Blazes, Posts & Stones: A History of Ohio’s Original Land Subdivisions

Buckner.

Introduction

A Map is a condensed history of God’s creation and man’s accomplishments.

In the twilight of his years, Samuel Williams labored day and night to complete his work transcribing the original field notes and preparing the plats to go with them. His dimly lit workspace in the old General Land Office building in Cincinnati was filled with stacks of field books and plats from the original deputy surveyors. Williams had reached that period in life when he could do what he valued most; he chose to prepare that which would be most useful to his fellow Ohioans. Williams’ efforts in the early 1840s corresponded with the final federal surveys in the state of Ohio, mostly the old Indian Reserves in Northwest Ohio. He knew that this information must be preserved. Future generations of land surveyors and title attorneys would need this material to guarantee clear title to real estate in Ohio.

The complexity and diversity of the many government survey systems was unlike any other state in the Union. After all, Ohio had been the testing ground of the Continental Congress in 1785 for the Rectangular Survey System first envisioned by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Hutchins, and Rufus Putnam. In 1796 the Congress of the United States, created when the Constitution was ratified in 1789, subdivided the Old Northwest Territory. The Land Act of 1796 developed new methods of subdivision.

The Act of 1796 created, among other things, the office of Surveyor General of the United States. The first man to hold that rank was Brigadier General Rufus Putnam of Marietta. President Thomas Jefferson replaced Surveyor General Putnam in 1803 with Professor Jared Mansfield. With the commencement of the War of 1812, Mansfield returned to the US Military Academy at West Point. Samuel Williams served in the United States Army during the War of 1812. After the war, Edward Tiffin, Commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington City, hired Samuel Williams. Williams came to Ohio with Surveyor General Tiffin in 1815 and was appointed Chief Clerk of that office. Williams organized and preserved these plats and field notes over the next thirty years.

Many corners of 1785 and 1796 were rotted away by the passing years and blazes, posts, and stones were lost in the wagon tracks of time. Who would keep the old days alive? Samuel Williams was the only one. Thomas Hutchins, Rufus Putnam, Jared Mansfield, and Edward Tiffin were gone. Israel Ludlow died at the young age of thirty-nine in 1804. The stacks of notes and plats that they produced in their lifetimes now rested in Williams’ care, so day and night he toiled.

The Northwest Territory had been the wild western frontier of the United States for many years. So dense were the forests that the first surveyors believed that a squirrel could travel from the Ohio River to Lake Erie without ever touching the ground. Wolves, bears, and wildcats roamed the forests at night. Hostile Indians prowled the trails and rivers seeking to terrify and drive out the new settlers. Spurred on by the British, who refused to admit that they had been defeated by Washington’s army and had surrendered the Ohio Valley to the newly created United States, the Indians waged a savagely brutal war against all those who dared to cross the Ohio River. They attacked boats traveling down the Ohio River by displaying captured female settlers who begged for help from the passing boats. If the boat ventured too close to the shore, the Indians would attack, kill, and scalp those aboard. It was a vicious and terrifying time to be on the western frontier.

Into this wild, violent, and bitterly contested wilderness ventured Thomas Hutchins, Geographer of the United States, and his small band of state-appointed surveyors in 1785. Hutchins and his Gentlemen Surveyors were followed by Rufus Putnam and the Ohio Company’s surveyors in 1788, and they in time, by John Cleves Symmes and his New Jersey surveyors including Israel Ludlow, John Dunlap, and John S. Gano. They were followed by the Connecticut Land Company surveyors led by General Moses Cleaveland, Augustus Porter, and Seth Pease in 1796. The Virginia Military District surveyors including Nathaniel Massie, Duncan McArthur, and Lucas Sullivant surveyed from 1789 to the 1800s.

Surveyors dragged their chains from the Muskingum River to the Great Miami, to the Cuyahoga River, and to the Auglaize River. Surveyors set posts at the corners and placed a massive grid upon the land that was to become the state of Ohio. This is their story, a story of unknown expectations, travails, defeats, struggles, and finally success.

It took almost fifty-eight years and the lives of many good men but by the 1840s, the grid of north-south and east-west lines had been completed. The Federal Rectangular Survey System was born. That system pioneered the survey prior-to-sale concept and was used in every state admitted to the Union after Ohio, except Texas.

In 1846 Samuel Williams put down his drafting equipment for the last time and closed the last large leather-bound volume of notes. Later, this massive mountain of material was moved by horse drawn wagons from Cincinnati to Columbus where it was placed in the rear of the Statehouse. It seemed to have been forgotten until the early 1900s when an attorney and surveyor from Athens, Ohio named William E. Peters started digging into the old, dusty volumes. Peters’ attempt was the second to explain the confusing morass of survey systems to be found in Ohio.¹ There were six-mile-square townships and five-mile-square townships; there was a place where the townships and ranges had been reversed; there was a place where no rectangular survey lines existed at all, just lines going everywhere, and there was a place with only townships and no ranges. There appeared to be over twenty different survey systems in the state of Ohio.

The many methods of government subdivision were so mystifying that veteran civil engineer and surveyor Christopher E. Sherman stated that surveyors rarely ventured outside their small area of work, fearing the monsters that lurked out there. After Peters published Ohio Lands and Their Subdivision in 1917, the book was a mandatory resource for every surveyor and title attorney in the state. Peters’ map of the many survey systems employed in the state was the first since the early 1800s that attempted to explain how the government had subdivided the land.

In the early 1920s, Sherman and his assistants discovered Samuel Williams’ plats and notes. There were hundreds of leather bound volumes stacked from floor to ceiling but no index to go with them. After several years with the original notes and plats, Sherman authored, Original Ohio Land Subdivisions, Volume III in 1925. Along with Volume III came a large wall map clearly showing all the different survey systems that were employed in Ohio. The map reportedly took three draftsmen three years to complete and is by far the most outstanding cartographic endeavor ever undertaken in our state. Volume III and the accompanying map became valuable necessities for any surveyor who hoped to work successfully throughout the state of Ohio.

