The historical significance of Western's archives gives our firm a competitive advantage to meet and exceed our Client’s survey quality and performance expectations.

In July of 2005, Western purchased the Donahue and Thornhill survey records. These documents include many original surveys, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Today, Western continues the tradition by adding new survey records, created in strict accordance with the highest professional standards,and through the digital preservation of historical surveys, storing them in a searchable data base.   Western’s philosophy is simple:   “Whenever possible, our surveys begin with the original surveys as the ultimate reference upon which all subsequent surveys depend.”

A Brief History of Western’s Archives

Land survey began in Illinois in the early 1800’s under the supervision of the U.S. Survey General. In 1816, Congress created the office of Surveyor General for Illinois and Missouri which was located in St. Louis which remained active until 1863. Initial township surveys for Illinois were completed in 1843 with government retracements continuing until 1877. Kane County township lines were laid out by Elliot Prescott, James and John P. Thompson, Ignatius Sprigg and James Galloway with the division of sections being done by James and John P. Thompson from 1836 - 1842.

Kane County officially came into being on January 16, 1836. On June 4, 1836, 180 people gathered at James Herrington’s Tavern in LaFox (now Geneva) to elect the first county officials, one of them being a County Surveyor.

-1836 - Mark W. Fetcher
-1837 - 1842 - P.J. Wagner, John B. Preston, Deputy
-1843 - 1846 - Adin Mann**, John B. Preston, Deputy
-1847 - James Carr
-1848 - 1851 - Andrew Pingree (also served as Postmaster for Pingree Grove)
-1851 - 1852 - Alvin Slack
-1853 - 1854 - Andrew Pingree
-1855 - 1858 - Adin Mann**, William Coffin, -Deputy, Sam Bethell, Deputy
-1859 - 1862 - George Wilder*
-1863 - 1874 - L.D. Kendall
-1874 - 1877 - W. H. Pease
-1877 - John Brink
-1878 - George Wilder*
-1879 - 1896 - W. H. Pease
-1869 - 1900 - Lt. Col. Adin Mann**
-1900 - 1904 - Henry Dakin
-1905 - 1906 - George Wilder*
-1909 - Morgan H. Brightman
-1910 - 1912 - Lester Barber
-1913 - Charles A. Prout
-1914 - 1917 - Harry L. Wells
-1920 - 1928 - E. Roy Wells*,**
- 1957 Ansgar Carlson*,**

* Indicates that Western has the original body of work produced by these surveyors.
** See links for additional information.

In 1957, the county government turned the function of land surveying over to the private sector. Prior to this, many of the documents produced were not kept the county and were the property of the surveyor who signed them. Some of these documents had been handed down to the next generation of surveyor and now reside at our Geneva location. In addition to the county survey records, Western has also obtained records from the following:

James G. Donahue
John Thornhill
Thomas Egger
Eldridge Ball and Sons
Marvin Joseph, Elgin
William Tanner, Batavia (1851 - 1855)

The county does not have an available record of the history of this position. This list has been compiled by starting with the list on the Illinois Genealogy Trails website and then by reviewing old plats and noting whose signatures also included the title of “County Surveyor.” If anyone has more detailed information, we will be happy to update our site.