Ohio Company of Associates
Field Notes by Jeffery Mathewson, Book No. 4 (1798)
Manuscripts and Documents of the Ohio Company of Associates
Marietta College, Legacy Library, Slack Research Collections

Federal land surveyors often utilized prominent trees (usually two) to mark and “witness” section corners, and recorded species and class-sizes in their field notebooks. Sometimes, surveyors also described the vegetation characteristics they observed between sections, representing an important historical record of the original forest composition at the beginning of settlement. The official plats of the Ohio Company contain section numbers, major streams, and names of the original proprietors in association with their lots for each township. Jeffery Mathewson from Scituate, Rhode Island was one of the Ohio Company’s surveyors who surveyed federal survey range 16. Two hundred years later, oak trees from this range were harvested for the renovation of Thompson Library.

To view Matthewson’s notes, click here.