Sherman’s Volume III is so complete in its treatment of this material that it is indeed daunting and humbling to attempt to cover the subject once again. However, there are places where even Sherman leaves room to add to the body of knowledge on this subject. This effort then will not try to replace Sherman’s accomplishment but to augment and enliven it.² With respect to the provenance and presentation of the early survey records, this work stands on the shoulders of Williams, Kilbourne, Peters, and Sherman.

An exhaustive reading of period newspapers such as The Centinel of the North-Western Territory and books such as The Executive Journal of the Northwest Territory was completed before commencing to write this book. A visit to Rufus Putnam’s Land Office and to the Point in Marietta was made. The graves of these Revolutionary War heroes at the Mound Cemetery were visited at dusk. The excitement as riverboats came around Kerr’s Island was anticipated. The old streets of Chillicothe were walked and Nathaniel Massie’s and Duncan McArthur’s monuments in Grand View Cemetery were visited. A trip to the banks of the Wabash, which witnessed the screams and gunfire of the battle of St. Clair’s Defeat was made. The point of beginning of the Greenville Treaty Line on the Tuscarawas was visited and also the forks of Loramie’s Creek. Israel Ludlow’s path into Fort Recovery was retraced. The Upper Headquarters camp of Seth Pease on the Cuyahoga River was explored. Part of the Portage Path that was surveyed by Moses Warren was walked. Pickawillany was visited and also Colonel Robert Patterson’s homestead in Dayton. The earthen walls of old Fort Miami which witnessed General Wayne audaciously ride around that fort were scaled. Fort Meigs was visited. The times of the Old Northwest Territory were brought to life as best they could be. The men and women in whose deeds this book would relish were sought out so they could tell their stories in their own words.

These were campaign-hardened and battle-tested men, many of whom had served with General Washington’s army for seven years under the most arduous conditions. They were frontier-tough. They worked from daylight to dark and slept on the cold ground at night. They ate whatever the hunters shot that day and did not complain. Their likes may never be seen again and it is fitting that their story is told. Their surveys, as they are studied, will speak for these men. It is our charge and our duty as Ohio surveyors and Ohio historians to preserve their survey corners and their memories. To that end, this book has been written.

With the original field notes and plats residing at the Ohio Historical Society, now indexed and microfilmed, one can now delve into the subject as deeply as one chooses. There are over one hundred rolls of microfilm in Series 4601, Historical Land Records, Auditor, State of Ohio, Government Records waiting to be viewed. Hundreds of the original volumes and transcribed copies are available as well as Samuel Williams’ plats which were prepared from the originals.

The Ohio Company’s Purchase records are safely cared for and indexed at the Dawes Memorial Library, Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio. The Records of The Ohio Company of Associates, The Rufus Putnam Papers, The John Mathews Papers and The Ohio Company surveyors’ field notes and plats can be found in the Slack Research Collections. The New Englanders did a wonderful and thorough job of collecting and indexing their records, notes, and plats. Be prepared to spend many days with this collection.

The original notes and plats of The Old Seven Ranges can be found at the US National Archives and Records Administration. Since Hutchins took these notes and plats to New York City, which was the US Capitol at the time, they did not return to Ohio. They did, however, stay with the federal government. These notes and plats were found in Records Group 49, Reel 49, Publication T1234. The records of The Connecticut Western Reserve or New Connecticut reside in the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland. There one can find The Connecticut Land Company Papers, Milt Holley’s Journal, The Joshua Stow Papers, The Abraham Tappen Papers and Seth Pease’s Journal and maps. A large collection of original field notes is recorded on microfilm. It takes several days to see all of this material, so be prepared.

This is the report of my twenty-nine years of research in those old volumes, research that started under the tutelage of Dr. R. Ben Buckner at The Ohio State University. I have relied upon original source material in most cases, attempting to provide information not previously discussed by Sherman and Peters. It is my hope that this book opens new vistas on our shared heritage as land surveyors and historians in the state of Ohio and broadens the knowledge of what these men of vision and courage placed upon the land we call Ohio. The next time you fly over Ohio, look down and see their rectangular grids and remember them. They deserve that, as some gave their all for this cause but all gave much.

Figure I.1. The Land Act of 1785 was the beginning of the rectangular survey of the Public Domain of the United States. The townships were to be six miles square with thirty-six lots, each one mile square and containing 640 acres. The surveyors were to set a post or mark a tree each mile around a township. It did not direct them to enter a township to mark lot lines. The reserved lots were Nos. 8, 11, and 26, set aside for the federal government for further disposal when land prices increased. Lot 16 was reserved for the purpose of promoting education in each township. Lot 29 was reserved for the promotion of religion in each township. At the last moment before passage, the Continental Congress removed this reservation. The Ohio Company of Associates, however, returned this reservation to their lands. Judge John Cleves Symmes also reserved Lot 29 in his Miami Purchase for the promotion of religion. These reserved lots (sections) 29 became the ‘Ministerial Lands’ in the state of Ohio.

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1. John Kilbourne of Worthington, Ohio published his Ohio Gazetteer in 1816 and 1817. Kilbourne, along with his brother James, was a founder of the Scioto Company, an organization of one hundred people who immigrated to Ohio in 1803 and settled in a new town that they called Worthington. In 1805, Kilbourne was commissioned a deputy surveyor under Jared Mansfield. He served on the board of trustees of Ohio University and was a commissioner to locate Miami University. In 1812, he was a commissioner appointed by the president to settle the boundary dispute between the United States lands and the Virginian Military Reserve. In 1816, he published Gazetteer of Ohio which was the first attempt to explain the many survey systems employed by the federal government in the Old Northwest Territory.

2. Christopher Elias Sherman was born on December 28, 1869 in Columbus, Ohio. He was one of twelve children born to Dr. Sylvester M. and Lemira A. Sherman. C.E. Sherman married Eleanor Bruning on June 22, 1897 and the couple was blessed with three sons. C.E. Sherman died May 6, 1949 in Columbus.

