Those Who Surveyed the Commonwealth

“He lacked the polish and dazzle in some degree that is so captivating to mankind, and which is often mistaken for merit itself,” wrote one of Andrew Alexander’s references, found in his application for principal engineer of the Board of Public Works (BPW). Alexander was one of several civil engineers and surveyors who helped map Virginia between 1816 and 1826. He, like many involved with this project either peripherally or directly, was engaged in local and state affairs and was an entrepreneur, inventor, and landowner. Archivists at the Library of Virginia are engaged in new research, identifying those cartographers and engineers who contributed to the creation of A Map of Virginia (1826). This is an ongoing process as we continue to uncover those Virginians who helped survey and map the Commonwealth in the early 19th century.

The principal engineers for the Board of Public Works (BPW) between 1816 and 1826 were Thomas Moore (1760-1822), Claudius Crozet (1789-1864) and Loammi Baldwin, Jr. (1780-1838). Thomas Moore, a practicing Quaker civil engineer, resided in Brookeville, Maryland. He was replaced by Claudius Crozet, who twice served as principal engineer for the BPW.

Several civil engineers were employed by Virginia’s Board of Public Works and helped survey the “great divisions of the state” and “charted” Virginia counties under John Wood and Herman Bőÿe’s supervision. Andrew Alexander (1768-1844) resided in Virginia’s Rockbridge County and in 1816 was hired by the Council of State along with William H. Meriwether, John Wood, and George Wyche to “map” the Commonwealth’s divisions. Alexander applied for the principal assistant engineer position in 1818. The Council of State engaged Alexander to survey the Blue Ridge to and including the Alleghany Mountains between the James and Potomac Rivers. He was a respected civil engineer and a 1789 graduate of Liberty Hall Academy, today’s Washington and Lee University. During his career he was surveyor for Rockbridge County, a member of Virginia’s House of Delegates, and a member of the Board of Public Works board of directors.

Alexander owned land and, like many Virginians of his social class, he was an enslaver. Currently, it is unclear whether he “charted” Rockbridge County under John Wood’s supervision. Alexander worked with Supreme Court Justice John Marshall to survey the headwaters of the James River, Greenbrier, Jackson and Great Kanawha Rivers in the first decades of the 19th century.

Albemarle County’s William H. Meriwether (1793-1861) was responsible for overseeing the survey of all the rivers to and including the Blue Ridge above the Great Mail Road between the James and Potomac Rivers that comprised the “great divisions” within the state. Like his father, William D. Meriwether, he was a developer and entrepreneur, who engaged in local construction projects, successfully petitioned the General Assembly to build a bridge across the Rivanna River by Moore’s Creek and was known for establishing several mills along the Rivanna River. At Pireus, Charlottesville’s “port city,” he constructed what became known as Charlottesville Woolen Mills. After his father died in 1845, Meriwether moved to New Braunfels, Texas, where he oversaw the construction of a mill race and canal. In 1861 he died in his home along the Louisville Railroad in Shelby County, Tennessee, 15 miles from Memphis. It is plausible that both Meriwethers were engaged in the state’s mapping project.

Virginia’s Council of State hired George Wyche of Hicksford, Greensville County, to survey the country south of the James River from the seaboard to the Alleghany, surveying the Roanoke, the Dan, the Meherrin, Nottoway, Black Water, Elizabeth, Nansemond and Appomattox Rivers, and part of the Alleghany and Blue Ridge Mountains from the North Carolina line to the James River. Greensville County contracted with him in 1816 to survey Greensville County in response to an act of the Commonwealth to chart Virginia’s counties; this suggests that Wyche surveyed Greensville County prior to John Wood’s appointment as principal surveyor of the county mapping project. Nineteenth-century surveyors used several instruments in their everyday work lives, and Wyche’s correspondence with Thomas Jefferson in October 1818 provides contemporary researchers insight into their daily activities and challenges. Jefferson was able to assist Wyche by providing him with the needed calculations to determine the height of the Peaks of Otter.¹

Other civil engineers who helped map Virginia include Hugh P. Taylor (d. 1831). Taylor was a strong advocate for internal improvements and engaged as a surveyor and engineer on several public works projects, including helping Andrew Alexander as deputy surveyor to survey the Blue Ridge to and including the Alleghany Mountain between the James and Potomac Rivers. He completed many surveys under Alexander’s supervision, ten of which are a part of the Library of Virginia’s collections.²  He worked on several BPW projects, helping to locate the James River Canal from Covington to Richmond and surveying the Monongahela, Potomac, Holston, New River, and Roanoke Rivers while Thomas Moore was the principal engineer for the BPW.  In 1820 and 1821 Taylor was employed as a deputy for Wood, surveying those counties, rivers, and roads north of the New River and Great Kanawha and between the Alleghany Mountain and Ohio River. This suggests that the Library’s manuscript maps of Ohio and Monongalia Counties, West Virginia, were completed by him. Other county maps possibly completed by Taylor under Wood and Bőÿe’s supervision include those formed after Wood was contracted to oversee the county mapping project in 1819, like Alleghany and Morgan Counties. He worked out of state, too, working on engineer projects along the Mississippi river and in “states north of Virginia.”

In 1825, Taylor oversaw the construction of the turnpike road from Staunton to Scottsville for the Staunton and James River Turnpike Company and settled in Covington, Alleghany County, Virginia. He died in 1831 after a brief illness.

Several civil engineers and surveyors were engaged to map Virginia between 1816 and 1826, and archivists and historians are just beginning to discern who they were and how they aided and complemented the work completed under John Wood and Herman Bőÿe’s leadership. Those who were employed for Virginia’s internal improvement projects were called upon to assist in “charting” Virginia’s counties, too.