1850’s – Surveying This New Land Called Iowa.

To better explain the history of this land the Boller family moved to in 1853, let me start back in 1832, six years before Iowa became a U.S. Territory…

In 1832, following the Black Hawk War, the U.S. Government purchased land west of the Mississippi River (about fifty miles wide stretching from the Neutral Ground to the north to Missouri on the south). Burlington, the first territorial capitol, was in this parcel of land, as was Dubuque to the north, and Henry County (home of Mt. Pleasant & Wayland) as well. This land was called the Black Hawk Purchase (yellow on map above).

In 1836, the government added a small strip of land named Keokuk’s Reserve, 400 square miles running alongside the Iowa River (green on map above)

In 1837, a third purchase of land (approx. 25 miles wide in the middle and tapering off to the north and to the south) was secured from the Sauk and Fox tribes. Some historians call this the Second Black Hawk Purchase (blue on map above).

By the late 1830’s, the Public Land Survey System was created by the United States government for the purpose of surveying, platting, and mapping this newly-acquired land in the west. Below are the Iowa Territorial records from 1841 when Washington Township of Johnson County was first surveyed…

**The survey records of Washington Township in Johnson County (Township 78 N, Range 8 W, 5th Meridian) give us the following facts:**

**October 17, 1840** – Uriah Biggs is given a contract to survey township lines, with the work being completed during the first quarter of 1841.

**April 1, 1841** – Foley & McDonald is given a contract to survey subdivisions (section lines), with the work being completed during the second quarter of 1841.

**December 31, 1841** – Surveyor General James Wilson approves the surveying project of Washington Township in Johnson County, Iowa.

On this 1841 surveyor’s map of Washington Township in Johnson County (below), we’ve outlined (in red) the first 160 acres (four 40-acre plots) purchased by my gg grandparents – Jacob & Catharine Boller in 1853. Read more here.

*(M-0036)* **Circa 1845 – Sketch of the Public Surveys of Iowa Territory map**. In my office hangs a very rare survey map of Iowa Territory dating back to about 1845.

These surveyors maps – like the one above – were vitally important for an accurate distribution of land. Once admitted to the Union in 1846, Iowa set its direction to development and organized campaigns for settlers and investors, boasting the young frontier state’s rich farmlands, fine citizens, free and open society, and good government.

In the early 1850’s, there was a huge push to survey, plat and map pieces of land throughout all portions of Iowa. Below is a rare postal cover and letter that offers us some insight on the type of honest, young men being hired to do such work…

*(JP-104a)* Here’s a rare postal cover and letter from a local surveyor – John Seery of Canton, Iowa, which was located about halfway between Dubuque and Iowa City. The letter was written on January 6, 1852, postmarked the next day (January 7, 1852), and was addressed to the State Auditor – William Pattee – in Iowa City. Seery was obviously a young surveyor at the time and a bit inexperienced as he was assigned to survey and plat land between Cascade, Iowa in Dubuque County and Maquoketa in Chickasaw County. Below is a transcription of his letter:

Canton January 6^th 1852
Auditor of the State Iowa City, Iowa

By this day’s mail I forward to you the plat and field notes together with other accompanying papers of the State Road from Cascade in Dubuque County to Maquoketa in Chickasaw County by way of Canton which I hope you will find to be all correct. If I have violated the law by not having made the returns sooner the cause was my total ignorance of them which I hope you will take into consideration. I am a new settler being no more than some nine months a resident of Iowa.

Please drop me a few lines at Cascade informing me of the time I shall apply for my pay &c. I remain most respectfully, Your most obedient And very humble Servant –
John Seery Surveyor

In 1854, The Iowa Capitol Reporter told this story about the rapid growth in population across Iowa…

(M-0099) In our office hangs an original woodblock engraving (above left) – the cover from the Saturday, March 17, 1855 edition of Ballou’s Pictorial. Our copy has been hand-colored by artist Paula Perdue. Also in 1855, N. Howe Parker published an informative book, Iowa – As It Is (below left) – offering readers across the nation a comprehensive view of this new U.S. state called Iowa. (B-002)

Books like Parker’s helped in promoting Iowa as a beautiful new home in America’s untamed West. When my gg grandparents, Jacob & Catharine Boller, arrived in Johnson County, Iowa in 1853, they were part of “the great Stream of Humanity” that Parker speaks of – pioneers from back east who were pouring into our new state throughout the 1850’s.