Land Act of 1785

AN ORDINANCE FOR ASCERTAINING THE MODE OF DISPOSAL OF LANDS IN THE WESTERN TERRITORY—MAY 20, 1785

The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the War of the Revolution with England. By this treaty, England recognized the sovereignty of the thirteen colonies, saying, all hostilities were to end and that all British forces were to be evacuated with all convenient speed.¹ England paid little regard to the treaty. General Anthony Wayne and the US Army in 1794 found a well-fortified British fort called Fort Miami at what is now Maumee, Ohio eleven years later. The newly born Congress of the United States was nearly $40 million in debt, mostly to France. The French had provided arms, uniforms, and military equipage to the Colonies. The infant Continental Congress formed under the Articles of Confederation had no power to tax, as taxation had been one of the major causes of the Revolution. The Continental Congress, unable to levy taxes and deeply in debt, concluded the solution to the crisis was to survey and to sell the recently ceded western lands.

Congress ratified The Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784 and then appointed a committee to devise a plan for the subdivision of the frontier. The committee was led by Thomas Jefferson, a surveyor and son of a surveyor. His father Peter Jefferson had surveyed the line between Virginia and North Carolina. Also on this committee was Hugh Williamson of North Carolina, a mathematics professor and an astronomer. Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Jacob Reed of South Carolina, and William Grayson of Virginia completed the committee. After rejecting Jefferson’s plan for using one minute of longitudinal arc (which is about 6086.4 feet and his plan for 100 sections which were called Jefferson One Hundreds) the committee set forth The Ordinance of 1785 which was signed into law on May 20, 1785. The Land Act of 1785, as it came to be called, created the post of Geographer of the United States.

The Geographer was to oversee the federal surveyors and regulate their conduct as he deemed necessary. He could also suspend them for misconduct, although only Congress had the full authority to appoint federal surveyors. Thirteen surveyors were to be appointed, one from each state. The Geographer was to direct the work of the surveyors and he was to personally attend to the running of the first East-West line.

The Act of 1785 specified,

the first line, running due North and South, as foresaid, shall begin on the river Ohio, at a point that shall be found to be due North from the western termination of a line, which has been run as the southern boundary of the State of Pennsylvania; and the first line running East-West shall begin at the same point, and shall extend through the whole territory.²

There are two significant points to be made here. The westerly line of the state of Pennsylvania had not been surveyed in May when the Act was written. That line was run between June 6 and August 20, 1785 by the same men who set the southwesterly corner of Pennsylvania during August 1784. These men, representing Virginia and Pennsylvania, were Andrew Ellicott (Virginia), David Rittenhouse (Pennsylvania), Andrew Porter (Pennsylvania), Joseph Neville (Virginia) and James Madison (Virginia). On August 20, 1785 this survey party set a wood post on the north bank of the Ohio River.

The second point to be made is that at this time in our country’s history, it was widely believed that Connecticut would cede all its western claims. Therefore, the first surveys would have extended from the Geographer’s Line southerly to the Ohio River and also northerly to Lake Erie. Later in 1785, Connecticut sold its title to the land in the Western Reserve to the Connecticut Land Company, a private company. Although Connecticut later surrendered political jurisdiction to the federal government, the lands of the Western Reserve remained outside the public domain.

The Act of 1785 further specified that

the surveyors are to use a compass for direction and are to pay due and constant attention to the variation of the magnetic needle and shall run and note all lines by the true meridian, certifying on every plat what was the variation at the time of running the lines thereon noted.³

The surveyors, as they are respectively qualified, shall proceed to divide the territory into townships six miles square, by running lines due North and South, and others crossing these at right angles as near as may be. Each surveyor shall be allowed and paid at the rate of two dollars per mile in length he shall run, including the wages of chain carriers, markers, and every other expense attending the same.⁴

The surveyors were directed to mark the corners each mile along the boundaries of the townships, but internal lines were to be shown on paper only and not run in the field. The surveyors were to note natural features such as rivers, salt licks, and mill sites. This put the surveyor into the role of explorer and geographer.

The lines were to be measured with a sixty-six foot Gunter’s chain, plainly marked with chaps on the trees, and exactly described on the plat. The plats of townships respectively were to be marked by subdivisions of lots one mile square or 640 acres in the same direction as the external lines and were to be numbered from 1 to 36. The townships were to be designated by numbers progressively from south to north, always beginning each range with the number one. The Ranges (north-south columns of townships) were to be distinguished by their prospective number westward from the Pennsylvania line. Townships were to be sold whole or in lots, provided that none of these were sold under the price of one dollar per acre. (Sections were originally called lots.)

Congressman William Grayson of Virginia argued for passage of the Act of 1785, in opposition to George Washington who favored Virginia’s land system, by stating the square townships could be surveyed at the least cost since only two sides of each square needed to be measured. The other two, the northerly and the easterly lines having been run previously.⁵

There shall be reserved for the United States out of every township, the four lots numbered 8, 11, 26 & 29 and there shall be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within said township."⁶

Done by the United States in Congress assembled, the 20th day of May, in the year of our Lord, 1785, and of our sovereignty and independence, the ninth.

Richard H. Lee, President

The Act of 1785 was the beginning of the US Rectangular Survey System, which has been called the greatest surveying project ever undertaken by man on Earth. It included the concept of survey-prior-to-sale which was a new method of land subdivision to colonial Americans. The Public Domain was that land held in trust for the citizens by the US Government and that body had to develop a method to divide the land.

There were several glaring defects in the Act of 1785. First, was that no government surveyors ran interior lines of the townships. Therefore, when lots were sold in New York in 1787, there was no interior control for private surveyors to define the lot lines. Several of the first lots sold were very large when laid out on the ground by private surveyors and encompassed much more than 640 acres.

The Act of 1785 did not deal with convergence of the meridians. Meridian lines come together as they extend northerly, therefore the townships could not be exactly square. Hutchins knew this and wrote to Congress for further instructions to rectify this contradiction. Congress ignored his letter and did not respond. Hutchins also instructed his surveyors to chain distances horizontally by breaking chain (stair-stepping shorter measurements horizontally up and down steep hills). His instructions seem to have been ignored for the most part.

Other than directing that chaps be made on trees at corners, the Act did not define what monuments were to be set. The surveyors developed their own system of marking line trees with two notches and setting wooden posts at corners. Then they located bearing trees to each corner and notched and blazed these trees accordingly.

Although the surveyor’s chains were checked before the surveying began in September, no further checks were required and repaired chains were used without being examined against Hutchins’ standard.

The payment of two dollars per mile measured was not enough to cover the surveyors’ expenses, let alone their time working and their losses to the Indians.

