Mobile Surveyors-history's Famous Surveyors

Mobile Surveyors are well known for their knowledge of surveying history. Contrary to what a lot of people think, America is full of famous land surveyors. What throws a lot of people off is that people in the past often trained in multiple disciplines, and the works that earned them a place in the history books didn't have much to do with land surveying.

America's first president, George Washington was a land surveyor. Colonial Virginia appointed this future founding father to the position of Surveyor General in 1749, at the age of 17.

That same year, the colony began a promotion that offered thousands of acres to potential land prospectors who moved west. Because of this, George Washington became the first Registered County Surveyor in America. The man who surveyed the site that became Washington, D.C. our nation's capital, was named Benjamin Banneker.

He was an African-American self-taught mathematician and astronomer, and also a land surveyor. George Washington personally appointed him to the position, and he completed the project between 1791 and 1793. Another famous land surveyor is Benjamin Banneker, who was a self-taught African American astronomer, mathematician, and land surveyor.

He was personally appointed by George Washington to survey the site that eventually became the nation's capital. The project that surveyed Washington D.C. was completed between 1791 and 1793. Another American President that was a land surveyor earlier in his life was Thomas Jefferson. He was appointed to the position of Albemarle County surveyor in 1773.

Sometime later, while acting as Secretary of State under George Washington, and later as the President himself, he spurred the nation's desire to settle the west by appointing land surveyors. One of Thomas Jefferson's most famous acts as President was organizing the Lewis & Clark expedition. William Clark and Meriwether Lewis explored the Louisiana Purchase for two years, in the process become a couple of the nation's most famous land surveyors.

Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon's land surveying efforts survive in the "Mason-Dixon line", the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. This line divided the "slave states" from the "free states" during debates in Congress over the Missouri Compromise in 1820. Today, this line is still used to distinguish the South from the North.

Another president to previously hold a position as land surveyor was Abraham Lincoln, who served as one of the Deputy County Surveyor, as well as Postmaster and operator of a general store. In fact, Lincoln was working as a surveyor when he was elected to the Illinois legislature at the beginning of his political career. How many famous Mobile surveyors can you think of?