mentioned those bystanders that you did, I would have never reworked the mine tailings, so to speak and would not have caught Erastus "Deaf" Smith as someone who had worked as a surveyor after whom a Texas county was named. (Sorry, I'm holding some of the other Texas counties named for surveyors in reserve until needed.) :>
Found one more for Kansas in Harvey County named for James Harvey who was a civil engineer, U.S. Senator from Kansas and the fifth Governor of Kansas and...."After his Senate term, Harvey worked as a government surveyor in New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Oklahoma, before returning to Kansas in 1890 to resume agricultural pursuits."
Found another in Geary County, home to Fort Riley. John Geary...."studying civil engineering and law, but was forced to leave before graduation due to the death of his father, whose debts he assumed. He worked at a variety of jobs, including as a surveyor and land speculator in Kentucky, earning enough to return to college and graduate in 1841."
How 'bout Colonel William Crawford. Revolutionary War hero, friend of Washington and a land surveyor.
Lucas County is named after the Governor of Ohio who defended the Port of Toledo from the interloping boy governor of Michigan's land grab in 1835 (Toledo-Michigan War). Lucas was also a surveyor.