Horses and supplies were often lost at an alarming rate to marauding Indian bands and these losses were absorbed by the surveyors.

The Land Act of 1785 was the US Government’s first attempt at creating a system of subdivision for the Public Domain. Its failures were addressed in later years by other land acts. Its successes drove the westward expansion of the United States into the Northwest Territory and beyond.

CAPTAIN THOMAS HUTCHINS, GEOGRAPHER OF THE UNITED STATES

Thomas Hutchins was born in Monmouth, New Jersey in 1730 and was orphaned as a young man. At age sixteen, he journeyed west to the Ohio River frontier. Hutchins was commissioned to the rank of Ensign in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment on November 1, 1756. In 1757, he was promoted to Quartermaster of the Third Battalion. Two years later, Hutchins applied for and received a commission in the British 60th Royal American Regiment as an Ensign. Later he rose to the rank of Deputy Engineer. While serving under the command of General Henry Bouquet, Hutchins ventured into the Ohio country in 1764 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War.

Two years earlier Hutchins had surveyed this same path, known as the Great Trail, from Fort Pitt to Detroit.⁷ He was a skilled draughtsman and an accomplished cartographer. He mapped the army’s movement from Fort Pitt to the headwaters of the Muskingum River and prepared March of His Majesty’s Troops from Fort Pitt to the Forks of the Muskingum. In this book, Hutchins noted dates, campsites, and exact distances for each day’s march. He also plotted the positions of the Indian towns. At the meeting house near the confluence of the Muskingum River and White Woman’s Creek, the Indians were forced to return the 306 white captives taken during the years of frontier warfare. Later Hutchins charted the Ohio River from Fort Pitt to its falls near present day Louisville, Kentucky. This survey was conducted from the bow of a boat.⁸

When the Revolutionary War with England began, Hutchins, then a Captain in the British army was in London.⁹ He was supervising the printing of his book and map entitled, A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. The British offered Hutchins the rank of Major but he refused to take up arms against his American countrymen.¹⁰ He was imprisoned in Clerkenwell Prison for high treason. He was loaded with irons and put among felons and treated with every kind of severity and insult, and forbidden to see or write his friends.¹¹ He had his savings of about $20,000 confiscated as a fine. He somehow escaped prison (several historians think that a brother Mason released him) and made his way to France. In Paris, he met Benjamin Franklin. On March 16, 1780, Hutchins swore his allegiance to the American cause.¹² Franklin wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for Hutchins to the Continental Congress. In 1781, Hutchins was appointed Geographer to the Southern Army. Simeon DeWitt served General Washington as Geographer of the Army.

Figure I.2. The following two pages contain a reproduction of the Ohio portion of the Thomas Hutchins’ map entitled ‘’A new map of the western parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina, comprehending the river Ohio, and all the rivers, which fall into it; part of the river Mississippi, the whole of the Illinois river, Lake Erie; part of Lakes Huron, Michigan & the whole country bordering on these lakes and rivers." Hutchins was in London in 1776 seeing to the production of this map and the accompanying manuscript when the shooting war broke out in the Colonies. When he refused to take up arms against his fellow countrymen, Hutchins was imprisoned and thrown into Clerkenwell Prison. His personal assets were confiscated and his finances seized by the British government. It is believed that a brother Mason secured Hutchins’ escape from England. Hutchins fled to France where he met Benjamin Franklin who wrote a letter of recommendation to the Continental Congress. Hutchins’ map was engraved by T. Cheevers in London in 1778 without his assistance.

Hutchins collected much of the information on this map from his expeditions down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River, from Fort Pitt to Fort Detroit, and with Colonel Henry Bouquet from Fort Pitt to the forks of the Muskingum River in 1764. Hutchins was a topographical engineer in the British army during the French and Indian War. Some information shown on this map appears to be from John Mitchell’s map of 1755. Hutchins was weak on the area around the confluence of the St. Mary’s and the St. Joseph’s Rivers, as well as the southerly tip of Lake Michigan. Hutchins placed the southerly tip of Lake Michigan at about the 42nd degree of north latitude much as Mitchell and Evans had done on their maps. This inaccuracy later led to the Ohio/ Michigan conflict in the 1830s. This Hutchins’ map was used by the State of Virginia to describe the northerly line of the Virginia Military Reserve in 1784. The line from the origin of the Little Miami to the origin of the Scioto appears to be an easterly line across the Indian path. This error by Hutchins resulted in a great conflict between Virginia and the federal government in later years.

Judge John C. Symmes used this map to plot his Miami Purchase of 1,000,000 acres in 1788 between the Miami Rivers. Symmes was later surprised to find the two rivers were much closer than Hutchins had shown on his map. The Ohio Company of Associates in 1790 constructed the beginnings of the town of Gallipolis based upon where Hutchins showed the mouth of the Great Kanawha River. Hutchins was about twelve miles in error in this matter and the French emigrants ended up on Ohio Company lands, much to their regret.

General Josiah Harmar used this map in his ill-fated campaign against the Miami Indians in 1790. Harmar found that he was fifteen miles further from the Indians than the map showed. General Arthur St. Clair used this map for his Indian campaign of 1791. His miscalculations resulted in the utter destruction of the U. S. Army on the banks of the Wabash.

Surveyor General Rufus Putnam used this Hutchins’ map to produce the first map of Ohio in 1803, which led Putnam to place Fort Wayne inside the western boundary of the new state.

There are men who make maps and influence history but …

With the Land Act of 1785 debated and finalized on May 20th, Hutchins was appointed Geographer of the United States. On May 27, 1785 Hutchins received his commission for a term of three years. He made his way westerly from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, a distance of 322 miles by the Pennsylvania Road, arriving in early September. Pittsburgh at that time was a small community of about eighty log buildings and Fort Pitt.¹³ Hutchins ventured westerly on the Ohio River to Fort McIntosh and met with Colonel Josiah Harmar, commander of US forces on the frontier.¹⁴ Harmar assured him that the Indians, who had recently signed the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, would present no threat to the surveyors’ safety in the planned survey of the Northwestern Territory.

