![Northwest-territory-usa-1787](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Northwest-territory-usa-1787.png)
The Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory was a
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
government official responsible for surveying land in the
Northwest Territory
The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
late in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The position was created in the
Land Act of 1796
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...
[ - Text of Act of May 18, 1796 ]Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
to survey lands ceded by
Native Americans northwest of the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
and above the mouth of the
Kentucky River
The Kentucky River is a tributary of the Ohio River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 13, 2011 in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Kentuc ...
. This act, and those that followed evolved into the
Public Land Survey System
The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is the surveying method developed and used in the United States to plat, or divide, real property for sale and settling. Also known as the Rectangular Survey System, it was created by the Land Ordinance of 1 ...
.
Rufus Putnam
Brigadier-General Rufus Putnam (April 9, 1738 – May 4, 1824) was an American military officer who fought during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. As an organizer of the Ohio Company of Associates, he was instrumental ...
was appointed to the office in 1797, and held it until 1803. His office was in
Marietta
Marietta may refer to:
Places in the United States
*Marietta, Jacksonville, Florida
*Marietta, Georgia, the largest US city named Marietta
*Marietta, Illinois
*Marietta, Indiana
*Marietta, Kansas
*Marietta, Minnesota
*Marietta, Mississippi
*Mar ...
. In 1801, the position was offered to
Andrew Ellicott by
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, but he refused, because he was upset at slow pay for work he had done for the federal government.
Jared Mansfield held the office from 1803 to 1813. His office was in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
.
Josiah Meigs
Josiah Meigs (August 21, 1757 – September 4, 1822) was an American academic, journalist and government official. He was the first acting president of the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, Athens, where he implemented the universit ...
held office 1813 to 1815, and
Edward Tiffin
Edward Tiffin (June 19, 1766August 9, 1829) was an American politician from Ohio. A member of the Democratic-Republican party, he served as the first governor of Ohio and later as a United States Senator.
Biography
Sources indicate that he was ...
from 1815 to his death in 1829. Tiffin had his office in
Chillicothe. The Surveyor General of Illinois office was created on April 29, 1816, reducing effective area to
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
and
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
.
William Lytle served 1829 until his death in 1831. He moved the office back to Cincinnati.
Micajah T. Williams held the office 1831 to 1834, when
Robert Todd Lytle
Robert Todd Lytle (May 19, 1804 – December 22, 1839) was a politician who represented Ohio in the United States House of Representatives from 1833 to 1835.
Early life and career
Lytle was born in Williamsburg, Ohio, a nephew of John Rowan. ...
took over.
Ezekiel S. Haines was appointed in 1838.
Judge William Johnston held the office 1841–1845 as thanks for his efforts in supporting the
Whig ticket in 1840.
Lucius Lyon
Lucius Lyon (February 26, 1800September 24, 1851) was a U.S. statesman from the state of Michigan. Along with Louis Campau, Lucius Lyon is remembered as one of the founding fathers of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the state's second-largest city. A D ...
was appointed in 1845, and moved his office to
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
. In June 1845, the Ohio and Indiana offices were closed, and subsequent surveys were made under the
Commissioner of the General Land Office
The General Land Office was an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government responsible for Public domain (land), public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812, and it m ...
. The Surveyor General was initially paid $2000 per year, and his deputies were paid three dollars per mile surveyed.
Putnam was occupied in 1797 with laying off the
Greenville Treaty Line
The Treaty of Greenville, formally titled Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., was a 1795 treaty between the United States and indigenous nations of the Northwest Territory (now Midwestern United States), including the Wyandot and Delaware peoples ...
and surveying the
United States Military District
The United States Military District was a land tract in central Ohio that was established by the Congress to compensate veterans of the American Revolutionary War for their service. The tract contains in Noble, Guernsey, Tuscarawas, Muskingum, ...
and
Moravian Indian Grants 300px, Royce labeled the tracts as numbers 4, 5 and 6 in this map
Moravian Indian Grants were three tracts of land in Tuscarawas County, Ohio granted by the federal government in the eighteenth century to a group of Christian Indians. In the nine ...
, and he started the survey of
Congress Lands
The Congress Lands was a group of land tracts in Ohio that made land available for sale to members of the general public through land offices in various cities, and through the General Land Office. It consisted of three groups of surveys:
*Ohio Ri ...
in 1798.
Mansfield is credited with "considerable scientific ability and high standards of workmanship." He laid out astronomically the
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
baseline and
Second Principal Meridian
The second principal meridian, or Paoli Meridian, coincides with 86° 28′ of longitude west from Greenwich, starts from a point two and one half miles west of the confluence of the Little Blue and Ohio rivers, runs north to the northern boundar ...
, in spite of the difficulties. Pressures on him are illustrated in a letter
Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan– American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years ...
wrote to Mansfield: "The new act (March 13, 1805) is intended to palliate errors made in surveys north of the Ohio. At four dollars per mile, great correctness cannot be attained in that part of the country. Do your best at that price. Congress desires that corners and boundaries be definitely fixed, and the precise content of each is not equally important. A few acres more or less is not so important as it is that corners and boundaries should be known with precision to avoid litigation. It is of primary importance that the land should be surveyed and subdivided."
Tiffin established the scheme of
guide meridians and
standard parallel
In surveying, a baseline is a line between two points on the earth's surface and the direction and distance between them. In a triangulation network, at least one baseline between two stations needs to be measured to calculate the size of the ...
s for townships distant from the principal meridians and baselines, which became a feature of the Public Land Survey System.
On March 3, 1803,
[ – Text of act of March 3, 1803 (section 10) ]Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
a Surveyor General position was created for lands south of
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, and there followed a number of similar positions over the next years. In 1822, the first surveying district was created, namely the state of
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, with an officer called Surveyor General in charge.
Until the re-organization of the
General Land Office
The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...
in 1836, each Surveyor General acted more or less independently, setting his own standards for execution of field work.
See also
Northwest Territory
The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...
Notes
References
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*
*
*
*
*
*{{cite book
, title=A history of the rectangular survey system
, first1=C. Albert
, last1=White
, last2=Bureau of Land Management
, author2-link=Bureau of Land Management
, publisher=
Government Printing Office
The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...
, ref={{sfnRef, White
, year= 1983
, page=218
, isbn=9780160335044
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-BcVn3VhPQC&pg=PA218
Pre-statehood history of Ohio
United States federal public land legislation
Surveying of the United States
History of the government of the United States