Joseph S. Harris and the U.S. Northwest Boundary Survey, 1857-1861
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Surveying the 49th Parallel
In 1857, Joseph Harris, a twenty-one year old astronomer and surveyor, joined the Northwestern Boundary Survey, a joint undertaking by both Britain and America. Harris was excited about the experience this Survey could afford him. With the salary of $150 a month, he would be able to help support his widowed mother and his five brothers and sisters living back home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Also, it was a wonderful opportunity for a young surveyor.
The Commission’s task was to survey and mark a boundary set at the 49th parallel, which had been established by treaty in 1846 between Britain and America. The vast territory, “Oregon Country” most of it unexplored, stretched from the north California border to Russian Alaska.
Reacting to the pressure of settlers, miners and prospectors, pouring into the country, the two countries now were anxious to mark the International Border. The work was overseen by a Joint Commission created by the two countries to determine the location and number of camps and stations to be established. This work, however, was to be done independently by each country under its own Commissioners and survey parties. The astronomical stations were to be set up alternately along the line.
Through the over 200 letters he wrote back to his family, from 1857 to 1864, and from his Autobiography, Joseph Harris told the story of the marking of this 410 mile boundary on the 49th parallel between the Pacific Ocean and the summit of the Rockies. To his brother, Stephen, a fellow surveyor, working with the Coast Survey in the South, he wrote of the technical difficulties and triumphs of surveying with a new American Zenith Telescope and learning a new method of using it, developed by Philadelphian Andrew Talcott. The telescope and the Talcott method were soon adopted by the British.
In letters to his mother, he assures her of the details of his food and shelter and his plans for the future, gives advice on matters back home and above all he assures her of his safety from the Indians. These and other letters, addressed to various members of his family, are written in a narrative style, meant to be passed around the family, giving the continuing story of his day to day activities over the four and a half years of the survey.
On April 20th, 1857 the American survey party left New York on a ship powered by sail and coal, traveling from New York to Panama, crossing the Isthmus by train to the Pacific, sailing on a larger but similar ship up to San Francisco where they stopped a month to get supplies. Next they boarded a U.S. Coast Survey ship bound for Victoria on Vancouver Island, proceeding to nearby Esquimalt, the largest
British Harbor on the Pacific Coast. This completed the 6,500 mile trip fromNew York.
After a cruise on the Puget Sound, with the British, they settled on the westernmost point of the 49th parallel on the mainland at Camp Semiahmoo on July 15th, 1857,almost three months from their departure. Here they wintered for two years. In the Fall of 1857, almost a year ahead of the delayed British Survey, they hacked their way through almost impenetrable forests to the beginning of the formidable Cascade Mountains.
After the arrival of the British Survey team in 1858 the two commissions together planned for the astronomical stations to be developed in hop scotch fashion 25 miles apart. In 1859, because of the British late start, the American were already well ahead of the British. They crossed the one hundred mile wide Cascade Mountains with much difficulty, reaching the prairies beyond and on to the Columbia River.
Wintering in Colville, on the Columbia River, about 70 miles south of the line, in 1860 they planted their stations further apart because they had to reach the summit that year. The Civil War was breaking out, meaning there would be no chance of further funding. Supplies started to run out as they reach the Flathead River in the Rocky Mountains. It was only by determination and good luck that they were able to assault the Summit of the Rocky Mountains in a blinding snow storm and triumphantly plant the final stone marker there, ending this phase of the two phase survey. They barely made it back to Walla Walla, Washington where they started down the Columbia in river steam boats on their long trip back home. They left a year ahead of the British.
Most of the Commission returned to New York that fall, but Harris and a few others stayed on, working closely with the British, reconciling differences by remeasuring the locations of the various stations. Magnetism had affected the way the astronomical instruments measured the boundary. Finally finished in the fall of 1861, Harris returned to Washington where the Survey spent many more years digesting and finally publishing the Report of the survey in 1859. In 1862, Harris was called briefly back into action, assisting Commodore David Farragut in the bombardment of Fort Jackson, Mississippi. Harris resigned from the Coast Survey in 1864.
Unfortunately, because of its expense, the final Report was never printed during the Civil War. The only copy of the Report was lost in 1872. In 1900, Marcus Baker reconstructed the statistical part of the report, but hardly any of the narrative. Joseph S. Harris and the U.S. Northwest Boundary Survey now stands as the only detailed report of the day to day activities of the Northwest Boundary Survey.
Joseph Harris is the author’s great-grandfather.
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Precis of Joseph S. Harris…
In 1857, twenty-year old Joseph Harris joins the U.S. Northwest Boundary Commission whose assignment was to define the boundary between the United States and British Canada. As an astronomer and surveyor, he has been trained by the U.S. Coast Survey to use the new Zenith telescope and the new Talcott method of astronomical surveying. In over 200 letters to his family and in his Autobiography, he describes the task of surveying 410 miles along the 49th parallel from the Gulf of Georgia to the crest of the Rocky Mountains.
In accomplishing this, Harris describes the political difficulties of working with a parallel British Commission, of the outbreak of the ‘Pig War”, and of working with local Native Americans. The Survey team astronomically surveys an unchartered wilderness crossing both the Cascade and Rocky Mountains With their recalcitrant mules, they not only negotiate steep mountains and cross dangerous rivers but they also cut a 20 foot swath through much of this wilderness, connecting 14 astronomical stations.
After three years, the field work has to be rushed to a finish because Congress would approve no more appropriations now the Civil War had started. Since the Official Report was lost, this account stands as the only record of this important Survey.
About the Author
Anne P. Streeter was born in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, graduated from Smith College, taught school briefly, then married my husband, Ronald Streeter. As an insurance executive, his path to promotion required moving five times during 15 years. When we moved back to West Hartford in 1968, my husband became a vice-president of the company, insuring that we would not move again. During those previous years I had been active in the League of Women Voters in Fairfield, San Mateo and West Hartford, serving as president in the last two places. In 1975 I became a three term Mayor of West Hartford and in 1982 a two term State Senator representing the Fifth Senatorial District of Connecticut. For three wonderful years we had lived in the San Francisco area on the “West Coast” and this is one of the reasons why I am so interested in its history. She's an 84 year old mother of five and grandmother of seven grandchildren, most in their twenties. I am working on a five year plan to downsize my belonging, so am tackling my five filing cabinets of material, throwing out much, giving some to grandchildren, summarizing digitally others, and producing this book. I feel this story is worth telling because it is based on the over 200 letters of Joseph Harris and the Journal of Clinton Gardner. These are the few primary resources about this Survey since most of the official material was lost later on. I think Harris is a very human protagonist, morally upright yet also reflecting the prejudices of his day. He underplays the physical hardship he endured by living in the wilderness for four and a half years. He won the praise of all his superiors, including Admirals David Porter and David Farragut, for his leadership. The Survey did prove Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, (the title of the book) because the United States has lived in peace with Canada ever since the boundary was demarcated.