On September 30, 1785 Hutchins and his eight state-appointed Gentleman Surveyors began the rectangular survey of the Public Domain of the United States. Five states did not send a surveyor to the Northwest Territory that year. Hutchins with his sextant observed the sun at sunrise. He calculated his position on the north bank of the Ohio River at its intersection with the westerly line of the state of Pennsylvania as 40 degrees 38 minutes 02 seconds North.¹⁵ Hutchins was instructed to personally run the East-West line himself. This line became known as the Geographers Line in his honor. Hutchins had surveyed westerly about forty-nine miles and was working on the Ninth Range when news of Indian threats stopped the surveying for the year 1786.¹⁶

In June 1787, Hutchins accepted a commission to survey the boundary between the state of New York and the state of Massachusetts. He was accompanied by two noted mathematicians David Rittenhouse, with whom Hutchins had worked on the survey of the westerly line of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Thomas Ewing.

Hutchins submitted plats of the townships of Ranges Five, Six, and Seven to the Board of the Treasury in June 1788.¹⁷ Finally, Hutchins and the Board arrived at a settlement for the money owed him for his work during the years of 1785, 1786, and 1787.¹⁸ However, it took an order from Congress to force the Department of the Treasury to pay him.

During July 1788 Hutchins, back in his role as Geographer, returned to the Northwest Territory to oversee the survey of the boundary of the Ohio Company’s Purchase of 1,500,000 acres. This time he had an escort of fifty-four soldiers to protect him and his surveyors. Military protection was something Hutchins had sought from the army since 1785.

Hutchins assigned the survey to Israel Ludlow and Absalom Martin, as his health was declining rapidly. Ludlow was assigned the survey of the meanders of the Ohio River from the southern-most point of the Seven Ranges to the mouth of the Scioto River. Martin started the survey up the Scioto for about ten miles. This was deep into Indian country and Martin wanted no part of it. Ludlow completed the survey eighty miles up the river that Hutchins had assigned the pair. Ludlow seemed not to worry much about the Indians, as evidenced by his volunteering for the Seventh Range survey when none of the other surveyors wanted to survey that far west into hostile Indian land.

Thomas Hutchins died April 28, 1789 in Pittsburgh after an illness of several months characterized by a failing of the nerves and an almost insensible waste of his constitution. Doctors of the time referred to this illness as the fevers. This illness would also claim the life of Israel Ludlow just fifteen years later. Hutchins was fifty-nine years old and the years of sleeping on the cold wet ground, the swarms of hungry insects, and the hard life on the frontier had taken their toll. Thomas Hutchins was buried in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Pittsburgh. No other Geographer of the United States was ever appointed.

RESEARCH NOTES

Hutchins’ maps can be found in The Library of Congress, The National Archives, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Ohio Historical Society. A biography of Thomas Hutchins was written by Anna Margaret Quattrocchi as her Ph.D. dissertation at the Department of History, University of Pittsburgh in 1944. It is entitled, Thomas Hutchins, 1730–1789. Hutchins’ map of the west, entitled, A New Map of the Western Part of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina and an extended biographical note may be found in Thomas Hutchins, A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. Frederick C. Hicks, ed. (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1904). This Hutchins’ map was relied upon by President George Washington, President Thomas Jefferson, General Rufus Putnam, and Arthur Lee. Others who later used Hutchins’ map were Andrew Ellicott, General Arthur St. Clair, General Josiah Harmar, Judge John Cleves Symmes, and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Thomas Hutchins’ letters to the Continental Congress can be found in Ohio in the Time of the Confederation by Archer Butler Hulbert, published by the Marietta Historical Commission, Marietta, Ohio, 1918, pages 144–187. This book was part three of the Records of the Ohio Company.

The Thomas Hutchins Papers are preserved by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Collection No. 308). Along with his many surveys of Fort Pitt and western Pennsylvania and the Territory northwest of the Ohio River, this collection also contains: Description of the sea coast, harbors, lakes, rivers, etc. of the Province of Florida, Observations of the Mississippi River, Maps of the North Carolina mountains, Distances from the Illinois River, and Drawing of the Fox River, Wisconsin.

There also are Hutchins’ notes on his celestial observations. Box 1, Folder 40 contains his Astronomical Observations May 6th, 1766. Box 1, Folder 50 contains his Observations of eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites. Box 2, Folder 16 contains Astronomical Observations of Ewing, Hutchins, Madison and Ellicott.

Figure I.3

Figure I.4. The easterly line of the state of Ohio is an extension of the famous Mason-Dixon line of 1763–68. Commissioners from Virginia and Pennsylvania extended that line westerly to the southwest corner of Pennsylvania in November 1784. The next year the line was surveyed northerly until reaching the north bank of the Ohio River, where a post was set by Andrew Ellicott, David Rittenhouse, and Andrew Porter. On September 30, 1785, Thomas Hutchins, as Geographer of the United States, began the U.S. Rectangular Survey at that post.

Figure I.5

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1. Mark M. Boatner III, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1966), p. 849.

2. Clarence E. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. I (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1934), p. 12.

3. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. I, p. 13.

4. Ibid, p. 13.

5. Grayson to Washington, New York, April 15, 1785 in Burnet, Letters of Members, VIII, pp. 95–96.

6. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. I, p. 15.

7. Thomas Hutchins Papers, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Box 3, Folder 12, The Route from Fort Pitt to Sandusky and thence to Detroit.

8. Hutchins’ Papers, Box 3, Folder 27, Map and Description of the Ohio River from Pittsburg down. Beverly Bond jr., The Courses of the Ohio River taken by Lt. T. Hutchins, Anno 1776 and Two Accompanying Maps, Cincinnati: 1942.

9. Hutchins’ Papers, Hutchins’ commission from King George III dated Sept. 24, 1775 can be found in Box 1, Folder 1.

10. Hutchins had spent twenty years in the British army, fifteen years as an engineer and thus deserved the rank of Major.

11. The Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. VIII (Boston: Tappen & Whittemore, 1839), Hutchins Memorial from Benjamin Franklin to Congress, March 16, 1780, p. 436.

12. Anna Margaret Quattrocchi, Thomas Hutchins, 1730–1789, University of Pittsburgh, 1944.

13. In journals, diaries and maps on the time, Pittsburg is spelled without the letter h but is correct with the h.

14. Fort McIntosh was located on the north bank of the Ohio River and west of Big Beaver River, near today’s Beaver, Pennsylvania.

