Hutchins, Thomas (1730-1789) to Henry Knox
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.03803 Author/Creator: Hutchins, Thomas (1730-1789) Place Written: s.l. Type: Manuscript letter Date: 18 February 1788 Pagination: 1 p. ; 20.2 x 16 cm. Order a Copy
[Thomas] Hutchins, Surveyor General, presents his respects to Henry Knox via the bearer of this note, Mr. [Israel] Ludlow, another surveyor in the Geographers Department. Hutchins can not be there in person because he is "confined by a touch of the Gout." Hutchins awaits the surveys and remarks of Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Ohio Company and the Northwest Territory. Written in the third person and signed in the text, possibly by a secretary.
Thomas Hutchins was an American surveyor, mapmaker and geographer. He was born in the colony of New Jersey in 1730. Prior to the American Revolution, Hutchins served in the British army and participated in the French and Indian War. Hutchins resigned his commission in 1780. On 11 July 1781, Congress appointed him as "geographer of the United States."
After the American Revolution, Hutchins continued as a geographer, surveying and making maps of the western frontier. Hutchins was given the job of plotting the land set aside for the Northwest Territory as a result of the Land Ordinance of 1785. He and his men laid out four of the Seven Ranges, which organized early settlement of the territory. Hutchins died of illness on 18 April 1789, before he could complete the survey of the final ranges (from Ohio History Central).
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