*(M-0037)* **Map No. 2. Sketch of the Public Surveys in Iowa. An original surveyor’s map of Iowa as filed in Dubuque on October 21, 1852 by George B. Sargent, Surveyor General.** Created only six years after Iowa became the 29th state (1846), this George Sargent map illustrates the latest report of townships surveyed throughout the new state of Iowa.

If you look closely at our 1852 map (above), each township is labeled using a single capital letter. These letters indicate each township’s status with regard to the cataloguing process of the Surveyor General’s Office. For example, any township labeled with a ‘C’ has completed the checklist, meaning that it has been surveyed and platted, the plats have been copied, descriptive lists of the township have been made, and field notes have been recorded and transcribed. Townships labeled with an ‘I’,’S’, or ’P’ however, were in various stages of that lengthy process, while townships that have an ‘O’ or are left blank have only had, or are having, their exterior boundaries surveyed.

(M-0037) This rare Iowa map (which hangs in my office), was created by the Surveyor General’s Office in Dubuque and is dated **October 21, 1853**. It was published in the Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, 1853 *by George Barnard Sargent – see below for more info on him…*

George Barnard Sargent – Surveyor General – Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin 1851-1853. Born in 1818 in Boston, Sargent moved to Iowa in 1838, where he married Mary Perin, eventually having ten children. In 1847, he opened the banking house of Cook and Sargent in Davenport, and was appointed Surveyor General in Dubuque on March 24, 1851 by President Fillmore. He served in that capacity from May 8, 1851 to April 1, 1853. In 1857, Sargent was elected Mayor of Davenport, opening a new banking house on the corner of Main and Second streets. In 1869, the Sargent family moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where he died in 1875.

Here’s a tip of the old hat to George Barnard Sargent – Surveyor General and the Public Land Survey System team who surveyed, platted and mapped out the Hawkeye State – making way for the Bollers and thousands of others in the 1850’s.

Above is a complete list of General Surveyors working with Iowa land – from the office’s creation in 1835 – in Cincinnati – to 1838 – in Dubuque – to 1866 when the office moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Read more about Sargent’s predecessor – Caleb H. Booth here.

(JP-034) In a rare postal cover and letter from **July 20, 1853**, we find James B. Harlan trying to work out some surveying problems with a piece of land in Calhoun County with **Warner Lewis – General Surveyor for Iowa & Wisconsin**. *Read more here*.

*(L-0004)* *(L-0060)* In my office, I also have attained two additional maps: an **1854 Surveyor’s Map of Iowa** and an **1855 Surveyor’s Map of Iowa**. These two maps are identical to our 1852 map but are updated to October 21, 1854 and October 21, 1855, indicating the name of the new surveyor in charge: **Warner Lewis.**

By the mid-1850’s land in Johnson County had pretty much been snapped up and the land rush was rapidly moving westward. Below is a 1854 letter from a land agent in Iowa City and in it, we find that only a few choice acres seem to still be available in Johnson County…

*(JP-104b)* Here’s a rare postal cover & letter written on April 17, 1854 by the Iowa City land agent I. W. McCaddon and postmarked on April 18, 1854. The letter is to Rev. Simpson (S.W.) Guyer in Chicago and offers advice to look further west of Iowa City in purchasing land. Here is a transciption of McCaddon’s letter:

*Iowa City April 17^th 1854*
*Revd S Guyer*

Dear Sir. Yours of the 12^th Inst was recd on yesterday – in answer to which I can say that there is yet some desirable Gov land in this Land District but it is being entered up very rapidly in the Counties of Iowa, Poweshiek & Tama. Some first rate locations can be made of Prairie but the Timber is mostly entered up and can be purchased at from $5 to $10 per Acre according to quantity. There is yet some vacant land in this County which I think well worth looking after, but the tide of emigration appears to be inclined further west and many very good locations are overlooked. When you arrive here I will be better able to advise you as to the best localities by reference to the Plats at the Land Office &c which information I will give with pleasure.
Respectfully yours &c
I.W. McCaddon

**From records found in Find-A-Grave, Rev. Simpson must have taken McCaddon’s advice and settled further west of Iowa City, as he died 1893 in Indianola of Warren County, Iowa.**

Our six generations of the Boller family, this map (above) displays all we need to know about Our Iowa Heritage. Above right, we’ve marked all six locations in eastern Iowa where our Bollers have lived since first coming to the Hawkeye State in 1853. Johnson County (Iowa City and the Boller farm land) Washington County (Kalona) Henry Counry (Mt. Pleasant and Wayland) Linn County (Cedar Rapids).