15. Hutchins’ Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Collection No. 308), Journal of a survey of Government lands on the North side of the Ohio River, 1785–1786, Box 2, Folder 38.

16. Jacob Springer brought news of a large Shawnee war party of about four hundred warriors gathered on the Scioto River with the intent of attacking the surveyors.

17. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. LXIV (Boston: 1910) p. 368.

18. Hutchins’ Papers, William Duer to Hutchins, October 4, 1787, Box 3, Folder 12; Henry Knox to Hutchins, December 15, 1787, Box 3, Folder 17.

Chapter One: The Old Seven Ranges

INTO THE WILDERNESS WITH THOMAS HUTCHINS AND HIS GENTLEMEN SURVEYORS

The morning of September 30, 1785 dawned cool and crisp as the dew and fog lifted from the Ohio River. The rising morning sun outlined the figures of the thirty-nine men unloading equipment from their boats in preparation for the day’s work. It was an exciting time and all those present knew of the great importance of what they were about to undertake. The Geographer of the United States, Thomas Hutchins, was there and so were eight state-appointed surveyors along with thirty other assistants. The very first chain was about to be dropped on the land of the Northwest Territory and the Federal Rectangular Survey was about to begin. Hutchins was directed to run the east-west line astronomically.¹

Every six miles, a state-appointed surveyor was to run a line southerly to the Ohio River, called Range Lines.² The surveyors were to mark a tree every mile on these lines and every six miles would be a township corner. The townships would be numbered northerly from the Ohio River as it meandered its way to the Mississippi River.

The axe-men were brought forward immediately as the forest was very dense. Hutchins set up his sextant and the Gunter’s chains were thrown, ready to measure the land.³ As the work began, hunters ventured into the forest to shoot game for the evening meal. The horse handlers tended to their pack animals and scouts watched the horizon for signs of Indians. All were apprehensive of an attack by the Indians as they ventured further into the wilderness. Soon the rear chainman bellowed chain every sixty-six feet and the head chainman marked the point with a chaining pin. The surveyor’s magnetic compass was directing these men into history as they pressed westerly.

Due to the rugged topography and the thick virgin forest, very little progress was made the first day and the men returned to camp near the Little Beaver Creek that night. Over dinner of venison stew, the talk was of the size and density of the trees and the evidence of Indian trails. Sleep was uneasy during the night as wolves and panthers howled. Every sound could have been that of marauding Indians. The next morning the men were awakened by rain. Their blankets were soaked, the ground was muddy, and the firewood with which to cook breakfast was wet. The morning meal consisted only of dried salt pork and coffee. After a few bites, the chains were once again dropped and the work day commenced.

SURVEY OF THE SEVEN RANGES, 1785

The Old Seven Ranges were surveyed into six mile square townships. The basic subdivision was the one mile square section, referred to as a lot in 1785. A township was comprised of thirty-six lots. The townships were numbered northerly from the Ohio River and the ranges were numbered westerly from the Pennsylvania line. In the autumn of 1785, the survey of the Pennsylvania line was not completed northerly from the Ohio to Lake Erie. Consequently, only those townships south of the Geographer’s Line were measured and marked.

Captain Thomas Hutchins led his Gentlemen Surveyors, as he called them, to the Ohio River on September 22, 1785. They camped on the north bank of the river near Little Beaver Creek. There they waited for Indian guides to arrive, whom Hutchins thought would protect them from roving bands of Indians. No special instruments were provided by the United States for the beginning of the public land surveys.⁴ During this first week Hutchins made observations of the sun and the North Star and determined the latitude of the camp to be 40 degrees 37 minutes 47 seconds North. He determined the variation of the magnetic needle to be 0 degrees 54 minutes East of North. The surveyor’s chains were checked against Hutchins’ chain to ensure precision in their work. The surveyor’s compasses were also checked for agreement with Hutchins’ compass.

The Indian guides from the Delaware and Wyandot tribes never appeared. Without these guides, Hutchins and his surveyors were apprehensive about going forward into the wilderness.

On September 30, 1785 Hutchins made the first observation on the post set on the north bank of the River Ohio by Rittenhouse and Ellicott a month earlier. Hutchins, accustomed to measuring latitude by shooting the sun with his sextant, reckoned the point of beginning to be 40 degrees 38 minutes 02 seconds North. No other astronomical measurements were recorded for the East-West Line. Captain Absalom Martin, who accompanied Hutchins, wrote that the highest degree of care was taken in running the line westerly. This apparently was done by the magnetic needle and corrected for variation.⁵

With Hutchins that morning were eight state-appointed surveyors. From the state of Massachusetts came General Benjamin Tupper. As Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment, he fought against British General John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga. He commanded his regiment skillfully during the Monmouth Campaign and worked on the defenses at West Point on the Hudson. Later in the war, he served on the western frontier and was brevetted to the rank of Brigadier General on September 30, 1783.

Figure 1-1

William W. Morris was sent by the state of New York. Lieutenant Morris was a gifted mathematician and was the only man equal to Hutchins in ability for astronomical surveying. Martin attributed much of the work on the Geographer’s Line to Morris. After Hutchins’ death, Morris’ application for the position of Geographer of the United States was rejected for reasons unknown.

New Jersey sent Captain Absalom Martin of Somerset County.⁶ Martin, a Princeton College graduate, proved to be indefatigable in his work for Hutchins. He finished his First Range and then completed the Second Range when Colonel Adam Hoops became ill.

Connecticut sent Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Sherman, son of the well-known surveyor Roger Sherman a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Isaac Sherman, an accomplished surveyor, retired from the Continental Army and scouted land in the Northwest Territory for the Governor of Connecticut.

Edward Dowse, an obscure surveyor from the state of New York, was sent from New Hampshire after Nathaniel Adams and Ebenezer Sullivan, both prominent surveyors in New Hampshire, declined their state’s appointment.

The Commonwealth of Virginia sent Captain Alexander Parker, a veteran of General Washington’s army from 1775 to 1783. He served in command of a company in the Second Virginia Regiment. Captain Parker was captured by the British at Charleston, South Carolina in May 1780, but was able to escape. After the war, he became the County Surveyor of Westmoreland County. He was a country surveyor and an adept frontiersman who knew how to survive in the wilderness.⁷

Maryland sent James Simpson, a country surveyor who was from York County, Pennsylvania. No Maryland surveyors wanted to venture westerly into hostile Indian country.

Georgia sent Dr. Robert Johnson who was actually from Baltimore, Maryland. Johnson was a man of means and later purchased about 18 square miles of land in the Seven Ranges. He was not a surveyor.

Thomas Hutchins’ notes begin:⁸

6 chains 60 links—a brook running south 20 deg. west.

21 chains 00 links—crossed a ridge.

22 chains 37 links—the land is extraordinary good—timber is locust, black Walnut, hickory and elm.

33 chains 14 links—high land.

46 chains 80 links—west of this point-lands disposed for the growth of vines. Variety of trees and bushes. The whole of the above described land is too rich to produce wheat but is well adapted for Indian corn, tobacco, hemp, flax, oats, etc.

Hutchins wrote favorably of the land that he traversed those first few days. From the beginning, the surveying was difficult and slow. The land was cut by deep ravines with very steep sides. Hutchins had instructed his chain carriers to break chain and measure horizontally, which meant that they could only measure a few feet at a time. On October 8, reports of increased Indian activity heightened fears among the surveyors and the entire party retreated to their camp on Little Beaver Creek. On October 15 runners delivered messages from the regional chiefs demanding that the surveying be stopped.⁹ Also, the news of a massacre at Tuscarawas, about fifty miles west of Hutchins and his surveyors, brought apprehension and fear to all involved.¹⁰

When rumors reached Hutchins that squatters on the federal side of the Ohio River might join with the Indians and attack the surveyors, Hutchins called off any further work that year. The first season of federal surveying was thus concluded. Only three miles, sixty-six chains, and seventy-eight links had been measured and marked. The eight state-appointed surveyors returned home with nothing to show for their work but debts. Not one surveyor had measured his first mile, for which they were to be paid $2.00 per mile. But they had paid their chain carriers, markers, hunters, horse handlers, and axe men as well as provided provisions for the whole party.

Hutchins traveled to New York and on November 25 transmitted to Congress a plan and Remarks of that part of the Western Territory through which an East and West Line has been run, agreeable to an Ordinance of Congress of the 20th of May last. The plan was copied from the original by Mr. William Morris, surveyor appointed by Congress from the State of New York, to whom I am much indebted for his work on the east and west line.¹¹ Hutchins made glowing reports of the land to Congress. Perhaps this was an attempt to cover his lack of progress made on the survey that season.

THE SURVEYS OF 1786

On May 9, 1786 Congress passed a resolution which gave Hutchins a vote of confidence and authorized the Geographer to again go into the wilderness. The resolution further specified: the surveyors do not proceed further northerly than the east and west line, and repealed the clause of the previous year that required the surveyors to pay the utmost attention to the variation of the magnetic needle and to run and note all lines by the true meridian.¹² Now the meridians could be run by the magnetic needle and not corrected for variation.

Hutchins’ hopes for the new season were buoyed by the construction of Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Muskingum River. This fort was the most advanced post on the frontier. Hutchins intended to survey thirteen ranges before the season ended. To ensure an Indian escort, Hutchins sent messages to the Delaware and Wyandot tribes early in the spring and expected them to appear at his camp as promised. When Hutchins returned to Pittsburgh on June 25, 1786, he had high hopes for the surveying season. He saw his problems as the lack of money from the Congress, the constant threat of the Indians, no plan to deal with convergence of the meridians, and the great difficulty of acquiring sufficient amounts of supplies.

Hutchins had written Congress with regard to convergence of the meridians.¹³ Nathan Dane of Massachusetts moved to abandon adherence to north-south and east-west lines. Congress defeated his motion and convergence was not dealt with for this season. Congress did, however, give Hutchins the power to appoint surveyors for the states which failed to do so themselves.

The number one problem for the surveyors was that they could not pay their helpers and make any money at the rate of $2.00 per mile measured. Hutchins asked Congress to increase the rate to $3.00 per mile. Congress denied this request and the pay stayed the same as the year before.

The Indian threat was somewhat alleviated by the US Army taking an active role for the 1786 season. Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harmar, commanding at Fort McIntosh, sent three companies of infantry under Major John F. Hamtramck to the area where Hutchins and his surveyors planned to work.¹⁴ These soldiers had orders to drive out squatters who were on federal land illegally. On August 8 Major Hamtramck and one hundred and fifty soldiers arrived at the surveyor’s camp on the Little Beaver Creek. This detachment had no supplies and did not receive any from Pittsburgh until the middle of that month.¹⁵

The state surveyors who reported for the 1786 surveying season were returnees: Captain Absalom Martin from New Jersey, Lieutenant William W. Morris from New York, Colonel Isaac Sherman from Connecticut, General Benjamin Tupper from Massachusetts, Dr. Robert Johnson from Georgia, and James Simpson from Maryland. Captain Alexander Parker of Virginia was replaced by Charles Smith and Edward Dowse of New Hampshire was replaced by Major Winthrop Sargent. Sargent was from Massachusetts and was scouting land for the Ohio Company of Associates, a Massachusetts organization of ex-officers who sought land in the Northwest Territory as payment for their services from 1776 to 1783.

New for this season of surveying were Colonel Ebenezer Sproat from Rhode Island, an experienced surveyor who was to help in the founding of Marietta two years later; Colonel Adam Hoops from Pennsylvania, was a surveyor, land speculator, and a personal friend of Hutchins; Samuel Montgomery from North Carolina; and Israel Ludlow who represented South Carolina even though he was from New Jersey. Ludlow replaced William Tate of South Carolina who failed to come west in 1785 and 1786. Even though Ludlow was just twenty-one years old, he was college educated and an experienced surveyor.

Hutchins traveled with twelve state-appointed surveyors and one hundred and fifty soldiers and scores of helpers who had been hired as chainmen, markers, hunters, and cooks from Pittsburgh. He was the leader of a small town called the surveyors’ camp. Sargent had hired two chainmen, a marker, a horse handler, two axe-men, a hunter, and a cook. He also rented nine horses. On top of this he had to buy supplies for the men and the horses. He invested $250 while in Pittsburgh in preparation of the planned surveying.¹⁶ Well aware of the hardships faced by the veterans of Washington’s army, Secretary of War Henry Knox personally recommended Major Sargent to Hutchins. Knox knew of Sargent’s association with the Ohio Company and wanted to help these veterans quickly attain land in the Northwest Territory.

Sargent, sensing that Hutchins would not need him for a while, asked the Geographer for a short leave to go down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Muskingum River and Fort Harmar to scout for prospective land. Meanwhile, Hutchins, along with Absalom Martin, made his way to the fourth mile post on August 9. On August 10, they reached a distance of six miles and set the corner post. Martin, who had drawn Range I, measured south to the Ohio River.

Captain Hutchins returned to the surveyors’ camp and summoned Colonel Adam Hoops who had drawn Range II. Hoops, along with his assistants and soldiers, then chained west with Hutchins until they reached a distance of twelve miles from the point of beginning. After setting that post, Hoops headed southerly with his party of men.

Hutchins returned to the surveyor’s camp and to get Colonel Isaac Sherman, who had drawn Range III. With Sherman and his party were thirty soldiers assigned for protection. Range IV was the domain of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat of Rhode Island. Hutchins and Sproat set the twenty-four mile post on September 2 and Colonel Sproat chained southerly to the Ohio River.

About this time, Sargent returned to the surveyors’ camp and made his way west to meet Hutchins. Sargent had drawn the Fifth Range. The swamps and thickets took their toll on Sargent. At the end of the first day with Hutchins, Sargent wrote, I find this business of surveying with the few hands I have, in a supreme degree fatiguing.¹⁷ The next day was worse as the forest was even more entangled. On September 6, Hutchins and Sargent set the thirty mile post and Sargent and his men chained southerly toward the Ohio River.

With Sargent was young New England school teacher John Mathews. Mathews was the nephew of General Rufus Putnam and had started Range II with Hoops. When Hoops became ill and left the field on September 1, Mathews and his friend Anselm Tupper, the son of General Benjamin Tupper, volunteered to help on the Fifth Range. For the next four days the party of six surveyors and two soldiers was without meat as the hunter was not able to provide any fresh game. This was not unusual. Those old smooth bore muskets were not very accurate. Despite having two hunters with them, Hutchins and James Simpson of Maryland running the northerly line of the Sixth Range went without fresh meat for five days. The miring swamps and the rugged terrain took their toll on Hutchins. He seemed to give up on his plan to survey thirteen ranges in 1786. He had hoped to survey one range for each of the thirteen states. Only the state of Delaware was not represented in the survey party.

As Sargent measured southerly, he had no idea what the township numbers would be until he reached the Ohio River and then began numbering northerly. He should have known what lot number he was working on though, as all townships were numbered the same with one in the southeast corner and thirty-six in the northwest corner. To evaluate Sargent’s work, consider Martin’s notes on Range I. Martin working with Hutchins records:

Beginning at a post in the West Boundary Line of the State of Pennsylvania and the North bank of the Ohio River, thence surveyed West on the North side of Section 6, T. 5, R. I

2.85 chains a white walnut 18 inches in dia. notched, blazed on south side

20.55   a sugar 12 inches in dia. notched on E. & W. sides

46.86   an elm 12 inches in dia. notched on E. & W. sides

51.59   a white oak 12 inches in dia. notched on E. & W. sides

74.22   a white oak 9 inches in dia. notched on E. & W. sides

80.00   Set a post, corner to Sec. 6 and Sec. 12, from which an elm 8 inches in dia. bears N 37 W, 6 links and a red oak 30 inches in dia. Bears S45 E, 18 links distant. The oak is blazed on the North side and the Elm on the South side.

Martin continued on with Hutchins until he came to his sixth mile:

West on the North side of Section 36, T. 5, R. 1

28.02 chains a black oak 12 inches in dia. 2 notches on E. & W. sides

35.11   a white oak 9 inches in dia. 2 notches on E. & W. sides

40.34   a white oak 12 inches in dia. 2 notches on E. & W. sides

50.94   a red oak 42 inches in dia. 2 notches on E. & W. sides

75.08   a white oak 10 inches in dia. 2 notches on E. & W. sides

80.00   Set a post for the North West corner of this Township from which a black oak 15 inches in dia. bears N84E, 12 links & a white oak 12 inches in dia. bears N34W, 42 links distant—marked with 6 notches and a blaze.

Figure 1-2

Martin then turned southerly toward the Ohio River. He measured one mile and 44.69 chains on the west lines of Section 36 and then Section 35. At 44.69 chains he reached the bank of the Ohio River and set a post. He referenced the bearing trees and then measured the meanders of the Ohio northeasterly to his point of beginning and calculated the acreage. See map of Township 5, Range I.

Major Sargent in his haste to cover as many miles as possible (remember the surveyors are being paid by the number of miles measured) recorded in his notes:

First Mile—North side of Section

29.22 chains a white oak 13 inches in dia.

50.37   a white oak 22 inches in dia.

55.22   a white oak 6 inches in dia.

63.30   a white oak 18 inches in dia.

80.00   Set a post, corner to Sections from which a white oak 18 inches in dia. bears N64W, 12 links & a white oak 12 inches in dia. bears S13W, 36.5 links distant.¹⁸

Sargent’s notes go on not indicating what section or lot he was working on and do not give any markings such as notches or blazes on trees or posts. Sargent further infuriated Hutchins by not running the southerly lines of most of his townships. The surveyors in this system had only to run two sides of each square. The surveyor, in this case Sargent, would run the westerly line southerly until reaching the southwest corner of the township. Then he would survey easterly to the southeast corner of said township, hoping to be somewhat near Sproat’s southwest corner from the Fourth Range. Then the whole surveying party had to walk six miles back to Sargent’s southwest corner without pay, where they would start the whole process over again. This was dead time and Sargent sought to avoid this as much as he could. Thus he ran only two southerly lines, on the first township southerly and the seventh township southerly which was his last.

John Mathews, who was with Sargent’s party, recorded in his diary, "several days of steady rain, dense swamps, thick